Based upon your Employee Needs & Interest Survey and the demographics of your workplace, consider offering periodic screenings to find specific health risks such as:

• Blood Pressure (BP) Checks to identify workers with pre-hypertension or hypertension (elevated blood pressure),
• Cholesterol Screenings for total, HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol) and/or Triglycerides
• Blood Sugar Screenings fasting or non-fasting to screen for possible diabetes,
• Body composition, such as body mass index (BMI) or body fat measures
• Bone density for potential risk of osteoporosis,
• Cancer screenings such as, skin examinations, mammograms, or PSA screenings,
• Vision checks for glaucoma, or visual acuity
• Other wellness screenings depending on your worker population and needs

Your local hospital, corporation physician practice, or health department may support assistance. Nevertheless, if you have workers you may want to concentrate on programs that will keep them healthy rather than screening for early identification of chronic disease. The focus of your wellness program might be healthy lifestyle practices to reduce risk and prevent disease.

In addition to the wellness screenings, consider offering a Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment to all employees. The Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment will help to identify factors that may lead to additional risks, such as smoking history, stress levels, perception of health, family history, job satisfaction, support systems, and mental health. Often the evaluation results are included on the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, which supplies a more comprehensive snap shot of health risks. The summary results support the significant information to plan appropriate interventions.

Worksite Wellness Program Interventions

The key to the success of screenings and Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals is the interventions or follow-up programs. The information from the screenings increases awareness and frequently motivates staff members to consider making healthier changes. It’s the follow up interventions that offer the critical backing and assistance necessitated for staff members to actually make and maintain those changes. The interventions have the potential to include individual follow-up and ongoing counseling, individual or group health coaching on the risk factors, behavior modification programs, and/or company backing. Examples include:

• Strategies to decrease Blood Pressure
• Managing diabetes
• Taking care of your heart
• Healthier eating
• Weight loss strategies
• Increasing physical activity
• Smoking Cessation

Of course, this is for individual information only. Any follow-up interventions planned by the company would be based on interest expressed by the employee.

Based on the results and your Company Wellness Program Committee objectives you are able to plan the best strategies for your organization and employees. Consider the community resources available to provide services, such as health associations, hospitals, health care providers, and/or public health agencies.

Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals have four standard components in workplace settings:
• A Questionnaire
• A Computerized Program to Review Health Risk Factors
• Confidential Individual Reports
• Group Summary Report

Workers complete a lifestyle questionnaire that includes for example nourishment practices, height and weight, exercise habits, family history, stress perceptions, smoking history, and work satisfaction. Another significant feature to consider is readiness to change questions to determine participation interest. Including health screenings such as cholesterol and Blood Pressure results increases the benefits of an Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment by offering a more accurate health assessment and therefore improving lifestyle choice decisions and program options. Nevertheless, it is significant to determine if the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment can be used without including this information.

The health risk questionnaire information is entered into a computer program and an individual confidential report is generated that summarizes health risks as well as information on how to cut risk factors. Individual reports are completely confidential. Depending on the reason for launching the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, it’s significant to consider the type of report the corporation will receive as well. A group report summarizing major risk factors and recommendations for programs to start in order to cut employee and corporation risks supports significant information for your wellness program.

The Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals have the potential to be used to:
• Raise awareness to individual employee’s health status
• Encourage staff members to make healthier lifestyle changes
• Coach high-risk staff members
• Plan Corporate Health Promotion Programs based on the identified needs
• Assess program performance by comparing Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals completed at set intervals such as yearly.

Onsite Heath Professional roles have the potential to include: Case management, Counseling, Corporate Wellness Program, Legal and regulatory compliance, Clinical services, and Hazard detection and controls. The American Association of Occupational and Environmental Health Nurses is the national association, www.AAOHN.org. The State Chapter also has a website with information including local chapter information to help you find a contact near you, www.NCAOHN.org.

