Wellness Program – Needs Assessment.

An initial medical screening can include a recent survey of employees’ interests as part of the assessment. Successful wellness programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the workers.

The information you need to get from a recent survey depends on the scope of your program. A sample survey can be acquired in the HOPE Publications Web site.

If you plan to adapt this sample survey or develop your own survey, keep the following hints in mind –

• Ask mainly closed-choice questions, namely when you’ll be sending the survey to a big number of employees. Closed-choice questions provide specific options and are easy to tabulate. You may want to use a computer for data entry and analysis.

• Invite comments, suggestions and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions after the survey. Open-ended items are more difficult to summarize.

• Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the corporation president. Be certain to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.

• Ask a group of representative employees to review the survey before it’s distributed. Find out when the questions will be understood by employees and will not be objected to.

• Include demographic information at the beginning or end of the survey. Consider various ways that you may analyze the responses by demographic characteristics (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).

When considering who should get the survey, a simple rule is if you have under 500 workers, everybody should receive one. the public relations benefit of everybody receiving a recent survey could be significant.

Over 500 employees, a sample of the work population will suffice. A sample saves on costs and time. You may want to consider consulting with a statistician to determine an appropriate sample size for your worksite.

Needs surveys are confidential and anonymous; they don’t request information that may identify a person.

Getting support from management is critical to the success of the program.

One way to do this is to survey managers (see forms) and conduct interviews with decision-makers in the organization. You can use the surveys here or make up your own.

If you decide to do your own, keep the survey short. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes to complete.

The interview process can also serve as a means of educating management. Give concise fact sheets on the benefits of wellness programs for management.

When surveys and interviews are completed, tally the surveys and write brief summaries of the interviews. Provide these reports to management.

Once completed present a brief executive summary to management. Highlight a few intriguing findings that may be used immediately to make decisions about the program.

Utilize charts and graphs to make your points. Prepare a detailed report for wellness committee members itemizing each response. Provide a short article about the survey in the business newsletter.

The higher the response the more exact and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40 percent to 50 percent is acceptable.