Posts from — June 2009

The sort of assessment you choose is dependent upon when you do it and the kind of information you gather.

This section outlines when to use three types: formative, process and summative evaluations.

During the Development Stage

Use formative evaluations in the planning stages to see that your program is built on solid information. These evaluations also help you to develop effective and appropriate materials and procedures.

Examples of formative evaluations include:

• records of upper management commitments to the program
• employee interest surveys
• workplace environmental assessments
• pre-testing of program materials

During Your Initiative

A process evaluation is used when the initiative is underway. These evaluations help you:

• track what is going well and what isn’t (and how to revise your program)
• discover if you are reaching the workers you want to reach
• describe the program to others
• monitor who is participating in the plan

During or After Your Initiative

Summative evaluations take place when the program is already in place or completed. Use this type of evaluation to measure what employees like about the program and what could be improved.

All three types of evaluations have their place. The assessment you choose depends on the time and financial resources you have available.

What Do You Want to Achieve?

Think about why you’re evaluating and what your evaluation is going to measure.

If you’re trying to discover whether program has been successful, see if you followed your mission statement and met your goals.

If you do not have a mission statement or goals and objectives, decide with upper management and your employee Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee how your organization will measure success.

By way of example, you can measure success by changes in:

• Physical measures (e.g., strength, flexibility, waist circumference of employees).
• Psychological measures (e.g., employee morale, satisfaction levels, stress levels).
• Productivity measures (e.g., decrease in absenteeism rates, increased employee productivity).

Thinking About workers

If you’re thinking of making improvements to the program, think about whether the program is still relevant and appropriate for staff members. Find out if there are any barriers to participation in the program or to participation in physical exercise during work.

As workers are the ones participating in the program, it’s important to give them a chance to provide feedback on the physical exercise plan.

Choosing an Assessment Method

Decide on your assessment method. Both measurable results (e.g., absenteeism rates or questionnaire responses) and descriptive results (e.g., one-on-one interviews or focus groups) can be used to evaluate. The method you choose will hinge upon the time and funding available and what you want to measure.

Deciding How to Do the Evaluation

Plan when and where you will do your assessment (and who will be evaluated). For more information, read the “Types of Evaluations” section on this website.
You may want to pilot test your assessment (e.g., with members of the Company Wellness Program Committee) before sending it out to workers. The employee Company Wellness Program Committee may also wish to evaluate the initiative’s planning process.

Doing the Assessment

• Compare your outcome to baseline information (i.e., evaluation results from before the launch of your program). If you do not have this information, save your evaluation outcome to compare with later results. You can also look at other information you may have, such as employee satisfaction survey results.
• Analyze and disseminate meaningful and simple-to-understand results with upper management and employees.
• Assessment results can be used to better the current physical exercise program and/or to foster new drives in future.

Prior to kicking off your Workplace Physical Activity Program, summarize the information you’ve gathered and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained support from upper management for the Workplace Physical Activity Program
• formed an Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee
• assessed what is possible in your workplace
• found out what staff members want and need in a Workplace Physical Activity Program.

Based on this information, you’re now ready to advance your action plan to stimulate physical exercise at your workplace.

With the Worksite Wellness Program Committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the outcome of the employee survey with the workplace environmental assessment, and report to management and employees.
• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, corporation, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. For example, suppose a sizable group of workers show an interest in biking to work. Since these people may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you might give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bike racks might also be significant for making employees’ bikes secure during the workday.
• Consult the list of practical suggestions found this website.
• Designate a mission statement (one which aligns with your organization’s central mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Setting goals/objectives will help you achieve your mission statement.
• Put together a plan or blueprint discussing what you have learned. Make program and exercise recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2: Forming an Employee Committee.” Seek management approval to move ahead.
• Once your plan is in place, it’s important to encourage it to workers. Organizing a launch is a great way to do this. A formal kick-off also demonstrates senior staff responsibility. If workers don’t know about the plan, they can’t take advantage of it!
• Establish what you need to track to show that you have accomplished your goals and objectives. Measure these factors before you start. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know if there has been a change.

