Employee Wellness Plans : Company Health Promotion Program: Building Program Support

As with any program, the two critical elements for the effectiveness of your wellness program are senior staff backing & employee involvement.  Senior Leadership determines the vision and supports the resources from which action plans flow.  Genuine backing from senior personnel also brings credibility to the wellness initiative.  It is important that senior staff be visible supporters and role models for your Workplace Health Promotion Program.

employees need to be involved on several levels so that they feel ownership of the wellness program.  Employees are the program stakeholders!  All employees should have an opportunity to support input and feedback through needs & interest surveys and program assessment tools.  The information gathered should be used to plan programs that target those needs and interests to ensure participation, buy-in, and reinforcement.

There are several methods to identify employee needs and interests such as:

• Having Employee Focus Groups
• Discussing Wellness Interests During Department gatherings
• Distributing and Summarizing a Needs & Interest Survey
• (Including|Allowing for|Making sure to include} a Time to Give Opinions on Each Evaluation Tool  

Any one or combination of several techniques will ensure that the wellness program meets what staff members want.

Step 3 supplies additional information on determining wellness program needs.  But first, instituting a Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee can help you involve upper management & workers, determine need, and plan your wellness program.