Employee Wellness Newsletter

An initial health screening can include a recent survey of employees’ interests as part of the assessment. Successful wellness programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the staff.

The information you need to get from a recent survey depends on the scope of your health promotion program. A sample survey could be acquired in the HOPE Publications Web site.

If you plan to adapt this sample survey or create your own survey, keep the following hints in mind -

o  Ask primarily closed-choice questions, particularly when you will be sending the survey to a big number of personnel. Closed-choice questions provide specific options and are easy to tabulate. You could want to use a computer for data entry and analysis.

o  Invite comments, suggestions and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions after the survey. Open-ended items are more challenging to summarize.

o  Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the corporation president. Be sure to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.

o  Ask a group of representative workers to review the survey before it’s distributed. Find out if the questions are going to be understood by workers and will not be objected to.

o  Include demographic information at the beginning or end of the survey. Consider various ways that you may analyze the responses by demographic characteristics (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).

When considering who ought to get the survey, a simple rule is if you’ve under 500 workforce, everybody ought to receive one.  The public relations advantage of everybody receiving a recent survey may be significant.

Over 500 staff, a sample of the work population will suffice. A sample saves on costs and time. You might want to consider consulting with a statistician to determine an appropriate sample size for your workplace.

Needs surveys are confidential and anonymous; they don’t request information that may identify a individuals.

Getting support from senior level management is critical to the success of the health promotion program.

One way to do this is to survey managers (see forms) and conduct interviews with decision-makers in the company. You can use the surveys here or make up your own.

If you decide to do your own, keep the survey short. It should not take more than ten minutes to complete.

The interview process can also serve to educating management. Give concise fact sheets on the benefits of health promotion programs for management.

When surveys and interviews are completed, tally the surveys and write brief summaries of the interviews. Provide these reports to management.

Once completed present a brief executive summary to management. Highlight several fascinating findings that could be used immediately to make decisions about the wellness program.

Utilize charts and graphs to make your points. Prepare a detailed report for wellness committee members itemizing each response. Provide a short article about the survey in the company newsletter.

The higher the response the more precise and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40% to 50% is acceptable.

Robust health promotion programs involve all employees, deal with all major health risks, offers choices, and target both the employees and the workplace environment; provide periodic examination of its results.

Extensive wellness programs emphasize follow-up and offers support for the employee as long as he/she is employed. Studies have shown this approach to be highly successful. Key components are planning, implementation, and examination.

Planning extensive health promotion programs involve performing a needs and interest assessment, appointing a wellness committee, choosing  wellness providers, setting goals/objectives for the health promotion program, advertising and marketing/promoting the health promotion program, and establishing procedures to ensure confidentiality.

Implementation of robust health promotion programs consist of five major tasks -

1   Biometric screening and referral

2   Follow-up and counseling staff members

3   Follow-up with doctors

4   Health improvement programs

5   Organizing worksite-wide activities.

Investigation involves monitoring health promotion programs to determine when it is working and to help you refine it. Measuring success shows what you’ve achieved, helps justify costs, and provides information for executive management to support continued health promotion programming.

Extensive health promotion programs involve all workers, deal with all major health risks, offers choices, and target both the workers and the workplace environment; provide periodic investigation of its results.

Comprehensive health promotion programs emphasize follow-up and offers support for the worker as long as he/she is employed. Studies have shown this approach to be highly successful. Key components are planning, implementation, and investigation

Creating comprehensive health promotion programs involve performing a needs and interest assessment, appointing a wellness committee, selecting  wellness providers, setting goals/objectives for the health promotion program, advertising/promoting the health promotion program, and establishing procedures to ensure confidentiality

Implementation of comprehensive health promotion programs consist of five major tasks -

o  Health screening and health risk assessment

o  Follow-up and counseling employees

o  Follow-up with physicians

o  Health betterment and disease avoidance programs

o  Organizing workplace-wide wellness program activities.

