Posts from — May 2009

Evaluations determine the outcome of a Employee Wellness Program. They help you discover if your objectives were met. It is a good idea to add an evaluation component to your Employee Wellness Program.

Evaluations may conclude that some interventions didn’t work well. You may learn that a popular Worksite Health Promotion Program costs too much and didn’t really affect employees’ health. While these may not be the outcomes you hoped for, without this information you might continue ineffective interventions. Having this information will help you advance better solutions. When your results are great, it’s magnificent! You can spread the word to workers and management that your program is achieving its goals/objectives.

Three primary areas of an assessment

• Corporate Health Promotion Program structure – The basic framework of the program
• Corporate Wellness Program process – How well the program is run
• Workplace Health Promotion Program outcomes – Whether the program met the set objectives

Common questions used to evaluate a Company Health Promotion Program

Corporate Wellness Program Structure Questions

• What is included in the Company Health Promotion Program? What is the intervention?
• Where does the Worksite Wellness Program take place?
• How is the Corporate Health Promotion Program delivered? What content is included?
• Who manages the Company Health Promotion Program?

Workplace Wellness Program Process Questions

• How many people take part?
• Do participants complete the Employee Health Promotion Program?
• Are participants satisfied?
• Which aspects of the Corporate Health Promotion Program are best attended?

Workplace Health Promotion Program Outcome Questions

• Does the Worksite Wellness Program better knowledge about health concerns?
• Does the Employee Health Promotion Program change behavior?
• Does the Employee Wellness Program save the business money?
• What is the return on investment (ROI)?

• Ascertain through an employee survey what rewards and incentives they value.
• Determine what incentives the company can offer as well as what the budget will allow.
• Make sure that every colleague who achieves a intention receives some recognition.
• Avoid offering rewards and incentives for the “best” or the “most.”
• Avoid using food as a reward.
• Use incentives and rewards to encourage your Worksite Health Promotion Program, through logos and branding.

Incentives encourage staff members to adopt positive behaviors or maintain an existing positive behavior that may potentially help the employee stay healthy and live longer. Adopting positive health behavior is fundamentally what wellness is about.

Incentives can be used to improve participation rates, help individuals complete a Workplace Health Promotion Program, or help individuals modify or adhere to healthy lifestyles. Providing rewards and incentives and rewards will send an important message to the employees that your company is committed to supporting them with working on their health. It also plays a important role in motivating individuals to take part.

Tips on how to choose appropriate incentives and rewards:

• Determine through an employee survey what rewards and incentives they value.
• Determine what incentives the employer can provide as well as what the budget will allow.
• Make sure that every attendant who achieves a objective receives some recognition.
• Avoid offering incentives and rewards for the “best” or the “most.”
• Avoid using food as a reward.
• Use incentives to promote your Workplace Health Promotion Program, through logos and branding.

When planning a accross the board Corporate Health Promotion Program, make sure that it consists of a variety of awareness, lifestyle modification, supportive environment programs, policies and activities that target risk behaviors, and the needs and interests of the workers. It will be important to review and revise existing policies governing such areas as smoking sections and the employee cafeteria.

Tips on starting a Corporate Health Promotion Program:

• Create activities based on your planned objectives and goals addressing the specific needs of your workers. Focus on those subject matters that are of greatest interest to your workers and the greatest needs of your company, in that order. Avoid subject matters with narrow appeal.
• Keep it simple. Design the Employee Wellness Program so it’s easy for the participants to be aware of and track.
• Integrate a combination of activities to include awareness, educational, and behavior elements.
• Choose activities in which every employee can participate.

Suggestions for your Company Wellness Program:

• Challenges. Activities that focus on practicing a desired behavior that continues for 4-8 weeks and focuses on specific topics (such as physical exercise, diet, or stress management).
• Learning experiences. This includes courses, videos, and classes.
• Behavior changes (such as smoking cessation). You may or may not offer interventions at the worksite. However, you ought to bolster individuals to make lifestyle changes that they want to make even without an external incentive.
• Education on disease management. For example, support and education groups for diabetes, high Blood Pressure (BP), etc.
• Learing new skills. For example, CPR and first aid.
• Preventive screenings like Blood Pressure, blood lipids, and vision.

