Employee Wellness Program: Conditions for Success

1. Senior management involvement in the Employee Wellness Program- Evidence of enthusiastic commitment  and involvement of senior management helps workers understand their companies’ serious commitment to  health.  Workers need to perceive that their senior management, supervisors, and coworkers have  positive attitudes toward health since these factors have all been associated with improved employee  health status.   Management-related factors have been shown to contribute more to success than the  content of the intervention.

2. Participatory planning – A Company Health and Wellness Program should be undertaken in partnership  with the workforce.  Workers from all levels of staff should be actively engaged in the health and  management aspects of the project as well as all on-going processes of any Employee Wellness Program.   Planning must also include processes for maintaining communication with all staff and building their  commitment to the process.   Starting Company Health and Wellness Program steering committees to lead  interventions during the planning and delivery of workplace health promotion programming improves  worker awareness, participation, and satisfaction. Worker committees may identify perceived worker  interests regarding educational programming, determine work site-specific characteristics that may  affect the intervention or influence participation, and suggest the best methods for promotion and  delivery of Employee Wellness Programs and initiatives.  Ways to maximize worker input and involvement  might include interest surveys, focus groups, and peer counsellors.

3. Primary focus on workers’ needs – A Company Health and Wellness Program should meet the needs of all  workers, regardless of their current level of health and recognize the needs, preferences, and  attitudes of different groups of participants. Program designers should consider the major health risks  in the target population, the specific risks within the particular group of workers, and the employer’s  needs.   In other words, interventions should be tailor-made to the characteristics and needs of the  recipients.   This means that varied programs must be provided at different levels.   Participation and  commitment may be improved if a group of workers has the opportunity to address a specific modifiable  risk factor of their choice.

4. Optimal use of on-site resources – Planning and implementation of Employee Wellness Programs should  optimize use of on-site personnel, physical resources, and organizational capabilities.   For example,  whenever possible, initiatives should use on-site health and safety, management, work organization,  communication, Human Resources, and other specialists.   Well-qualified external leadership may be  introduced when in-house expertise is lacking.

5. Integration – An overall workplace health policy should be developed.  The policies governing  employee health must align with the organization mission, vision, and values, supporting both short-  and long-term objectives. These consistent policies must affirm the value of worker health and a  commitment to engage workers in health enhancement.  Company Health and Wellness Program Strategies  should be integrated into a company’s regular management practices and eventually should be formally  incorporated into the company’s corporate plan  with adequate resources attached to them.

6. Recognition that a person’s health is determined by an interdependent set of factors – Any Company  Health and Wellness Program must address multiple components of an individual’s life:
•    the workplace physical and psychosocial environment;
•    their personal resources such as social support, sense of empowerment, etc.; and
•    their lifestyle practices influencing health.

7. Tailoring to the special features of each workplace environment  – Employee Wellness Programs must  be responsive to the unique needs of each workplace’s procedures, organization and culture.    Integrating health behaviors and program participation into the existing organization culture will  normalize program participation.

8. Company Health and Wellness Program Assessment – Project management should flow through needs  analysis, establishing priorities, planning, implementation, continuous monitoring, and assessment.    Assessment must include a clearly-defined range of process measures and outcomes  as well as mechanisms  for monitoring the impact of non-intervention workplace changes such as plant closure, major workplace  re-organization, and new technology on staff health.

9. Long-term commitment – To sustain the benefits of the Employee Wellness Program, the worksite must  continue the initiative over time, reinforcing risk-reduction behaviours and adapting the programs to  ongoing personal, social, economic, and workplace changes.