Health and Wellness Leads : Setting Up and Running Your Worksite Health Promotion Program

Many employers recognize the need for a comprehensive plan to help their staff members be the best they can be. They also know that successful and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program ought to include a wide range of key elements, including:

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

Developing Your Corporate Health Promotion Program

Create carefully to see that your wellness program is seen as part of a sweeping responsibility to maintaining the health and safety of all employees. Indeed, creating a strong plan takes much work and time (and at times resources). But planning is critical and well worth the expenditure necessitated. 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 outcome and plan accordingly. If you don’t, the employees will not support the program.

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

Another significant step is to set an agenda and/or measurable goals to help you determine priorities, timelines and the resources needed to launch the program. Be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Upper Management

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

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

Good leaders avert becoming overwhelmed by overly ambitious and complex plans. You may want to stick to short-term goals and objectives 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 Health Promotion Program Committee made up of a diverse group of staff members to support advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Help you to obtain important information from all parts of the company.
• Organize 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:

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

When you evaluate your program, you are able to measure such things as:

• Employee absences.
• Employee turnover rates.
• The expense of your EAP.
• The cost of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The cost of your prescription 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 concerns.
• Results of your environmental wellness audit.
• Other perceivable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A great communications plan supplies ongoing information to employees (including senior managers) and fosters excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is critical in an effective communications plan. By way of example, you may recognize individuals who have helped established the program or provide tangible rewards for meeting objectives.

Everyone needs to know whether or not staff members are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some profit from them. Showing that a wellness program has economic benefits is frequently an important factor in maintaining strong backing from the top.

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