Free Wellness Program

Evaluations determine the outcome of a Wellness Program. They help you figure out if your goals were met. It is a good idea to add an investigation component to your Wellness Program.

Evaluations may conclude that some interventions didn’t work well. You could find that a well-liked Wellness Program costs too much and didn’t really affect employees’ health.

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

When your results are good, it’s magnificent! You can spread the word to employees and management that your program is achieving its goals.

Three major areas of an analysis

• Wellness Program structure – the basic framework of the program

• Wellness Program process – How well the program is run

• Wellness Program outcomes – Whether the program met the set goals

Common questions used to evaluate a Wellness Program

Structure Questions

• What’s included in the Wellness Program? What’s the intervention?

• Where does the Wellness Program take place?

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

• Who manages the Wellness Program?

Process Questions

• How many individuals  participate?

• Do participants complete the Wellness Program?

• Are participants satisfied?

• Which aspects of the Wellness Program are best attended?

Outcome Questions

• Does the Wellness Program improve knowledge about health issues?

• Does the Wellness Program change behavior?

• Does the Wellness Program save the company money?

• What’s the return on investment (ROI)?

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

• Identify through an worker survey what incentives they value.

• Identify what incentives the organization can provide in addition to what the budget will allow.

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

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

• Prevent using food as a reward.

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

Incentives encourage staff members to adopt positive behaviors or maintain an existing positive behavior that may potentially help the staff member stay healthful and live longer. Adopting positive health behavior is fundamentally what wellness is about.

Incentives could be used to elevate participation rates, help individuals complete a Wellness Program, or help individuals change or adhere to healthful behaviors.

Providing incentives and rewards will send an important message to the workers that your organization is committed to assisting them with improving their health. It also plays a meaningful role in motivating individuals to participate.

Tips on how to pick appropriate incentives –

• Identify through an worker survey what incentives they value.

• Identify what incentives the organization can provide in addition to what the budget will allow.

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

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

• Prevent using food as a reward.

• Use incentives to promote your Wellness Program, through logos and branding.

When developing a robust Wellness Program, make 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 employees.

It will be important to review and revise existing policies governing such areas as smoking sections and the staff cafeteria.

Tips on designing a Wellness Program –

• Create activities based on your plan objectives 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. Avoid topics with narrow appeal.

• Keep it simple. Design the Wellness Program so it’s easy for the participants to understand and track.

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

• Choose activities in which every worker can participate.

Suggestions for your Wellness Program –

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

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

• Behavior changes (such as tobacco use cessation). You could or might not offer interventions at the workplace. Nevertheless, you should encourage person to make lifestyle changes that they want to make even without an external incentive.

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

• Learing new skills. for example, CPR and first aid.

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

Source –  Altered from the Building Healthy Texans Corporate Wellness Toolkit.

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’ve 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 employees

• Focus on group activities so workers can work together to support and encourage healthier lifestyles

• Develop a wellness program that is visible to both employees and to your clients

• Focus on written policies and guidelines

• Make certain to set objectives for your wellness program.

Review Guidelines for Writing Goals.

Wellness Program Objectives Should be

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

It must be written so that it could 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’s to be accomplished?

• Where is it to be done?

• When is it to be done?

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

Attainable – You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that might 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 organization and where the organization is at the moment.

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

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

Limiting the time in which a goal should 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 begin at any time. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to begin taking action now.

Successful wellness programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the staff members. Ask staff members what they are interested in, and what needs they have.

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

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

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

• Ask mainly closed form questions, in particular if you’ll be sending the survey to a big number of employees. Closed form questions provide specific choices and are easy to tabulate.

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

• Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the business president. Be certain to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.

• Ask a group of representative employees to review the survey before it’s distributed. Find out if the questions will be understood by employees 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 increase the response rate.

One rule to consider concerning surveys is when you’ve fewer than 500 employees, everybody ought to receive one. the advantage of everybody receiving a recent survey can be significant. When you’ve over 500 employees, a sample of the work population from each department will suffice.

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

A crucial 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 program.

The committee establishes continuity, motivation, and wide ownership of the program as well as provides an great automobile for communication.

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

• Top management within your company

• Union representatives

• Human resources (HR)  department

• Employee assistance program

• Information technology

• Communications

• Health and safety department

• Workers interested in wellness

Building a successful wellness 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 before launching a wellness program.

Anywhere from 4 to 10 people  meeting monthly is equivalent to a wellness committee. A mission statement for the committee ought to be developed by the second meeting. This way, everyone knows what the committee is working toward.

