Health and Wellness Leads : Creating a Corporate Wellness Program Strategy for Fitness and Health

As organizations today continue to compete in the global economy, expense containment strategies will be increasingly valuable. Controlling the rising expense of employee sickness is becoming a priority for corporate leaders. The emerging corporate culture in America is one which has an employee population centered in health, safety and wellness.

Developing a corporate plan for Corporate Health Promotion Programs and disability management makes good company sense. The following eight-step process ensures a strategic, integrated, needs-driven and outcome-oriented approach.

The following process works best in corporations with strong leadership and a long-term responsibility to employee health.

1. Identify Your Worksite Health Promotion Program Champion

This person must be a leader in your organization and a strong advocate of health. Usually this is an individual who actively pursues his or her own personal quest for good health.

The program champion must have the resources and authority to propel the program forward. The program champion’s key role is to be sure the strategic plan for health is in line with with the corporation’s objectives, strategic focus and corporation values. For example if the organization promotes that “our strength is our people” the wellness program must prove how initiatives will nurture and protect that significant resource.

2. Form Your Worksite Health Promotion Program Strategy Team

The Corporate Wellness Program Strategy Team should include decision makers and stakeholders from sections of the corporation that have the potential to impact health and the company’s bottom line. These areas may include; finance, human resources(HR), training and development, health services, compensation and benefits, employee assistance services (EAP), marketing, facilities, health and safety, rehabilitation, cafeteria or food services and the union. A team of six to eight representatives is recommended.

The role of the Strategy Team is to foster and implement the strategic plan, look for opportunities to encourage health, ensure the program is integrated into key areas of the organization, streamline efforts, maximize company resources and program assessment.

3. Complete an Business Health Audit

The purpose of an Business Health Audit is to evaluate your existing programs and services, physical environment and policies & procedures that support health. It is also valuable to look at your company culture or “how things are done” around the company.

Members of the Strategy Team complete the Audit independently and then meet to discuss their evaluation. During the evaluation process, health issues and opportunities are discussed in preparation for the development of the strategic plan.

4. Analyze Your Organization’s Cost Pressures

Cost pressures are identified by analyzing a number of areas including; benefit expenditures, Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) claims, prescription drug usage, type of paramedic claims, absenteeism data and EAP utilization. This process helps to target areas that have the potential to be positively impacted by a Corporate Health Promotion Program and to support a baseline for evaluating change.

5. Conduct a Health Risk Appraisal or Employee Needs & Interest Survey

The next step is to determine your employee’s health risks, interests and readiness to change. A confidential health risk appraisal can accomplish numerous goals/objectives. It supplies a baseline from which to measure personal lifestyle changes, supplies employees with relevant health information, motivates employees to take charge of their health and assists in program planning. Most health risk appraisals provide individual reports and a corporate report identifying elevated-risk areas in the business.

Many organizations prefer to administer customized needs and interest survey to evaluate employee needs. The benefit of this approach is that the corporation is able to gather information on the employees’ perceived wellness needs and program interests. This information can be incorporated into the strategic plan. Administering a survey also has the added benefit of fostering a sense of employee ownership to the program.

6. Create Your Strategic Plan for Wellness

The strategic plan ought to incorporate information collected from the Company Health Audit, your organization’s cost pressures, and health risk appraisal data or employee survey results. The strategic plan ought to include your program mission, three or four objectives and several drives under each objective. The strategic plan supplies a framework to encourage, backing and evaluate “best health practices.”

It is also important that the plan align itself with the vision, objectives of the organization.

The sample strategic plan that follows was developed for blue jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. (Canada) Inc. Levi Strauss & Co.’s mission statement and aspirations (how staff members interact with each other in a employer environment) guided the development of the plan.

