Posts from — April 2009

What Do You Wish to Achieve?

Think about why you’re evaluating and what your evaluation is going to measure.

If you’re trying to learn whether initiative has been successful, see if you stuck to your mission statement and met your objectives.

If you don’t have a mission statement or goals/objectives, agree with upper management and your employee Company Health Promotion Program Committee how your organization will track success.

For example, you can track success by changes in:

• Physical measures (e.g., strength, flexibility, waist circumference of employees).
• Psychological measures (e.g., employee morale, satisfaction levels, stress levels).
• Productivity measures (e.g., decline in absenteeism rates, increased employee work rate).

Thinking About staff members

If you’re thinking of making improvements to the program, consider whether the program is still relevant and appropriate for staff members. Find out if there are any obstacles to participation in the program or to participation in physical activity during the workday.

As employees are the ones participating in the program, it’s significant to give them a chance to offer feedback on the physical exercise program.

Choosing an Evaluation Method

Decide on your assessment method. Both measurable results (e.g., absenteeism rates or questionnaire responses) and descriptive results (e.g., one-on-one interviews or focus groups) can be used to evaluate. The method you choose will hinge upon the time and funding available and what you want to measure.

Deciding How to Do the Evaluation

Decide when and where you will do your evaluation (and who will be evaluated). For more information, read the “Types of Evaluations” section on this website.
You might want to pilot test your assessment (e.g., with members of the Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee) before sending it out to staff members. The employee Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee might also wish to evaluate the initiative’s planning process.

Doing the Assessment

• Compare your results to baseline information (i.e., assessment results from before the launch of your initiative). If you do not have this information, save your assessment results to compare with later results. You can also look at other information you may have, such as employee satisfaction survey results.
• Analyze and disseminate meaningful and easy-to-be aware of results with management and staff members.
• Assessment results can be used to improve the current physical activity program and/or to advance new pushes in future.

Prior to initiating your Workplace Physical Activity Program, summarize the information you’ve gathered and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained reinforcement from management for the Workplace Physical Activity Program
• formed an Corporate Wellness Program Committee
• assessed what is possible in your workplace
• found out what workers want and need in a Workplace Physical Activity Program.

Based on this information, you’re now ready to develop your action plan to boost physical activity at your workplace.

With the Company Wellness Program Committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the results of the employee survey with the workplace environmental assessment, and report to management and workers.
• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, business, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. For example, suppose a big group of staff members show an interest in biking to work. Since these individuals may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you might give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bike racks might also be valuable for making employees’ bikes secure during work.
• Consult the list of practical ideas found this website.
• Designate a mission statement (one which aligns with your organization’s overall mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Setting goals will help you achieve your mission statement.
• Put together a plan or blueprint addressing what you have learned. Make program and activity recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2: Forming an Employee Committee.” Seek senior staff approval to move ahead.
• Once your program is in place, it’s important to encourage it to staff members. Organizing a launch is a good way to do this. A formal launch additionally demonstrates management responsibility. If staff members don’t know about the program, they can’t take advantage of it!
• Decide what you need to track to show that you have accomplished your objectives and goals. Measure these factors before you begin. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know if there has been a change.

To succeed in encouraging physical activity during the workday, you must discover what employees need and want. They are the people whose behavior you are trying to impact, so it’s critical to know their needs and gain their reinforcement.

The Employee Interest Survey

Ask employees questions that allow you to evaluate such key characteristics as age, sex, social relationships, family responsibilities and current physical exercise participation.

It’s significant to know this information so that your physical exercise program meets employees’ needs. Workers aren’t going to participate in something they’re not interested in.

Ask employees what they want, and then implement changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. By way of example, employees may not wish to do activities that make them sweat, because they do not want to shower at work.

Ask workers what the business could do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during work. If there’s a common trend throughout your organization, a single change could affect an abundance of people.

By way of example, suppose a sizable group shows interest in biking to work. They may want to shower and change after their commute. You might give priority to installing workplace showers and changing facilities. Secure bike storage might be important as well.

If you’re starting a program that requires going outside, begin in the spring. By the time winter arrives, participation is already a habit.

Involving staff members is key to building physical exercise participation rates. People are more willing to take part in and support physical exercise pushes when they are involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own employee interest survey:

• Keep it short (no longer than ten minutes to complete).
• See that staff members know why you are doing the survey.
• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which can be long and tough to analyze, ask people to choose from a drop-down list of possible responses.
• Ask for comments and recommendations in one open-ended question at the end.
• Make it confidential and anonymous. Do not request information that may identify a person.
• If you’re including a list of possible programs or environmental changes, see that your workplace has the facilities and resources to offer them.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Forming an Employee Committee

Although support from the top is critical to a efficacious program, support from other workers is also important.

