Posts from — April 2009

What Do You Seek to Achieve?

Think about why you’re evaluating and what your evaluation 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 goals.

If you don’t have a mission statement or objectives and goals, decide with senior staff and your employee Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee how your organization will measure success.

By way of example, you can measure 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., decrease in absenteeism rates, increased employee work rate).

Thinking About employees

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

As employees are the ones participating in the program, it’s important to give them a chance to provide feedback on the physical exercise initiative.

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 Assessment

Plan 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 might want to pilot test your evaluation (e.g., with participants of the Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee) before sending it out to staff members. The employee Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee might also want to evaluate the initiative’s planning process.

Doing the Assessment

• Compare your results to baseline information (i.e., assessment results from before the launch of your initiative). If you don’t have this information, save your assessment 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 simple-to-be aware of results with senior staff and staff members.
• Assessment results can be used to better the current physical exercise program and/or to foster new pushes in future.

Prior to starting your Workplace Physical Activity Program, summarize the information you’ve gathered and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained support from senior staff for the Workplace Physical Activity Program
• formed an Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee
• assessed what is possible in your workplace
• found out what employees want and need in a Workplace Physical Activity Program.

Based on this information, you’re now ready to cultivate your action plan to boost physical exercise at your workplace.

With the Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the results of the employee survey with the workplace environmental assessment, and report to senior staff and employees.
• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, employer, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. For example, suppose a big group of staff members show an interest in biking to work. Since these individuals may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you might give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bike racks might also be important for making employees’ bikes secure during work.
• Consult the list of practical ideas found this website.
• Create a mission statement (one which aligns with your organization’s central mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Setting objectives and goals will help you achieve your mission statement.
• Put together a plan or blueprint addressing what you have learned. Make program and exercise recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2: Forming an Employee Committee.” Seek management approval to move ahead.
• Once your initiative is in place, it’s significant to encourage it to workers. Organizing a launch is a great way to do this. A formal launch additionally demonstrates management responsibility. If workers aren’t aware of the initiative, they can’t take advantage of it!
• Establish what you need to track to show that you have accomplished your objectives and goals. Measure these factors before you start. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know if there has been a change.

To succeed in encouraging physical activity during the workday, you must learn what workers need and want. They are the individuals whose behavior you are trying to influence, so it’s critical to know their needs and gain their backing.

The Employee Interest Survey

Ask staff members questions that allow you to assess such key characteristics as age, sex, social relationships, family responsibilities and current physical exercise participation.

It’s valuable to know this information so that your physical exercise plan meets employees’ needs. Employees will not participate in something they’re not interested in.

Ask employees what they want, and then implement changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. For example, employees may not want to do activities that make them sweat, because they do not want to shower at work.

Ask workers what the organization might do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during the workday. If there’s a common behavior throughout your organization, a single change might affect a lot of individuals.

For example, suppose a large group shows interest in biking to work. They may want to shower and change after their commute. You might give priority to installing workplace showers and changing facilities. Secure bike storage might be valuable as well.

If you’re launching a program that requires going outside, begin in the spring. By the time winter comes around, participation is already a habit.

Involving workers is key to expanding physical activity participation rates. People are more willing to participate in and support physical activity pushes when they are involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own employee interest survey:

• Keep it short (no longer than 10 minutes to complete).
• See that staff members know why you are doing the survey.
• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which can be long and tough to analyze, ask people to choose from a drop-down list of possible responses.
• Ask for comments and suggestions in one open-ended question at the end.
• Make it confidential and anonymous. Do not request information that may identify a person.
• If you’re including a list of potential programs or environmental changes, see that your workplace has the facilities and resources to offer them.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Forming an Employee Committee

Although support from the top is essential to a successful plan, support from other employees is also valuable.

Once you get the go-ahead from upper management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a Corporate Wellness Program Committee to help determine the next steps. Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of employee time management is willing to contribute, this Corporate Wellness Program Committee may be advisory or may plan and carry out the plan.

The Company Health Promotion Program Committee might include workers from human resources(HR), occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve employee from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical exercise. Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. For example, it’s valuable for the Company Health Promotion Program Committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following:

• Assessing your workplace environment
• Carrying out an employee interest survey.
• Implementing a mission statement and objectives.
• Writing a physical exercise or wellness policy declaring the organization’s responsibility to physical exercise.
• Brainstorming program ideas.
• Promoting, communicating and marketing the program.
• Coordinating specific activities.
• Deciding how the initiative will be evaluated.
• Continually assessing what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to promote physical activity during work, it’s valuable to discover what is “doable” in your workplace.

