Evaluation of Employee Wellness Initiatives

It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of all Employee Wellness Programs. There are several very simple ways to evaluate Employee Wellness Programs:

How many attended the corporate health and Employee Wellness Program, and was there participation or a visible level of interest?

Use a short and simple pen and paper assessment that people fill out at the end of the Company Health Promotion Initiative /seminar. Statements that are rated on a scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) will give valuable information. Ask about:
•    The value of the Employee Wellness Initiatives to the individual
•    The style of the presenter
•    The presenter’s knowledge of the topic
•    The level of knowledge gained by the employee
•    Other areas that would be of interest for future Employee Wellness Initiatives

Examples of Questions about Employee Wellness Initiatives
•    This program provided me with information and/or skills I will use.
•    The presenter was knowledgeable about the subject matter.
•    There was adequate time for questions.
•    The methods used to present the information were effective.

Open-ended questions about Employee Wellness Initiatives may include:
•    The best component of this Company Health Promotion Initiative was…
•    The component that needed improvement was….
•    I would attend another Company Health Promotion Initiative by this speaker…
•    Topics I would like to see included in other seminars or Wellness Programs…

This would be a process assessment that examines how well the Employee Wellness Initiatives were implemented. It is also important to look at health outcomes and cost outcomes of Employee Wellness Programs.

More in-depth information about the cost-effectiveness of Employee Wellness Initiatives can be found by analyzing data before and after Employee Wellness Initiatives concerning health care claims, workers’ comp claims, sick time, productivity levels, etc. Health outcomes for Employee Wellness Initiatives can be measured by looking at health claims and sick time.

It is also important to look at the impact of Employee Wellness Initiatives on family members. For example, tobacco by pregnant mothers may lead to the birth of a severely impaired child. This could cost an employer or health plan hundreds of thousands of dollars, an expense that could have been avoided with well-designed Employee Wellness Programs.

You can also compare the cost per employee of running the Employee Wellness Initiatives to the savings per employee. One assessment of Employee Wellness Initiatives involving 20,000 to 25,000 employees at New York City-based Citibank showed a return of $6.70 for every dollar the corporation invested in Employee Wellness Programs. The findings were based on a study of medical costs and rates of absenteeism.1

An ongoing assessment of your Employee Wellness Initiatives should be performed annually and additional periodic evaluations of Employee Wellness Initiatives should be conducted on an ad hoc basis. An ad hoc assessment of your Employee Wellness Initiatives might be initiated by a variety of triggers. For example, at the end of flu season, a corporation might want to evaluate its flu shot program.