Employee Wellness Plans : Creating a Worksite Health Promotion Program Strategy for Fitness and Health

As employers today continue to compete in the worldwide economy, cost containment strategies will be increasingly significant. Controlling the rising cost of employee ill health is becoming a priority for corporate leaders. The emerging corporate culture in America is one which has an employee population centered in health, safety and wellness.

Establishing a corporate strategy for Company Health Promotion Programs and disability management makes great business sense. The following eight-step process ensures a strategic, integrated, needs-driven and results-oriented approach.

The following process works best in companies with strong leadership and a long-term responsibility to employee health.

1. Identify Your Corporate Health Promotion Program Champion

This person should be a leader in your organization and a strong advocate of health. Usually this is an individual who actively pursues his or her own personal quest for optimal health.

The program champion must have the resources and authority to drive the program forward. The program champion’s key role is to make sure the strategic plan for health is in line with with the corporation’s objectives, strategic focus and corporation values. For example if the organization promotes that “our strength is our people” the wellness program must prove how initiatives will nurture and protect that significant resource.

2. Form Your Workplace Health Promotion Program Strategy Team

The Company Wellness Program Strategy Team ought to include decision makers and stakeholders from areas of the business that are able to impact health and the company’s bottom line. These areas may include; finance, human resources, training and development, health services, compensation and benefits, employee assistance services (EAP), marketing, facilities, health and safety, rehabilitation, cafeteria or diet services and the union. A group of six to eight representatives is recommended.

The role of the Strategy Team is to cultivate and start the strategic plan, look for opportunities to reward health, be sure the program is integrated into key areas of the organization, streamline efforts, maximize corporation resources and program evaluation.

3. Complete an Organization Health Audit

The purpose of an Corporation Health Audit is to evaluate your existing programs and services, physical environment and policies & procedures that support health. It is also significant to look at your employer culture or “how things are done” around the employer.

Participants of the Strategy Team complete the Audit independently and then meet to discuss their evaluation. During the evaluation process, health issues and opportunities are discussed in preparation for the development of the strategic plan.

4. Analyze Your Organization’s Cost Pressures

Cost pressures are identified by analyzing a number of areas including; benefit expenditures, Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) claims, drug usage, type of paramedic claims, absenteeism data and EAP utilization. This process helps to target areas that have the potential to be positively impacted by a Worksite Wellness Program and to provide a baseline for evaluating change.

5. Conduct a Health Risk Appraisal or Employee Needs & Interest Survey

The next step is to determine your employee’s health risks, interests and readiness to change. A confidential health risk appraisal can accomplish countless goals/objectives. It provides a baseline from which to measure personal lifestyle changes, provides workers with relevant health information, motivates workers to take charge of their health and assists in program planning. Most health risk appraisals offer individual reports and a corporate report identifying elevated-risk areas in the corporation.

Many employers choose to administer customized needs and interest survey to evaluate employee needs. The benefit of this approach is that the organization is able to gather information on the employees’ perceived wellness needs and program interests. This information can be incorporated into the strategic plan. Administering a survey also has the added benefit of fostering a sense of employee ownership to the program.

6. Organize Your Strategic Plan for Wellness

The strategic plan must incorporate information collected from the Organization Health Audit, your organization’s expense pressures, and health risk appraisal data or employee survey results. The strategic plan must include your program mission, three or four objectives and several initiatives under each intention. The strategic plan supports a framework to encourage, support and evaluate “best health practices.”

It is also valuable that the plan align itself with the vision, goals of the organization.

The sample strategic plan that follows was developed for blue jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. (Canada) Inc. Levi Strauss & Co.’s mission statement and aspirations (how workers interact with each other in a organization environment) guided the development of the plan.

Levi Strauss & Co.’s aspirations include the following statement: Above all, we want satisfaction from accomplishments and friendships, balanced personal and professional lives, and to enjoy our endeavors. The wellness program plan included a number of components to ensure that it embraced this statement including the following:

1. A vision statement, which tied in with the company’s aspirations.
2. An incentive system to encourage and reward the accomplishment of healthy milestones.
3. A recognition system to applaud effectiveness.
4. Friendly competitions between Levi Strauss & Co. locations to ensure a fun environment.
5. Opportunities to take part in small group educational programs to cultivate group reinforcement.
6. Initiation of support groups for employees completing wellness programs (i.e. smoking control support group).
7. Programs concerning work and family balance.

