Employer Wellness

The program design options depend on the objectives and desired outcomes of your program.  If your goal is to help staff members change behavior, reduce risk factors, or save health care dollars then your wellness program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be necessary to support that design.  

There are different wellness program design levels depending on desired outcomes and budgets.  Each level has advantages and disadvantages.  The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable for obtaining the same results, and therefore should not be confused.  

For  instance, scheduling activities like an staff member health fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having  handouts available do not normally result in behavior change, but might increase awareness on a topic.  

When the goal is behavior change then a different design is required, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Organizational Support.  The outline below describes the wellness design levels with a brief explanation.

Awareness Programs –   at this level a company makes medical information available and accessible to workers.  This kind of program can include  pamphlets on a variety of topics, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc.  

Additionally, most wellness fairs are designed as awareness programs with vendors providing information and providing biometric screenings to employees.  

Awareness programs are cheap and don’t require extensive employee or corporation time commitments.  However, these programs don’t ordinarily result in healthier behavior change.  

Increasing awareness is not normally enough to generate lifestyle changes for most person, unless used to motivate workers to register for a program being offered at the company or community on the topic.  

An example of this would be providing information on the harmful effects of use of tobacco and inviting employees who smoke to register for a use of tobacco cessation class.

Education Programs –   Educational programs often provide more information on a topic and can also provide time for questions and answers, but are similar to awareness programs.  An example is lunch-n-learn sessions on a health related topic.  

These cost the business a little more than awareness programs; nevertheless, they are still affordable and do not require a excellent deal of time for planning or attending a session.  

Again, increasing awareness and providing information may not lead to the desired behavior change unless ongoing support or incentives are also planned.

Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs –   These programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or seminars to provide wellness education, address barriers and provide opportunities to practice the desired skills.  

Behavior change programs accordingly require more business resources, cost more, and require more staff member commitment, time and effort.  The results are often the desired positive lifestyle change, which if sustained can lead to potential cost savings.  

Examples are use of tobacco cessation classes, weight loss and weight control meetings, or an ongoing fitness program.

Environmental and Organizational Support –   Environmental support is often considered the highest and most important level to include when designing your wellness program to support and maintain healthy behaviors.  

These types of design choices include policy changes like –

• Creating a smoke-free workplace

• Designating a walking path,

• Establishing onsite fitness clubs,

• Ensuring healthy vending machine selections,

• Offering healthy food choices in the cafeteria, and/or

• Establishing flex-time policies.  

Other examples include subsidizing healthful vending machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing fitness center or weight loss and weight control program memberships; or providing insurance incentives for healthful behaviors.

Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of all these choices.  The more robust and integrated the approach, the more successful the results will be.  For example, a company can –

• have smoking cessation information available;
• can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking and how to quit;
• can begin an onsite use of tobacco cessation program,
• supply self quit use of tobacco kits, or
• support staff members to attend a community program; and/or
• on an environmental support level can establish a tobacco-free workplace and grounds,
• offer lower insurance premiums for non-smokers, or
• provide pharmacological quit smoke aids for free.

Wellness Program –  Components for Success

There are a few key components or elements that ought to be considered to ensure the success of your Wellness Program or wellness program.  These include –  

• Senior Management Support and Worker Involvement

• Active Wellness Committee

• Program is Based on Worker Needs and Interests

• Goals and Goals are Established

• Detailed Action Plan Based on Resources and Budget

• Program Implementation and Internal Advertising and Marketing

• Investigation of Outcomes and Program