Levi Strauss & Co.’s aspirations include the following statement: Above all, we want satisfaction from accomplishments and friendships, balanced personal and professional lives, and to enjoy our endeavors. The wellness program plan included a number of components to ensure that it embraced this statement including the following:

1. A vision statement, which tied in with the company’s aspirations.
2. An incentive system to encourage and reward the accomplishment of healthy milestones.
3. A recognition system to applaud performance.
4. Friendly competitions between Levi Strauss & Co. locations to ensure an enjoyable environment.
5. Opportunities to participate in small group educational programs to cultivate team backing.
6. Initiation of support groups for employees completing wellness programs (i.e. smoking control support group).
7. Programs dealing with work and family balance.

Other information that was analyzed and used to advance the plan included:

1. Employer demographics
2. Focus groups
3. Cultural audit
4. Top drug report
5. EAP utilization
6. Employee benefit services report
7. Health and dental claims
8. Operational performance summaries
9. Health risk appraisals
7. Prepare a Organization Case to Support Your Plan

Your company case for wellness supports the necessary details for approval at the upper management level. The company case includes:

1. The Strategic Plan for Health
2. A proposed program budget
3. Marketing strategies
4. Program leadership options
5. An implementation plan
6. Assessment methodology.

In presenting the strategic plan it is important to highlight how the plan aligns itself with the strategic direction of the organization.

The program budget should include educational resources, marketing expenditures, incentives and rewards, leadership expenditures and supplies.

Marketing strategies ought to address how the program will be promoted and rolled out to various groups within the organization i.e. decentralized locations, high risk workers, older workers.

Program leadership should address how volunteers will be used, internal resources  and whether consultants have been proposed. All play an equally valuable role in the implementation of your wellness program.

The program implementation plan must incorporate the following types of programs that help establish awareness of positive health practices, assist  staff members in making lifestyle changes and initiatives, which support long-term change.

Awareness programs foster an awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyle practices and excite workers to take the next step. Examples of awareness programs include posting educational posters, newsletter articles and lunch and learn classes.

Lifestyle change programs are more accross the board and longer in duration. They are designed to help  employees in changing behavior. Examples of lifestyle change programs are nutrition education programs, stress management programs, back care classes and smoking control programs.

A supportive corporate environment encompasses everything from corporate policies & procedures, the physical environment and creating a corporate culture that supports good health practices. Follow-up sessions and support groups for workers who have completed 6-10 week wellness programs also offer a supportive environment for long-term change.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a Employee Health Promotion Program is ongoing. A formal evaluation ought to be conducted annually and may include; re-administering steps three to five, program participation statistics and a year end survey to revisit “soft” issues such as morale, program satisfaction and future program direction.

8. Solicit Input and Communicate Your Plan

Employee input is essential to the long-term performance of your program. An Employee Advisory Committee ought to be formed to roll out the plan. Another key responsibility of this team is to solicit feedback from all echelons of the organization to ensure buy-in. Front line Manager’s Information Sessions and focus groups are also significant. This group needs to buy-in to the notion that they play a key role in supporting positive health practices. Regular gatherings are advised with front line managers to receive ongoing input, address problems and orient new managers.

Conclusions

The World Health Organization’s definition of health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellness and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” In order for us to set up healthy workplaces, wellness pushes must have a program champion, have employee ownership, be management supported, results driven and strategically aligned with the central employer objectives of the organization.

Wellness program that embrace these qualities will have a positive influence on an organization’s bottom line. Canadian research points to a myriad of case studies where onsite programs have resulted in decreased absenteeism, lower claims and increased productiveness.

Businesses who have embraced wellness as part of “how they do business” have one thing in common. They corroborate a commitment to their most valuable resource – their people. They know the increased pressures associated with downsized organizations, a rapidly changing workplace, an aging work force and the challenge of balancing work and family obligations. And they share a common belief that healthy employees are happier, absent less and more beneficial.

References:
Design of Company Wellness Programs by Michael P. O’Donnell. 1995. Published by the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Pro Fit-ability by Veronica Marsden. Group Healthcare Management. May 1997.
Meeting Expectations by Laura Mensch. Employee Health and Productivity. August 1999
7 Steps to Health Promotion by Daphne Woolf and Veronica Marsden. Group Healthcare Management. February 1996.
Published in The Journal of Health Promotion for Northern Ireland, Issue 9, March 2000