Health educators can design, conduct and evaluate activities that help better the health of all your workers. They are subject matter experts who may be a significant asset regardless your program needs and goals/objectives. They can help form a Worksite Wellness Program Committee and implement many of its programs and services, for example or depending on the structure and time commitments of your Worksite Wellness Program Committee, they can also coordinate the entire program as well. Integrating the activities of the Committee and/or Worksite Wellness Program consultant services within your operations, including within your safety and occupational health program will provide additional benefits!

Please complete the survey today and return it to__________. We appreciate your significant input! Your help is significant for planning successful programs. Return the completed form by _____________.

Rate your interest on a scale of 1 – 3 with one (1) being of little or no interest; two (2) being of some interest and three (3) indicating that you are very interested. Indicate your response by circling or ‘Xing’ the number.

I am interested in:

Participating in wellness programs before work 1 2 3
Participating in wellness programs after work 1 2 3
Participating in wellness programs during my lunch break 1 2 3
Adopting healthy eating options to lose weight 1 2 3
Sports nutrition 1 2 3
Healthier cooking 1 2 3
Helping my children eat healthier 1 2 3
Quick, healthy meals for full lifestyles 1 2 3
Healthy snack options 1 2 3
Learning how to quit smoking 1 2 3
Attending classes to help me quit smoking cigarettes 1 2 3
Stress Mangement skills 1 2 3
Balancing work, family, and personal life 1 2 3
Time senior staff skills 1 2 3
Participating in a beginning fitness program 1 2 3
Creating time to exercise for busy people 1 2 3
Getting health information that I can read or watch at home 1 2 3
Learning about cancer prevention 1 2 3
Heart health options 1 2 3
CPR and First Aid 1 2 3
Team sports activities at work 1 2 3
Learning how to stretch 1 2 3
Learning how to boost intake of fruits and vegetables 1 2 3
Parenting Topics (age of children: ) 1 2 3
Onsite exercise classes: walking Yoga aerobic other: 1 2 3
Health assessment such as Blood Pressure (BP), blood lipids, blood sugar 1 2 3

Analyzing your program need not be terribly complex.  However, it is significant to plan how you will oversee your wellness efforts and determine effectiveness during the planning phase or Step 5.  Also keep in mind to evaluate the program based on the goals you already established during your planning process.  

In order to evaluate your program you must have a system to document specifics as you progress.  This can be as simple as maintaining file folders on programs that are available, or a computer document with a table or spreadsheet summarizing information collecting.  Consider:

• Program topic and numbers of staff members who participated
• The numbers of brochures taken by workers or distributed and on what subject matters
• The number of participants in a behavior modification program and how many met their goals and objectives as well as how many attended all of the sessions
• Numbers of staff members who continued the healthy behavior change following the program?
• Overall employee satisfaction with the program or each topic.  

Depending on your goals/objectives, gather desired data and compare it to previous data collected during the initial assessment to determine if the goals/objectives were met.  Such data might include

• Absentee rates
• Injury rates
• Health risk factors Insurance expenditures  

Summarize and Report Workplace Health Promotion Program Results

Once you have collected all of the evaluation information it needs to be reviewed with the Workplace Wellness Program Committee and summarized.  You will probably have beneficial results and some areas where a change is necessitated or additional focus necessitated for continuous improvement.  This not-so beneficial information can be used to make any necessitated changes as well as to plan for next year and is important to include in your report.  

It is important to communicate the wellness program results to both senior staff and workers.  Consider how senior staff usually receives reports on operations and work rate problems and include the annual wellness program report in the same format.  At some employers the reports are made during senior staff meetings using presentation styles such as authority point slides.  At other employers, graphs and bar charts are the norm or a list of the objectives and the summary outcomes announced.  

No matter the format, it’s important to convey the outcomes and successes achieved, including any anecdotal stories, as well as areas for improvement.  Be sure to link the outcomes to the company mission and bottom line whenever possible.

Employees want to receive the same information!  You might use the same communication channels used when informing workers of the wellness program:

• Employer newsletters,
• Bulletin boards,
• E-mails  

Also consider celebrating successes and recognizing achievements by:

• Posting pictures from events
• Highlighting effectiveness stories
• Posting pictures of successes
• Having a celebration
• Recognizing champions  

If your planning phase was well executed, you should simply have to follow through with the plans you have already made.  

