Wellness Quote – Wellness Proposal

Evaluations determine the outcome of a Wellness Program. They help you find out when your objectives were met. It’s a good idea to add an evaluation component to your Wellness Program.

Evaluations may conclude that some interventions did not work well. You could find that a popular Wellness Program costs too much and did not really affect employees’ health.

While these may not be the outcomes you hoped for, without this information you may continue ineffective interventions. Having this information will help you create better solutions.

When your results are excellent, it’s magnificent! You can spread the word to personnel and senior level management that your wellness program is achieving its objectives.

Three major areas of an investigation

o  Health Promotion Program structure – the basic framework of the program

o  Wellness Program process – How well the program is run

o  Wellness Program outcomes – Whether the health promotion program met the set objectives

Common questions used to evaluate a Wellness Program

Structure Questions

o  What’s included in the Health Promotion Program? What’s the intervention?

o  Where does the Wellness Program take place?

o  How is the Health Promotion Program delivered? What content is included?

o  Who manages the Health Promotion Program?

Process Questions

o  How many people  participate?

o  Do participants complete the Health Promotion Program?

o  Are participants satisfied?

o  Which aspects of the Health Promotion Program are best attended?

Outcome Questions

o  Does the Health Promotion Program improve knowledge about health issues?

o  Does the Wellness Program change behavior?

o  Does the Health Promotion Program save the business money?

o  What’s the ROI?

Download a sample wellness program (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/wellness_partners/services/turnkey_programs/walking/participant_eval.pdf) investigation from IBC’s Walking Towards Health Promotion program.

o  Identify through an employee survey what incentives they value.

o  Identify what incentives the corporation can provide in addition to what the budget will allow.

o  Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.

o  Prevent offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”

o  Avoid using food as a reward.

o  Use incentives to promote your wellness program, through logos and branding.

Incentives encourage staff members to adopt positive behaviors or maintain an existing positive behavior that may potentially help the employee stay healthful and live longer. Adopting positive health behavior is fundamentally what wellness is about.

Incentives could be used to elevate participation rates, help person complete a Wellness Program, or help person change or adhere to healthful behaviors.

Providing incentives and rewards will send an important message to the workers that your organization is committed to assisting them with improving their health. It also plays a significant role in motivating person to participate.

Tips on how to choose appropriate incentives -

o  Identify through an worker survey what incentives they value.

o  Identify what incentives the business can provide as well as what the budget will allow.

o  Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.

o  Avoid offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”

o  Prevent using food as a reward.

o  Use incentives to promote your Wellness Program, through logos and branding.

When developing a extensive Health Promotion Program, be certain that it consists of a variety of awareness, lifestyle change, supportive environment programs, policies and activities that target risk behaviors, and the needs and interests of the staff.

It will be important to review and revise existing policies governing such areas as smoking sections and the staff cafeteria.

Tips on designing a Wellness Program -

o  Develop activities based on your plan goals addressing the specific needs of your personnel. Focus on those topics that are of greatest interest to your personnel and the greatest needs of your organization, in that order. Prevent topics with narrow appeal.

o  Keep it simple. Design the Wellness Program so it’s easy for the participants to understand and track.

o  Integrate a combination of activities to include awareness, educational, and behavior elements.

o  Pick activities in which every employee can participate.

Suggestions for your Wellness Program -

o  Challenges. Activities that focus on practicing a desired behavior that continues for 4-8 weeks and focuses on specific topics (such as physical activity, nutrition, or stress management).

o  Learning experiences. This includes seminars, videos, and classes.

o  Behavior changes (like tobacco use cessation). You may or may not offer interventions at the workplace. However, you should encourage person to make lifestyle changes that they want to make even without an external incentive.

o  Education on disease management. for example, support and education groups for diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.

o  Learing new skills. for  instance, CPR and first aid.

o  Preventive screenings like blood pressure, cholesterol, and vision.

Develop goals and objectives

Objectives are general guidelines that explain what you want to achieve. Objectives define strategies or steps to take to attain the identified goal.

A wellness program should have a “destination”. Use the results of your surveys and your wellness committee’s mission statement as guides. Consider these ideas -

o  Focus on making medical information and learning resources readily available to staff

o  Focus on group activities so employees can work together to support and encourage healthier life choices

o  Develop a wellness program that is visible to both workforce and to your patrons

o  Focus on written policies and guidelines

o  Make sure to set objectives for your wellness program.

Review Guidelines for Writing Objectives.

Health Promotion Program Goals Should be

Specific – A goal is specific when it provides a description of what’ll be accomplished. It will state exactly what the corporation intends to accomplish.

It ought to be written so that it may be easily and clearly communicated. A specific goal will make it easier for those writing objectives and action plans to address the following questions -

o  Who is to be involved?

o  What is to be accomplished?

o  Where’s it to be done?

o  When’s it to be done?

Measurable – A goal is measurable when it’s quantifiable.  To determine when your goal is measurable, ask questions such as – Just how much? Just how many? Just how will I know when it’s accomplished?

Attainable – You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that permits you to carry out those steps. Goals that might have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable.

Realistic – Realistic, means “do-able.” the goal needs to be realistic for your company and where the company is at the moment.

A goal to take out all the high fat items in the vending machine might not be realistic for your corporation right now; a better goal would be to substitute some chips, candy bars and pies for pretzels, yogurt and dried fruit.

Timely – Lastly, a goal must’ve a timeframe –  for next week, in three months, by age 35. It must’ve a starting and ending point. It should also have some intermediate points at which progress could be evaluated.

Limiting the time in which a goal should be accomplished helps to focus effort toward its achievement. When you don’t set a time, the commitment is too vague. It tends not to happen because you feel you can start at any time. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to start taking action now.

Successful health promotion programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the staff. Ask staff what they’re interested in, and what needs they have.

People  are more willing to participate and support wellness efforts if they’re involved in the decision-making process. Review the sample worker survey provided below.

Staff Member Interest Survey