Develop a culture of wellness within your corporation
Create Exemplary Management Support
In the most successful Health Promotion Programs, upper managers lead their corporations by example. And they work to ensure that the upper-level management structure not only allows, but actively encourages their personnel to participate.
Organize a Wellness Advisory Team
Health Promotion committees serve as the eyes, ears, arms and legs of the wellness program, representing coworkers ideas and concerns, and assisting reshape the organizational culture toward health.
Conduct an Assessment of Financial and Human Assets and Liabilities
Successful Health Promotion Programs are built upon a foundation of information, including claims review, demographic analysis of the workforce, upper-level management and staff member surveys, health risk data, history of organizational wellness, and health benefit plan design.
Create Clearly Announced 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 Comprehensive and Strategic Wellness Program
A multi-component plan ought to consist of strategically created 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.
Identify an Incentive and Reward Strategy
Incentives show the organizational commitment to the health promotion program and motivate individuals to participate. Incentives vary commonly from program to program, but can include such things as time off, reduction in medical insurance premiums or co-pays, cash incentives, discounts to gyms, free pedometers, etc.
Communicate to Employees
Your wellness program should be simple and concise, use an identifiable brand, and rely on a selection of media to communicate with employees and managers.
Evaluate Outcomes
Evaluate health promotion 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 Wellness 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 staff members.
Obtaining senior management’s buy-in is essential to launching an effective wellness program. The workers must understand that senior management is supportive of the wellness program.
Actions -
Create an Senior Level Management Executive Team to determine high-level decisions â.” positions that must be included are the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Communications Officer, and other appropriate division-level managers and wellness program experts, as necessary.
The Senior Level Management Executive Team will -
o Communicate to all levels of upper-level management about the health promotion program and drive the integration of the Wellness Program as a part of the business culture.
o Ensure that organizational resources are available for wellness program planning and implementation.
o Be certain to encourage staff to participate and to assist in “recruiting” other staff, get the momentum going, and keep it growing.
o Share success stories within the business, and continue to elevate the perceived value of participation.
Organize a Health Promotion Advisory Team
Goal - Create 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 heralds and supporters for the wellness 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 wellness program.
They represent their coworkers by sharing ideas and concerns about the wellness program.
Actions -
The Wellness Advisory Committee will -
o Make certain to work with senior level management and the Wellness Program coordinator in the design, implementation, and investigation of the wellness program.
o Create methods to enhance the acceptance and success of the activities of your Health Promotion Program by stimulating employee ownership of the wellness program.
o 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 colleagues.
o Recommend policy and environmental changes that are aimed at improving the safety and health of employees.
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Health Promotion Program - Vision and Mission.
Goal - Create a baseline of information and identify human and organizational needs.
Focus - Review a variety of information to better understand past and current conditions regarding healthcare utilization, organizational culture, demographic overview, and health promotion programs.
Data collection plays an important role in planning, monitoring, and analyzing a health promotion program. It’ll also set the baseline for continued and future examinations of health promotion program efficiency, effectiveness, and feasibility.
Actions -
o Claims review (health care, pharmaceutical) -
o What have been the 10 most expensive major disease categories in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars paid for each?
o What have been the 10 most costly therapeutic courses of drugs in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars compensated for each?
o 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?
o Demographic analysis of worker population (may include dependents) -
o List your number of employees, by gender, for each of the past five years and the percentages of males and females by age groups.
o Think about any other factors that might have affected the health of your workers and their use of the healthcare system.
This may include mergers, acquisitions, workplace trauma, worker strikes, layoffs, early retirement offers, etc.
Management survey -
o Conduct surveys of mid-level management to understand their concerns and measure their level of interest and buy-in.
o Employee-interest survey - Gather information to determine what the workforce want and to measure the level of participation, satisfaction, and “success” of any previous activities.
Risk data (health-risk assessments) -
o Is there any data from health-risk appraisals over the past five years?
Participation in similar activities -
o 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 -
o Have there been any significant changes in the health plan’s design in each of the past five years, such as a change from an health maintenance organization (Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)) to a PPO, increased co-payments or deductibles, or increased worker contributions?
Create Obviously Stated Vision, Mission and Outcomes
Goal - Establish a clear vision of wellness program direction, expectations, and measures.
