Company Wellness Programs

The kind of analysis you pick depends on when you do it and the kind of information you collect.

This section describes when to use three kinds –  formative, process and summative investigations.

During the Creating Stage

Use formative examinations in the planning stages to ensure that your program is based on solid information. These examinations also help you to develop effective and appropriate materials and procedures.

Examples of formative examinations include –

• records of management commitments to the program

• staff member interest surveys

• workplace environmental assessments

• pre-testing of program materials

During Your Initiative

A process evaluation is used when the initiative is underway. These evaluations help you –

• track what is going well and what is not (and how to revise your program)

• find out when you are reaching the employees you want to reach

• describe the initiative to others

• monitor who’s participating in the initiative

During or After Your Initiative

Summative examinations happen when the initiative is already in place or completed. Use this type of examination to measure what workforce like about the initiative and what may be improved.

All three kinds of evaluations are useful. the evaluation you select depends on the time and financial resources you’ve available.

What Do You Want to Achieve?

Think about why you’re reviewing  and what your evaluation is going to measure.

If you’re attempting to find out whether an initiative has been successful, see when you followed your mission statement and met your objectives and objectives.

When you don’t have a mission statement or objectives or objectives, decide with management and your worker committee how your organization will measure success.

For  instance, 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 worker productivity).

Thinking About Employees

When you’re considering making improvements to the initiative, think about whether the initiative is still relevant and appropriate for employees. Find out when there are any barriers to participation in the program or to participation in exercise during the workday.

As workers are the ones participating in the program, it’s important to give them a chance to provide feedback on the exercise initiative.

Picking an Analysis Method

Decide on your analysis method. Both measurable results (e.g., absenteeism rates or questionnaire responses) and descriptive results (e.g., one-on-one interviews or focus groups) may be used to evaluate.

The method you pick will depend on the time and funding available and what you want to measure.

Determining How to Do the Evaluation

Plan when and where you will do your examination (and who’ll be examined). for additional information, read the “Types of Analysiss” section on this website.

You might want to pilot test your investigation (e.g., with members of the employee committee) before sending it out to employees. the employee committee may also want to evaluate the initiative’s planning process.

Doing the Evaluation

• Compare your results to baseline information (i.e., examination results from before the launch of your initiative). When you don’t have this information, save your examination results to compare with later results.

You can also look at other information you could have, such as employee satisfaction survey results.

• Analyse and share meaningful and easy-to-understand results with management and personnel.

• Investigation results can be used to enhance the current exercise program and/or to develop new programs in future.

Before launching your Workplace Exercise Program, summarize the information you’ve gathered and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained support from management for the Workplace Exercise Program

• formed an worker committee

• examined what’s possible in your workplace

• found out what workers want and need in a Workplace Exercise Program.

Based on this information, you are now ready to create your action plan to increase exercise at your workplace.

With the staff member committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the results of the employee survey with the workplace environmental assessment, and report to management and employees.

• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, organizational, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. for  instance, suppose a large group of staff members show an interest in bicycling to work.

Since these people  may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you may give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bicycle racks could also be important for making employees’ bicycles secure during the workday.

• Consult the list of practical suggestions found this website.

• Develop a mission statement (one which aligns with your company’s overall mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Setting goals and goals will help you achieveyour mission statement.

• Put together a plan or blueprint addressing what you have learned. Make program and activity recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2 –  Forming an Worker Committee.” Seek management approval to move ahead.

• Once your initiative is in place, it’s important to promote it to workers. Organizing a launch is a good way to do this. A formal launch also demonstrates management commitment. When workers do not know about the initiative, they cannot take benefit of it!

• Decide what you need to track to show that you’ve reached your goals. Measure these factors before you start. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know if there has been a change.

To succeed in stimulating exercise during the workday, you must find out what personnel need and want. They’re the people  whose behaviour you are trying to influence, so it’s critical to understand their needs and gain their support.

The Staff Member Interest Survey

Ask staff members questions that allow you to assess such key characteristics as age, gender, social relationships, family responsibilities and current exercise participation.

It’s important to know this information so that your physical activity initiative meets employees’ needs. Staff Members aren’t going to take part in something they’re not interested in.

Ask staff what they want, and then implement changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. for example, staff may not want to do activities that make them sweat, because they don’t want to shower at work.

Ask staff what the organization could do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during the workday. When there’s a common trend throughout your organization, a single change could affect a lot of individuals .

For example, suppose a big group shows interest in bicycling to work. They might want to shower and change after their commute. You might give priority to installing workplace showers and changing facilities. Secure bicycle storage might  be important as well.