Download sample minutes from a local worksite. (WORD DOC –  http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/company_tools/walking_works_minutes.doc)

Once a wellness program has been established, the committee’s size and meeting schedule may change. Still, no fewer than 4 members ought to meet at least quarterly so the group – and the wellness program – doesn’t fade away.

Support from management is essential to building a successful wellness program! Visible  upper management support is one of the most vital factors in the success of a worksite Wellness Program.

Upper management executives are responsible for making sure that the organization meets its goals. They can provide additional assistance by assisting you to link your Wellness Program goals to business outcomes, thereby positioning Wellness Program as a fundamental part of the organization.

It’s important to develop support and excitement for the program from all levels of the business including  senior level management, mid-level management, and grass-root workers.

The challenge for any Wellness Program coordinator is convincing  senior level management about the potential value of Wellness Program to the organization and conceptualizing how Wellness Program programs can impact the organization in a meaningful manner.

The American Journal of Wellness is a great resource to assist you with obtaining convincing information on the advantages of a Wellness Program.

Wellness Program support from management can come in many different ways –

• Involvement in the planning process

• Distribution of funding for the wellness program

• Support for time given to the wellness program

• Participation in wellness events

• Leadership by management, such as the distribution of a letter of support for the program.

• Download a sample letter requesting  executive management support. (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/employer_tools/sr_mgt_support.doc)

• Flexibility of employee schedules to accommodate wellness activities

The first step in developing your wellness/Wellness Program is to understand your organization and how Wellness Program will fit into the current structure.

By researching your corporation’s history with similar programs and eliciting feedback from colleagues, you are able to find the best solution for your organization.

Wellness Program –  Research Questions

• Find out when Wellness Program has been done in the past. When so, what worked and what did not?

• Was it widely accepted?

• Was programming successful? Why or why not?

• What does your corporation hope to gain from implementing a Wellness Program?

Answers to these questions will help you begin the process of creating a culture of wellness within your organization. It’s imperative that you assess the environment before beginning a program.

Wellness Program –  Employee Feedback

In addition, you can start the process of understanding your organization by analyzing  the survey below –

WORD DOC –  http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/business_tools/work_climate_survey.doc

The costs of health care have been rising more than 10 percent yearly for several years. A substantial amount of the money spent in the health care system treats expensive illnesses and illnesses.

• Approximately 95% of the $1.4 trillion that we spend as a nation on health goes to direct medical services, while about 5% is allocated to preventing illness and promoting health.

• Potentially, 50 percent to 70 percent of all illnesses are preventable as they’re associated with modifiable health risks.

• In an effort to optimize employee health, reduce preventable healthcare utilization and enhance work performance, and in turn lower healthcare costs and improve employee satisfaction and retention, many corporations are developing, or are interested in developing, Wellness Programs for workers.

The advantages of corporate wellness are well documented. More than 120 scientific research studies repeatedly show themes like improvements in health outcomes coupled with high returns on investment (ROI). Some major findings include the following –

• Savings of $3.48 in lowered healthcare costs per dollar invested.

• Savings of $5.82 in lower absenteeism costs 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 ROI within 2 to 5 years.

• Self care, decision support programs –  $2 to $3 ROI within a year.

• Illness management programs –  $7 to $10 ROI within a year.

By offering health improvement programs, corporations are not only providing an additional service for employees, but they’re also gaining financially. Moreover, the impact of a health improvement program goes beyond reduced health care cost and ROI.

A health betterment program can affect productivity, absenteeism, morale, recruitment success, turnover, and medical care costs.

* Source –  Rees, C., and Finch, R. (2004). Health Improvement –  A extensive guide to designing, beginning and assessing  worksite programs. National Business Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

According to the American Journal of Wellness, “Wellness is the science and art of assisting people  change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health.

Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change behavior, and create environments that support good health practices.

Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change.”

Wellness Program –  Action Steps

The process of building a Wellness Program involves –

• Identifying the current health status of your staff members

• Decidingthe appropriate programs and interventions to offer

• Promoting and beginning the programs

• Building in motivational incentives

• Measuring the impact

• Revising programs based on investigation outcomes

It might even include developing policies and procedures that support worker participation in wellness activities at your worksite (such as flextime).

Steps to Beginning a Wellness Program

• Conduct an organizational assessment

• Obtain management support

• Establish a wellness committee

• Obtain employee input

• Develop goals and goals

• Design and implement program activities

• Select incentives

• Evaluate outcomes

Among the ways the government plans to improve the nation’s health is through extensive Wellness Programs.

As reported by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, these programs may help staff members live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior change programs.

In truth, one of the goals of Healthful Individuals  2010, a set of health goals for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to increase the proportion of workers that participate in a robust Wellness Program at their worksite to 75 percent.