Health promoters have long tried to recruit participants with a good-for-you message — you’ll have more energy, feel better, reduce your risk of XYZ, lose weight, live longer, etc. You’d think rational people would say “Yeah, I want those things…” and line up outside your door. Not the case. People are smart enough to figure out pretty quickly that the benefits aren’t instantaneous, and the changes you’re asking them to make are hard.  

So what is the right message? What will resonate with people enough that they commit to a long-term course of action leading to better health? The truth.  

It sounds so simple it feels trite. “Of course we tell our employees the truth!” But we often don’t. If you’ve ever promoted the “little easy changes here and there add up to big results” message, you’ve misled — they don’t. In our hyped-up, over-spun, have-it-all-with-little-effort, media-saturated culture, it’s a common trap. And over time, health promoters lose credibility by downplaying the true significant effort it takes to change a behavior ingrained over decades.

Getting Back to the Truth

The truth, however difficult to hear, can be refreshing. Giving people the straight scoop is so out of the ordinary from the daily barrage of half-truths and spin-controlled news and product promotions that you can actually break through the clutter with pure, unadulterated facts. Here are some truths to share with your clients:

• Most of us are going to get old and all of us are going to die
• We can improve the quality and probably the length of our life by living healthfully
• Changing health behaviors is hard and requires big changes
• The benefits don’t accrue for months or years, depending on how long you’ve been engaged in unhealthy behaviors
• The longer you wait to start a healthy lifestyle, the more difficult it gets
• It’s easy to slip back into unhealthy behaviors
• Your health is your responsibility — not your doctor’s, employer’s, health plan’s, Barack Obama’s, spouse’s, or wellness coordinator’s.

The health promoter’s job is to tell the truth and have the resources in place to support individuals who accept it and are committed to improving their health.

Organizational Truth

Clients sometimes ask how we can ensure that participants tell the truth when recording health practices in a wellness campaign that lasts for weeks or months. You can’t. Our experience is the vast majority of people do tell the truth when it comes to self-reported data, but there are exceptions. People will fudge the results when:

• The rewards for reporting the desired behavior get too high (or the penalty is too severe)
• Cutting corners is culturally accepted within the organization
• Management goes back on their word or is contradictory in their behaviors (example: “we’re all going to have to tighten our belts” while participating in lavish retreats), causing the revenge instinct to kick in.

In short, an organization that acts responsibly and ethically, treats employees with respect, and tells the truth will have employees who behave in kind when it comes to reporting their health behaviors.