Wellness Program Incentives

The sort of evaluation you choose is dependent upon when you do it and the kind of information you collect.

This section outlines when to use three types: formative, process and summative evaluations.

During the Development Stage

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

Examples of formative evaluations include:

• records of upper management commitments to the program
• employee interest surveys
• workplace environmental assessments
• pre-testing of program materials

During Your Initiative

A process evaluation is used when the plan is underway. These evaluations help you:

• track what is going well and what isn’t (and how to revise your program)
• discover if you are reaching the staff members you want to reach
• describe the plan to others
• monitor who is participating in the program

During or After Your Initiative

Summative evaluations happen when the plan is already in place or completed. Use this sort of evaluation to measure what employees like about the plan and what could be improved.

All three types of evaluations have their place. The evaluation you choose is dependent upon the time and financial resources you have available.

What Do You Wish to Achieve?

Ponder why you’re evaluating and what your assessment is going to measure.

If you’re trying to learn whether plan has been thriving, see if you stuck to your mission statement and met your objectives.

If you don’t have a mission statement or goals, agree with management and your employee Employee Wellness Program Committee how your organization will track success.

By way of example, you can track success by changes in:

• Physical measures (e.g., strength, flexibility, waist circumference of workers).
• Psychological measures (e.g., employee morale, satisfaction levels, stress levels).
• Productivity measures (e.g., decline in absenteeism rates, increased employee productiveness).

Thinking About staff members

If you’re considering making improvements to the plan, consider whether the plan is still relevant and fitting for workers. See if there are any obstacles to participation in the program or to participation in physical activity during work.

As staff members are the ones participating in the program, it’s significant to give them a chance to provide feedback on the physical activity plan.

Choosing an Evaluation Method

Decide on your evaluation method. Both measurable results (e.g., absenteeism rates or questionnaire responses) and descriptive results (e.g., one-on-one interviews or focus groups) can be used to evaluate. The method you choose will depend on the time and funding available and what you want to measure.

Deciding How to Do the Assessment

Decide when and where you will do your assessment (and who will be evaluated). For more information, read the “Types of Evaluations” section on this website.
You might want to pilot test your assessment (e.g., with members of the Company Health Promotion Program Committee) before sending it out to employees. The employee Company Health Promotion Program Committee might also wish to evaluate the initiative’s planning process.

Doing the Assessment

• Compare your outcome to baseline information (i.e., assessment results from before the launch of your plan). If you don’t have this information, save your assessment outcome to compare with later results. You can also look at other information you may have, such as employee satisfaction survey results.
• Analyze and share meaningful and simple-to-understand results with upper management and staff members.
• Assessment results can be used to improve the current physical exercise program and/or to advance new drives in future.

Prior to launching your Workplace Physical Activity Program, summarize the information you’ve gathered and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained reinforcement from upper management for the Workplace Physical Activity Program
• formed an Workplace Wellness Program Committee
• assessed what is possible in your workplace
• found out what employees want and need in a Workplace Physical Activity Program.

Based on this information, you’re now ready to cultivate your action plan to boost physical activity at your workplace.

With the Company Health Promotion Program Committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the outcome of the employee survey with the workplace environmental assessment, and report to upper management and employees.
• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, organization, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. By way of example, suppose a sizable group of staff members show an interest in biking to work. Since these individuals may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you might give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bike racks might also be important for making employees’ bikes secure during work.
• Consult the list of practical suggestions found this website.
• Establish a mission statement (one which aligns with your organization’s overriding mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Setting goals and objectives will help you achieve your mission statement.
• Put together a plan or blueprint discussing what you have learned. Make program and exercise recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2: Forming an Employee Committee.” Seek management approval to move ahead.
• Once your initiative is in place, it’s valuable to encourage it to staff members. Organizing a launch is a great way to do this. A formal launch also demonstrates management responsibility. If staff members don’t know about the initiative, they can’t take advantage of it!
• Establish what you need to track to show that you have accomplished your goals and objectives. Measure these factors before you start. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know if there has been a change.

To succeed in encouraging physical exercise during the workday, you must learn what staff members need and want. They are the individuals whose actions you are trying to effect, so it’s vital to be aware of their needs and gain their backing.

The Employee Interest Survey

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

It’s important to know this information so that your physical exercise program meets employees’ needs. Workers will not participate in something they’re not interested in.

Ask employees what they want, and then enable changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. For example, employees may not wish to do activities that make them sweat, because they do not want to shower at work.

Ask workers what the company could do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during work. If there’s a common behavior throughout your organization, a single change could affect an abundance of people.

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

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

Involving employees is key to building physical exercise participation rates. People are more willing to participate in and support physical exercise pushes when they are involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own employee interest survey:

• Keep it short (no longer than 10 minutes to complete).
• See that staff members know why you are doing the survey.
• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which can be long and difficult to analyze, ask people to choose from a drop-down list of possible responses.
• Ask for comments and recommendations in one open-ended question at the end.
• Make it confidential and anonymous. Do not request information that may identify a person.
• If you’re 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 Employee Committee

Although reinforcement from the top is essential to a thriving initiative, reinforcement from other employees is also significant.