Important Employee Wellness Program considerations include:

1. Formally Introduce the Worksite Wellness Program and consider policy statements that state the importance of the wellness program.  Examples include a general policy concerning the commitment to employee health and safety as well as specific policies such as No Smoking, Healthy Eating and Physical Activity.
2. Communicate Your Program: The best planned program with great wellness programs will not be beneficial if your employees don’t know about it or do not understand the options or how to participate.  Communicate your wellness program using a variety of methods to be sure the message and “how-to’s” are heard!

   Worksite Health Promotion Program Communication Strategies could include:

   • Newsletter articles
   • Postings on the company’s intranet or internet
   • A designated Champion of the program
   • Formal or informal meeting to announce program, “the kick-off”
   • Flyers / handouts / brochures / table tents,
   • Bulletin boards / kiosk where all material is promoted or found,
   • Email / phone messages,
   • Mailings or distributions  

3. Use Company Wellness Program Incentives:  You will be amazed to find out what people will do for a free T-shirt.  Incentives have the potential to both support and excite participation among employees.  Consider both formal or organization incentives and informal or program rewards/prizes from local resources to reinforce participation in Company Wellness Programs. Either way, it’s significant to support incentives that are attractive and meaningful to your employees.

   Formal Company Wellness Program Incentives:

   • Discounts on employee health insurance premiums or co-pays, or contributions to 401K programs, employee stock options, or other mechanisms.  
   
   Click here for more information on health plan incentive ideas
   
   • health club/Fitness Center discounts or enrollment fee coverage
   • Public transportation vouchers
   • Flexible work time options
   • “Wellness Days” off work  

   Rewards or Informal Worksite Wellness Program Incentives:

   • Cash – a most effective incentive!
   • Prize incentives and rewards such as gift certificates to heart-healthy restaurants; media player to use while working out, emergency kits, or any other prizes that would innervate your employees.
   • T-Shirts, water bottles, or other inexpensive rewards

4. Review community resources available to support some of the wellness services.  The local health department or your organization healthcare provider may be able to support  you with this information.  There are also vendors throughout the State offering great wellness services for companies.  They are available to assist you when strategizing and find the best options available.

5. Start your program as planned documenting information and outcomes as you go such as numbers of participants, dates of activities, and any other special details you are tracking.

Workplace Wellness Program Marketing

This is the time to plan your marketing strategies!  How can you market the wellness program and ongoing activities?  No matter how you decide to, market often, keep it fresh, and remind workers repeatedly!  Consider having an overall kickoff exercise to inform everyone of the wellness program.  Senior Management must offer the introduction or invitation so that all workers are aware of their reinforcement and leadership in the program.

Possible marketing methods:

• Distributing email messages, including reminders
• Develop flyers,
• Hanging bulletin board postings,
• Writing articles,
• Mailing letters or
• Distributing special invitations.  

Other Employee Wellness Program Considerations:

• Is the Worksite Health Promotion Program promoted to all employees or to a specific group?
• Do you have a Workplace Wellness Program champion (someone who is joined with different groups in the organization, and well respected) who can help in your promotion efforts?
• If your marketing efforts do not seem to be working, do you have a way to revisit and adjust your strategy?
• How will you determine effectiveness and evaluate your program?  And how will you collect the information necessitated to evaluate your program?  

Topics most frequently included in Corporate Health Promotion Programs:

• Nutrition
• Physical Activity/Exercise
• Tobacco Use Cessation
• Bone Health
• Cardiovascular Health
• The Spine
• Stress Reduction
• Chronic Disease Awareness & Prevention
• Self-care; Wise Health Care Consumer
• Screening Services (BMI, Blood Pressure, bone density, blood lipids, glucose, posture, vision, and other…)
• Ergonomic Assessments
• Health Fairs
• Kids/family Events
• Others topics that workers have interest in  

The topics and type of Company Health Promotion Program planned hinge upon the needs and interest, overall intention and resources available.  Program Design Options   include awareness programs such as handouts and/or education sessions, behavior change programs such as tobacco cessation and weight loss classes, and environmental or organization support such as no smoking policies or healthy selections in snack machines.  