You do not want to raise employee expectations by offering something that’s impossible due to funding or space limits. For example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a fitness center if there’s no space for it. Be open, however, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Finding out What’s Possible in Your Workplace

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for maps of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Great walking trails may be right around the block from your workplace.

Below are some questions to help you assess your workplace:

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space provide that make it easier to be physically active during work? By way of example, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a fitness facility, factory walking lanes?
• What nearby facilities or opportunities might workers use to be more physically active during the workday? Are you near sidewalks, walking trails, neighborhood centres, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?
• What resources are available?
• Can the program access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?
• What is the structure of your corporation? For example, consider employee size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining senior staff backing is vital to the success of a physical exercise plan.

Whether the changes you’d like to see involve the work environment, central policies or specific programs, successfully launching your ideas depends on upper management support.

Support from management is critical for 3 reasons:

• You need their support to involve employees in a workplace initiative.
• When senior staff pays attention to and supports plan, workers also see the plan as worthwhile.
• Senior Management has the power to give work time and money to support the initiative.

It’s significant to keep management involved throughout a physical activity program, but at three points you’ll need support for:

• An overriding concept, including a go-ahead to evaluate what workers want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.
• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.
• Evaluating the initiative to better it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Senior Management

Prior to going to senior staff to gain initial support for promoting physical exercise during the workday, do your homework.

• Prepare a corporation case clearly outlining how the corporation will benefit by promoting physical exercise during work.
• List the individual, social and corporate benefits of physical activity and the benefits of being active during work.
• Present some cursory ideas about what the program could include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from management:

• How will this help our business?
• How can we encourage workers to participate?
• How much will it cost to run this program or bring about this change?
• How will we know a year from now whether or not this was a meaningful use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the sorts of activities they would support. Often managers have their own ideas they would like to see acted on to better the workplace.

Remember to include middle managers when gaining backing for your program. They can be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical activity challenges.

In today’s company climate, the health of workers is often related to the health of the company. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, reduced illness and injuries, and increased work rate are just some of the benefits of having healthy workers. Promoting health in your workplace does not have to be be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any company, big or little, can promote healthy eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some suggestions:

Healthy Eating

• For breakfast meetings, rather than serving donuts, big muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives such as bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100 percent fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.
• For lunch meetings, avoid serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100  percent fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.
• Reimburse staff members staff members for items purchased to better their health (e.g. healthy eating cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).
• Arrange for the cafeteria or food vendors to offer healthy meal choices.
• Arrange to have healthy choices like bottled water, 100 percent fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in vending machines.
• Provide a means for individuals to share healthy recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Establish events and group activities to bolster employees to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge activities, stretch breaks, team sports or participation in local or provincial activities.
• Offer on-Site health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in Employee Assistance Programs to help staff members work towards physical activity objectives and goals.
• Give a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices simple: bike racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairwells, walking or running routes in the vicinity of the workplace, and health club facilities.
• Provide|Offer|Give} flex time so that workers have more opportunities to participate in exercise program as part of their working day.
• Reimburse gym membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment purchases.
• Provide corporate fitness center memberships to decrease costs of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to:

• Create lunch ‘n learn sessions to support information and motivation for healthy eating and active living.
• Invite demonstrators to offer cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.
• Post a list of local restaurants that offer healthy meal choices on their menus.
• Distribute information to educate workers on portion sizes.
• Include physical exercise and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.
• Develop activities that reward healthy eating and physical exercise. By way of example, begin a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities

Can a small business support workplace wellness? Absolutely! In fact, in some ways it is easier to create a healthy workplace in a small business than in a sizable business.

Limited resources, especially in small employers, can keep a organization from setting up a Company Health Promotion Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of fiscal resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level backing;
• minimal knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• concern about making wellness available to all workers.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small company owners may have the wrong idea of what is involved in running a Workplace Wellness Program. Some employers aren’t sure a program would really work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  Maybe they do not be aware of that it doesn’t need to be costly and that they do not need special employee. They may not know that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Done

Many small employers have found ways to have a Company Wellness Program that works for them. They keep the expenditure and effort to a minimum and still have results that are positive for everyone. In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthy workplaces frequently have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a positive culture, individuals feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a positive workplace culture than for a large workplace. Many workers prefer to work for a small employer, he says, because it provides more opportunities to work closely with others and cultivate a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most successful businesses with fewer than 100 workers have:

• great employee benefits;
• policies that reward a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• great leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible business policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal wellness ahead of the personal gain of Senior Leadership.