Investigation involves monitoring wellness programs to figure out if it’s working and to help you refine it.

Measuring success shows what you’ve achieved, helps justify costs, and provides information for executive management to support continued health promotion programming.

Initially introduced by Halbert Dunn in the 1950’s, wellness became a well-liked buzzword during the late 1970’s and received considerable academic attention in the 1980’s.

Health promotion programs for staff members became more widespread during the following decade, and credible evidence for their economic viability started to be published.

There have now been over 100 published studies on this topic and a number of systematic reviews.

Health risks increase costs.  Medical and health insurance costs escalate with both age and number of risks present.8,10   the number of risks is also strongly related to sick leave absenteeism, Employee’s Compensation costs, short-term disability, and decreased productivity (”presenteeism”).

Early staff member health promotion programs were relatively basic and typically produced a Return On Investment of less than one dollar for every dollar spent operating the health promotion program (Return On Investment = <1 - 1).8

Such wellness programs may  be characterized as “fun-oriented”.  Participation is entirely voluntary, and there is no particular focus on the reduction of specifically identified high risks.

Interventions and activities aren’t personalized, and there’s no emphasis on the management of healthcare costs.  These wellness programs are typically site-based only, lack choices to address all of the major behaviorally-related health risks, and lack multimodal presentation.

Minimal or no incentives are provided to workers for participation, and services to spouses and family members are not available.  Most such wellness programs lack meaningful evaluation.

More conventional wellness programs are “activity-oriented” and have shown an ROI of between 1 – 2.5 and 1 – 3.5.8 These wellness programs may have a greater emphasis on health and risk reduction, although the efforts are relatively broad and not customized.

They may have some generalized emphasis on medical cost management, although not necessarily aimed at specific high risks.  Most are site-based and voluntary, with spouses included only rarely.

Modest incentives could  be utilized to encourage participation.  Formal examination could  be weak.

The newest and most economically viable health promotion programs are “results-oriented” and exemplify the health and productivity management model.  These health promotion programs consistently produce return rates of 1 – 4 or greater within a 12-24 month period.8

Such wellness programs are strongly focused on the reduction of in particular identified high risks and the management of medical costs. They’re typically voluntary, but use strong financial and other incentives to promote participation.

They are multi-component in nature (address all major risks), and have both on-site and virtual modalities of operation.  The interventions are highly targeted and individualized, and offered to spouses in addition to staff members.

For businesses, the cost of providing medical insurance for their workforce is of excellent importance.  Those costs have been increasing at annual rates between 6% and 14%.

Chapman’s 2007 systematic review7 announced an average reduction in health care costs of 26.5% as a result of worker health promotion programs.  His review covered 60 of the most scientifically accurate studies, with an average of 3.77 years of study.

Absenteeism due to illness is another cost driver.  Chapman’s review7 reports an average reduction in sick time of 25.3 percent.   Cost for Employee’s Compensation was lowered by 40.7 percent, and disability costs by 24.2 percent.

There’s also an emerging literature on the costs of presenteeism (reduced productivity).11,13  In one study, every risk reduced through a health promotion program yielded a 9% reduction in presenteeism (and a 2% reduction in absenteeism).11

A lot of corporations have achieved a zero percent increase in healthcare costs across at least brief periods of time.10  Doing so requires 90-95 percent participation of the worker population in focused health promotion programs, with 75%-85 percent of the personnel falling into the low risk category.10

Although robust efforts to lower the risk status of those in moderate or high risk categories must be made, the needs of currently healthy staff must be addressed as well to avoid increases in risk-status.

Given the size of the federal workforce, significant cost savings in the government’s contribution to health insurance premiums for staff members can be achieved when a majority of that population were participating in active wellness programs.

In like manner, improvements in absenteeism, worker’s compensation, disability, presenteeism, and turnover as a result of extensive staff member health promotion programs would yield substantial fiscal benefits for the government.

