Beginning a Wellness Program.

Create a culture of wellness within your organization

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 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 program, representing colleagues 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 staff member surveys, health risk data, history of organizational wellness, and health benefit plan design.

Create Clearly Reported 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?”

Create a Extensive 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 workers.

Identify an Incentive and Reward Strategy

Incentives show the organizational commitment to the 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 centers, 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 staff members 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.

—————————–

Wellness Program – Management Support.

Develop 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 staff members.

Obtaining  executive management’s buy-in is essential to launching an effective program. the staff members must understand that management is supportive of the wellness program.

Actions –

Create an Upper-Level 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 program specialists, as necessary.

The Senior 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 company culture.

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

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

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

Organize a Wellness Advisory Team

Goal –  Develop a working committee that consists of employees and essential functional parts of the organization.

Focus –  to assist in reshaping the organizational culture to support employee-wellness activities by serving as messengers 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 colleagues by sharing ideas and concerns about the wellness program.

Actions –

The Wellness Advisory Committee will –

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

• Create methods to enhance the acceptance and success of the activities of your Wellness Program by encouraging worker 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 peers.

• Recommend policy and environmental changes that are aimed at bettering the health and safety of workers.

—————————–

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 reviewing  a wellness program. It will also set the baseline for continued and future investigations 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 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 paid 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 employees, 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 may have affected the health of your workers and their use of the health-care system.

This may include mergers, acquisitions, workplace trauma, worker 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 workers 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 meaningful 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 employee contributions?

Create Clearly Reported Vision, Mission and Outcomes

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

Focus –  Establishing a vision, mission, objectives and objectives 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 announced goals. Make certain that your program is capable of having an impact in the area desired, and make certain that you are capable of measuring that impact.

Example Goal –  Workers having access to healthier food options

• Establish two to five measurable goals that specifically 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 several activities that will help you achieveyour objective. Activities are very specific.

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

• Identify who is going to do what, by when, and what resources are needed.

Example Detail –  the Program coordinator will contact XXX Vending Business by September 30.

—————————–

Wellness Program Incentives.

Create a Extensive and Strategic Wellness Program

Goal –  A comprehensive Wellness Program plan.

Focus –  Development of a plan that consists of a variety of awareness, lifestyle change, and supportive environment program, policies, and activities that will target risk behaviors, needs, and interests of employees.

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

Actions –

• Develop activities based on your program goals and the specific needs of your employees. Focus on those topics that are of greatest interest to your employees and the greatest needs of your company, in that order. Prevent topics with narrow appeal.

• Keep it simple. Design the 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 program.

Also, simplify the 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.

• Select activities that every staff member 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 physical activity, 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 (such as tobacco use cessation) –  Interventions may or might not be offered at the workplace; person must 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 corporation through disease-management providers, or by community, health, or religious organizations.

• New skills (first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation) –  These could  be provided or supported by the business, 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 evaluation; preventive screenings and physical exams can be encouraged by awarding credits to workers.

• 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 can 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 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 workers 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 motivating person to participate.

Actions –

• Identify through staff members 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.

• Prevent 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 –

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

—————————–

Wellness Program Communication.

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

Focus –  Promote the Wellness Program to workers 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.

Staff Members who do not get involved in the 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 –

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

Use a selection 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 organization events; word of mouth.

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