Employee Wellness Newsletter : Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Assessment Guide

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.