Health Handouts : Building a Worksite Health Promotion Program

There is no single right way to approach wellness programs but successful programs share common success factors. These include management support and commitment, employee involvement, adequate resources, and a policy on health that goes hand in hand with the organization’s mission, vision and values.

Employee Health Promotion Program: A Range of Approaches

Although the goal is to eventually have a long-term, comprehensive wellness program, some companies prefer to begin with a single program at a basic level. For example, the first steps could be as simple as offering lunch-hour sessions on first aid or healthy eating; or they could launch a pilot project to discover how interested staff members are to ensure staff members needs are being met before taking on anything more ambitious. This approach supplies a chance to show the influence on staff members and the workplace so upper management will be more willing to consider a larger and more far-reaching strategy.

Other companies plan a variety of initiatives to meet the needs of the different sorts of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to develop a sound corporation case, complete with a health strategy, before setting out on any sort of program. Companies want to be sure that a new program is totally integrated with their overall corporation vision and mission.

Employee Wellness Program: Success Factors

Whether your organization chooses to think big from the outset or to begin with something smaller, always keep in mind the following key success factors:

• backing and participation from senior staff;
• employee participation in organizing;
• programs that meet employee needs;
• a realistic budget; and
• continuous review.

In sports, a game plan is a series of steps that a team must follow to accomplish its objective of winning. Most winning teams plan to win. Employers also need game plans, even if they don’t call them by that name.

Good planning will help to be sure that your wellness program happens the way you want it to, and that costs have the potential to be identified in advance and kept within budget. Good planning prevents small concerns from becoming bigger.

Steps in Beginning a Corporate Health Promotion Program

Obtain senior staff backing. You may need to cultivate a company case to convince managers that the wellness program is a company strategy-that employee health and job satisfaction affects their productiveness. employees need to see evidence that senior staff believes in and is committed to employee health.

Establish a planning committee. Members can include representatives from employee groups as well as from human resources(HR), health and safety, and communications.

Gather information. To prove that your Company Health Promotion Program is beneficial, establish a benchmark before the program begins. You may wish to look at employee satisfaction, absenteeism rates, stress levels, drug expenditures or WCB costs. Review what workplace facilities are available to support workers to make healthy choices such as showers and change areas or a secure place to store a bicycle. Review employee needs through a survey or questionnaire, suggestion box or focus group. Communicate the results.

Design the plan to reflect the information gathered. Include program objectives, activities and how you are intend to measure whether your objectives were met. Keep the plan flexible. You may have to change direction in response to employee feedback or changes in the company’s structure.

Obtain management approval. Support for employee time and a budget are required.

Put activities in place. Offer a variety of activities that create awareness, increase knowledge, develop skills, and offer social interaction. (Activities could include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Workplace Wellness Programs Week, SummerActive, WinterActive, corporate challenge, golf days, and newsletters that offer information about neighborhood resources.) Workplaces are able to also make it easier for employees to make healthy choices by providing flextime to allow employees to fit activity in when it is convenient or by subsidizing programs in cooperation with neighborhood or private fitness facilities. A policy on catering for meetings has the potential to make sure that healthy foods are provided.

Review the plan. Share your successes with others, learn from your mistakes and modify activities.

A wellness program doesn’t have to be complicated or a huge investment. Just do it. Obtain reinforcement from management, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.