References

1   Aldana, Steven G.  (2001)   Financial Impact of Health Promotion Programs –   A Comprehensive Review of the Literature.   Am J Health Promotion 15(5) – 296-320.

2   Chapman, Larry.  (1998)   the Role of Incentives in Wellness.  The Art of Wellness  2(3) – 1-8.

3   Chapman, Larry.   (2003)   Biometric Screening in Health Promotion –   is it Really as Important as We Think?  the Art of Health Promotion  7(2) – 1-12.

4   Chapman, Larry.  (2005)   Meta-Examination of Employee Health Promotion Economic Return Studies –  2005 Update.  The Art of Wellness, July/August, 1-15.

5   Chapman, Larry.   (2006)  Staff Member Participation in Corporate Wellness and Wellness Programs –  Precisely how Important are Incentives, and Which Ones work Best?   North Carolina Medical Journal   67(6) –   431-432.

6   Chapman, Larry, Lesch, Nancy, and Passas Baun, Mary Beth.   (2007)   the Role of Wellness Coaching in Company Wellness.   the Art of Wellness, July/August, 1-12.

7   Chapman, Larry.  (2007)   Proof Positive –   an Analysis of the cost-Effectiveness of Company Wellness.  Northwest Health Management Publishing, Seattle, WA.

8   Chapman, Larry.  (2007)   an In-Depth Look at the Economic Evidence for Rewarding Health Behavior Change.   Workshop presentation at the World Research Group “Rewarding Healthy Behaviors for Health Plans and Companys” Conference, Orlando, FL, January 23-24.

9   Edington, Dee.   (2001)   Emerging Research –   A View from One Research Center.  American Journal of Wellness 15(5) –  341-349.

10   Edington, Dee W.  (2007)   Health Management as a Serious Corporation Strategy.  Presentation at the World Research Group “Rewarding Healthful Behaviors for Health Plans and Companys” Conference, Orlando, FL, January 23-24.

11   Pelletier, Barbara, Boles, Myde, and Lunch, Wendy.  (2004)  Changes in Health Risks and Make certain to work Productivity.   Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 46(7) –  746-754.

12   Pelletier, Kenneth R.  (2005)   A Review and Analysis of the Clinical and Cost-Effectiveness Studies of comprehensive Health and Illness Management (DM)Programs at the Workplace –  Update VI 2000-2004.  JOEM 47(10)1051-1058.

13   DeVol, Ross, Bedroussian, Armen, et.  Al.  (2007)  an Unhealthful America –   the Economic Burden of Chronic Illness.  Report released by the Milken Institute.   www.milkeninstitute.org.

14   Partnership for Prevention.  (2008) Investing in Health –   Proven Wellness Practices for Worksites.   http – //www.prevent.org/images/stories/2008/investinginhealth_finalfinal.pdf.

Corporate America is increasingly investing in worker wellness because it’s good corporation.  In order to meet productivity demands, organizations must rely on a healthful, productive workforce to succeed in the highly competitive global marketplace.

Over a hundred studies in both corporate and governmental settings have documented the economic advantages of worker wellness programs, including decreased absenteeism, decreased injuries and workman’s compensation costs, decreased health care costs, decreased worker turnover, as well as increased productivity, greater worker satisfaction, and improved morale.1-10

The more recent literature reflects improvements in wellness programming along with greater return on investment.  In general, the more focused and intensive the wellness program, the greater benefit realized.

To enhance their effectiveness federal government employee health promotion programs could  be able to incorporate some of the features described. Worker health promotion programs shown to have positive returns on investment often include the following features -

1   Health and productivity management model

Programs characterized by this model focus attention on identification and reduction of specific risks or behaviors like smoking, lack of exercise, excess weight, unhealthy diet, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, stress, depression, and so on.

High-risk staff are in particular targeted for intervention, although the most successful health promotion programs also direct efforts towards healthy staff to maintain their low-risk status.  This model emphasizes outcomes as opposed to simply offering wellness activities for their own sake.