Once you get the go-ahead from upper management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a Company Wellness Program Committee to help determine the next steps. Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of employee time management is willing to contribute, this Company Wellness Program Committee may be advisory or may plan and carry out the initiative.

The Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee might include employees from human resources, occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a great idea to involve employee from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical activity. Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. By way of example, it’s valuable for the Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following:

• Assessing your workplace environment
• Carrying out an employee interest survey.
• Developing a mission statement and goals.
• Writing a physical activity or wellness policy declaring the organization’s commitment to physical activity.
• Brainstorming program ideas.
• Promoting, communicating and marketing the initiative.
• Coordinating specific activities.
• Deciding how the plan will be evaluated.
• Continually assessing what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to bolster physical activity during work, it’s valuable to find out what is “doable” in your workplace.

You don’t want to raise employee expectations by offering something that’s impossible due to funding or space limits. For example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a fitness facility if there’s no space for it. Be open, however, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Finding out What’s Feasible in Your Workplace

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for diagrams of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Great walking trails may be right around the block from your workplace.

Below are some questions to help you assess your workplace:

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space have that make it easier to be physically active during the workday? For example, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a fitness facility, factory walking lanes?
• What nearby facilities or opportunities could employees use to be more physically active during work? Are you near sidewalks, walking trails, community centres, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?
• What resources are available?
• Can the plan access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?
• What is the structure of your company? For example, consider employee size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining upper management backing is vital to the success of a physical exercise program.

Whether the changes you’d like to see involve the work environment, overriding policies or specific programs, successfully launching your ideas is dependent upon management support.

Support from upper management is vital for 3 reasons:

• You need their support to involve staff members in a workplace initiative.
• When upper management pays attention to and supports program, workers also view the program as worthwhile.
• Senior Management has the authority to give work time and money to support the initiative.

It’s important to keep upper management involved throughout a physical exercise initiative, but at three points you’ll need backing for:

• An overall concept, including a go-ahead to assess what employees want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.
• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.
• Reviewing the plan to better it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the plan.

Approaching Senior Leadership

Prior to approaching upper management to gain initial reinforcement for promoting physical exercise during the workday, do your homework.

• Prepare a organization case clearly outlining how the organization will profit by promoting physical activity during work.
• List the individual, social and corporate benefits of physical activity and the benefits of being active during work.
• Present some basic ideas about what the program might include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from upper management:

• How will this help our business?
• How can we motivate workers to take part?
• How much will it cost to run this program or make this change?
• How are we going to know a year from now if this was a meaningful use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the range of activities they would support. Often managers have ideas of their own they would like to see acted on to better the workplace.

Remember to include middle managers when gaining reinforcement for your plan. They can be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical exercise challenges.

In today’s corporation environment, the health of staff members is often related to the health of the corporation. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, reduced illness and injuries, and increased work rate are just some of the benefits of having healthy staff members. Promoting health in your workplace need not be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any corporation, large or small, can encourage healthy eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some recommendations:

Healthier Eating

• For breakfast gatherings, rather than serving donuts, sizable muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives such as bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100 percent fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.
• For lunch meetings, avert serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100  percent fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.
• Reimburse staff members staff members for items purchased to improve their health (e.g. healthy eating cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).
• Arrange for the cafeteria or food vendors to offer healthy food choices.
• Arrange to have healthy choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in snack machines.
• Provide a means for people to share healthy recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Establish events and group activities to promote employees to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge activities, stretch breaks, group sports or participation in local or provincial activities.
• Offer on-Site health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in EAPs to help workers work towards physical activity objectives.
• Offer a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices easy: bike racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairways, walking or running routes in the vicinity of the workplace, and gym facilities.
• Provide|Offer|Give} flex time so that employees have more opportunities to participate in physical activity programs as part of their working day.
• Reimburse gym membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment purchases.
• Offer corporate health club memberships to lower costs of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to:

• Establish lunch ‘n learn sessions to support information and motivation for healthy eating and active living.
• Invite demonstrators to offer cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.
• Display a list of local restaurants that offer healthy diet choices on their menus.
• Distribute information to educate staff members on portion sizes.
• Include physical activity and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.
• Establish activities that reward healthy eating and physical activity. For example, begin a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities

Can a small corporation support workplace wellness? You bet! In fact, in some ways it is easier to establish a healthy workplace in a small corporation than in a sizable corporation.