Once you get the go-ahead from management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a Company Health Promotion Program Committee to help determine the next steps. Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of employee time management is willing to contribute, this Company Health Promotion Program Committee may be advisory or may plan and carry out the initiative.

The Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee could include workers from human resources(HR), occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve employee from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical exercise. Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. For example, it’s important for the Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following:

• Assessing your workplace environment
• Carrying out an employee interest survey.
• Establishing a mission statement and goals.
• Writing a physical exercise or wellness policy declaring the organization’s responsibility to physical exercise.
• Brainstorming program ideas.
• Promoting, communicating and marketing the plan.
• Coordinating specific activities.
• Deciding how the program will be evaluated.
• Continually assessing what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to encourage physical activity during work, it’s important to find out what is “doable” in your workplace.

You do not want to raise employee expectations by offering something that’s not feasible due to funding or space limits. By way of example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a fitness facility if there’s no space for it. Be open, however, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Discovering What’s Possible in Your Workplace

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

Below are some inquiries to help you assess your workplace:

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space have that make it easier to be physically active during work? For example, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a fitness facility, factory walking lanes?
• What nearby facilities or opportunities could workers use to be more physically active during work? Are you near sidewalks, walking trails, neighborhood centres, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?
• What resources are available?
• Can the initiative access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?
• What is the structure of your business? By way of example, consider employee size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining upper management reinforcement is vital to the success of a physical activity program.

Whether the changes you’d like to see involve the work environment, overall policies or specific programs, successfully implementing your ideas is dependent upon upper management reinforcement.

Support from management is vital for 3 reasons:

• You need their support to involve workers in a workplace program.
• When upper management pays attention to and supports program, workers also see the program as worthwhile.
• Senior Management has the power to give work time and money to support the initiative.

It’s important to keep senior staff involved throughout a physical exercise plan, but at three points you’ll need backing for:

• An overriding concept, including a go-ahead to evaluate 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.
• Analyzing the plan to better it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the plan.

Approaching Senior Leadership

Prior to going to upper management to gain initial support for promoting physical exercise during work, do your homework.

• Prepare a business case clearly outlining how the business will advance by promoting physical 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 cursory ideas about what the program could include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from upper management:

• How will this help our company?
• How can we motivate workers 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 if this was a meaningful use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the types of activities they would support. Often managers have ideas of their own they would like to see acted on to better the workplace.

Remember to include middle managers when gaining backing for your initiative. They may prove to be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical activity challenges.

In today’s business atmosphere, the health of employees is often related to the health of the business. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, reduced illness and injuries, and increased work rate are just some of the benefits of having healthy employees. Promoting health in your workplace does not have to be be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any business, big or little, can encourage healthy eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some recommendations:

Healthy Eating

• For breakfast meetings, instead of serving donuts, large muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives such as bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100 percent fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.
• For lunch gatherings, avert serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100 % fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.
• Reimburse workers 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 healthy diet choices.
• Arrange to have healthy choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in snack 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

• Establish events and group activities to advocate workers to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge activities, stretch breaks, team sports or participation in local or provincial activities.
• Provide onsite health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in EAPs to help employees work towards physical activity objectives and goals.
• Provide a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices simple: bike racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairways, walking or running routes in the vicinity of the workplace, and fitness center facilities.
• Provide|Offer|Give} flex time so that staff members have more opportunities to take part in physical activity programs as part of their working day.
• Fully reimburse (or partially reimburse) health club membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment purchases.
• Give corporate fitness center memberships to reduce expenditures of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to:

• Design lunch ‘n learn sessions to offer information and motivation for healthy eating and active living.
• Invite demonstrators to provide cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.
• Display a list of local restaurants that offer healthy diet choices on their menus.
• Distribute information to educate employees on portion sizes.
• Include physical exercise and diet information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.
• Plan activities that encourage healthy eating and physical exercise. By way of example, begin a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities

Can a small business support workplace wellness? Absolutely! In fact, in some ways it is easier to create a healthy workplace in a small business than in a big business.

Limited resources, especially in small employers, can keep a corporation from setting up a Worksite Health Promotion Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of budget resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level reinforcement;
• minimal knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• concern about making wellness available to all staff members.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small employer owners may have an incorrect idea of what is involved in having a Company Wellness Program. Some employers aren’t convinced that 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 be aware of that it doesn’t need to be costly and that they don’t need special employee. They may not be aware that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Accomplished

Many small companies have found ways to have a Worksite 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 healthy workplaces frequently 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 beneficial workplace culture than for a sizable workplace. Many staff members prefer to work for a small employer, he says, because it supplies more opportunities to work closely with others and cultivate a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most efficacious organizations with fewer than 100 employees have:

• excellent employee benefits;
• policies that promote a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• excellent leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible company policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal well-being ahead of the personal gain of Senior Management.

