If you don’t follow these tips, you won’t necessarily unleash the plague at your office.

But, you will have more days missed due to sickness, lower employee morale, and finally, decreased profitability.

Employee wellness is a relatively new concept in the workplace. And companies are still learning exactly what works and what doesn’t.

WIth that in mind, here’s the biggest mistakes your wellness program make, and simple solutions to them:

1. Turning Wellness into a Set of Boring, Stressful Tasks

Adding more stress and boredom to your employee’s lives just increases their vulnerability to illness.

Some companies give their employees lists of wellness tasks to do…and then they simply expect their employees to grind through them like their job.

Employees will simply hate this. You’ll wear down their energy and morale. And you’ll get the opposite of what you want: decreased productivity.

So what do you do instead?

Have your employees participate in the design of your wellness program, and allow them to customize theirs to their own liking.

If you want them to exercise, let them choose the exercises they do. If you want them to eat healthier, have them identify rewards for choosing healthier meals.

You’ll get exponentially higher buy-in if you do your wellness program this way.

2. Public Shaming for Not Participating

Employees have all sorts of reasons for not joining wellness programs. And most are legit.

Some employees feel ashamed about their body and don’t want to exercise in front of others. Others have food allergies that prevent them from eating foods in your catered lunches.

So don’t assume that a lack of participation means your employees are lazy or selfish.

Instead, praise any participation no matter how small.

And have a private conversation with your employee and ask them what you can do to make it easier for them to participate in your wellness program.

3. Holding a Competition to See Who Can Lose the Most Weight

This is by far the most disastrous mistake you can make. This type of challenge focuses on appearance, and works well for volunteers who want to look good on a TV show.

It does not focus on steadily improving health over time, which is what you actually want for your employees.

Sudden crash diets like this can also be dangerous for certain bodies. You don’t know what health conditions your employees have.

And finally, since there’s only one winner, everyone else is a loser. And that discourages their participation.

Instead, reward employees for actions well-done. If they don’t take the action, they don’t get the reward. And if you simply have to compete, have your employees compete against themselves.

So, implement those tips so your wellness program has the effects you desire: happier, more motivated employees who can’t wait to work for you!