All or most of these elements are also components of a good Workplace Health Promotion Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are many ways to include health and wellbeing in a small company. You may not necessarily need a wellness professional or a fancy fitness center. What you do need is support from senior staff and a Workplace Wellness Program Committee of a few committed people. Here are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter on paper or online. Or send out a brief message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Use promotions that are ready-designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthier Eating

• Urge employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing contest.
• Get pedometers for workers and count their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or area health club and offer exercise classes.
• Hire a local fitness instructor to give classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenditures can be shared with workers.
• Install safe bicycle parking.
• Serve healthy alternatives at company gatherings and lunches.

Policy and Employer Initiatives

• Hire an ergonomics specialist to evaluate workstations.
• Foster policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).
• Provide a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Provide monetary rewards and incentives to be healthy.
• Provide wellness incentives as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an organization health audit.
• Become a partner with the neighborhood (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Establish a Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee.

Small organizations may not have much time, money, or human resources available for a Workplace Wellness Program. But they often have a big advantage over large companies-a positive workplace culture. That is a great foundation for a Workplace Wellness Program. When workers are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more advantageous, and tend to be healthier.  With a bit of creativity and passion, small organizations can foster thriving Workplace Wellness Programs. Get reinforcement from senior staff, form a Workplace Wellness Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to establish healthy workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury prevention for workers.

More recently, programs are designed to assist  employees to choose healthier behaviors like increasing physical activity levels or stopping smoking. Campaigns to increase awareness, educational sessions to expand knowledge, opportunities to acquire new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for employees to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a good way to reach people, since most adult Canadians invest a sizable part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are 2 aspects that contribute to the health of staff members, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace impacts health.

Increasingly, it is understood that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more advantageous and tend to be healthier. When staff members feel that the environment at work is detrimental, they feel stressed. Stress has a sizable impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the employer overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that businesses must genuinely care about the well-being of their staff members.

Corporations today who want to attract and retain good employees have leaders who be aware of the importance between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a corporation plan.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving employees in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and offering support to balance work and home life.

Employers know that staff members are looking for jobs that pay well, have good benefits, are interesting, and include excellent health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more significant than ever for organizations to enhance job satisfaction and ensure that staff members enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and staff members.

How does workplace wellness advance the corporation?

A workplace wellness initiative can help a corporation to:

• attract and keep workers;
• reduce the costs of disability, prescription drugs, and absenteeism;
• cut the effects of a stressful workplace;
• decrease health expenditures or keep them contained; and
• improve morale by organizing a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Corporate Wellness Programs Advance workers?

workers of businesses that have a Corporate Health Promotion Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to better their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellness;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productivity and performance at work;
• reduced personal medical costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health concerns.

Both employers and workers have a responsibility for organizing a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in great health, and the organization is expected to provide an environment that allows workers to maintain great health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about developing a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of staff members, adopting a beneficial work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep staff members healthy and happy at work. A great Employee Wellness Program has an effect on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being.

Ideally, you will advance an overriding plan for a Employee Wellness Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. By way of example, you have the potential to start by getting the following elements in place:

• support from senior staff
• a Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee or team
• information about the wellness needs and interests of workers
• a budget
• program objectives
• an assessment plan

Even if you have few monetary and/or human resources(HR), you are able to still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you might focus on only one specific problem. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning are able to help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for setting up Workplace Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps are able to have an influence.

Whether you choose to begin with a single program or foster something larger, planning is essential. First consider the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Determine an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the staff members and employer?
• Encourage. How can you most effectively spread the word to staff members? What are the opportunities for promotion? Consider everything, since staff members have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, staff members receive information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow staff members.
• Deliver. Who is the best individual or group to put the program into action? Ask other organizations about approaches they have utilized. Solidify your budget before making a decision.
• Evaluate. What ought to you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when organizing your plan:

• creating and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the type of program or campaign

The Elements of a Employee Health Promotion Program

Programs to encourage wellness in the workplace don’t need to be restricted to a single area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting positive personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure clinics, pamphlets on heart disease, “lunch and learn” seminars on eating habits and short-term physical activity programs.