2   Health risk appraisal

Use of a computerized health risk assessment  instrument with individualized feedback and recommendations is nearly universal in successful health promotion programs. Employees take the questionnaire annually in many cases.

The Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) serves to increase awareness, provide direction, and motivate individuals to improve specific behaviors.  In some cases, the personalized report is directly linked to appropriate resources related to identified risks.

Research indicates that the use of an HRA is effective if it is followed by some kind of educational or therapeutic intervention for identified risks.  It often serves as the entry point into health promotion programs.

3   Biometric analysis

Many health promotion programs combine the results of the health risk appraisal with measurement of each employee’s biometrics, including weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) , blood pressure, cholesterol, fasting glucose, and assorted other metrics.

Combining the results of the Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) with biological measures results in a more precise risk profile.   Computerized health risk assessments often incorporate biometric data in their risk analysis.

4   Wellness Program Incentives

Workers are frequently given monetary or other significant rewards for completing an HRA, participation in a health promotion program or class, specific accomplishments like stopping tobacco use, losing weight, or exercising, and for maintaining healthy status and/or behaviors.

In many cases the monetary incentives are associated with reductions in health insurance premiums.  Some wellness programs use disincentives as well as incentives, such as charging staff who smoke higher rates for their health insurance contribution.

5   High wellness program participation rates

Successful wellness programs use incentives to drive participation rates up.  They also market their wellness programs extensively, and may use contest or challenge strategies to heighten enthusiasm and encourage participation.

6   Wellness coaching

Employees with identified risks or desire to improve their health habits might  be periodically coached via telephone by trained health Coaches.

Coaching helps workforce set and achieve realistic lifestyle-related objectives including those addressing stress, work life balance, smoking, weight, physical activity, and various behavior modifications.

Three or more sessions are usually offered.  In some intensive wellness programs, the coaching extends to actual disease management (DM) intervention for staff with identified high-risk diseases.

7   Multiple formats

Programs might offer wellness content in online, paper, and seminar formats to provide stimulating variety and alternatives to accommodate the needs of all workforce.

In addition to on-site exercise and healthful consuming events, on-line health promotion programs, e-mail reminders and notices, printed newsletters and materials, and workplace classes and workshops are common dissemination strategies.

8   Senior level management support

Enthusiastic and frequent endorsement by upper-level management is crucial to achieving high rates of participation.  When senior executives are wellness role models themselves the effects of endorsement are enhanced.

9   Frequent contact

Successful health promotion programs have frequent contact of some sort with every worker.  This may  be through marketing efforts (e.g., posters, e-mail notices, reminders, or messages, etc.), bulletin boards, newsletters, staff meeting presentations, discussion in new worker orientation, supervisory sessions, etc.

The key is to enhance employee awareness of wellness opportunities and reinforce the corporate emphasis on wellness through frequent and multiple “touches”.

10   Open enrollment

To encourage high participation rates workers must have easy access to the wellness programs and activities.  Open and uncomplicated enrollment processes achieve this.

Many organizations automatically enroll all staff and then allow those who do not wish to participate to “opt-out”.  This practice has been shown to improve enrollment rates in some establishings.

11   Family involvement

A lot of health promotion programs encourage spouses and other family members to take part in the organization wellness activities and to adopt a healthy lifestyle along with the designated employee. It is far easier for the employee to have a healthy lifestyle when his/her family does so as well.

12   Smoking cessation

Because tobacco use and other tobacco use is the number one threat to health it is crucial to offer staff members effective and convenient assistance with quitting.

Access to smoking cessation pharmaceuticals is usually part of such health promotion programs.  In-house health promotion programs provide the most convenient access to these services, although on-line or telephone-based health promotion programs might  be available as well.

13   Physical Activity

Regular physical activity is a core component of every wellness program. Workers must be strongly encouraged to engage in regular physical activity.