When you’re launching a program that requires going outside, start in the spring. By the time winter comes around, participation is already a habit.

Involving workers is key to increasing physical activity participation rates. People  are more willing to take part in and support physical activity programs when they’re involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own staff member interest survey –

• Keep it short (no longer than 10 minutes to complete).

• Let employees know why you are doing the survey.

• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which may be long and difficult to analyze, ask individuals  to select from a drop-down list of possible responses.

• Ask for comments and suggestions in one open-ended question at the end.

• Make it confidential and anonymous. Don’t request information that may identify a individuals.

• If you are including a list of potential programs or environmental changes, be sure your workplace has the facilities and resources to offer them.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs –  Forming an Worker Committee

While support from the top is crucial to a successful initiative, support from other personnel is also important.

Once you get the go-ahead from management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a committee to help determine the next steps.

Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of staff time management is willing to contribute, this committee might  be advisory or may plan and carry out the initiative.

The committee could include personnel from human resources, occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve staff from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical activity.

Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. for  instance, it’s important for the committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following –

• Investigating your workplace environment

• Carrying out an staff member interest survey.

• Developing a mission statement and goals and goals.

• Writing a exercise or wellness policy declaring the corporation’s commitment to exercise.

• Brainstorming program ideas.

• Promoting, communicating and marketing and advertising the initiative.

• Coordinating specific activities.

• Determining how the initiative will be analyzed.

• Continually evaluating  what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to encourage exercise during the workday, it’s important to find out what’s “doable” in your workplace.

You do not want to elevate staff member expectations by offering something that’s impossible as a result of funding or space limits.

For example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a exercise facility when there’s no room for it. be open, notwithstanding, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs –  Locating out What’s Possible in Your Workplace

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for maps of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Great walking trails might  be right around the block from your workplace.

Below are some questions to help you assess your workplace –

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space offer that make it easier to be physically active during the workday? for  instance, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a exercise facility, factory walking lanes?

• What nearby facilities or opportunities could personnel use to be more physically active during the workday? Are you close to sidewalks, walking trails, community centers, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?

• What resources are available?

• can the initiative access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?

• What’s the structure of your organization? for example, consider staff size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining management support is vital to the success of a exercise initiative.

Whether the changes you’d like to make involve the work environment, overall policies or specific programs, successfully starting your ideas depends on management support.

Support from management is vital for three reasons –

• You need their agreement to involve employees in a workplace initiative.

• When management compensates attention to and supports an initiative, employees also see the initiative as worthwhile.

• Management has the power to give work time and money to support the initiative.

It’s important to keep management involved throughout a exercise initiative, but at three points you’ll need support for –

• an overall concept, including a go-ahead to assess what employees want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.

• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.

• Evaluating the initiative to improve it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Management

Before approaching management to gain initial support for promoting exercise during the workday, do your homework.

• Prepare a organization case clearly outlining how the organization will benefit by promoting exercise during the workday.

• List the individual, social and corporate benefits of physical activity and the benefits of being active during the workday.

• Present some general ideas about what the program might include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions like the following from management –

• How’ll this help our company?

• How can we motivate workforce to participate?

• How much will it cost to run this program or make this change?

• How are we going to know a year from now when this was a good use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the range of activities they’d support. Often managers have ideas of their own they’d like to see acted on to increase the workplace.

Don’t forget to include middle managers when gaining support for your initiative. They could be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical activity challenges.

In today’s corporation environment, the health of staff members is usually related to the health of the corporation. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, decreased disease and injuries, and increased productivity are just some of the advantages of having healthy staff members.

Promoting health in your workplace doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any organization, big or small, can promote healthful eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some suggestions –

Healthful Eating

• For breakfast meetings, in lieu of serving donuts, large muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives like bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100% fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.

• For lunch meetings, avoid serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100  percent fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.

• Reimburse workforce for items purchased to improve their health (e.g. healthy eating cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).

• Arrange for the cafeteria or food vendors to offer healthful food choices.

• Arrange to have healthful choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in vending machines.

• Provide a means for people  to share healthy recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Plan events and group activities to encourage workers to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge events, stretch breaks, team sports or participation in local or provincial events.

• Offer onsite health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in staff member assistance programs to help employees work towards physical activity objectives.

• Give a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices easy –  bicycle racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairwells, walking or running routes close by the workplace, and health club facilities.

• Allow for flex time so that workers have more opportunities to participate in fitness programs as part of their working day.

