Employee Health Promotion

The program design options hinge upon the goals/objectives and desired outcomes
of your program. If your objective is to help employees change behavior, reduce
risk factors, or save health care money then your wellness program would be
designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be crucial to support
that design.

There are different wellness program design levels depending on desired outcomes
and budgets. Each level has pros and cons. The intentions or results are quite
different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining similar results, and
therefore ought not be confused. By way of example, planning activities such
as an employee wellness fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having pamphlets
available do not usually result in behavior modification, but may expand awareness
on a topic. If the objective is behavior modification then a different design
is required, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Employer Support.
The outline below outlines the wellness design levels with a short explanation.

Awareness Programs: At this level a organization makes health information available
and accessible to employees. This type of program can include pamphlets on a
variety of subject matters, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board
displays, e-mail health messages, etc. Also, most health fairs are designed
as awareness programs with vendors offering information and offering health
screenings to employees.

Awareness programs are cheap and do not require extensive employee or organization
time commitments. However, these programs do not usually yield behavior change.
Growing awareness isn’t usually enough to generate lifestyle changes for
most people, unless used to arouse employees to register for a program being
provided at the organization or neighborhood on the topic. An example of this
would be offering information on the dangerous effects of smoking and inviting
employees who use tobacco to register for a smoking 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 organization a bit more than awareness programs; however, they are
still inexpensive and do not require much time for planning or attending a session.
Again, building awareness and offering information may not lead to the desired
behavior modification unless ongoing support or rewards and incentives are also
planned.

Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs: These programs are designed as 4 to 12
weekly sessions or classes to offer health & wellness education, address
barriers and offer opportunities to practice the desired skills. Behavior change
programs therefore require additional organization resources, cost more, and
also require additional employee responsibility, time and effort. The results
are often the desired positive lifestyle change, which if sustained may lead
to potential cost savings.

Examples are smoking cessation classes, weight loss and weight management meetings,
or an ongoing physical activity program.

Environmental and Employer Support: Environmental support is often considered
the highest and most important level to include when beginning your wellness
program in order to support and maintain healthy behaviors. These design options
include policy changes such as:

• Creating a tobacco-free workplace
• Designating a walking path,
• Establishing onsite fitness centers,
• Ensuring healthy vending machines choices,
• Offering healthy meal choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Establishing flex-time policies.

Other examples include subsidizing healthy vending machines or cafeteria choices;
reimbursing health club or weight loss and weight management program memberships;
or offering insurance rewards and incentives for healthy behaviors.

Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of all of these options.
The more comprehensive the approach, the more successful the outcome will be.
By way of example, a organization can have tobacco cessation information available;
can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking
and how to quit; can enable an onsite smoking cessation program, supply self
quit smoking kits, or support employees to attend a neighborhood program; and/or
on an environmental support level can establish a tobacco-free workplace and
grounds, offer decreased health care insurance for non-smokers, or offer pharmacological
quit smoking aids for free.

Employee Health Promotion : Components for Success

There are many important components that must be considered to ensure the effectiveness
of your Employee Health Promotion or Employee Health Promotion . These include:

• Senior Management Support & Employee Involvement
• 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
• Evaluation of Outcomes and Program