Corporate Wellness Blog

Many companies recognize the need for a accross the board strategy to help their employees be the best they are able to be. They also know that successful and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program should include a wide range of key components, including:

• A clear agenda or statement of goals and objectives.
• A plan characterized by passion.
• An effective leader who is creative and organized.
• A focus on short-term outcomes combined with an overriding vision.
• A measurable strategy (what’s important gets measured!).
• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Developing Your Employee Wellness Program

Develop carefully to make sure that your wellness program is seen as part of a sweeping responsibility to maintaining the health and safety of all workers. Indeed, creating a good plan takes a lot of effort and time (and at times resources). But planning is critical and well worth the expenditure required. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might begin by delivering a survey of employee needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the outcome and plan accordingly. If you don’t, the employees will not support the program.

Collecting information about what you’re already offering is also a good idea. For example, you may be surprised by your company or organization’s current wellness and health policies.

Another valuable step is to set an agenda and/or measurable objectives and goals to help you come up with priorities, timelines and the resources required to kick off the program. Be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Senior Leadership

The leader of your wellness program must be able to wear a myriad of hats. The leader’s duties include:

• Creating a vision of the wellness program after receiving input from all interested staff members.
• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the employer (to senior managers and fellow workers alike).
• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.
• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.
• Developing and maintaining leadership skills such as giving effective presentations and being well-organized.

Good leaders avert becoming overwhelmed by overly ambitious and complex plans. You may want to stick to short-term goals and objectives at the beginning so that you get immediate and visible results. These first steps are the basis for a efficacious wellness program.

Good leaders involve as many people as possible in the program. By way of example, you’ll want to form a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee made up of a diverse group of employees to support advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Assist you to get significant information from all parts of the business.
• Create ambassadors who will help you enable the wellness program.

Keeping Score and Celebrating

Always keep in mind how you will monitor progress and evaluate the success of your wellness program. Evaluation allows you to:

• Determine areas of excellence.
• Identify factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Grasp management’s reinforcement for your efforts (and maintain that reinforcement).
• Better know problems that need attention.
• Learn from mistakes and change the program to keep it on the right track.

When you evaluate your program, you are able to measure such things as:

• Employee absences.
• Employee turnover rates.
• The expense of your Employee Assistance Program(EAP).
• The expenditure of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The expenditure of your prescription drug plan.
• Accident rates and safety records.
• Employees’ participation in wellness programs (and whether they’re staying in the programs).
• Changes in employees’ health habits.
• Level of employees’ awareness of healthy lifestyle issues.
• Results of your environmental wellness audit.
• Other noticeable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A great communications plan provides ongoing information to workers (including senior managers) and creates excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is part of an effective communications plan. For example, you might recognize people who have helped established the program or offer tangible rewards for achieving objectives.

Everyone needs to know whether staff members are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some advance from them. Showing that a wellness program has economic benefits is often an significant factor in maintaining strong support from the top.

If you focus on the key components of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while creating and delivering it, you will lay a solid foundation and leave a legacy that lasts.