Most wellness programs provide either periodic or continuous on-site opportunities, and some locations have on-site health and fitness centers, swimming pools, walking trails, etc.  Discounted or paid memberships to community exercise facilities is a common alternative to on-site facilities.

14   Weight management

Because obesity is a major threat to health it is critical that programs offer effective assistance with weight control. Comprehensive encouragement from senior management to shed excess weight is important.

Online wellness programs, workplace programs, or discounted access to weight control programs in the community may all be available.  Long-term follow-up is crucial for maintenance of weight loss.

15   Stress management

Workplace stress is perhaps the most common complaint among personnel and a major contributor to absenteeism, presenteeism (reduced productivity), and low morale.

Nearly all successful health promotion programs offer assistance with personal and worksite stress.  Some programs refer staff members to outside resources for additional serious conditions like depression and anxiety disorders, but most offer web-based or frequent onsite general stress reduction programs.

A lot of businesses endeavor to structure the work environment to minimize stress, both physically and operationally.

16   Health testings/immunizations

Employees are actively encouraged to complete advised medical screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, Body Mass Index (BMI), colorectal and breast cancer, and others.

Annual influenza immunizations are also encouraged.  Some sites provide these services at the workplace.  Incentives are often awarded for completion of these screenings/immunizations.

17   Onsite health care

Actual provision of on-site primary care medical services is a growing trend.  The rapidly escalating costs of medical care insurance for personnel has stimulated this trend.

Many corporations have found that it’s less costly to provide primary care services themselves than to fund those services through health insurance.

On-Site care also reduces the amount of time workers would otherwise spend away from the worksite getting such services.

References

1   Aldana, Steven G.  (2001)   Financial Impact of Health Promotion Programs –   A Robust Review of the Literature.   Am J Health Promotion 15(5) – 296-320.

2   Chapman, Larry.  (1998)   the Role of Incentives in Wellness.  The Art of Wellness  2(3) – 1-8.

3   Chapman, Larry.   (2003)   Biometric Screening in Health Promotion –   is it Really as Important as We Think?  the Art of Health Promotion  7(2) – 1-12.

4   Chapman, Larry.  (2005)   Meta-Evaluation of Employee Wellness Economic Return Studies –  2005 Update.  The Art of Wellness, July/August, 1-15.

5   Chapman, Larry.   (2006)  Worker Participation in Employee Health Promotion and Health Promotion Programs –  Just how Important are Incentives, and Which Ones work Best?   North Carolina Medical Journal   67(6) –   431-432.

6   Chapman, Larry, Lesch, Nancy, and Passas Baun, Mary Beth.   (2007)   the Role of Health Promotion Coaching in Company Health Promotion.   the Art of Wellness, July/August, 1-12.

7   Chapman, Larry.  (2007)   Proof Positive –   an Analysis of the cost-Effectiveness of Company Health Promotion.  Northwest Health Management Publishing, Seattle, WA.

8   Chapman, Larry.  (2007)   an In-Depth Look at the Economic Evidence for Rewarding Health Behavior Change.   Workshop presentation at the World Research Group “Rewarding Healthful Behaviors for Health Plans and Companys” Conference, Orlando, FL, January 23-24.

9   Edington, Dee.   (2001)   Emerging Research –   A View from One Research Center.  American Journal of Health Promotion 15(5) –  341-349.

10   Edington, Dee W.  (2007)   Health Management as a Serious Company Strategy.  Presentation at the World Research Group “Rewarding Healthy Behaviors for Health Plans and Employers” Conference, Orlando, FL, January 23-24.

11   Pelletier, Barbara, Boles, Myde, and Lunch, Wendy.  (2004)  Changes in Health Risks and Be sure to work Productivity.   Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 46(7) –  746-754.

12   Pelletier, Kenneth R.  (2005)   A Review and Analysis of the Clinical and Cost-Effectiveness Studies of extensive Health and Disease ManagementPrograms at the Workplace –  Update VI 2000-2004.  JOEM 47(10)1051-1058.

