Planning a Wellness Program
Planning a wellness program can be a challenge. Planning a wellness program that effective and successful at changing the health and wellbeing of a population is even tougher. To simplify the process of planning a wellness program we’ve created a list of the conditions / steps necessary to create a successful wellness program.
Research shows that there is widespread agreement on the conditions for successful wellness program initiatives. In planning a wellness program you will want to make sure that you consider the following conditions:
• Senior management involvement in the wellness program,
• Participatory planning,
• Primary focus should be on the employees’ needs,
• Make optimal use of on-site resources in the wellness program,
• Integrate the wellness program into the culture of the company,
• Recognize that health is determined by an interdependent set of factors,
• Tailor wellness programs to the specific needs of each business,
• Evaluate the program on an ongoing basis, and
• There must be a long-term commitment to the wellness program.
With the above in mind let’s discuss each of these conditions in more detail which we hope will make it easier for you when planning a wellness program.
Wellness Program: Conditions for Success
1. Senior management involvement in the wellness program
Evidence of enthusiastic commitment and involvement of senior management helps employees understand their employers’ serious commitment to health. Employees need to perceive that their senior management, supervisors, and coworkers have positive attitudes toward health since these factors have all been associated with improved employee health status. “Management-related factors have been shown to contribute more to success than the content of the intervention.”
2. Participatory planning
A wellness program should be undertaken in partnership with the workforce. Employees from all levels of staff should be actively engaged in the health and management aspects of the project as well as all on-going processes of any wellness program. Planning must also include processes for maintaining communication with all staff and building their commitment to the process.
Establishing employee wellness committees to guide interventions during the planning and delivery of wellness programming increases worker awareness, participation, and satisfaction. Employee wellness committees can identify perceived employee interests regarding educational programming, determine work site-specific characteristics that may affect the intervention or influence participation, and suggest the best methods for promotion and delivery of programs and activities. Ways to maximize employee input and involvement might include interest surveys, focus groups, and peer counsellors.
3. Primary focus should be on the employees’ needs
A wellness program should meet the needs of all employees, regardless of their current level of health and recognize the needs, preferences, and attitudes of different groups of participants. Wellness program designers should consider the major health risks in the target population, the specific risks within the particular group of employees, and the organization’s needs.
In other words, interventions should be tailor-made to the characteristics and needs of the recipients. This means that varied wellness programs must be offered at different levels. Participation and commitment can be increased if a group of workers has the opportunity to address a specific modifiable risk factor of their choice.
4. Make optimal use of on-site resources in the wellness program
Planning and implementation of wellness initiatives should optimize use of on-site personnel, physical resources, and organizational capabilities. For example, whenever possible, a wellness program should use on-site health and safety, management, work organization, communication, human resources, and other specialists. Well-qualified external leadership may be introduced when in-house expertise is lacking.
5. Integrate the wellness program into the culture of the company
An overall wellness policy should be developed. The policies governing employee health must align with the corporate mission, vision, and values, supporting both short- and long-term goals. These consistent policies must affirm the value of employee health and a commitment to engage employees in health enhancement.
Wellness Program strategies should be integrated into a company’s regular management practices and eventually should be formally incorporated into the company’s corporate plan with adequate resources attached to them.
6. Recognize that health is determined by an interdependent set of factors
Any wellness program must address multiple components of an individuals life:
• the workplace physical and psychosocial environment;
• their personal resources such as social support, sense of empowerment, etc.; and
• their lifestyle practices influencing health.
7. Tailor wellness programs to the specific needs of each business
Wellness programs must be responsive to the unique needs of each workplace’s procedures, organization and culture. Integrating health behaviors and program participation into the existing corporate culture will normalize wellness program participation.
8. Evaluate the program on an ongoing basis
Project management should flow through needs analysis, setting priorities, planning, implementation, continuous monitoring, and evaluation. Wellness program valuation must include a clearly-defined range of process measures and outcomes as well as mechanisms for monitoring the impact of non-intervention workplace changes such as plant closure, major workplace re-organization, and new technology on staff health.
9. There must be a long-term commitment to the wellness program
To sustain the benefits of the initiative, the worksite must continue the initiative over time, reinforcing risk-reduction behaviors and adapting the programs to ongoing personal, social, economic, and workplace changes.
