Company Wellness : Beginning a Wellness Program.

Create a culture of wellness within your organization

Create Exemplary Management Support

In the most successful Health Promotion Programs, senior managers lead their companies by example.  And they work to ensure that the senior level management structure not only allows, but actively encourages their workers to participate.

Organize a Health Promotion Advisory Team

Health Promotion committees serve as the eyes, ears, arms and legs of the wellness program, representing colleagues ideas and concerns, and helping reshape the organizational culture toward health.

Conduct an Assessment of Financial and Human Assets and Liabilities

Successful Wellness Programs are built upon a foundation of information, including claims review, demographic analysis of the workforce, senior management and staff member surveys, health risk data, history of organizational wellness, and health benefit plan design.

Create Obviously Stated Vision, Mission and Outcomes

Establish a clear vision of wellness program direction, expectations and measures to answer the questions, “Where are we going and how will we know when we get there?”

Create a Comprehensive and Strategic Health Promotion Program

A multi-component plan ought to consist of strategically developed and implemented awareness, lifestyle change, and supportive environment programs, in addition to policies and activities that target appropriate health risk behaviors and needs of the staff.

Identify an Incentive and Reward Strategy

Incentives show the organizational commitment to the health promotion program and motivate individuals to participate. Incentives vary widely from program to program, but can include such things as time off, reduction in medical insurance premiums or co-pays, cash incentives, discounts to health and fitness centers, free pedometers, etc.

Communicate to Employees

Your wellness program ought to be simple and concise, use an identifiable brand, and rely on a variety of media to communicate with workers and managers.

Evaluate Outcomes

Evaluate health promotion program participation, satisfaction levels and behavioral change. You could want to track the number of workers’ compensation claims, productivity, turnover morale and absenteeism.

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Wellness Program – Management Support.

Create Exemplary Management Support

Goal –  A Wellness Program established into the organization’s culture.

Focus – Create support and excitement for the wellness program from all levels of the corporation –  upper management, mid-level management, and grass-roots staff.

Obtaining upper-level management’s buy-in is essential to launching an effective health promotion program.  The workforce must understand that upper-level management is supportive of the health promotion program.

Actions –

Develop an Senior Management Executive Team to determine high-level decisions – positions that must be included are the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Communications Officer, and other appropriate division-level managers and health promotion program specialists, as necessary.

The Senior Level Management Executive Team will –

• Communicate to all levels of executive management about the wellness program and drive the integration of the Wellness Program as a part of the organization culture.

• Ensure that organizational resources are available for health promotion program planning and implementation.

• Be certain to encourage staff to participate and to assist in “recruiting” other staff, get the momentum going, and keep it growing.

• Share success stories within the organization, and continue to raise the perceived value of participation.

Organize a Health Promotion Advisory Team

Goal – Develop a working committee that consists of workforce and essential functional parts of the organization.

Focus –  to assist in reshaping the organizational culture to support employee-wellness activities by serving as messengers and supporters for the health promotion program.

Wellness Advisory Committees serve as an essential part of the infrastructure of your Wellness Program.  The team members are the eyes, ears, arms, and legs of the wellness program.

They represent their colleagues by sharing ideas and concerns about the health promotion program.

Actions –

The Health Promotion Advisory Committee will –

• Make sure to work with upper-level management and the Health Promotion Program coordinator in the design, implementation, and investigation of the health promotion program.

• Create methods to enhance the acceptance and success of the activities of your Wellness Program by stimulating worker ownership of the wellness program.

• Hold periodic meetings to keep the committee informed of upcoming plans and events and to provide feedback to the health promotion program coordinator about their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions, and those of their peers.

• Recommend policy and environmental changes that are aimed at bettering the health and safety of workforce.

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Health Promotion Program – Vision and Mission.

Goal – Create a baseline of information and identify human and organizational needs.

Focus –  Review a selection of information to better understand past and current conditions regarding healthcare utilization, organizational culture, demographic overview, and health promotion programs.

Data collection plays an important role in planning, monitoring, and reviewing  a wellness program. It’ll also set the baseline for continued and future investigations of wellness program efficiency, effectiveness, and feasibility.

Actions –

• Claims review (health care, pharmaceutical) –

• What have been the 10 most costly major illness categories in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars compensated for each?

• What have been the 10 most costly therapeutic courses of drugs in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars compensated for each?

• What have been the 10 most frequently prescribed and filled therapeutic courses of drugs in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars paid for each?

• Demographic analysis of staff member population (may include dependents) –

• List your number of staff members, by gender, for each of the past five years and the percentages of males and females by age groups.

• Think about any other factors that might have affected the health of your workers and their use of the healthcare system.

This might include mergers, acquisitions, workplace trauma, staff member strikes, layoffs, early retirement offers, etc.

Management survey –

• Conduct surveys of mid-level management to understand their concerns and measure their level of interest and buy-in.

• Employee-interest survey –  Gather information to find out what the staff want and to measure the level of participation, satisfaction, and “success” of any previous activities.

Risk data (health-risk assessments) –

• Is there any data from health-risk appraisals over the past five years?

Participation in similar activities –

• List and describe all wellness programs that have been implemented over the past five years, including participation rates.

Design of the health plan, and anticipated changes –

• Have there been any significant changes in the health plan’s design in each of the past five years, like a change from an health maintenance organization (Health Maintenance Organization) to a PPO, increased co-payments or deductibles, or increased worker contributions?

Create Obviously Reported Vision, Mission and Outcomes

Goal –  Establish a clear vision of health promotion program direction, expectations, and measures.

Focus – Establishing a vision, mission, goals and goals to keep your Wellness Program focused toward its desired outcomes. It will answer the questions, “Where are we going?” and “How will we know when we get there?”

