Health and Wellness Leads : Company Health Promotion Program: Building Support for your Program

As with any program, the two most important components for the performance of your wellness program are management reinforcement & employee participation.  Senior Management sets the vision and arranges the resources from which action plans flow.  Genuine reinforcement from senior personnel also lends credibility to the wellness plan.  It is critical that management be visible supporters and role models for your Employee Wellness Program.

staff members need to be involved on several levels so that they feel ownership of the wellness program.  Staff Members are the program stakeholders!  All staff members must have an opportunity to offer input and feedback through needs & interest surveys and program assessment tools.  The information gathered must be used to plan programs that target those needs and interests to ensure participation, buy-in, and support.

There are several methods to identify employee needs and interests such as:

• Holding Employee Focus Groups
• Discovering Wellness Interests During Department meetings
• Distributing and Summarizing a Needs & Interest Survey
• (Including|Allowing for|Making sure to include} an Opportunity to Give Suggestions on Each Evaluation Tool  

Any one or combination of several techniques will be sure that the wellness program meets what staff members want.

Step 3 supports additional information on determining wellness program needs.  But first, instituting a Worksite Wellness Program Committee can help you involve senior staff & workers, determine need, and plan your wellness program.