The program design options hinge upon the objectives and desired outcomes of your program. If your objective is to help workers change behavior, decrease risk factors, or save medical care dollars then your wellness program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be crucial to support that design.
There are different wellness program design levels depending on desired outcomes and budgets. Each level has pros and cons. The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining similar results, and therefore should not be confused. By way of example, scheduling activities such as an employee health fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having pamphlets available do not usually result in behavior modification, but may increase awareness on a topic. If the objective is behavior modification then a different design is required, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Business Support. The outline below outlines the wellness design levels with a brief explanation.
Awareness Programs: At this level a company makes health information available and accessible to workers. This type of program often includes pamphlets on a variety of topics, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc. Also, most wellness fairs are designed as awareness programs with vendors offering information and offering health screenings to workers.
Awareness programs are inexpensive and do not require extensive employee or company time commitments. However, these programs do not usually result in behavior modification. Growing awareness isn’t usually enough to generate lifestyle changes for most American citizens, unless used to innervate workers to register for a program being provided at the company or community on the topic. An example of this would be offering information on the harmful effects of smoking and inviting workers who use tobacco to register for a smoking cessation class.
Education Programs: Educational programs often offer more information on a topic and usually also provide time for Q & A, but are similar to awareness programs. An example is lunch-n-learn sessions on a health related topic. These cost the company a modest amount more than awareness programs; however, they remain inexpensive and do not require much time for planning or attending a session. Again, increasing awareness and offering information may not yield the desired behavior modification unless ongoing support or incentives/rewards are also planned.
Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs: These programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or classes to offer health and wellness education, address barriers and offer opportunities to practice the desired skills. Behavior change programs therefore require additional company resources, cost more, and also require additional employee commitment, time and effort. The results are often the desired positive lifestyle change, which if sustained may lead to potential cost savings.
Examples are smoking cessation classes, weight loss and weight management meetings, or an ongoing physical activity program.
Environmental and Business Support: Environmental support is often considered the highest and most valuable level to include when designing your wellness program in order to support and maintain healthy lifestyles. These design options include policy changes such as:
• Creating a tobacco-free workplace
• Designating a walking path,
• Establishing worksite fitness centers,
• Ensuring healthy vending machines choices,
• Offering healthy food choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Establishing 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 lifestyles.
Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of all of these options. The more comprehensive the approach, the more efficacious the results will be. By way of example, a company can have smoking cessation information available; can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking and how to quit; can implement an worksite smoking cessation program, supply self quit smoking kits, or support workers to go to a community program; and/or on an environmental support level can establish a tobacco-free workplace and grounds, offer decreased health care insurance for non-smokers, or offer pharmacological quit smoking aids for free.
Company Wellness : Components for Success
There are several important elements that must be considered to see to the effectiveness of your Company Wellness or Company Wellness . These include:
• Upper Management Support & Employee Participation
• Active Company Wellness Committee
• Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Goals and Objectives are Determined
• Detailed Action Plan Based on Resources & Budget
• Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Evaluation of Outcomes and Program
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