Actions –

• Identify two to five obviously stated goals. Make certain that your wellness program is capable of having an impact in the area desired, and make certain that you’re capable of measuring that impact.

Example Goal – Staff Members having access to healthier food options

• Establish two to five measurable goals that especially state what your wellness program is going to accomplish, by when, how, and how it’ll be measured.

Example Objective –  Modify all vending machines to include 50% healthful food options.

• Identify several activities that will help you achieveyour objective. Activities are very specific.

Example Activity – Make certain to work with vending machine owners to identify healthful food choices and restock with 50 percent of items that are healthier food choices.

• Identify who is going to do what, by when, and what resources are needed.

Example Detail –  the Program coordinator will contact XXX Vending Corporation by September 30.

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Wellness Program Incentives.

Create a Comprehensive and Strategic Health Promotion Program

Goal –  A robust Health Promotion Program plan.

Focus –  Development of a plan that consists of a variety of awareness, lifestyle change, and supportive environment program, policies, and activities that will target risk behaviors, needs, and interests of staff members.

Your Health Promotion Program should provide an integrated, strategic approach specific to the needs, goals, and culture of your company, designed throughout an annual cycle.

It’ll be important to review and revise existing policies governing such areas as tobacco use, vending machines, and the staff cafeteria. Also, it is useful to examine what company wellness or health-promotion activities are offered under your existing health-benefit plan.

Actions –

• Create activities based on your health promotion program objectives and the specific needs of your employees. Focus on those topics that are of greatest interest to your employees and the greatest needs of your organization, in that order. Prevent topics with narrow appeal.

• Keep it simple. Design the wellness program so it’s easy for the participants to understand and track. Let workforce focus their learning efforts on their own behavior, not on the rules and regulations of the wellness program.

In addition, simplify the wellness program administration. Let people  record their own activities when possible; create a mixture of self-reported activities along with verified activities.

• Integrate a combination of activities to include awareness, educational, and behavior elements. Link the activities throughout the year to allow for desired behavior repetition.

• Select activities that every staff member can participate in.

Examples –

• Challenges –  Activities that focus on practicing a desired behavior and continue for 4-8 weeks and focus on specific topics (such as physical activity, nutrition, or stress management).

• Learning experiences (seminars, videos, classes) –  One-time activities that last for a relatively short time and focus on a specific topic; these can precede “challenge activities” to prepare participants for behavior change.

• Behavior changes (such as tobacco use cessation) –  Interventions may or may not be offered at the workplace; person must be encouraged to make lifestyle changes that they wanted to make even without the incentive.

• Illness management (support and education groups for diabetes and hypertension) –  These may  be provided or supported by the organization through disease-management providers, or by community, health, or religious businesses.

• New skills (first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation) –  These might  be provided or supported by the business, or by community, health, or religious companies.

• Screenings, wellness assessments, physical exams –  A wellness assessment provides the business with aggregate data that could be used in wellness program planning and analysis; preventive screenings and physical exams could be encouraged by awarding credits to personnel.

• Program support (membership or leadership in wellness committee or challenge team) –  Reward those who work with you to help make your Wellness Program a success.

• Community events –  Reward participation in events like the Heart Walk or March of Dimes Walk; limit the number of these events that could be counted toward the annual total, and be selective about which events you allow to be counted.

Create an Incentive Strategy

Goal –  to motivate and reward worker participation and completion.

Focus – Develop a sense of interest in participation and completion of wellness activities.

Providing incentives and rewards will send an important message to the staff that the company is committed to improving their health and will share the rewards that these changes will bring. It also plays a significant role in arousing individuals to participate.

Actions –

• Identify through workers what incentives they value most.

• Identify what incentives the business can provide.

• Integrate your incentives into your benefits strategy.

• Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.

• Offer participation incentives.

• Prevent offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”

• Avoid rewards for biometric changes.

• Use incentives to promote your Wellness Program, through logos and branding.

Examples –

Compensated time off, reduction in health insurance premiums or co-pays, cash incentives, discounts to fitness centers, free pedometers, etc.

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Health Promotion Program Communication.

Goal –  Increase awareness of and participation in the Wellness Program.

Focus –  Promote the Wellness Program to workers to encourage participation in activities and benefits.

A well-designed communications strategy is paramount to successful wellness program awareness and participation. Even a “world class” wellness program design will not succeed when nobody knows that it’s available or how to get involved.

Workers who don’t get involved in the wellness program ought to be doing so because they select not to participate, not because they did not know about how, when, or where to participate.

Actions –

• Conduct a Resources and Communications Audit to identify internal and external resources available to support your Wellness Program, in addition to knowing how information will be disseminated.

• Keep the wellness program simple and concise –  easy to peruse about, understand, and act upon.

• Build the brand; make sure it’s something that personnel can identify with. Add the brand to T-shirts, water bottles, mouse pads, stress balls, etc.

Use a variety of media –

• Print – pamphlets, fliers, posters, banners, paycheck inserts, newsletter articles, bulletin boards, literature racks, post cards.

• Electronic – Web, intranet, e-mail, closed-circuit televisions, sign lines, audiovideo productions.

• Staff meetings and corporation events; word of mouth.

• Use existing channels of communication – what works best in your business – and make certain to know about all points of contact and systems of distribution.

Timing for communications –

• Prior to activity to develop awareness and to educate.

• During activity to stimulate participation.

• After an activity to report results.

• Between activities to maintain momentum and interest.

Consistency of communications –

• Use branding; maintain a consistent look, feel, and tone of messages.

• Maintain this consistency throughout the wellness program.

Surveys and forms –

• Collect information.

• Disseminate information.