The benefits of an effective corporate wellness program for both employers and employees are well established.

A well-executed wellness program will result in healthier, happier, and more engaged employees, raising productivity, job satisfaction, and retention, and lowering absenteeism and health care costs. In fact, when done right, investing in corporate wellness will actually save your business money in the long run. This has prompted companies across the country to implement a plethora of different types of programs; a recent study by the RAND Corporation found that more than 85 per cent of U.S. companies employing 1,000 people or more offer some sort of corporate wellness program.

But not all corporate wellness programs are created equal.

In a follow up study, Gallup determined that of the 85 per cent of U.S. employers with a wellness program, only 24 per cent of their employees actually participated in that program. Furthermore, RAND estimates that U.S. employers spend upwards of $6 billion a year on programs that reach less than a quarter of their workforce.

That’s a lot of wasted resources.

So what accounts for this disparity? And more importantly, what can you do as an employer to ensure that your wellness program is effective, and helps – rather than hurts – your bottom line?

It turns out that even the most well-intentioned wellness programs can be susceptible to a laundry list of common pitfalls, sabotaging your program’s chances of success before it can even get off the ground. The following are proven, actionable tips and best practices you can use to overcome these common obstacles and breathe new life into your company’s flagging wellness program. We’ve broken it down in four weekly increments so that you can revive your employee wellness program in less than 30 days.

WEEK ONE

Focus on Communication
The failure of a corporate wellness program may be the symptom of another larger problem – a lackluster internal communications infrastructure.

One of the most common reasons wellness programs go un-utilized is a simple lack of awareness. Gallup determined that while the vast majority of large companies have a wellness program, only 60 per cent of employees were aware that the program even existed. This simple oversight can drastically lower a program’s participation rate, and undermine its efficacy and value from the start.

Reviving your wellness program might be the perfect excuse to audit your internal communications, and to make sure that there are consistent company-wide communications from senior leadership to all levels of your organization. Since communication is key, you’ll want to tackle this task in week one.

Don’t forget that internal communications should be a two way street, not a top-down exercise. Your internal communications plan should include a means for employees to provide feedback, such as a suggestion box or employee interest surveys. This feedback should then be taken into consideration as you craft future communications and develop additional wellness programs and activities. Creating opportunities for dialogue between employees and upper management can help you gain insight into which types of health and wellness programs will be successful and which will fall flat.

If a comprehensive communications overhaul isn’t feasible in 30 days, something as simple as posting signs about your program throughout the office, performing weekly or monthly wellness literature “desk drops”, or holding monthly “lunch and learns” may be enough to make sure that employees are aware of your company’s wellness program and its benefits.

For tips on how to make sure your internal communications programs are up to snuff, check out Fast Company’s Top 5 Tips For Creating Effective Internal Communications.

Appoint A Wellness Champion
A 2010 Harvard Business Review study found that nearly all the companies with successful wellness programs had dedicated wellness managers that not only developed and implemented wellness programs, but also continually championed those programs internally.

While HR or employee engagement staff may be the obvious choice, you can also open it up to volunteers from the rest of the organization to champion wellness initiatives. Their passion and enthusiasm might just be what your wellness program needs to get people motivated.

Provide Access to Healthy Eating Options, Including Healthy Snacks
It goes without saying that nutrition should be a cornerstone of your health and wellness plan. There are mountains of evidence demonstrating that the food we eat can have a direct impact on cognitive performance, productivity, mood, and the likelihood of developing chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.

While focusing on healthy eating might be a no-brainer, companies often err in their approach. Most companies assume that education is the most important factor when it comes to the adoption of healthy eating habits. Yet better information doesn’t necessarily lead to better choices. Most of us know that morning donut isn’t necessarily the best choice for our health and productivity throughout the rest of the day, but many of us choose to indulge anyway. What many companies fail to realize that there’s another even more important, yet often overlooked factor — access.

The reason is twofold: first (and perhaps most obviously), employees simply can’t make healthy choices without access to healthy options. Studies have shown that employees consume the majority of their daily caloric intake in the form of meals and snacks at work, making access to healthy food in the workplace critical to the quality of their overall diet — and by extension, the success of your employee wellness program.

The second reason has to do with the fact that junk food is most appetizing when your energy and glucose levels are low. These drops in energy inevitably occur when employees don’t have access to heathy snacking options. Researchers at Florida State University demonstrated that when workers grazed on healthy food throughout the day, they were able to avoid the low glucose levels that erode will power and make unhealthy food seem appetizing.

Likewise, experts at Carnegie Mellon recommend making meal decisions before you’re hungry to reduce the appeal of unhealthy food. Planning meals in advance is one simple way to achieve this, as are services like SnackNation, which keep your office stocked with only healthy snacks. With plentiful access to healthy snacks, your employees are more likely to make good food choices, thus improving overall health and wellness over time.

Providing healthy snacks will have an immediate impact on morale, health, and productivity. So ditch the burgers, sugary sodas, and donuts, and make access to healthy meals and snacks a priority in week one. Your workers — and your bottom line — will thank you for it.

Jeff Murphy is a marketing, communications and design professional, as well as a guitarist, songwriter and Fender enthusiast.

This article originally appeared on the snacknation.com blog.