Wellness Program Incentives

Weight management is a major area of both employee interest and need. Body Mass Index (BMI) is the clinical measure that indicates whether individuals are in a healthy weight range or are overweight or obese. The BMI is a measure of a person’s overall height to their overall weight. Height and weight are evaluated during the Healthy Benefits assessment. A computer mathematical calculation provides the BMI score. Gordian health management programs are available for Healthy Benefits participants who qualify based on their BMI score, and who are interested in a weight management program.

Ideas for workplace based weight management programs include:
• Have Weight Watchers, TOPS, or other reputable weight control groups meet in your workplace or nearby. Provide such groups before/after work or at lunchtime. Employee attendance is generally better if staff members can attend either wholly or partially on work time. Break times may be rolled into lunch break times to minimize employee time away from work duties (with management approval). staff members usually pay their own fees for class attendance and supporting materials.
• If the wellness program offers incentives based on participation, award a completion gift when employee has attended a certain number of weight management sessions or activities.
• Supply information regarding community weight management groups.
• Incentives such as cash, tee shirts, plaques, certificates, hours/days off, names on bulletin boards can be given to individuals who write a weight loss contract and meet their goal.
• Establish a workplace responsibility to offer alternative healthy snacks at corporation-sponsored gatherings. Healthy snacks such as fruit, pretzels, plain popcorn, almonds, and veggies offer demonstration as to the employer’s responsibility to health and employee well being.

Every worksite will have employees who will not participate in available workplace wellness activities. But these same employees may be following a myriad of healthy practices in their daily living. A good wellness program must give these individuals credit and recognition for their good work.

Recognition of healthy goal setting and goal execution is a good approach for reinforcing what individuals are doing on their own outside of work, and for reaching those who do not like group activities. Suggested steps for individual objectives and goals and recognition include:
• A form staff members can fill out which includes the set intention(s) and a target date for completion.
• Information on setting realistic goals/objectives, as individuals often overestimate what they can do and by when. It’s great to remind staff members “baby steps” count!
• Maintain a confidential file of the submitted employee objective forms in a dated “tickler” system.
• Send a reminder to each employee at the time of each member’s intention date. This reminder could be a copy of their original intention form. Ask for employee’s feedback regarding their intention(s): completed the intention, need an extension, or have discontinued the intention.
• When the form is returned from an employee:
   1. If an employee has completed the goal, a certificate of completion is received along with a prize or incentive item linked to the goal (if possible).
   2. If the employee renegotiates the deadline or the goal, the form is re-filed for future follow-up. Continue to advocate the employee.
   3. If the goal is canceled, send a note acknowledging this “good try” and advocate the employee to try again when the timing is right.
• Allow those interested in this process to set goals/objectives any time and as frequently as they want.

To make a difference in the lives of your fellow employees, you first need to see that getting active is not only a matter of choice. Some things are within our individual control, but others are shaped by the people and circumstances in which we live and work.

It’s Easier to Be Active When…

• We know what to do and have the confidence, skills and opportunity to do it.
• It’s fun. “Working out” at the health club does not appeal to everyone. Activities need to reflect what individuals enjoy.
• Our friends, family or co-employees are active with us (or at least support us).
• We feel safe, thanks to well-lit streets or stairways.
• Sidewalks, walking/biking trails, parks and gyms are nearby.
• We have money to pay for equipment, instruction or memberships.
• We can walk, bike or take public transit to work.
• Active choices such as taking the stairs, having stretch breaks during meetings and heading outside during lunch are “normal” in the workplace.
• Managers support and recognize employee efforts. Better yet, they participate.
• We can juggle our work hours to fit in physical activity.

Consider how you could create some of these conditions in your workplace. By taking these steps, you’ll increase the likelihood that staff members both want and are able to be active during working hours.

Workplace physical exercise drives that focus only on individuals have limited success. Research shows that reaching people in various ways gives the strong chance of long-term success.

A strategy directed at multiple levels is also called an “ecological approach.”

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