Focus - Setting a vision, mission, objectives and objectives to keep your Health Promotion Program focused toward its desired outcomes. It’ll answer the questions, “Where are we going?” and “How’ll we know when we get there?”
Actions -
o Identify two to five obviously reported objectives. Be certain that your health promotion program is capable of having an impact in the area desired, and make certain that you are capable of measuring that impact.
Example Goal - Staff Members having access to healthier food options
o Launch two to five measurable goals that specifically state what your health promotion program is going to accomplish, by when, how, and how it’ll be measured.
Example Objective - Modify all vending machines to include 50 percent healthful food choices.
o Identify a few activities that will help you reachyour objective. Activities are very specific.
Example Activity - Make certain to work with vending machine owners to identify healthful food choices and restock with 50 percent of items that are healthier food choices.
o 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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Wellness Program Incentives.
Develop a Robust and Strategic Health Promotion Program
Goal - A robust 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 will target risk behaviors, needs, and interests of workers.
Your Health Promotion Program ought to provide an integrated, strategic approach specific to the needs, objectives, and culture of your company, designed throughout an annual cycle.
It will be vital that you review and revise existing policies governing such areas as smoking, vending machines, and the staff cafeteria. In addition, it is useful to examine what company wellness or health-promotion activities are offered under your existing health-benefit plan.
Actions -
o Create activities based on your health promotion program objectives and the specific needs of your workers. Focus on those topics that are of greatest interest to your workers and the greatest needs of your company, in that order. Prevent topics with narrow appeal.
o Keep it simple. Design the wellness program so it’s easy for the participants to understand and track. Let employees focus their learning efforts on their own behavior, not on the rules and regulations of the wellness program.
Furthermore, simplify the health promotion program administration. Let individuals record their own activities when possible; create a mixture of self-reported activities along with verified activities.
o Integrate a combination of activities to include awareness, educational, and behavior elements. Link the activities throughout the year to allow for desired behavior repetition.
o Select activities that every staff member can participate in.
Examples -
o 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).
o 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.
o Behavior changes (like use of tobacco cessation) - Interventions may or might not be offered at the worksite; person ought to be encouraged to make lifestyle changes that they wanted to make even without the incentive.
o Disease management (support and education groups for diabetes and hypertension) - These could be provided or supported by the business through disease-management vendors, or by community, health, or religious companies.
o New skills (first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation) - These might be provided or supported by the corporation, or by community, health, or religious corporations.
o Screenings, wellness assessments, physical exams - A wellness assessment provides the corporation with aggregate data that could be used in wellness program planning and analysis; preventive screenings and physical exams could be encouraged by awarding credits to workforce.
o 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.
o 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 staff member 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 improving their health and will share the rewards that these changes will bring. It also plays a significant role in arousing individuals to participate.
Actions -
o Identify through staff members what incentives they value most.
o Identify what incentives the company can provide.
o Integrate your incentives into your benefits strategy.
o Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.
o Provide participation incentives.
o Prevent offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”
o Avoid rewards for biometric changes.
o 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 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 Wellness Program to workforce 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 if nobody knows that it’s available or how to get involved.
Staff Members who don’t get involved in the wellness program ought to be doing so because they choose not to participate, not because they didn’t know about how, when, or where to participate.
Actions -
o Conduct a Resources and Communications Audit to identify internal and external resources available to support your Wellness Program, in addition to knowing how information are going to be disseminated.
o Keep the health promotion program simple and concise - easy to read about, understand, and act upon.
o Build the brand; be sure it’s something that workers can identify with. Add the brand to T-shirts, water bottles, mouse pads, stress balls, etc.
Use a variety of media -
o Print â.” brochures, fliers, posters, banners, paycheck inserts, newsletter articles, bulletin boards, literature racks, post cards.
o Electronic â.” Web, intranet, e-mail, closed-circuit televisions, sign lines, audiovideo productions.
o Staff meetings and corporation events; word of mouth.
o Use existing channels of communication â.” what works best in your corporation â.” and make sure to know about all points of contact and systems of distribution.
Timing for communications -
o Prior to activity to develop awareness and to educate.
o During activity to stimulate participation.
o After an activity to report results.
o Between activities to maintain momentum and interest.
Consistency of communications -
o Use branding; maintain a consistent look, feel, and tone of messages.
o Maintain this consistency throughout the wellness program.
Surveys and forms -
o Collect information.
o Disseminate information.