Health and Wellness Leads : Building a Corporate Wellness Program

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

Corporate Wellness Program: A Range of Approaches

Although the goal is to eventually have a long-term, accross the board wellness program, some companies prefer to start with a single program at a basic level. By way of 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 find out how interested staff members are to ensure staff members needs are being met before taking on anything more ambitious. This approach supports a chance to show the effect on staff members and the workplace so senior staff will be more willing to consider a larger and more far-reaching plan.

Other employers plan a variety of drives to meet the needs of the different sorts of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to develop a sound company case, complete with a health strategy, before beginning any sort of program. Corporations want to be sure that a new program is fully integrated with their overall company vision and mission.

Workplace Health Promotion Program: Success Factors

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

• support and participation from upper management;
• employee involvement in planning;
• programs that meet employee needs;
• a realistic budget; and
• continuous review.

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

Good planning will help to make sure that your wellness program happens the way you want it to, and that expenditures are able to be identified in advance and kept within budget. Good planning prevents small issues from becoming bigger.

Steps in Starting a Employee Wellness Program

Obtain senior staff support. You may need to foster a corporation case to convince managers that the wellness program is a corporation strategy-that employee health and job satisfaction affects their work rate. employees need to see evidence that senior staff believes in and is committed to employee health.

Establish a planning committee. Members are able to include representatives from employee groups as well as from human resources, health and safety, and communications.

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

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

Put activities in place. Offer a variety of activities that foster awareness, increase knowledge, cultivate skills, and offer social interaction. (Activities might include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Corporate Health Promotion 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 staff members to make healthy choices by offering flextime to allow staff members 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 offered.

Evaluate 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 expenditure. Just do it. Obtain reinforcement from management, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.