To succeed in encouraging physical activity during the workday, you must learn what workers need and want. They are the people whose actions you are trying to impact, so it’s important to understand their needs and gain their reinforcement.

The Employee Interest Survey

Ask employees questions that allow you to evaluate such key characteristics as age, sex, social relationships, family responsibilities and current physical activity participation.

It’s significant to know this information so that your physical exercise plan meets employees’ needs. Employees will not participate in something they’re not interested in.

Ask staff members what they want, and then start changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. By way of example, staff members may not wish to do activities that make them sweat, because they do not want to shower at work.

Ask staff members what the corporation could do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during the workday. If there’s a common trend throughout your organization, a single change could affect an abundance of people.

For example, suppose a sizable group shows interest in biking to work. They may want to shower and change after their commute. You might give priority to installing workplace showers and changing facilities. Secure bike storage might be important as well.

If you’re launching a program that requires going outside, begin in the spring. By the time winter arrives, participation is already a habit.

Involving workers is key to expanding physical activity participation rates. People are more willing to participate in and support physical activity drives when they are involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own employee interest survey:

• Keep it short (no longer than ten minutes to complete).
• Let employees know why you are doing the survey.
• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which can be long and tough to analyze, ask them to choose from a drop-down list of possible responses.
• Ask for comments and suggestions in one open-ended question at the end.
• Make it confidential and anonymous. Do not request information that may identify a person.
• If you’re including a list of potential programs or environmental changes, see that your workplace has the facilities and resources to offer them.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Forming an Employee Committee

Although reinforcement from the top is critical to a successful plan, reinforcement from other employees is also valuable.

Once you get the go-ahead from upper management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a Workplace Wellness Program Committee to help determine the next steps. Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of employee time management is willing to contribute, this Workplace Wellness Program Committee may be advisory or may plan and carry out the initiative.

The Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee might include staff members from human resources(HR), occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve employee from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical activity. Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. For example, it’s significant for the Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following:

• Assessing your workplace environment
• Carrying out an employee interest survey.
• Establishing a mission statement and goals/objectives.
• Writing a physical exercise or wellness policy declaring the organization’s responsibility to physical exercise.
• Brainstorming program ideas.
• Promoting, communicating and marketing the program.
• Coordinating specific activities.
• Deciding how the plan will be evaluated.
• Continually assessing what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to promote physical exercise during work, it’s significant to learn what is “doable” in your workplace.

You don’t want to raise employee expectations by offering something that’s not feasible due to funding or space limits. By way of example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a fitness facility if there’s no space for it. Be open, however, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Finding out What’s Possible in Your Workplace

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for maps of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Great walking trails may be right around the block from your workplace.

Below are some questions to help you evaluate your workplace:

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space offer that make it easier to be physically active during the workday? By way of example, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a fitness facility, factory walking lanes?
• What nearby facilities or opportunities could employees use to be more physically active during the workday? Are you close to sidewalks, walking trails, community centres, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?
• What resources are available?
• Can the plan access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?
• What is the structure of your employer? For example, consider employee size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining senior staff support is essential to the success of a physical exercise program.

Whether the changes you’d like to see involve the work environment, overall policies or specific programs, successfully launching your ideas is dependent upon upper management backing.

Support from upper management is critical for 3 reasons:

• You need their agreement to involve workers in a workplace plan.
• When management pays attention to and supports program, employees also see the program as worthwhile.
• Upper Management has the authority to give work time and money to support the plan.

It’s valuable to keep management involved throughout a physical activity initiative, but at three points you’ll need support for:

• An overall concept, including a go-ahead to evaluate what employees want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.
• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.
• Evaluating the initiative to improve it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Upper Management

Prior to going to management to gain initial backing for promoting physical exercise during work, do your homework.

• Prepare a business case clearly outlining how the business will benefit by promoting physical activity during the workday.
• List the individual, social and corporate advantages of physical exercise and the advantages of being active during work.
• Present some cursory ideas about what the program might include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from senior staff:

• How will this help our employer?
• How can we encourage workers to take part?
• How much will it cost to run this program or make this change?
• How will we know a year from now whether or not this was a good use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the types of activities they would support. Often managers have their own ideas they would like to see acted on to better the workplace.