These activities are valuable, but workplace wellness ought to also be part of employer’s business strategy and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently detailed 3 key components of a healthy workplace:

• physical environment
• social environment and personal resources
• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider offering the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for workers to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist workers join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairwells that invite staff members to use them.
• Assessing the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.
• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, as well as ways of doing business, can affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Employers must consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that offer safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• Employee Assistance Program(EAP)s

To cultivate a beneficial social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include:

• being respected
• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission
• freedom of expression
• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” may not address current employee needs. Making sure that people enjoy being at work is not an simple task, but making the right changes is able to have a huge influence.

Health Practices

Offer programs and set policies that help staff members remain healthy or better their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading nutrition labels.
• Tobacco cessation clinics or subsidies to help employees quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the problems raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks offered at gatherings and conferences.

Personal Workplace Wellness Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your worksite, do not let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to consider:

• Be active at work. There are numerous ways to bring activity into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Hold walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office rather than sending an e-mail.
• Eat well at work. Pack a healthy meal. Place a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for gatherings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you can leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and don’t take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Arrange your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Create and prioritize to make sure that the most important things get done first.

There’s no limit to the number or variety of Employee Health Promotion Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the results so that you can sustain momentum.

Talk to other wellness practitioners to learn what works well for them. Listen to your co-employees to determine their needs and interests. And don’t forget to promote, promote, promote.

Many corporations recognize the need for a inclusive strategy to help their employees be the best they can be. They also know that efficacious and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program should include a wide range of key components, including:

• A clear agenda or statement of goals and objectives.
• A plan characterized by passion.
• An effective leader who is creative and organized.
• A focus on short-term outcomes combined with an central vision.
• A measurable strategy (what’s significant gets measured!).
• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Starting Your Employee Health Promotion Program

Create carefully to ensure that your wellness program is viewed as part of a sweeping commitment to maintaining the health and safety of each employee. Indeed, creating a good plan takes much effort and time (and sometimes resources). But planning is important and well worth the expenditure required. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might start by delivering a survey of employee needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the results and plan accordingly. If you do not, the employees will not support the program.

Gathering information about what you’re already offering is also a good idea. For example, you may be surprised by your business or organization’s current wellness and health policies.

Another significant step is to establish an agenda and/or measurable goals/objectives to help you determine priorities, timelines and the resources required to kick off the program. Be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Senior Management

The leader of your wellness program must be able to wear many hats. The leader’s duties include:

• Implementing a vision of the wellness program after receiving input from all interested workers.
• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the organization (to senior managers and fellow workers alike).
• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.
• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.
• Developing and maintaining leadership skills such as giving effective presentations and being well-organized.

Good leaders avoid becoming overwhelmed by overly ambitious and complex plans. You may want to stick to short-term goals at the beginning so that you get immediate and visible results. These first steps are the basis for a efficacious wellness program.

Good leaders involve as many people as possible in the program. For example, you’ll want to form a Worksite Wellness Program Committee made up of a diverse group of employees to offer advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Help you to get valuable information from all parts of the organization.
• Design ambassadors who will help you start the wellness program.

Keeping Score and Celebrating

Always keep in mind how you will monitor progress and evaluate the success of your wellness program. Evaluation allows you to:

• Ascertain areas of excellence.
• Identify factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Grasp management’s backing for your efforts (and maintain that backing).
• Better be aware of issues that need attention.
• Learn from mistakes and change the program to keep it on the right track.

When you evaluate your program, you can measure such things as:

• Employee absences.
• Employee turnover rates.
• The expense of your Employee Assistance Program(EAP).
• The expenditure of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The cost of your drug plan.
• Accident rates and safety records.
• Employees’ participation in wellness programs (and whether they’re staying in the programs).
• Changes in employees’ health habits.
• Level of employees’ awareness of healthy lifestyle issues.
• Results of your environmental wellness audit.
• Other perceivable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A good communications plan provides ongoing information to staff members (including senior managers) and creates excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is part of an effective communications plan. By way of example, you might recognize people who have helped established the program or provide tangible rewards for achieving objectives and goals.

Everyone needs to know whether workers are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some profit from them. Showing that a wellness program has economic benefits is often an significant factor in maintaining strong support from the top.

If you pay attention to the key elements of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while planning and delivering it, you will lay a solid foundation and leave a legacy that endures.