Employee Wellness Plans : Worksite Health Promotion Program Design Options

The program design options hinge upon the goals/objectives and desired outcomes of your program.  If your goal is to help workers make a change behavior, cut risk factors, or save health care dollars then your wellness program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be crucial to support that design.  

Wellness program design options vary, depending on desired outcomes and budgets.  Each level has advantages and disadvantages.  The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining the same results, and therefore ought not be confused.  For example, scheduling activities such as an employee health & wellness fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having pamphlets available do not usually result in behavior change, but may expand awareness on a topic.  If the goal is behavior change then a different design is required, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Company Support.  The outline below describes the wellness design levels with a brief explanation.

Awareness Programs:  At this level a business makes health information available and accessible to staff members.  This type of program can include brochures on a variety of issues, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc.   Also, most health & wellness fairs are designed as awareness programs with vendors offering information and offering health screenings to staff members.  

Awareness programs are inexpensive and do not require extensive employee or business time commitments.  However, these programs do not usually result in behavior modification.  Improving awareness isn’t usually enough to generate lifestyle changes for most individuals, unless used to arouse workers to register for a program being available at the business or area on the topic.  An example of this would be offering information on the dangerous effects of smoking and inviting workers who use tobacco to register for a smoking cessation class.

Education Programs:  Educational programs frequently support more information on a topic and are able to also provide time for questions & answers, but are similar to awareness programs.  An example is lunch-n-learn sessions on a health related topic.  These cost the organization a modest amount more than awareness programs; however, they are still inexpensive and do not require a great deal of time for planning or attending a session.  Again, expanding awareness and providing information may not lead to the desired behavior modification unless ongoing support or rewards and incentives are also planned.

Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs:  These programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or classes to support wellbeing and health education, address barriers and support opportunities to practice the desired skills.  Behavior change programs therefore require additional corporation resources, cost more, and also require additional employee responsibility, time and effort.  The results are frequently the desired beneficial lifestyle change, which if sustained can lead to potential cost savings.  

Examples include smoking cessation classes, weight loss and weight management meetings, or an ongoing fitness program.

Environmental and Business Support:  Environmental support is frequently considered the highest and most valuable level to include when designing your wellness program in order to support and maintain healthy behaviors.  These types of design options include policy changes such as:

• Creating a smoke-free workplace
• Designating a walking path,
• Establishing worksite fitness centers,
• Ensuring healthy vending machines choices,
• Offering healthy meal choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Organizing flex-time policies.  

Other examples include subsidizing healthy vending machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing fitness center or weight loss and weight management program memberships; or offering insurance incentives/rewards for healthy behaviors.

Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of all of these options.  The more integrated the approach, the more efficacious the outcome will be.  By way of example, a organization can have tobacco cessation information available; can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking and how to quit; can enable an worksite tobacco cessation program, supply self quit smoking kits, or support staff members to catch a neighborhood program; and/or on an environmental reinforcement level can establish a tobacco-free workplace and grounds, offer lower healthcare insurance for non-smokers, or provide pharmacological quit smoking aids for free.

Employee Wellness Program: Components for Success

There are many key parts that have to be considered to see to the success of your Corporate Wellness Program or Corporate Wellness Program.  These include:  

• Senior Management Support & Employee Involvement
• Active Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee
• Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Goals and Objectives are Established
• Detailed Action Plan Based on Resources & Budget
• Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Evaluation of Outcomes and Program