Limited resources, especially in small companies, can keep a company from setting up a Corporate Wellness Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of fiscal resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level reinforcement;
• little knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• problem about making wellness available to all workers.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small corporation owners may have a flawed idea of what is involved in running a Employee Wellness Program. Some employers aren’t sure a program would really work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  Perhaps they don’t understand that it doesn’t need to be costly and that they don’t need special employee. They may not know that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Done

Many small employers have found ways to have a Corporate Health Promotion Program that works for them. They keep the expense and effort to a minimum and still have results that are beneficial for everyone. In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthy workplaces often have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a beneficial culture, people feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a positive workplace culture than for a large workplace. Many employees prefer to work for a small organization, he says, because it supplies more opportunities to work closely with others and cultivate a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most efficacious businesses with fewer than 100 workers have:

• excellent employee benefits;
• policies that reward a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• great leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible corporation policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal well-being ahead of the personal gain of Senior Management.

All or most of these elements are also elements of a good Corporate Health Promotion Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are multiple ways to include health and wellness in a small employer. You may not necessarily need a wellness consultant or a fancy gym. What you do need is backing from upper management and a Company Health Promotion Program Committee of a handful of committed people. Here are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter on paper or internet based. Or send out a brief message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Use promotions that are already designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthier Eating

• Urge employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing competition.
• Have pedometers for employees and track their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or neighborhood fitness center and offer physical activity classes.
• Bring in a local fitness instructor to give classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenditures can be shared with employees.
• Install secure bicycle parking.
• Serve healthy alternatives at organization meetings and lunches.

Policy and Business Plans

• Enlist an ergonomics expert to assess workstations.
• Foster policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).
• Offer a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Give monetary incentives to be healthy.
• Offer wellness incentives and rewards as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an business health audit.
• Become a partner with the community (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Establish a Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee.

Small companies may not have an abundance of time, money, or human resources available for a Employee Wellness Program. But they often have a large advantage over sizable companies-a beneficial workplace culture. That is a strong foundation for a Employee Wellness Program. When employees are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more advantageous, and tend to be healthier.  With a bit of creativity and passion, small companies can develop efficacious Employee Wellness Programs. Obtain reinforcement from senior staff, form a Employee Wellness Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to create healthy workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury prevention for workers.

More recently, programs are designed to support  workers to choose healthier behaviors like being more physically active or quitting smoking. Campaigns to spread awareness, educational sessions to expand knowledge, opportunities to acquire new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for workers to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach individuals, since most adult Canadians invest a sizable part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are 2 aspects that contribute to the health of employees, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace affects health.

Increasingly, it is understood that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more beneficial and tend to be healthier. When workers feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed. Stress has a sizable effect on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified 5 components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the business overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that businesses must genuinely are concerned about the wellbeing of their employees.

Organizations today who want to attract and keep good employees have leaders who be aware of the connection between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a organization strategy.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving employees in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and offering support to balance life at work and home.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that compensate well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include excellent health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more valuable than ever for companies to enhance job satisfaction and ensure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.

How does workplace wellness advance the employer?

A workplace wellness program can help a business to:

• attract and keep staff members;
• decrease the expenditures of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;
• lower the effects of a stressful workplace;
• lower health costs or keep them contained; and
• better morale by planning a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Corporate Wellness Programs Profit staff members?

employees of corporations that have a Workplace Health Promotion Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to better their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellness;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productivity and success at work;
• reduced personal medical costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health concerns.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for organizing a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the corporation is expected to provide an environment that allows employees to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about developing a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of employees, adopting a beneficial work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A great Corporate Health Promotion Program has an influence on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellness.

Ideally, you will cultivate an overriding plan for a Corporate Health Promotion Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. For example, you have the potential to start by getting the following elements in place:

• backing from management
• a Company Health Promotion Program Committee or team
• information about the wellness needs and interests of employees
• a budget
• program objectives
• an assessment plan

Even if you have few monetary and/or human resources, you have the potential to still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you might focus on only one specific issue. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning have the potential to help you overcome limitations.

This article will give you some with some ideas for establishing Workplace Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps have the potential to have an impact.

Whether you choose to start with a single program or cultivate something larger, planning is critical. First consider the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Identify an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the workers and company?
• Promote. How can you most effectively spread the word to staff members? What are the opportunities for promotion? Consider everything, because staff members have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, staff members receive information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow staff members.
• Deliver. Who is the best individual or group to put the program into action? Ask other employers about approaches they have utilized. Decide on your budget before making a decision.
• Assess. What must you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when planning your plan:

• organizing and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the sort of program or campaign

The Elements of a Corporate Wellness Program

Initiatives to encourage wellness in the workplace don’t need to be restricted to one area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting beneficial personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure (BP) clinics, pamphlets on heart disease, “lunch and learn” sessions on eating habits and short-term physical exercise programs.

