Corporate Wellness Blog

The program design options hinge upon the objectives and desired outcomes of your program.  If your intention is to help staff members change behavior, decrease risk factors, or save medical care money then your wellness program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be crucial to support that design.  

Wellness program design options vary, depending on desired outcomes and budgets.  Each level has advantages and disadvantages.  The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining the same results, and therefore ought not be confused.  For example, scheduling activities such as an employee health and wellness fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having pamphlets available do not usually result in behavior change, but may expand awareness on a topic.  If the intention is behavior change then a different design is necessary, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Business Support.  The outline below outlines the wellness design levels with a brief explanation.

Awareness Programs:  At this level a employer makes health information available and accessible to employees.  This type of program frequently includes handouts on a variety of topics, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc.   Also, most health & wellness fairs are designed as awareness programs with vendors providing information and providing health screenings to employees.  

Awareness programs are cheap and do not require extensive employee or corporation time commitments.  Nevertheless, these programs do not usually result in behavior change.  Growing awareness isn’t usually sufficient to generate lifestyle changes for most Americans, unless used to excite employees to register for a program being offered at the corporation or area on the topic.  An example of this would be providing information on the dangerous effects of smoking and inviting employees who smoke to register for a tobacco cessation class.

Education Programs:  Educational programs frequently provide more information on a topic and have the potential to also provide time for Q & A, but are similar to awareness programs.  An example is lunch-n-learn sessions on a health related topic.  These cost the company a little more than awareness programs; however, they are still inexpensive and do not require a whole lot of time for planning or attending a session.  Again, expanding awareness and offering information may not lead to the desired behavior modification unless ongoing backing or incentives/rewards are also planned.

Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs:  These programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or seminars to offer wellbeing and health education, address barriers and offer opportunities to practice the desired skills.  Behavior change programs therefore require more organization resources, cost more, and also require more employee responsibility, time and effort.  The results are frequently the desired positive lifestyle change, which if sustained can lead to potential cost savings.  

Examples include tobacco cessation classes, weight loss and weight management meetings, or an ongoing physical activity program.

Environmental and Corporation Support:  Environmental reinforcement is often considered the highest and most valuable level to include when designing your wellness program in order to support and maintain healthy behaviors.  These types of design options include policy changes such as:

• Creating a tobacco-free workplace
• Designating a walking path,
• Establishing onsite fitness centers,
• Ensuring healthy vending machines choices,
• Offering healthy food choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Securing flex-time policies.  

Other examples include subsidizing healthy snack machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing fitness center or weight loss and weight management program memberships; or providing insurance rewards and incentives for healthy lifestyles.

Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of all of these options.  The more comprehensive the approach, the more successful the results will be.  For example, a corporation can have smoking cessation information available; can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking and how to quit; can start an worksite smoking cessation program, supply self quit smoking kits, or support workers to go to a area program; and/or on an environmental backing level can establish a tobacco-free workplace and grounds, offer decreased medical insurance for non-smokers, or provide pharmacological quit smoking aids for free.

Company Wellness Program: Components for Success

There are several critical elements that have to be considered to ensure the performance of your Corporate Health Promotion Program or Corporate Health Promotion Program.  These include:  

• Senior Leadership Backing & Employee Participation
• Active Corporate Wellness Program Committee
• Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Goals and Objectives are Determined
• Detailed Action Plan Based upon Resources & Budget
• Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Assessment of Outcomes and Program