Corporate Wellness Blog

Develop a culture of wellness within your company

Create Exemplary Management Support

In the most successful Wellness Programs, upper-level managers lead their organizations by example.  And they work to ensure that the upper-level management structure not only allows, but actively encourages their workers to participate.

Organize a Wellness Advisory Team

Wellness committees serve as the eyes, ears, arms and legs of the wellness program, representing coworkers 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.

Develop Obviously Reported Vision, Mission and Outcomes

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

Develop a Robust and Strategic Wellness Program

A multi-component plan should 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 members.

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 health insurance premiums or co-pays, cash incentives, discounts to fitness clubs, free pedometers, etc.

Communicate to Employees

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

Evaluate Outcomes

Evaluate wellness 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.

Develop Exemplary Management Support

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

Focus – Develop support and excitement for the wellness program from all levels of the corporation –  executive management, mid-level management, and grass-roots employees.

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

Actions –

Develop an Upper Management Executive Team to determine high-level decisions – positions that ought to 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 Upper Management Executive Team will –

• Communicate to all levels of upper-level management about the wellness program and drive the integration of the Health Promotion Program as a part of the corporation culture.

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

• Make sure to encourage workforce to participate and to assist in “recruiting” other workforce, 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 business.

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

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

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

Actions –

The Health Promotion Advisory Committee will –

• Make certain to work with upper-level management and the Health Promotion Program coordinator in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the wellness program.

• Develop methods to enhance the acceptance and success of the activities of your Health Promotion Program by stimulating worker ownership of the health promotion program.

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

• Recommend policy and environmental changes that are aimed at improving the health and safety of employees.

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Health Promotion Program – Vision and Mission.

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

Focus –  Review a variety of information to better understand past and current conditions regarding health care utilization, organizational culture, demographic overview, and wellness programs.

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

Actions –

• Claims review (health care, pharmaceutical) –

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

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

• Demographic analysis of employee population (may include dependents) –

• List your number of workforce, 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 workforce and their use of the healthcare system.

This may include mergers, acquisitions, worksite 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 members 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 health promotion 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 HMO to a PPO, increased co-payments or deductibles, or increased employee contributions?

Create Clearly Reported Vision, Mission and Outcomes

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

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

Actions –

• Identify two to five clearly announced goals. Make sure that your wellness program is capable of having an impact in the area desired, and be sure that you’re capable of measuring that impact.

Example Goal – Staff Members having access to healthier food options

• Launch two to five measurable objectives that in particular state what your wellness program is going to accomplish, by when, how, and how it will be measured.

Example Objective –  Modify all vending machines to include 50 percent healthy food choices.

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

Example Activity – Make sure to work with vending machine owners to identify healthy food choices and restock with 50% of items that are healthier food choices.

• Identify who’s 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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Health Promotion Program Incentives.

Develop a Extensive and Strategic Health Promotion Program

Goal –  A extensive Health Promotion Program plan.

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

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

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

Actions –

• Create activities based on your health promotion program goals and the specific needs of your staff members. Focus on those topics that are of greatest interest to your staff members and the greatest needs of your corporation, 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.

Moreover, simplify the health promotion program administration. Let individuals  record their own activities when possible; develop 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.

• Choose activities that every worker 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 exercise, 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 (like use of tobacco cessation) –  Interventions may or might not be offered at the workplace; person should 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 could  be provided or supported by the company through disease-management vendors, or by community, health, or religious organizations.

• New skills (first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation) –  These may  be provided or supported by the organization, or by community, health, or religious organizations.

• Screenings, wellness assessments, physical exams –  A wellness assessment provides the corporation with aggregate data that may be used in wellness program planning and analysis; preventive screenings and physical exams may 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.

Develop an Incentive Strategy

Goal –  to motivate and reward employee participation and completion.

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

Providing incentives and rewards will send an important message to the employees that the organization is committed to bettering their health and will share the rewards that these changes will bring. It also plays a significant role in arousing person to participate.

Actions –

• Identify through staff members 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.

• Make available participation incentives.

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

• Avoid rewards for biometric changes.

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

Examples –

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

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Wellness Program Communication.

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

Focus –  Promote the Health Promotion Program to staff members 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 won’t succeed when nobody knows that it’s available or how to get involved.

Workers who do not get involved in the health promotion program must be doing so because they select not to participate, not because they didn’t 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 health promotion program simple and concise –  easy to read about, understand, and act upon.

• Build the brand; be certain 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 – handouts, fliers, posters, banners, paycheck inserts, newsletter articles, bulletin boards, literature racks, post cards.

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

• Staff meetings and corporation events; word of mouth.

• Use existing channels of communication – what works best in your corporation – and be sure 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 health promotion program.

Surveys and forms –

• Collect information.

• Disseminate information.