As businesses today continue to compete in the worldwide economy, expenditure containment strategies will be increasingly significant. Controlling the rising expenditure of employee ill health is becoming a priority for corporate leaders. The emerging corporate culture in America is one which has an employee population centered in health, safety and wellness.

Creating a corporate plan for Worksite Wellness Programs and disability management makes good business sense. The following eight-step process ensures a strategic, integrated, needs-driven and results-oriented approach.

The following process works best in businesses with strong leadership and a long-term commitment to employee health.

1. Identify Your Employee Wellness Program Champion

This person must be a leader in your organization and a strong advocate of health. Typically this is an individual who actively pursues his or her own personal quest for good health.

The program champion must have the resources and authority to propel the program forward. The program champion’s key role is to be sure the strategic plan for health is aligned with the organization’s objectives, strategic focus and organization values. For example if the organization promotes that “our strength is our people” the wellness program must prove how pushes will nurture and protect that significant resource.

2. Form Your Workplace Health Promotion Program Strategy Team

The Workplace Wellness Program Strategy Team ought to include decision makers and stakeholders from sections of the company that have the potential to effect health and the company’s bottom line. These areas may include; finance, human resources, training and development, health services, compensation and benefits, employee assistance services (EAP), marketing, facilities, health and safety, rehabilitation, cafeteria or food services and the union. A group of six to eight representatives is recommended.

The role of the Strategy Team is to foster and enable the strategic plan, look for opportunities to promote health, be sure the program is integrated into key areas of the organization, streamline efforts, maximize employer resources and program assessment.

3. Complete an Employer Health Audit

The purpose of an Company Health Audit is to evaluate your existing programs and services, physical environment and policies & procedures that support health. It is also important to look at your business culture or “how things are done” around the business.

Participants of the Strategy Team complete the Audit independently and then meet to discuss their evaluation. During the evaluation process, health issues and opportunities are discussed in preparation for the development of the strategic plan.

4. Analyze Your Organization’s Cost Pressures

Cost pressures are identified by analyzing a number of areas including; benefit costs, Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) claims, prescription drug usage, type of paramedic claims, absenteeism data and EAP utilization. This process helps to target areas that can be positively impacted by a Worksite Health Promotion Program and to support a baseline for evaluating change.

5. Conduct a Health Risk Appraisal or Employee Needs & Interest Survey

The next step is to determine your employee’s health risks, interests and readiness to change. A confidential health risk appraisal can accomplish a myriad of objectives. It provides a baseline from which to measure personal lifestyle changes, provides employees with relevant health information, motivates employees to take charge of their health and assists in program planning. Most health risk appraisals support individual reports and a corporate report identifying high-risk areas in the organization.

Many organizations choose to administer customized needs and interest survey to evaluate employee needs. The benefit of this approach is that the business is able to gather information on the employees’ perceived wellness needs and program interests. This information can be incorporated into the strategic plan. Administering a survey also has the added benefit of fostering a sense of employee ownership to the program.

6. Design Your Strategic Plan for Wellness

The strategic plan ought to incorporate information gathered from the Organization Health Audit, your organization’s expenditure pressures, and health risk appraisal data or employee survey results. The strategic plan ought to include your program mission, three or four objectives and several initiatives under each intention. The strategic plan provides a framework to encourage, support and evaluate “best health practices.”

It is also significant that the plan align itself with the vision, goals of the organization.

The sample strategic plan that follows was developed for blue jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. (Canada) Inc. Levi Strauss & Co.’s mission statement and aspirations (how employees interact with each other in a corporation environment) guided the development of the plan.

Levi Strauss & Co.’s aspirations include the following statement: More than anything, we want satisfaction from accomplishments and friendships, balanced personal and professional lives, and to have fun in our endeavors. The wellness program plan included a number of components to make sure that it embraced this statement including the following:

1. A vision statement, which tied in with the company’s aspirations.
2. An incentive system to encourage and reward the accomplishment of healthy milestones.
3. A recognition system to applaud performance.
4. Friendly competitions between Levi Strauss & Co. locations to ensure a fun environment.
5. Opportunities to participate in small group educational programs to develop team support.
6. Initiation of support groups for staff members completing wellness programs (i.e. smoking control support group).
7. Programs dealing with work and family balance.