13   DeVol, Ross, Bedroussian, Armen, et.  Al.  (2007)  an Unhealthy America –   the Economic Burden of Chronic Condition.  Report released by the Milken Institute.   www.milkeninstitute.org.

14   Partnership for Prevention.  (2008) Investing in Health –   Proven Health Promotion Practices for Workplaces.   http – //www.prevent.org/images/stories/2008/investinginhealth_finalfinal.pdf.

Analysiss determine the outcome of a Wellness Program. They help you determine if your goals were met. It’s a good idea to add an analysis component to your Wellness Program.

Analysiss may conclude that some interventions did not work well. You may find that a popular Health Promotion Program costs too much and did not really affect employees’ health.

While these might not be the outcomes you hoped for, without this information you could continue ineffective interventions. Having this information will help you create better solutions.

When your results are excellent, it is magnificent! You can spread the word to workers and upper management that your wellness program is achieving its objectives.

Three major areas of an examination

o  Wellness Program structure – the basic framework of the program

o  Health Promotion Program process – Exactly how well the program is run

o  Wellness Program outcomes – Whether the wellness program met the set objectives

Common questions used to evaluate a Wellness Program

Structure Questions

o  What’s included in the Health Promotion Program? What’s the intervention?

o  Where does the Health Promotion Program take place?

o  How’s the Wellness Program delivered? What content is included?

o  Who manages the Wellness Program?

Process Questions

o  How many individuals  participate?

o  Do participants complete the Health Promotion Program?

o  Are participants satisfied?

o  Which aspects of the Wellness Program are best attended?

Outcome Questions

o  Does the Wellness Program improve information about health issues?

o  Does the Wellness Program change behavior?

o  Does the Wellness Program save the corporation money?

o  What’s the Return On Investment?

Download a sample wellness program (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/wellness_partners/services/turnkey_programs/walking/participant_eval.pdf) examination from IBC’s Walking Towards Health Promotion program.

o  Identify through an worker survey what incentives they value.

o  Identify what incentives the corporation can provide as well as what the budget will allow.

o  Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.

o  Prevent offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”

o  Avoid using food as a reward.

o  Use incentives to promote your wellness program, through logos and branding.

Incentives encourage workers 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 raise participation rates, help individuals complete a Health Promotion Program, or help individuals change or adhere to healthy behaviors.

Providing incentives and rewards will send an important message to the staff members that your organization is committed to helping them with bettering their health. It also plays a significant role in arousing individuals to participate.

Tips on how to pick appropriate incentives -

o  Identify through an worker survey what incentives they value.

o  Identify what incentives the business can provide in addition to what the budget will allow.

o  Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.

o  Avoid offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”

o  Avoid using food as a reward.

o  Use incentives to promote your Health Promotion Program, through logos and branding.

When developing a extensive Wellness Program, be certain that it consists of a selection of awareness, lifestyle change, supportive environment programs, policies and activities that target risk behaviors, and the needs and interests of the workforce.

It’ll be imperative that you review and revise existing policies governing such areas as tobacco use sections and the staff cafeteria.

Tips on designing a Health Promotion Program -

o  Create activities based on your plan goals addressing the specific needs of your staff members. Focus on those topics that are of greatest interest to your staff members and the greatest needs of your corporation, in that order. Prevent topics with narrow appeal.

o  Keep it simple. Design the Wellness Program so it is easy for the participants to understand and track.

o  Integrate a combination of activities to include awareness, educational, and behavior elements.

o  Pick activities in which every worker can participate.

Suggestions for your Health Promotion Program -

o  Challenges. Activities that focus on practicing a desired behavior that continues for 4-8 weeks and focuses on specific topics (such as exercise, nutrition, or stress management).

o  Learning experiences. This includes seminars, videos, and classes.

o  Behavior changes (such as smoking cessation). You could or may not offer interventions at the workplace. Nonetheless, you should encourage individuals to make lifestyle changes that they want to make even without an external incentive.

o  Education on disease management. for example, support and education groups for diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.

o  Learing new skills. for  instance, CPR and first aid.

o  Preventive screenings like blood pressure, cholesterol, and vision.

