Employee Health Promotion

The program design options depend on the goals/objectives and desired outcomes of your program. If your objective is to help employees change behavior, decrease risk factors, or save healthcare money then your wellness program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be necessary to support that design. Wellness program design options vary, depending on desired outcomes and budgets. Each level has advantages and disadvantages. The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining similar results, and therefore ought not be confused. For example, planning activities such as an employee health & wellness fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having brochures available do not usually result in behavior modification, but may increase awareness on a topic. If the objective is behavior modification then a different design is necessary, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Corporation Support. The outline below describes the wellness design levels with a short explanation. Awareness Programs: At this level a business makes health information available and accessible to employees. This type of program often includes handouts on a variety of issues, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc. Also, most wellbeing and health fairs are designed as awareness programs with vendors providing information and providing wellness screenings to employees. Awareness programs are cheap and do not require extensive employee or business time commitments. However, these programs do not usually yield behavior change. Improving awareness isn’t usually enough to generate lifestyle changes for most individuals, unless used to arouse employees to register for a program being available at the business or area on the topic. An example of this would be providing information on the harmful effects of smoking and inviting employees who use tobacco to register for a tobacco cessation class. Education Programs: Educational programs often offer more information on a topic and are able to also provide time for Q & A, 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; however, they are still inexpensive and do not require a great deal of time for planning or attending a session. Again, increasing awareness and providing information may not lead to the desired behavior modification unless ongoing backing or incentives are also planned. Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs: These programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or sessions to offer wellbeing and health education, address barriers and offer opportunities to practice the desired skills. Behavior change programs therefore require more business resources, cost more, and also require more employee responsibility, time and effort. The results are often the desired positive lifestyle change, which if sustained can lead to potential cost savings. Examples include tobacco cessation classes, weight loss and weight management meetings, or an ongoing exercise program. Environmental and Corporation Support: Environmental backing is often considered the highest and most valuable level to include when beginning your wellness program in order to support and maintain healthy lifestyles. These types of design options include policy changes such as:

• Creating a smoke-free workplace
• Designating a walking path
• Creating worksite fitness centers
• Ensuring healthy vending machines selections
• Offering healthy diet choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Creating flex-time policies.

Other examples include subsidizing healthy vending machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing gym or weight loss and weight management program memberships; or providing insurance incentives for healthy lifestyles. Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of each of these options. The more comprehensive the approach, the more successful the outcome will be. For example, a business can have smoking cessation information available; can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking and how to quit; can enable an worksite tobacco cessation program, supply self quit smoking kits, or support employees to go to a area program; and/or on an environmental backing level can establish a smoke-free workplace and grounds, offer lower medical insurance for non-smokers, or offer pharmacological quit smoking aids for free.

Employee Health Promotion : Components for Success

There are many critical parts that need to be considered to see to the performance of your Employee Health Promotion or Employee Health Promotion . These include:

• Senior Leadership Support & Employee Participation
• Active Employee Health Promotion Committee
• Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Goals and Objectives are Established
• Detailed Action Plan Based upon Resources & Budget
• Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Assessment of Outcomes and Program