• Reimburse staff members for full or partial club membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment buys.

• Give corporate health and fitness center memberships to reduce costs of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to –

• Organize lunch “n learn sessions to provide information and motivation for healthy consuming and active living.

• Invite demonstrators to provide cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.

• Post a rotating list in a common room of local restaurants that offer healthful food options on their menus.

• Distribute information to educate staff members on portion sizes.

• Include exercise and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.

• Plan activities that promote healthy consuming and exercise. for  instance, begin a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities

Can a small corporation support employee wellness? Absolutely! In fact, in some ways it is easier to develop a healthful workplace in a small corporation than in a large company.

Limited resources, specifically in small companies, can prevent an business from setting up a wellness program. Reasons can include –

• lack of budget resources;

• lack of staff;

• lack of senior-level support;

• little knowledge of the wellness theory and;

• concern about making wellness available to all employees.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small business owners might have the wrong idea of what is involved in having a health promotion program.

Some corporations aren’t sure a program would really work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  

Perhaps they don’t understand that it doesn’t need to be expensive and that they don’t need special staff. They could not realize that some staff would like to see some healthful changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It can be Done

A lot of small businesses have found ways to have a health promotion program that works for them. They keep the cost and effort to a minimum and still have results that are positive for everyone.

In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthful workplaces often have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a positive culture, individuals  feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a positive workplace culture than for a large workplace. Many personnel prefer to work for a small business, he says, because it provides more opportunities to work closely with others and create a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most successful companies with fewer than 100 workforce have –

• excellent worker benefits;

• policies that promote a balance between work and personal life;

• flexible schedules;

• competitive salaries;

• excellent leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;

• environmentally responsible business policies;

• procedures for seeking worker input; and

• a focus on placing employees’ personal well-being ahead of the personal gain of business leaders.

All or most of these elements are also components of a good wellness program.

Tips and Ideas

There are many ways to include wellness in a small company. You don’t necessarily need a wellness expert or a fancy fitness center.

What you do need is support from management and a committee of a few committed people . Here are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter in hard copy or online. Or send out a simple message like the weekly Healthful U Hot Tip.

• Use promotions that are already designed such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthful Eating

•  Make sure to encourage staff to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing competition.

• Get pedometers for staff and track their steps.

• Rent a nearby school or community health and fitness center and offer exercise classes.

• Hire a local fitness instructor to give classes or lead stretch breaks. Costs could be shared with workforce.

• Install secure bicycle parking.

• Serve healthy alternatives at business meetings and lunches.

Policy and Organizational Programs

• Hire an ergonomics professional to assess workstations.

• Create policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).

• Provide a wellness subsidy for a selection of health and leadership activities and courses.

• Offer financial incentives to be healthful.

• Offer wellness incentives as rewards and recognition for a job well done.

• Conduct an organizational health audit (NQI Healthy Workplace Week).

• Become a partner with the community (for example, daycare, health clubs, festivals, parks, restaurants).

• Spread the workload. Make certain to set up a wellness committee.

Small businesses might not have a lot of time, money, or human resources (HR) available for a wellness program. But they often have a huge advantage over large companies-a positive workplace culture.

That is a excellent foundation for a wellness program. When workforce are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more productive, and tend to be healthier.  With a little creativity and passion, small corporations can create successful wellness programs.

Get support from management, form a committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Employee health promotion is evolving.

Early efforts to create healthy workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury avoidance for employees.

More recently, programs are designed to assist personnel to pick healthier behaviours like being more physically active or quitting smoking.

Campaigns to elevate awareness, educational sessions to elevate knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for employees to make healthy options are often included.

This approach is taken because the workplace is a good way to reach individuals , since most adult American Citizens spend a big part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are two aspects that contribute to the health of workers, company health promotion is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace affects health.

Increasingly, it is recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on individuals ’s health. When individuals  are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When staff members feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed.

Stress has a big impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the organization overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and friendship.

The underlying idea is that corporations must genuinely care about the well-being of their staff members.

Companies today who want to attract and keep good personnel have leaders who understand the connection between worker satisfaction and worker health and believe that employee health promotion is a corporation strategy.  

Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving employees in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance work and home life.

Businesss know that staff are looking for jobs that pay well, have good benefits, are intriguing, and include excellent health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more important than ever for companies to enhance job satisfaction and ensure that staff enjoy being on the job.

Corporate health promotion benefits both businesss and workforce.

How does corporate health promotion benefit the company?

