Company Health and Wellness : Developing a Employee Health Promotion Program Strategy for Fitness and Health

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

Developing a corporate strategy for Company Wellness Programs and disability management makes good business sense. The following eight-step process ensures a strategic, integrated, needs-driven and outcome-oriented approach.

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

1. Identify Your Company Wellness Program Champion

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

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

2. Form Your Company Wellness Program Strategy Team

The Worksite Health Promotion Program Strategy Team ought to include decision makers and stakeholders from areas of the employer that can effect 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 meal services and the union. A group of six to eight representatives is recommended.

The role of the Strategy Team is to develop and implement the strategic plan, look for opportunities to encourage health, make sure the program is integrated into key areas of the organization, streamline efforts, maximize company resources and program evaluation.

3. Complete an Company Health Audit

The purpose of an Business 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 business culture or “how things are done” around the business.

Participants of the Strategy Team complete the Audit independently and then meet to discuss their assessment. During the assessment 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 can be positively impacted by a Company Health Promotion Program and to offer 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 objectives and goals. It supports a baseline from which to measure personal lifestyle changes, supports employees with relevant health information, motivates employees 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 employer.

Many businesses 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. Establish Your Strategic Plan for Wellness

The strategic plan should incorporate information gathered from the Corporation Health Audit, your organization’s expenditure pressures, and health risk appraisal data or employee survey results. The strategic plan should include your program mission, three or four objectives and several pushes under each objective. The strategic plan supports a framework to encourage, support and evaluate “best health practices.”

It is also significant that the plan align itself with the vision, goals/objectives 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 staff members interact with each other in a employer 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 see 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 performance.
4. Friendly competitions between Levi Strauss & Co. locations to ensure a fun environment.
5. Opportunities to participate in small group educational programs to foster group reinforcement.
6. Initiation of support groups for staff members completing wellness programs (i.e. smoking control support group).
7. Programs dealing with work and family balance.

Other information that was analyzed and used to cultivate 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 Employer Case to Support Your Plan

Your corporation case for wellness supports the necessary details for approval at the management level. The corporation 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. Evaluation 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 ought to include educational resources, marketing costs, rewards and 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, elevated risk workers, older workers.

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

The program implementation plan must incorporate the following types of programs that help establish awareness of positive health practices, help  staff members in making lifestyle changes and drives, which support long-term change.

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

Lifestyle change programs are more inclusive and longer in duration. They are designed to support  employees in changing behavior. Examples of lifestyle change programs are diet 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 good health practices. Follow-up sessions and support groups for staff members who have completed 6-10 week wellness programs also support a supportive environment for long-term change.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a Employee Wellness Program is ongoing. A formal assessment ought to be conducted each year and may include; re-administering steps three to five, program participation statistics and a year end survey to revisit “soft” concerns 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 should be formed to roll out the plan. Another key responsibility of this team is to solicit feedback from all echelons of the organization to ensure buy-in. Front line Manager’s Information Sessions and focus groups are also significant. This group needs to buy-in to the notion that they play a key role in supporting positive health practices. Regular gatherings are advised with front line managers to receive ongoing input, address issues and orient new managers.

Conclusions

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

Wellness initiative that embrace these qualities will have a beneficial influence on an organization’s bottom line. Canadian research points to many case studies where worksite programs have resulted in decreased absenteeism, lower claims and increased productivity.

Corporations who have embraced wellness as part of “how they do business” share one thing in common. They prove a responsibility to their most valuable resource – their people. They know the increased pressures associated with downsized employers, 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 workers are happier, absent less and more beneficial.

References:
Design of Company Health Promotion 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