These activities are important, but workplace wellness should also be part of business’s business plan and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently detailed three key elements of a healthy workplace:

• physical environment
• social environment and personal resources
• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider offering the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for staff members to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist employees join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairways that invite staff members to use them.
• Assessing the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.
• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, as well as ways of doing business, are able to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Employers must consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that offer safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• EAPs

To develop a beneficial social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include:

• being respected
• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission
• freedom of expression
• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” may not address current employee needs. Ensuring that people enjoy being at work is not an easy task, but making the right changes can have a huge influence.

Health Practices

Offer programs and set policies that help employees remain healthy or better their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading diet labels.
• Tobacco cessation clinics or subsidies to help workers quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the problems raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks provided at meetings and conferences.

Personal Corporate Wellness Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your worksite, don’t let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to think about:

• Be active at work. There are numerous ways to bring exercise into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Have walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office instead of sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy meal. Place a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for meetings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you are able to leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and be sure not to take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Set up your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Plan and prioritize to be sure that the most valuable things get done first.

There’s no limit to the number or variety of Workplace Wellness Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the results so that you can sustain momentum.

Talk to other wellness practitioners to learn what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And don’t forget to promote, promote, promote.

Many corporations recognize the need for a accross the board plan to help their employees be the best they have the potential to be. They also know that efficacious and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program should include a wide range of key components, including:

• A clear agenda or statement of objectives and goals.
• A plan characterized by passion.
• An effective leader who is creative and organized.
• A focus on short-term outcomes combined with an overall vision.
• A measurable strategy (what’s valuable gets measured!).
• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Developing Your Employee Health Promotion Program

Plan carefully to see that your wellness program is seen as part of a broad commitment to maintaining the health and safety of each employee. Indeed, creating a strong plan takes an abundance of effort and time (and sometimes resources). But planning is important and well worth the expenditure needed. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might begin by conducting a survey of employee needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the results and plan accordingly. If you do not, the workers won’t support the program.

Gathering information about what you’re already offering is also a great idea. For example, you may be surprised by your employer or organization’s current wellness and health policies.

Another valuable step is to create an agenda and/or measurable goals/objectives to help you determine priorities, timelines and the resources necessitated to launch the program. Be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Upper Management

The leader of your wellness program must be able to wear many hats. The leader’s duties include:

• Establishing a vision of the wellness program after receiving input from all interested employees.
• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the company (to senior managers and fellow employees alike).
• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.
• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.
• Establishing and maintaining leadership skills such as giving effective presentations and being well-organized.

Good leaders avoid becoming overwhelmed by overly ambitious and complex plans. You may want to stick to short-term goals/objectives at the beginning so that you get immediate and visible results. These first steps are the basis for a successful wellness program.

Good leaders involve as many people as possible in the program. By way of example, you’ll want to form a Workplace Wellness Program Committee made up of a diverse group of employees to provide advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Help you to obtain valuable information from all parts of the organization.
• Develop ambassadors who will help you implement the wellness program.

Keeping Score and Celebrating

Always keep in mind how you will monitor progress and evaluate the success of your wellness program. Assessment allows you to:

• Ascertain areas of excellence.
• Ascertain factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Grasp management’s backing for your efforts (and maintain that backing).
• Better know concerns that need attention.
• Learn from mistakes and change the program to keep it on the right track.

When you evaluate your program, you can measure such things as:

• Employee absences.
• Employee turnover rates.
• The cost of your Employee Assistance Program.
• The cost of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The expenditure of your drug plan.
• Accident rates and safety records.
• Employees’ participation in wellness programs (and whether they’re staying in the programs).
• Changes in employees’ health habits.
• Level of employees’ awareness of healthy lifestyle issues.
• Results of your environmental wellness audit.
• Other noticeable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A good communications plan supplies ongoing information to staff members (including senior managers) and creates excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is part of an effective communications plan. For example, you may recognize individuals who have helped set up the program or provide tangible rewards for achieving objectives.

Everyone needs to know whether or not staff members are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some benefit from them. Showing that a wellness program has economic benefits is often an significant factor in maintaining strong backing from the top.

If you focus on the key elements of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while creating and delivering it, you will create a solid foundation and leave a legacy that lasts.