The programs planned also depend on the demographics of your workforce.  If you have a young, healthy workforce, you may want to focus the wellness attention on keeping workers healthy and not need to screen for disease.  Instead you might want to focus on healthy lifestyle behavior such as exercise and good diet to prevent the start of disease.  Click here for more information on strategies for keeping workers well, identifying disease early, or returning workers to work who already have a chronic conditions.

It is also valuable to consider, and plan how you will evaluate the performance of your wellness program.  The system needs to be determined for tracking certain data and recording activities depending on the program objectives.  Step 7 discusses program assessment in more detail.   And Step 6 will launch your program!

Wellness program objectives are different from one company to another depending on the population, needs, interests and resources.  However, well thought out objectives based on your company’s needs assessment will form the foundation of a efficacious wellness program!

Workplace Health Promotion Program Mission Statement

The first consideration is a mission statement for your Company Health Promotion Program. The mission statement is the central expression of what the Company Health Promotion Program Committee wants to accomplish by implementing a wellness program.  It is important to consider how your Company Health Promotion Program fits in with the corporation mission statement, contributes to the central mission and supports the corporation bottom line.  This will integrate your efforts throughout the corporation operations.  

Here are some examples of Corporate Health Promotion Program mission statements:

“At XYZ Corporation, maintaining an environment that supports employee health and safety is our underlying value.  It is the mission of the Worksite Wellness Program to help  in creating Worksite Wellness Program services that fosters and upholds that value.”

“It is the mission of the XYZ Company Health Promotion Program Committee to develop healthier lifestyle choices to decrease health risk factors, improve central wellness, and maintain a productive, active work force.”

Worksite Wellness Program Goals

The goals further define your mission and are based on your needs assessment.  Depending on the needs assessment, upper management expectations and employee interests, examples of goals can include:

The intention(s) of XYZ Worksite Wellness Program in year XXXX is to:  (one or more of the following examples)

• Reduce absenteeism by one day per employee
• Lower musculoskeletal injuries by ten percent
• Lower unnecessary emergency room visits
• Cut down on or contain medical care expenditures
• Improve dietary habits of staff members
• Decrease health risk factors  

Worksite Health Promotion Program Objectives

Specific Company Health Promotion Program objectives help meet your long-term goals.  Both short term and long term objectives ought to be developed as the stepping stones to accomplish the goals.  In addition to objectives for the expected colleague outcomes, process objectives ought to also be developed for the program process itself.  For example, process objectives may include the number of employees you want to take part in the programs, the number of sessions on a topic will be available, the type of wellness sessions that will be implemented, etc.

Objectives must be easily measurable within a set time frame.  Try using the SMART formula to establish both your long and short-term goals:

• Specific (one behavior or outcome)
• Measurable (one result that can be inspected or evaluated),
• Attainable (but also challenging),
• Realistic (do you have the resources to achieve?), and
• Time specific (within 3 months – up to 5 years)  

This is the who, what, when, where, why, and by how much method.  By way of example, an objective for a weight loss program that has an overriding goal of improving healthy eating and promoting a healthy weight is that:

Participants (who) will lose an average of .5 – 1 lbs per week (specific what that is measurable) at the end of the 12 week lunchtime program (time specific what, when and where) for a minimum of 6 lbs weight loss per participant (attainable and realistic).

Or:

Members (who) will attend 11 of the 12 sessions (specific what that is measurable) and name at least one healthier eating change at the end of the program (specific what, when, where)

An example of a goal for coaching staff members with elevated blood lipids might be:

To decrease the total cholesterol (specific what) of elevated risk employees with cholesterol over 240 mg/dl (specific who) to 200 mg/dl (measurable how much) through one-on-one counseling sessions provided at the workplace (where) by X date (ex, after 6 months) (attainable, realistic & time specific when) to decrease the risk factor for heart disease (why).  