Create goals and objectives

Goals are general guidelines that explain what you want to achieve. Goals define strategies or steps to take to attain the identified goal.

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 -

o  Focus on making health information and learning resources readily available to staff members

o  Focus on group activities so employees can work together to support and encourage healthier lifestyles

o  Develop a health promotion program that is visible to both employees and to your customers

o  Focus on written policies and guidelines

o  Make sure to set goals for your health promotion program.

Review Guidelines for Writing Goals.

Wellness Program Objectives Should be

Specific – A goal is specific when it provides a description of what’ll be accomplished. It’ll state exactly what the corporation intends to accomplish.

It ought to be written so that it could be easily and obviously communicated. A specific goal will make it easier for those writing objectives and action plans to address the following questions -

o  Who’s to be involved?

o  What’s to be accomplished?

o  Where is it to be done?

o  When’s it to be done?

Measurable – A goal is measurable when it is quantifiable.  To determine when your goal is measurable, ask questions such as – Precisely how much? Precisely how many? How’ll I know when it is accomplished?

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

Realistic – Realistic, means “do-able.” the goal needs to be realistic for your company and where the company is at the moment.

A goal to take out all the high fat items in the vending machine might not be realistic for your business right now; a better goal would be to substitute some of the chips, candy bars and pies for pretzels, yogurt and dried fruit.

Timely – In conclusion, a goal must have a timeframe –  for next week, in three months, by age 35. It must have a starting and ending point. It should also have some intermediate points at which progress may be evaluated.

Limiting the time in which a goal ought to be accomplished assists to focus effort toward its achievement. When you don’t set a time, the commitment 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 health promotion programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the staff. Ask staff what they’re interested in, and what needs they have.

Individuals  are more willing to participate and support wellness efforts when they’re involved in the decision-making process. Review the sample employee survey provided below.

Employee Interest Survey â.” can be edited (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/employer_tools/employee_interest_survey.doc)

When developing a recent survey, keep the following hints in mind -

o  Ask mainly closed form questions, particularly when you will be sending the survey to a big number of staff members. Closed form questions provide specific choices and are easy to tabulate.

o  Invite comments, suggestions and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions at the end of the survey. Open-ended items are more challenging to summarize.

o  Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the organization president. Be sure to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.

o  Ask a group of representative employees to review the survey before it’s distributed. Find out if the questions are going to be understood by employees and won’t be objected to.

o  Include demographic information at the starting, or end of the survey (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).

o  Conduct a random drawing for a valued incentive item for all those who returned the survey. This could increase the response rate.

One rule to consider concerning surveys is if you have fewer than 500 staff members, everybody should receive one.  The advantage of everybody receiving a recent survey can be significant. When you have over 500 staff members, a sample of the work population from each department will suffice.

The higher the response, the more accurate and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40% to 50% is considered valuable.

A critical first step in organizing your corporation’s wellness program is the formation of a wellness committee.  The focus of the wellness committee is to plan, promote, and implement the wellness program.

The committee establishes continuity, motivation, and broad ownership of the wellness program as well as provides an excellent automobile for communication.

So who should be on the committee? Consider appointing the following people /departments to your committee -

o  upper-level management within your company

o  Union representatives

o  Human resources  department

o  Employee assistance program

o  Information technology

o  Communications

o  Health and safety department

o  Workers interested in wellness

Building a successful health promotion program requires staff time in addition to money. Some bigger organizations may spend 20 hours per week for three to six months preparing all the steps prior to launching a health promotion program.

Anywhere from 4 to 10 people  meeting monthly equals a wellness committee. A mission statement for the committee ought to be created by the second meeting. This way, everyone knows what the 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 members should meet at least quarterly so the group â.” and the wellness program â.” doesn’t fade away.