A wellness program can help a organization to –

• Attract and keep employees;

• reduce the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;

• reduce the effects of a stressful workplace;

• reduce healthcare costs or keep them contained; and

• improve morale by building a happy, supportive environment.

How does company wellness benefit employees?

Employees of companies that have a wellness program are likely to have –

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to improve their health;

• a better (less stressful) workplace;

• increased protection from injury;

• improved health and well-being;

• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;

• increased productivity and effectiveness at work;

• decreased personal health care costs; and

• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both corporations and staff have a responsibility for creating a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the corporation is expected to provide an environment that authorizes staff to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Company health promotion is more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about developing a “people  first” approach to doing corporation.

It’s about taking care of employees, establishing a positive work environment, and compensating attention to the factors that keep employees healthful and happy at work.

A good health promotion program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellness.

Ideally, you will create an overall plan for a wellness program before starting to plan specific wellness programs. for  instance, you can start by getting the following elements in place –

• support from  upper-level management

• a wellness committee or team

• information about the wellness needs and interests of employees

• a budget

• program objectives

• an evaluation plan

Even if you’ve few financial and/or HR, you can still take a “micro” approach. for  instance, you could focus on only one specific issue or problem. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning can help you overcome limitations.

This article will give you some ideas for setting up health promotion programs. Even the smallest steps can have an impact.

Whether you choose to begin with a single program or create something larger, planning is essential. First think about the large picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions –

• Identify an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the personnel and organization?

• Promote. How can you most effectively get the word out to employees? What are the opportunities for promotion? Consider everything, because personnel have access to and pay attention to different kinds of messages.

In a average workplace, workforce get information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins,  flyers, meeting announcements and fellow workforce.

• Deliver. Who’s the best individuals or group to put the program into action? Ask other businesses about approaches they have used. Decide on your budget before making a decision.

• Evaluate. What should you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when planning your initiative –

• building and communicating clear objectives

• targeting your audience

• deciding on the kind of program or campaign

The Elements of Wellness Programming

Programs to promote wellness in the workplace do not need to be restricted to a single area. You may think company health promotion only involves promoting positive personal health, e.g., blood pressure (BP) clinics,  pamphlets on heart illness, “lunch and learn” workshops on consuming habits and short-term exercise programs.

These activities are important, but employee health promotion should also be part of a organization’s organization strategy and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently identified three key elements of a healthy workplace –

• physical environment

• social environment and personal resources

• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider providing the following –

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.

• Fridges for staff to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.

• Ergonomic assessments.

• Subsidies to help workforce join local recreation centers.

• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities like yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.

• Safe and pleasant stairwells that invite staff to use them.

• Evaluating the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.

• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, in addition to ways of doing corporation, can affect an worker’s mental and physical health. Corporations ought to consider the following –

• respectful workplace policies that provide safe worksites

• policies on flex time

• policies on working from home

• staff member satisfaction surveys

• leadership coaching

• resiliency training

• staff member assistance programs

To foster a positive social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include –

• being respected

• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission

• freedom of expression

• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” might not address current staff member needs. Ensuring that individuals  enjoy being at work is not an easy task, but making the right changes can have a gigantic impact.

Health Practices

Offer programs and set policies that help workforce remain healthy or improve their health while at work. Consider offering the following –

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthful habits such as sleeping better, consuming on the run, healthful snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading nutrition labels.

• Stop tobacco use clinics or subsidies to help staff quit.

• Health risk (assessment|appraisal}s, including fitness assessments.

• Programs to address the issues raised in the health risk (assessment|appraisal}s.

• Healthy snacks served at meetings and conferences.

Personal Company Health Promotion Tips

When there’s no health promotion program at your worksite, do not let that stop you from keeping healthful. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are several ideas to think about –

• be active at work. There are many ways to bring activity into your workday. Walk to work, even when it’s just one way. Hold walking meetings. Bicycle to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office in lieu of sending an e-mail.

• Eat well at work. Pack a healthy snack and meal. Place a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for colleagues’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for meetings.

• Maintain work-life balance. Be sure to work efficiently so you are able to leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and do not take it home.

Minimize social chit-chat. Be sure to set up your office to enhance your work. Prevent clutter. Plan and prioritize to ensure that the most critical things get done first.

There’s no limit to the number or variety of health promotion programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the results so that you can sustain momentum.

Talk to other wellness practitioners to find out what works well for them. Listen to your coworkers to determine their needs and interests.  And do not forget to promote, promote, promote.