Remember to include middle managers when gaining support for your initiative. They may prove to be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical exercise challenges.

In today’s organization climate, the health of workers is often related to the health of the organization. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, reduced illness and injuries, and increased work rate are just some of the advantages of having healthy workers. Promoting health in your workplace need not be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any organization, big or little, can promote healthy eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some recommendations:

Healthier Eating

• For breakfast meetings, rather than serving donuts, big muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives such as bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100% fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.
• For lunch meetings, avert serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100  percent fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.
• Reimburse employees for items purchased to improve their health (e.g. healthy eating cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).
• Arrange for the cafeteria or food vendors to offer healthy meal choices.
• Arrange to have healthy choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in vending machines.
• Offer a means for people to share healthy recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Establish programs and group activities to encourage staff members to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge programs, stretch breaks, team sports or participation in local or provincial programs.
• Offer onsite health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in EAPs to help employees work towards physical exercise objectives and goals.
• Offer a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices easy: bike racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairways, walking or running routes in the vicinity of the workplace, and health club facilities.
• Provide|Offer|Give} flex time so that workers have more opportunities to participate in exercise program as part of their working day.
• Reimburse health club membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment purchases.
• Give corporate health club memberships to reduce expenditures of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to:

• Organize lunch ‘n learn sessions to provide information and motivation for healthy eating and active living.
• Invite demonstrators to provide cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.
• Post a list of local restaurants that offer healthy food choices on their menus.
• Distribute information to educate workers on portion sizes.
• Include physical activity and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.
• Plan activities that promote healthy eating and physical exercise. For example, start a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities

Can a small employer support workplace wellness? Absolutely! In fact, in some ways it is easier to establish a healthy workplace in a small employer than in a big employer.

Limited resources, especially in small organizations, can prevent a corporation from setting up a Worksite Health Promotion Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of fiscal resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level backing;
• minimal knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• issue about making wellness available to all workers.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small corporation owners may have the wrong idea of what is involved in running a Worksite Wellness Program. Some employers aren’t convinced that a program would really work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  Maybe they don’t be aware of that it doesn’t need to be costly and that they don’t need special employee. They may not realize that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Done

Many small businesses have found ways to have a Workplace Health Promotion Program that works for them. They keep the expense and effort to a minimum and still have results that are beneficial for everyone. In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthy workplaces frequently have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a beneficial culture, people feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a positive workplace culture than for a sizable workplace. Many staff members prefer to work for a small corporation, he says, because it provides more opportunities to work closely with others and cultivate a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most thriving organizations with fewer than 100 employees have:

• great employee benefits;
• policies that promote a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• excellent leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible employer policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal wellness ahead of the personal gain of Senior Management.

All or most of these elements are also pieces of a good Worksite Health Promotion Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are multiple ways to include health & wellness in a small organization. You may not necessarily need a wellness consultant or a fancy gym. What you do need is backing from senior staff and a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee of a few committed people. Below are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter in hard copy or web-based. Or send out a brief message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Use promotions that are already designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthy Eating

• Encourage employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing contest.
• Get pedometers for workers and track their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or area gym and offer exercise classes.
• Bring in a local fitness instructor to give classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenditures can be shared with employees.
• Install secure bicycle parking.
• Offer healthy alternatives at company meetings and lunches.

Policy and Corporation Programs

• Hire an ergonomics specialist to assess workstations.
• Foster policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).
• Give a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Provide financial rewards and incentives to be healthy.
• Give wellness rewards and incentives as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an business health audit.
• Become a partner with the neighborhood (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Establish a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee.

