Contact Us                All of these words As a phrase Any of these words Natural Language As a Boolean query

Want to Maximize Employee Participation?

• Focus on one topic at a time
• Use as many different types of activities as possible for each topic
• Use different methods for promoting activities
• Use incentives to get employees involved
• Make wellness program activities FUN!

For more information...

Process for Starting
a Worksite Wellness Program

1. Identify a committed coordinator

This person will work with the wellness committee to follow through the program. The individual should be:

• committed to the value of good nutrition and physical activity and overall wellness.
• motivated to work with others to build interest and participation in your wellness program.

2. Gain support of top management

If this is you, you may already be fully supportive. However, if you’re the advocate (or an uncertain top manager) it is important to know how the workplace will benefit from a worksite wellness program.

• Sample Employer Survey in Adobe Acrobat (152kb). Feel free to use this survey or adapt one to your own needs.

3. Organize a wellness committee

It is critical that a wellness program have a dedicated committee. A wellness committee, drawing members from different work areas within the workplace, establishes motivation, continuity, and ownership of the program. This group will oversee and implement the program.

• The wellness committee should plan to hold monthly or bi-monthly meetings.
• A mission statement may be developed. Everyone will then know what you are working towards.
• Once a wellness program has been established, the committee’s size and meeting schedule may change.

4. Conduct survey of employees’ needs & interests

Employee support is just as important to the success of a wellness program as is top management support. Asking employees what they are interested in and what their needs are will also help in knowing what the goals and objectives of the program will be. The survey should determine the Who?, What?, Why?, and How? that will enable the committee to design and implement wellness program activities.

• Plan an employee survey to assess current awareness of basic wellness issues and what ideas and activities people may be interested in.
• The wellness committee will develop the survey and decide how to distribute it.
• Sample Employee Survey in Adobe Acrobat (126kb). Feel free to use this survey or adapt one to your own needs.

5. Determine barriers and review strategies

After gathering the information from the Employee Interest Survey, determine the barriers, interests, and needs of employees. See strategies.

6. Set goals and objectives for the wellness program

A wellness program should have a goal or target. Use the results of the completed surveys (employer and employee) performed and strategies that are to be addressed as a guide. Once goals have been determined, write worksite wellness objectives. Objectives reflect changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. The objective will state the change that the wellness program hopes will occur. Activities are considered the means to accomplish the objective. These are the action steps necessary to ensure that the anticipated change actually occurs. These should be time-oriented, specific, and measurable. See sample objective/evaluation.

7. Implement Programs

Using proven strategies develop activities to address healthy nutrition and increased physical activity.

8. Evaluate Programs

Evaluation is an important step in the process if you want to determine the value of what you’ve done. Evaluation will help you get the desired outcomes and will help you determine if you need to make improvements or changes in your programs.

Benefits of evaluating can be far reaching. We evaluate to see if the program worked, to compare different types of programs, to provide information about the program, to give feedback to participants, and to find out if the efforts were worth the cost put into implementing the program.

It’s important to prepare for evaluation. Before you begin you will need to make sure you have written clear and measurable goals and objectives. It is also crucial that you collect baseline data first. You need “before” data to compare to after you have implemented a program.

So what are you going to evaluate? Your choice will depend on the goals and objectives you have set. Here are some common methods of evaluation:

1. Pre-test and post test: Ex. Self reported behaviors (see sample Baseline Behavior Survey and Follow-up Behavior Survey)
2. Measurement of risk factors via pre- and post-test screenings (Blood pressure, blood glucose, blood cholesterol, BMI,
   waist-to-hip)
3. Monitoring of health care claims
4. Monitoring of injury claims
5. Monitoring absenteeism rates
6. Productivity - effective programming may have an impact on productivity
7. Participant evaluation forms to determine satisfaction
8. Attendance/participation logs (Promotional strategies (# of flyers or brochures distributed, response rates, etc)

 

Fast Ways to Add Minutes to Your Day:

• Park your car farther away from the office.
• If you live close, walk to work.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.
• Organize or join a lunch-time group walk.
• Walk to a co-workers office rather than calling them on the phone.
• Organize or join a company sports team.
• Be physically active while watching TV.
• Walk or bike while doing your errands.
• Go dancing!