Corporate Wellness Blog

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

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

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

1. Identify Your Corporate Health Promotion Program Champion

This person ought to be a leader in your organization and a strong advocate of health. Typically 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 ensure the strategic plan for health is in line with with the employer’s objectives, strategic focus and employer values. By way of example if the organization promotes that “our strength is our people” the wellness program must demonstrate how pushes will nurture and protect that significant resource.

2. Form Your Employee Health Promotion Program Strategy Team

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

The role of the Strategy Team is to foster and start the strategic plan, look for opportunities to promote health, ensure the program is integrated into key areas of the organization, streamline efforts, maximize corporation resources and program evaluation.

3. Complete an Employer Health Audit

The purpose of an Organization 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 employer culture or “how things are done” around the employer.

Participants of the Strategy Team complete the Audit independently and then meet to discuss their evaluation. During the evaluation process, health concerns 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 costs, Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) claims, prescription 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 Company Wellness Program and to offer 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 many goals. It provides a baseline from which to measure personal lifestyle changes, provides staff members with relevant health information, motivates staff members to take charge of their health and assists in program planning. Most health risk appraisals offer individual reports and a corporate report identifying elevated-risk areas in the corporation.

Many employers prefer to administer customized needs and interest survey to evaluate employee needs. The benefit of this approach is that the employer 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. Establish Your Strategic Plan for Wellness

The strategic plan ought to incorporate information collected from the Employer Health Audit, your organization’s expenditure 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 pushes under each goal. The strategic plan supports a framework to encourage, reinforcement and evaluate “best health practices.”

It is also important that the plan align itself with the vision, goals/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 employees interact with each other in a organization environment) guided the development of the plan.

Levi Strauss & Co.’s aspirations include the following statement: Most importantly, 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 see 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 effectiveness.
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 staff members completing wellness programs (i.e. smoking control support group).
7. Programs concerning work and family balance.

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

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

Your corporation case for wellness supplies the necessary details for approval at the senior staff level. The corporation 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 must include educational resources, marketing costs, rewards and incentives, leadership costs and supplies.

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

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

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

Awareness programs foster an awareness of the significance of healthy lifestyle practices and arouse 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 inclusive and longer in duration. They are designed to assist  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 great health practices. Follow-up sessions and support groups for staff members who have completed 6-10 week wellness programs also provide a supportive environment for long-term change.

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

8. Solicit Input and Communicate Your Plan

Employee input is vital to the long-term success of your program. An Employee Advisory Committee ought to be formed to roll out the plan. Another key responsibility of this group is to solicit feedback from all levels 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 well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” In order for us to create healthy workplaces, wellness drives must have a program champion, have employee ownership, be upper management supported, results driven and strategically aligned with the overriding employer objectives of the organization.

Wellness initiative that embrace these qualities will have a positive impact on an organization’s bottom line. Canadian research points to countless case studies where workplace programs have resulted in lowered absenteeism, lower claims and increased productiveness.

Businesses who have embraced wellness as part of “how they do business” share one thing in common. They confirm a commitment to their most significant resource – their people. They understand the increased pressures associated with downsized businesses, 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 staff members are happier, absent less and more productive.

References:
Design of Employee Health Promotion 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