Other information that was analyzed and used to foster the plan included:

1. Business demographics
2. Focus groups
3. Cultural audit
4. Top prescription drug report
5. EAP utilization
6. Employee benefit services report
7. Health and dental claims
8. Operational success summaries
9. Health risk appraisals
7. Prepare a Organization Case to Support Your Plan

Your organization case for wellness provides the necessary details for approval at the senior staff level. The organization case includes:

1. The Strategic Plan for Health
2. A proposed program budget
3. Marketing strategies
4. Program leadership options
5. An implementation plan
6. Assessment methodology.

In presenting the strategic plan it is significant to highlight how the plan aligns itself with the strategic direction of the organization.

The program budget must include educational resources, marketing costs, incentives, leadership costs and supplies.

Marketing strategies should address how the program will be promoted and rolled out to various groups within the organization i.e. decentralized locations, high risk workers, older workers.

Program leadership must address how volunteers will be used, internal resources  and whether consultants have been proposed. All play an equally valuable role in the implementation of your wellness program.

The program implementation plan ought to incorporate the following types of programs that help foster awareness of beneficial health practices, assist  employees in making lifestyle changes and initiatives, which support long-term change.

Awareness programs create an awareness of the effect of healthy lifestyle practices and arouse workers to take the next step. Examples of awareness programs include posting educational posters, newsletter articles and lunch and learn classes.

Lifestyle change programs are more all-inclusive and longer in duration. They are designed to support  employees in changing behavior. Examples of lifestyle change programs are nutrition education programs, stress management programs, back care classes and smoking control programs.

A supportive corporate environment encompasses everything from corporate policies & procedures, the physical environment and creating a corporate culture that supports great health practices. Follow-up sessions and support groups for workers who have completed 6-10 week wellness programs also offer a supportive environment for long-term change.

Analyzing the effectiveness of a Worksite Wellness Program is ongoing. A formal assessment must be conducted each year and may include; re-administering steps three to five, program participation statistics and a year end survey to revisit “soft” issues such as morale, program satisfaction and future program direction.

8. Solicit Input and Communicate Your Plan

Employee input is critical to the long-term success of your program. An Employee Advisory Committee must be formed to roll out the plan. Another key responsibility of this team is to solicit feedback from all levels of the organization to ensure buy-in. Front line Manager’s Information Sessions and focus groups are also important. This group needs to buy-in to the notion that they play a key role in supporting beneficial health practices. Regular gatherings are advised with front line managers to receive ongoing input, address problems and orient new managers.

Conclusions

The World Health Organization’s definition of health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellness and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” In order for us to set up healthy workplaces, wellness drives must have a program champion, have employee ownership, be senior staff supported, results driven and strategically aligned with the overriding organization objectives of the organization.

Wellness program that embrace these qualities will have a positive influence on an organization’s bottom line. Canadian research points to numerous case studies where onsite programs have resulted in lowered absenteeism, reduce claims and increased productiveness.

Corporations who have embraced wellness as part of “how they do business” have one thing in common. They prove a commitment to their most significant resource – their people. They be aware of the increased pressures associated with downsized organizations, a rapidly changing workplace, an aging work force and the challenge of balancing work and family obligations. And they share a common belief that healthy employees are happier, absent less and more advantageous.

References:
Design of Corporate Wellness Programs by Michael P. O’Donnell. 1995. Published by the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Pro Fit-ability by Veronica Marsden. Group Healthcare Management. May 1997.
Meeting Expectations by Laura Mensch. Employee Health and Productivity. August 1999
7 Steps to Health Promotion by Daphne Woolf and Veronica Marsden. Group Healthcare Management. February 1996.
Published in The Journal of Health Promotion for Northern Ireland, Issue 9, March 2000