Source: Adapted from the Building Healthy Texans Worksite Wellness Toolkit.

Develop goals

Goals are general ground rules that explain what you want to achieve. Objectives define strategies or steps to take to attain the identified objective.

A wellness program should have a “destination”. Use the results of your surveys and your wellness committee’s mission statement as guides. Consider these ideas:

• Focus on making health information and learning resources readily available to staff members
• Focus on group activities so employees can work together to support and promote healthier lifestyles
• Organize a wellness program that is visible to both staff members and to your customers
• Focus on written policies and standard procedures
• Set objectives for your wellness program.

Review Guidelines for Writing Goals.

Goals Should Be

Specific – A goal is specific when it supports a description of what will be accomplished. It will state exactly what the business intends to accomplish. It ought to be written so that it can be easily and clearly communicated. A specific goal will make it easier for those writing objectives and action plans to address the following questions:

• Who is to be involved?
• What is to be accomplished?
• Where is it to be done?
• When is it to be done?

Measurable – A intention is measurable if it is quantifiable. To determine if your intention is measurable, ask questions such as: How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?

Attainable – You can attain most any objective you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable.

Realistic – Realistic, means “do-able.” The objective needs to be realistic for your business and where the business is at the moment. A objective to take out all the high fat items in the snack machines may not be realistic for your business right now; a better objective would be to substitute some of the chips, candy bars and pies for pretzels, yogurt and dried fruit.

Timely – Finally, a goal must have a timeframe: for next week, in three months, by age 35. It must have a starting and ending point. It must also have some intermediate points at which progress can be assessed. Limiting the time in which a goal must be accomplished helps to focus effort toward its execution. If you do not set a time, the responsibility is too vague. It tends not to happen because you feel you can start at any time. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to start taking action now.

Successful wellness programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the staff members. Ask staff members what they are interested in, and what needs they have. People are more willing to participate and support wellness efforts if they are involved in the decision-making process.

When creating a survey, keep the following hints in mind:

• Ask mostly closed form questions, especially if you will be sending the survey to a sizable number of staff members. Closed form questions support specific choices and are easy to tabulate.
• Invite comments, ideas and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions at the end of the survey. Open-ended items are more difficult to summarize.
• Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the employer president. Make sure to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.
• Ask a group of representative staff members to review the survey before it is distributed. Find out if the questions will be understood by staff members and won’t be objected to.
• Include demographic information at the beginning, or end of the survey (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).
• Conduct a random drawing for a valued incentive item for all those who returned the survey. This might improve the response rate.

One rule to consider concerning surveys is if you have fewer than 500 staff members, everyone ought to receive one. The benefit of everyone receiving a survey can be valuable. If you have over 500 staff members, a sample of the work population from each department will suffice. The higher the response, the more valid and reliable the outcome. A minimum response of 40 percent to 50 percent is considered valuable.

A vital first step in organizing your company’s wellness program is the formation of a Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee. The focus of the Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee is to plan, promote, and start the program. The Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee establishes continuity, motivation, and broad ownership of the program as well as supports an great vehicle for communication.

So who must be on the Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee? Consider appointing the following people/departments to your Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee:

• Senior Management within your company
• Union representatives
• Human Resources (HR) department
• EAP
• Information technology
• Communications
• Health and safety department
• workers interested in health and wellness

Building a successful Worksite Wellness Program requires employee time as well as money. Some larger corporations may spend 20 hours per week for three to six months preparing all the steps prior to launching a Worksite Wellness Program.

Anywhere from 4 to ten people meeting monthly equals a Workplace Wellness Program Committee. A mission statement for the Workplace Wellness Program Committee must be developed by the second meeting. This way, everyone knows what the Workplace Wellness Program Committee is working toward.

Once a wellness program has been established, the committee’s size and meeting schedule may change. Still, no fewer than 4 participants ought to meet at least quarterly so the group – and the wellness program – does not fade away.

Support from management is important to building a efficacious wellness program! Visible management reinforcement is one of the most vital factors in the success of a workplace Workplace Health Promotion Program. Upper Management executives are responsible for making sure that the corporation meets its objectives. They can offer additional assistance by assisting you to link your Workplace Health Promotion Program objectives to corporation outcomes, thereby positioning Workplace Health Promotion Program as a fundamental part of the corporation.