All or most of these elements are also elements of an effective Workplace Health Promotion Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are various ways to include health and wellness in a small company. You do not necessarily need a wellness professional or a fancy fitness center. What you do need is reinforcement from upper management and a Worksite Wellness Program 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 internet based. Or send out a brief message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Use promotions that are ready-designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthy Eating

• Encourage employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing contest.
• Provide pedometers for workers and count their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or community fitness center and offer physical activity classes.
• Bring in a local fitness instructor to teach classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenditures can be shared with employees.
• Install safe bicycle parking.
• Serve healthy alternatives at corporation meetings and lunches.

Policy and Employer Plans

• Hire an ergonomics expert to evaluate workstations.
• Develop 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 variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Provide financial rewards and incentives to be healthy.
• Give wellness incentives and rewards as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an corporation health audit.
• Become a partner with the community (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Establish a Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee.

Small businesses may not have an abundance of time, money, or human resources available for a Employee Health Promotion Program. But they often have a huge advantage over sizable companies-a beneficial workplace culture. That is a good foundation for a Employee Health Promotion Program. When employees are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more beneficial, and tend to be healthier.  With a little creativity and passion, small businesses can cultivate successful Employee Health Promotion Programs. Obtain reinforcement from senior staff, form a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

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

More recently, programs are designed to help  workers to choose healthier behaviors like increasing physical activity levels or stopping smoking. Campaigns to spread awareness, educational sessions to expand knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for workers to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach individuals, since most adult Canadians spend a big part of their day at work.

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

How the workplace impacts health.

Increasingly, it is agreed upon that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When people are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is detrimental, they feel stressed. Stress has a sizable impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified 5 components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the employer overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that organizations must truly care about the well-being of their workers.

Employers today who want to attract and keep good employees have leaders who understand the association between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a employer plan.  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 life at home and work.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that compensate well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include good health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more important than ever for corporations to enhance job satisfaction and be sure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.

How does workplace wellness advance the employer?

A workplace wellness plan can help a organization to:

• attract and keep staff members;
• cut the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;
• cut the effects of a stressful workplace;
• reduce health costs or keep them contained; and
• improve morale by planning a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Company Wellness Programs Benefit workers?

staff members of companies that have a Workplace 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 wellbeing;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productiveness and effectiveness at work;
• reduced personal health care expenditures; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for organizing a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in great health, and the employer is expected to provide an environment that allows employees to maintain great health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about creating a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of employees, establishing a beneficial work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A great Employee Health Promotion Program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.

Ideally, you will cultivate an overall plan for a Employee Wellness Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. For example, you are able to start by getting the following elements in place:

• reinforcement from senior staff
• a Corporate Wellness Program Committee or group
• information about the wellness needs and interests of staff members
• a budget
• program objectives
• an evaluation plan

Even if you have few financial and/or human resources(HR), you can still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you could focus on only one specific concern. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning can help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for establishing Corporate Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps are able to have an effect.

Whether you choose to begin with a single program or advance something larger, planning is important. First think about the big 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 employees and company?
• Promote. How can you most effectively spread the word to staff members? What opportunities exist for promotion? Consider everything, since staff members have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, staff members get information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow staff members.
• Deliver. Who is the best person or group to put the program into action? Ask other organizations about approaches they have used. Decide on your budget before making a decision.
• Evaluate. What ought to you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when organizing your initiative:

• creating and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the type of program or campaign

The Elements of a Corporate Health Promotion Program

Programs to promote wellness in the workplace do not need to be restricted to one area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting beneficial personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure (BP) clinics, brochures on heart disease, “lunch and learn” courses on eating habits and short-term physical activity programs.

These activities are important, but workplace wellness ought to also be part of organization’s business plan 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 offering the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for employees to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist workers join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairwells that invite employees to use them.
• Assessing 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, as well as ways of doing business, are able to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Employers ought to consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that support safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• Employee Assistance Program(EAP)s

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” may not address current employee needs. Seeing to it that individuals enjoy being at work is not an simple task, but making the right changes can have a huge effect.

Health Practices

Provide programs and set policies that help workers remain healthy or improve their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading nutrition labels.
• Stop smoking clinics or subsidies to help workers quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the concerns raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthy snacks offered at meetings and conferences.

Personal Worksite Health Promotion Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your workplace, don’t let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to think about:

• Be active at work. There are numerous ways to bring exercise into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Hold walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office rather than sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy meal. Have 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 co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for gatherings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you have the potential to leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and do not take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Set up your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Develop and prioritize to make sure that the most valuable things get done first.

There’s no limit to the number or variety of Company Health Promotion Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the outcome so that you can sustain momentum.

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