Posts from — August 2009

The type of evaluation you choose depends on when you do it and the kind of information you collect.

This section outlines when to use three types: formative, process and summative evaluations.

During the Development Stage

Use formative evaluations in the planning stages to ensure that your program is based on solid information. These evaluations also help you to foster effective and appropriate materials and procedures.

Examples of formative evaluations include:

• records of senior staff commitments to the program
• employee interest surveys
• workplace environmental assessments
• pre-testing of program materials

During Your Initiative

A process evaluation is used when the initiative is underway. These evaluations help you:

• track what is going well and what isn’t (and how to revise your program)
• learn if you are reaching the staff members you want to reach
• describe the plan to others
• monitor who is participating in the initiative

During or Following Your Initiative

Summative evaluations take place when the plan is already in place or completed. Use this sort of assessment to measure what workers like about the plan and what might be improved.

All three types of evaluations are useful. The assessment you choose depends on the time and monetary resources you have available.

What Do You Wish to Achieve?

Consider why you’re evaluating and what your assessment is going to measure.

If you’re trying to discover whether initiative has been efficacious, see if you followed your mission statement and met your objectives.

If you don’t have a mission statement or goals, decide with upper management and your employee Employee Wellness Program Committee how your organization will measure success.

By way of example, you can track success by changes in:

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

Thinking About workers

If you’re considering making improvements to the plan, consider whether the plan is still relevant and fitting for workers. See if there are any barriers to participation in the program or to participation in physical exercise during the workday.

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

Choosing an Assessment Method

Decide on your evaluation 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 depend on 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 may want to pilot test your assessment (e.g., with members of the Company Wellness Program Committee) before sending it out to staff members. The employee Company Wellness Program Committee may also wish to evaluate the initiative’s planning process.

Doing the Assessment

• Compare your results to baseline information (i.e., evaluation results from before the launch of your plan). If you do not have this information, save your evaluation 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 senior staff and employees.
• Assessment results can be used to improve the current physical exercise program and/or to foster new initiatives in future.