It is important to create support and excitement for the program from all echelons of the organization including upper management, mid-level management, and grass-root employees.

The challenge for any Workplace Health Promotion Program coordinator is convincing upper management about the potential value of Workplace Health Promotion Program to the corporation and conceptualizing how Workplace Health Promotion Program drives can impact the corporation in a meaningful manner. The American Journal of Health Promotion is a great resource to assist you with obtaining convincing information on the advantages of a Workplace Health Promotion Program.

Worksite Health Promotion Program reinforcement from management can come in many different ways:

• Involvement in the wellness program planning process
• Distribution of funding for the wellness program
• Support for time given to the wellness program
• Participation in wellness events
• Administration by management, such as the distribution of a letter of reinforcement for the program.
• Flexibility of employee schedules to accommodate wellness activities

The first step in starting your wellness/Employee Wellness Program is to understand your company and how Employee Wellness Program will fit into the current structure. By researching your organization’s history with similar programs and eliciting feedback from co-employees, you can learn the best solution for your company.

Company Health Promotion Program: Research Questions

• Find out if Corporate Health Promotion Program has been done in the past. If so, what worked and what did not?
• Was it widely accepted?
• Was programming thriving? Why or why not?
• What does your employer hope to gain from implementing a Workplace Wellness Program?

Answers to these questions will help you begin the process of creating a culture of wellness within your business. It is imperative that you assess the environment before starting a program.

The expenditures of medical have been rising more than 10 percent each year for several years. A substantial amount of the money invested in the medical system treats costly illnesses and diseases.

• Approximately 95 percent of the $1.4 trillion that we spend as a nation on health goes to direct healthcare services, while about 5 percent is allocated to preventing disease and promoting health.
• Potentially, 50 percent to 70 percent of all diseases are preventable as they are associated with modifiable health risks.
• In an effort to optimize employee health, decrease preventable healthcare utilization and enhance work execution, and in turn decreased healthcare expenditures and improve employee satisfaction and retention, many businesses are creating, or are interested in creating, Corporate Health Promotion Programs for employees.

The advantages of workplace wellness are well documented. Greater than 120 research studies repeatedly show themes such as improvements in health outcomes coupled with high returns on investment (ROI). Some primary findings include the following:

• Savings of $3.48 in reduced medical costs per dollar invested.
• Savings of $5.82 in decrease absenteeism expenditures per dollar invested.
• ROIs of at least $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of program implementation.
• Lifestyle behavior change programs: $3 to $6 ROI within 2 to 5 years.
• Self care, decision reinforcement programs: $2 to $3 return on investment within a year.
• Disease Management (DM) programs: $7 to $10 ROI within a year.

By offering health improvement programs, companies are not only offering an additional service for workers, but they are also gaining monetarily. Furthermore, the effect of a health improvement program goes beyond diminished medical cost and ROI. A health improvement program can affect work rate, absenteeism, morale, recruitment success, turnover, and medical expenditures.

• Source: Rees, C., and Finch, R. (2004). Health Improvement: A comprehensive guide to designing, launching and evaluating workplace programs. National Business Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

According to the American Journal of Health Promotion, “Health promotion is the science and art of helping people modify their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health. Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle shift can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, modify behavior, and set up environments that support great health practices. Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest influence in producing lasting change.”

Workplace Health Promotion Program: Action Steps

The process of assembling a Workplace Health Promotion Program involves:

• Identifying the current health status of your workers
• Determining the appropriate programs and interventions to offer
• Promoting and implementing the programs
• Building in motivational incentives/rewards
• Measuring the impact
• Revising programs based on assessment outcomes

It may even include planning policies and procedures that support employee participation in wellness activities at your worksite (such as flextime).

Steps to Starting a Company Wellness Program

• Conduct an corporation assessment
• Obtain upper management support
• Establish a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee
• Get employee input
• Develop goals/objectives
• Design and implement program activities
• Choose rewards and incentives
• Assess outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to better the nation’s health is through accross the board Worksite Wellness Programs. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, these programs may help staff members live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior modification programs. In fact, one of the goals/objectives of Healthy People 2010, a set of health objectives for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to stimulate the proportion of staff members that participate in a accross the board Worksite Wellness Program at their worksite to 75 percent.