And one last example of a process intention for a tobacco cessation program with an central goal to help  participants in committing to quit for life:

By the end of the 4-week tobacco cessation program, 10 percent of the participants will have quit smoking.  Each colleague will be contacted at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months from the program’s end to determine quit status (process mission) and 10 percent of those who quit will still be tobacco-free after one year.

You have now completed Steps 1 through 4, including adopting your Worksite Wellness Program Committee.  It is now time to plan your wellness activities!

It is frequently tempting to hurry through the assessment – especially when time is short or those with experience already have an idea of needs.  Do not give in to this temptation!  It is vital that you be aware of what your organization needs are, what upper management expects, and what workers want as well as expect, before you begin a Employee Health Promotion Program.  

Consider and collect data on:

• Employee Demographic Information
• Employee Health Risk Factors
• Health Claims
• Injury Rates & Causes
• Workers’ Compensation Claims
• Short and Long Term Disability Claims
• Absenteeism
• Company Culture Audits
• Employee perceived needs and health risks
• Upper Management’s expectations or desired outcomes

There are many ways to assess this information.  Although some of data gathering process may be time consuming, remember that it is nonetheless important to plan programs that target specific problems.  This information will be vital to set goals/objectives and for evaluating program effectiveness.  How else can you know if outcomes have been achieved?

Options to help gather the information:

• Confidential Health Risk Appraisals (HRAs) with a Organization Group Summary Report
• Wellness Screenings such as cholesterol, Blood Pressure and blood glucose click here for additional information on health screenings.
• Employee Needs and Interest Surveys
• Suggestion boxes placed around the organization
• Focus Groups or hosting a luncheon meeting as a focus group
• Sending out a confidential email questionnaire
• Review records and databases including OSHA logs, first aid reports, insurance costs  

Once your needs assessment is complete, the Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee can review the results and begin planning and prioritizing program options.  Planning should be based upon objectives and identified outcomes, Step 4 of the seven step process!

Typical Functions of a Company Health Promotion Program Committee:

• Reviewing needs & interests
• Brainstorming program ideas
• Beginning activities
• Implementing communication plans
• Promoting programs to co-workers
• Serving as champions of the Corporate Wellness Programs
• Assisting with assessment  

Your Employee Wellness Program Committee ought to be representative of all levels of the corporation.  Consider all areas of the workforce – multiple sites, shift staff members, diversity (race, gender, ethnicity), and departments.   It’s also important to consider who will chair or co-chair the Employee Wellness Program Committee and whether or not there are the finances to support a Employee Wellness Program manager or occupational health professional, even on a part-time or contractual basis.  Click here for more information on the advantages of a health professional.  

Depending on your corporation size and resources, if you already have a corporation Safety Committee you might want to consider making it the Safety & Workplace Wellness Program Committee.  You are able to request volunteers or invite employees to participate.  

The number of Employee Wellness Program Committee participants depends on the size of your employer; however, you need a sufficient number of participants to get the work done and yet not too many to keep it manageable, usually a minimum of 4 participants and maximum of 12 to 15 participants.  It’s significant to include skeptics of wellness as well and not just those staff members already living healthy lifestyles.  

Depending on your workplace, consider representatives from the following areas:

• Employee representatives from a cross section of different departments,
• Senior Management
• Health and safety consultant(s),
• Human Resources (HR) consultant(s),
• Employee benefits representative or someone from finance,
• Your Employee Assistance Program(EAP) provider (if applicable), Click here for more information on EAPs
• Occupational health employee (if applicable).

Establish a strong Company Wellness Program Committee!  The Company Wellness Program Committee ought to meet on a regular basis with a planned agenda and action items.  Effective Wellness Committees have a shared mission, vision and goals/objectives.  Participants must believe that their participation is worthwhile and appreciated, that their work is valuable, benefits the organization and co-employees, and they are appreciated for their contributions. Refer to the NC Workplace Programs section for examples of what other employers have implemented.