Small employers may not have a lot of time, money, or human resources(HR) available for a Employee Health Promotion Program. But they often have a huge advantage over sizable companies-a beneficial workplace culture. That is a great foundation for a Employee Health Promotion Program. When staff members are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more beneficial, and tend to be healthier.  With a little creativity and passion, small employers can develop thriving Employee Health Promotion Programs. Get reinforcement from senior staff, form a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to set up healthy workplaces focused on safety at the workplace and injury prevention for staff members.

More recently, programs are designed to assist  workers to choose healthier behaviors like being more physically active or quitting smoking. Campaigns to increase awareness, educational sessions to broaden knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for workers to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach people, since most adult Canadians invest a large part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are 2 aspects that contribute to the health of workers, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace affects health.

Increasingly, it is understood that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more advantageous and tend to be healthier. When staff members feel that the environment at work is detrimental, they feel stressed. Stress has a big effect on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified 5 components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the organization overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that businesses must genuinely are concerned about the wellness of their staff members.

Employers today who want to attract and retain good staff members have leaders who be aware of the connection between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a corporation strategy.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving staff members in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance work and home life.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that pay well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include good health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more significant than ever for organizations to enhance job satisfaction and ensure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.

How does workplace wellness advance the corporation?

A workplace wellness plan can help a corporation to:

• attract and keep staff members;
• reduce the costs of disability, prescriptions, and absenteeism;
• reduce the effects of a stressful workplace;
• reduce health expenditures or keep them contained; and
• better morale by organizing a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Worksite Wellness Programs Profit employees?

staff members of employers that have a Worksite Health Promotion Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to better their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellbeing;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productiveness and performance at work;
• reduced personal healthcare costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for planning a healthy workplace. Workers are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the corporation is expected to support an environment that allows employees to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about planning a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of staff members, implementing a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep staff members healthy and happy at work. A great Corporate Wellness Program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.

Ideally, you will develop an overriding plan for a Corporate Health Promotion Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. For example, you are able to start by getting the following components in place:

• support from management
• a Employee Wellness Program Committee or group
• information about the wellness needs and interests of employees
• a budget
• program objectives
• an assessment plan

Even if you have few financial and/or human resources, you can still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you could focus on only one specific concern. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning can help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for establishing Employee Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps have the potential to have an impact.

Whether you choose to start with a single program or develop something larger, planning is essential. First consider the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Identify an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the workers and employer?
• Promote. How can you most effectively spread the word to employees? What opportunities exist for promotion? Consider everything, because employees have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, employees receive information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow employees.
• Deliver. Who is the best individual or group to put the program into action? Ask other corporations about approaches they have used. Decide on your budget prior to making a decision.
• Evaluate. What should you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when organizing your program:

• creating and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the sort of program or campaign

The Elements of a Employee Wellness Program

Programs to reward wellness in the workplace don’t need to be restricted to one area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting positive personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure clinics, pamphlets on heart disease, “lunch and learn” seminars on eating habits and short-term physical exercise programs.

These activities are important, but workplace wellness must also be part of corporation’s business plan and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently identified 3 key elements of a healthy workplace:

• physical environment
• social environment and personal resources
• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider providing the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for workers to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist workers join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairways that invite staff members to use them.
• Assessing the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.
• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, as well as ways of doing business, are able to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Businesses should consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that provide safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• Employee Assistance Programs

To cultivate a positive social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include:

• being respected
• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission
• freedom of expression
• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” may not address current employee needs. Making sure that individuals enjoy being at work is not an simple task, but making the right changes can have a huge influence.

Health Practices

Offer programs and set policies that help workers remain healthy or better their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading diet labels.
• Tobacco cessation clinics or subsidies to help employees quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the concerns raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks served at meetings and conferences.

Personal Corporate Wellness Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your workplace, do not let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to think about:

• Be active at work. There are numerous ways to bring activity into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Hold walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office instead of sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy meal. Place a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for meetings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you can leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and be sure not to take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Set up your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Establish and prioritize to be sure that the most important things get done first.

There is no limit to the number or variety of Company Wellness Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the outcome so that you can sustain momentum.

Speak with other wellness practitioners to learn what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And don’t forget to promote, promote, promote.