Beginning a Wellness Program.

Develop a culture of wellness within your organization

Develop Exemplary Management Support

In the most successful Wellness Programs, senior managers lead their organizations by example. and they work to ensure that the management structure not only allows, but actively encourages their staff members to participate.

Organize a Wellness Advisory Team

Wellness committees serve as the eyes, ears, arms and legs of the 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, management and employee surveys, health risk data, history of organizational wellness, and health benefit plan design.

Create Obviously Stated Vision, Mission and Outcomes

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

Develop a Extensive and Strategic Wellness Program

A multi-component plan should 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 employees.

Identify an Incentive and Reward Strategy

Incentives show the organizational commitment to the program and motivate person to participate. Incentives vary commonly 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 program ought to be simple and concise, use an identifiable brand, and rely on a selection of media to communicate with workers and managers.

Evaluate Outcomes

Evaluate program participation, satisfaction levels and behavioral change. You may want to track the number of workers’ compensation claims, productivity, turnover morale and absenteeism.

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Wellness Program – Management Support.

Create Exemplary Management Support

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

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

Obtaining  upper-level management’s buy-in is essential to launching an effective program. the employees must understand that management is supportive of the wellness program.

Actions –

Develop an Upper-Level Management Executive Team to determine high-level decisions – 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 program professionals, as necessary.

The Upper-Level Management Executive Team will –

• Communicate to all levels of management about the program and drive the integration of the Wellness Program as a part of the corporation culture.

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

• Make sure to encourage staff members to participate and to assist in “recruiting” other staff members, get the momentum going, and keep it growing.

• Share success stories within the corporation, and continue to raise the perceived value of participation.

Organize a Wellness Advisory Team

Goal –  Create a working committee that consists of staff members and essential functional parts of the organization.

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

Wellness Advisory Committees serve as an essential part of the infrastructure of your Wellness Program. the team members are the eyes, ears, arms, and legs of the program.

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

Actions –

The Wellness Advisory Committee will –

• Be sure to work with  executive management and the Wellness Program coordinator in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the program.

• Develop methods to enhance the acceptance and success of the activities of your Wellness Program by encouraging staff member ownership of the program.

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

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

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Wellness Program – Vision and Mission.

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

Focus –  Review a selection of information to better understand past and current conditions regarding health-care utilization, organizational culture, demographic overview, and health-promotion initiatives.

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

Actions –

• Claims review (health care, pharmaceutical) –

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

• What have been the 10 most frequently prescribed and filled therapeutic courses of drugs in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars compensated for each?

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

• List your number of staff members, 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 employees and their use of the health-care system.

This may include mergers, acquisitions, workplace trauma, employee 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 wellness 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, such as a change from an health maintenance organization to a PPO, increased co-payments or deductibles, or increased staff member contributions?

Create Clearly Announced Vision, Mission and Outcomes

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

Focus –  Setting a vision, mission, goals and goals to keep your Wellness 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 obviously stated objectives. Be sure that your program is capable of having an impact in the area desired, and make sure that you are capable of measuring that impact.

Example Goal –  Staff Members having access to healthier food options

• Establish two to five measurable goals that in particular state what your 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 a few activities that will help you reachyour objective. Activities are very specific.

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

• Identify who is 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.

Create a Extensive and Strategic Wellness Program

Goal –  A extensive Wellness 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 Wellness Program should provide an integrated, strategic approach specific to the needs, goals, and culture of your organization, designed throughout an annual cycle.

It will be important to review and revise existing policies governing such areas as smoking, vending machines, and the staff cafeteria. Also, it’s useful to examine what corporate wellness or health-promotion activities are offered under your existing health-benefit plan.

Actions –

• Create activities based on your program goals 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. Avoid topics with narrow appeal.

• Keep it simple. Design the program so it’s easy for the participants to understand and track. Let workers focus their learning efforts on their own behavior, not on the rules and regulations of the program.

Also, simplify the program administration. Let people  record their own activities when possible; create 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.

• Pick activities that every employee can participate in.

Examples –

• Challenges –  Activities that focus on practicing a desired behavior and continue for 4-8 weeks and focus on specific topics (like 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 smoking 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 may  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 might  be provided or supported by the company, or by community, health, or religious organizations.

• Screenings, wellness assessments, physical exams –  A wellness assessment provides the company with aggregate data that can be used in program planning and investigation; preventive screenings and physical exams can be encouraged by awarding credits to staff members.

• 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 may be counted toward the annual total, and be selective about which events you allow to be counted.

Create 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 meaningful role in exciting individuals to participate.

Actions –

• Identify through employees what incentives they value most.

• Identify what incentives the organization can provide.

• Integrate your incentives into your benefits strategy.

• Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.

• Offer participation incentives.

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

• Prevent rewards for biometric changes.

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

Examples –

Compensated time off, reduction in health insurance premiums or co-pays, cash incentives, discounts to gyms, 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 staff members to encourage participation in activities and benefits.

A well-designed communications strategy is paramount to successful program awareness and participation. Even a “world class” program design won’t succeed when nobody knows that it’s available or how to get involved.

Workers who don’t get involved in the program must be doing so because they choose 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, as well as knowing how information will be disseminated.

• Keep the program simple and concise –  easy to read about, understand, and act upon.

• Build the brand; be certain it’s something that employees can identify with. Add the brand to T-shirts, water bottles, mouse pads, stress balls, etc.

Use a variety of media –

• Print –  flyers, 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 organization events; word of mouth.

• Use existing channels of communication – what works best in your business – 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 program.

Surveys and forms –

• Collect information.

• Disseminate information.