Company Health and Wellness : Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Assessment Guide

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.