Posts from — April 2009

Evaluations determine the outcome of a Employee Health Promotion Program. They help you figure out if your objectives were met. It is a great idea to add an assessment component to your Employee Health Promotion Program.

Evaluations may conclude that some interventions didn’t work well. You may find that a popular Worksite Health Promotion Program expenditures 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 foster better solutions. When your results are good, it’s magnificent! You can spread the word to workers and management that your program is achieving its objectives.

Three primary areas of an assessment

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

Common questions used to evaluate a Workplace Health Promotion Program

Corporate Health Promotion Program Structure Questions

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

Employee Health Promotion Program Process Questions

• How many people participate?
• Do participants complete the Employee Wellness Program?
• Are participants satisfied?
• Which aspects of the Company Wellness Program are best attended?

Company Wellness Program Outcome Questions

• Does the Company Wellness Program improve knowledge about health issues?
• Does the Workplace Health Promotion Program change behavior?
• Does the Workplace Health Promotion Program save the employer money?
• What is the return on investment (ROI)?

• Ascertain through an employee survey what incentives/rewards they value.
• Identify what rewards and incentives the company can support as well as what the budget will allow.
• Make sure that every participant who achieves a objective receives some recognition.
• Avoid offering incentives/rewards for the “best” or the “most.”
• Avoid using food as a reward.
• Use incentives and rewards to promote your Workplace Wellness Program, through logos and branding.

Incentives promote 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 increase participation rates, help people complete a Corporate Wellness Program, or help people change or adhere to healthy lifestyles. Providing rewards and incentives and rewards will send an valuable message to the staff members that your corporation is committed to helping them with bettering their health. It also plays a valuable role in motivating people to participate.

Tips on how to choose appropriate incentives and rewards:

• Determine through an employee survey what incentives/rewards they value.
• Identify what rewards and incentives the employer can support as well as what the budget will allow.
• Make sure that every colleague who achieves a goal receives some recognition.
• Avoid offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”
• Avoid using food as a reward.
• Use incentives to promote your Company Wellness Program, through logos and branding.

When beginning 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 employees. It will be significant to review and revise existing policies governing such areas as smoking sections and the employee cafeteria.

Tips on creating a Worksite Wellness Program:

• Develop activities based on your planned goals and objectives discussing the specific needs of your employees. Focus on those issues that are of greatest interest to your employees and the greatest needs of your business, in that order. Avoid issues with narrow appeal.
• Keep it simple. Design the Corporate Wellness Program so it’s easy for the participants to understand and track.
• Integrate a combination of activities to include awareness, educational, and behavior components.
• Choose activities in which every employee can take part.

Recommendations for your Company Wellness Program:

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

Source: Adapted from the Building Healthy Texans Job Site Wellness Toolkit.

Design goals/objectives

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 must 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 workers
• Focus on group activities so workers can work together to support and bolster healthier lifestyles
• Establish a wellness program that is visible to both employees and to your customers
• Focus on written policies and guidelines
• Set objectives for your wellness program.

Review Guidelines for Writing Goals.

Goals Should Be

Specific – A goal is specific when it supplies 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 intention 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 goal needs to be realistic for your business and where the business is at the moment. A goal to take out all the high fat items in the vending machines may 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 – Finally, a objective 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 objective must be accomplished helps to focus effort toward its achievement. If you do not 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 wellness programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the workers. Ask workers what they are interested in, and what needs they have. People are more willing to take part and support wellness efforts if they are involved in the decision-making process.

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

• Ask mostly closed form questions, especially if you will be sending the survey to a large number of staff members. Closed form questions provide specific choices and are easy to tabulate.
• Invite comments, opinions 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 company 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 could boost the response rate.

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

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

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

• Senior Management within your organization
• Union representatives
• Human resources department
• Employee Assistance Program(EAP)
• Information technology
• Communications
• Health and safety department
• staff members interested in health and wellbeing

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

Anywhere from 4 to 10 people meeting monthly equals a Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee. A mission statement for the Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee should be developed by the second meeting. This way, everyone knows what the Workplace Health Promotion 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 members must 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 support is one of the most vital factors in the success of a workplace Corporate Wellness Program. Upper Management executives are responsible for making sure that the employer meets its objectives. They can offer additional assistance by supporting you to link your Corporate Wellness Program objectives to employer outcomes, thereby positioning Corporate Wellness Program as a fundamental part of the employer.

It is valuable to establish support and excitement for the program from all levels of the organization including upper management, mid-level management, and grass-root staff members.

The challenge for any Corporate Wellness Program coordinator is convincing senior staff about the potential value of Corporate Wellness Program to the corporation and conceptualizing how Corporate Wellness Program drives can effect 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 Corporate Wellness Program.

Corporate Wellness Program backing from management can come in a myriad of 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 activities
• 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 planning your wellness/Workplace Wellness Program is to know your company and how Workplace Wellness Program will fit into the current structure. By researching your organization’s history with similar programs and eliciting feedback from co-workers, you can find the best solution for your company.

Workplace Wellness Program: Research Questions

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

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

The costs of healthcare have been rising more than ten percent each year for several years. A substantial amount of the money spent in the healthcare 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 medical care services, while about 5 percent is allocated to preventing disease and promoting health.
• Potentially, 50 percent to 70 percent of all diseases are avoidable as they are associated with potentially-modifiable health risks.
• In an effort to optimize employee health, reduce preventable healthcare utilization and enhance work execution, and in turn reduced healthcare expenditures and better employee satisfaction and retention, many corporations are planning, or are interested in planning, Worksite Wellness Programs for workers.

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

• Savings of $3.48 in reduced health care costs per dollar invested.
• Savings of $5.82 in reduce 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 return on investment within 2 to 5 years.
• Self care, decision support programs: $2 to $3 ROI within a year.
• Disease Management (DM) programs: $7 to $10 return on investment within a year.

By offering health improvement programs, companies are not only providing an additional service for employees, but they are also gaining monetarily. Furthermore, the effect of a health improvement program goes beyond lowered health care cost and return on investment. A health improvement program can affect productivity, absenteeism, morale, recruitment success, turnover, and health care expenditures.

• Source: Rees, C., and Finch, R. (2004). Health Improvement: A comprehensive guide to beginning, launching and evaluating worksite 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 change their lifestyle to move toward a state of good health. Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle modification can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change 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.”

Company Wellness Program: Action Steps

The process of assembling a Company Health Promotion Program involves:

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

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

Steps to Starting a Corporate Wellness Program

• Conduct an company assessment
• Obtain upper management support
• Establish a Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee
• Obtain employee input
• Develop goals and objectives
• Design and implement program activities
• Choose rewards and incentives
• Evaluate outcomes

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