Other information that was analyzed and used to develop the plan included:

1. Corporation demographics
2. Focus groups
3. Cultural audit
4. Top drug report
5. EAP utilization
6. Employee benefit services report
7. Health and dental claims
8. Operational performance summaries
9. Health risk appraisals
7. Prepare a Organization Case to Support Your Plan

Your corporation case for wellness supports the necessary details for approval at the upper management level. The corporation case includes:

1. The Strategic Plan for Health
2. A proposed program budget
3. Marketing strategies
4. Program leadership options
5. An implementation plan
6. Evaluation methodology.

In presenting the strategic plan it is significant to highlight how the plan aligns itself with the strategic direction of the organization.

The program budget ought to include educational resources, marketing costs, incentives/rewards, leadership costs and supplies.

Marketing strategies must address how the program will be promoted and rolled out to various groups within the organization i.e. decentralized locations, high risk employees, older employees.

Program leadership must address how volunteers will be used, internal resources  and whether consultants have been proposed. All play an equally significant role in the implementation of your wellness program.

The program implementation plan should incorporate the following types of programs that help create awareness of positive health practices, support  staff members in making lifestyle changes and drives, which support long-term change.

Awareness programs establish an awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyle practices and excite staff members to take the next step. Examples of awareness programs include posting educational posters, newsletter articles and lunch and learn sessions.

Lifestyle change programs are more accross the board and longer in duration. They are designed to help  employees in changing behavior. Examples of lifestyle change programs are diet education programs, stress management programs, back care classes and smoking control programs.

A supportive corporate environment encompasses everything from corporate policies & procedures, the physical environment and creating a corporate culture that supports good health practices. Follow-up sessions and support groups for workers who have completed 6-10 week wellness programs also support a supportive environment for long-term change.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a Workplace Health Promotion Program is ongoing. A formal evaluation should be conducted each year and may include; re-administering steps three to five, program participation statistics and a year end survey to revisit “soft” problems such as morale, program satisfaction and future program direction.

8. Solicit Input and Communicate Your Plan

Employee input is vital to the long-term success of your program. An Employee Advisory Committee ought to be formed to roll out the plan. Another key responsibility of this group is to solicit feedback from all levels of the organization to ensure buy-in. Front line Manager’s Information Sessions and focus groups are also significant. This group needs to buy-in to the notion that they play a key role in supporting positive health practices. Regular meetings are advised with front line managers to receive ongoing input, address concerns and orient new managers.

Conclusions

The World Health Organization’s definition of health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” In order for us to create healthy workplaces, wellness initiatives must have a program champion, have employee ownership, be upper management supported, results driven and strategically aligned with the central corporation objectives of the organization.

Wellness initiative that embrace these qualities will have a beneficial effect on an organization’s bottom line. Canadian research points to countless case studies where workplace programs have resulted in lowered absenteeism, decrease claims and increased productivity.

Corporations who have embraced wellness as part of “how they do business” have one thing in common. They confirm a commitment to their most important resource – their people. They be aware of the increased pressures associated with downsized employers, a rapidly changing workplace, an aging work force and the challenge of balancing work and family obligations. And they share a common belief that healthy staff members are happier, absent less and more advantageous.

References:
Design of Employee Health Promotion Programs by Michael P. O’Donnell. 1995. Published by the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Pro Fit-ability by Veronica Marsden. Group Healthcare Management. May 1997.
Meeting Expectations by Laura Mensch. Employee Health and Productivity. August 1999
7 Steps to Health Promotion by Daphne Woolf and Veronica Marsden. Group Healthcare Management. February 1996.
Published in The Journal of Health Promotion for Northern Ireland, Issue 9, March 2000