Employee Health Promotion

Create goals and objectives

Goals are general guidelines that explain what you want to achieve. Goals define strategies or steps to take to attain the identified goal.

A wellness program should’ve a “destination”. Use the results of your surveys and your wellness committee’s mission statement as guides. Consider these ideas -

o  Focus on making medical information and learning resources readily available to staff members

o  Focus on group activities so staff can work together to support and encourage healthier lifestyles

o  Develop a health promotion program that is visible to both personnel and to your customers

o  Focus on written policies and guidelines

o  Be certain to set goals for your wellness program.

Review Guidelines for Writing Objectives.

Wellness Program Goals Should be

Specific – A goal is specific when it provides a description of what’ll be accomplished. It will state exactly what the business intends to accomplish.

It must be written so that it could be easily and clearly communicated. A specific goal will make it easier for those writing goals and action plans to address the following questions -

o  Who is to be involved?

o  What’s to be accomplished?

o  Where is it to be done?

o  When’s it to be done?

Measurable – A goal is measurable if it is quantifiable.  To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as – Precisely how much? Precisely how many? Precisely how will I know when it is accomplished?

Attainable – You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that permits you to carry out those steps. Goals that might have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable.

Realistic – Realistic, means “do-able.” the goal needs to be realistic for your business and where the business is at the moment.

A goal to take out all the high fat items in the vending machine might not be realistic for your business right now; a better goal would be to substitute some chips, candy bars and pies for pretzels, yogurt and dried fruit.

Timely – Lastly, a goal must have a timeframe –  for next week, in three months, by age 35. It must have a starting and ending point. It should also have some intermediate points at which progress may be analyzed.

Limiting the time in which a goal ought to be accomplished assists to focus effort toward its achievement. When you do not set a time, the commitment is too vague. It tends not to happen because you feel you can begin at any time. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to begin taking action now.

Successful health promotion programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the staff. Ask staff what they’re interested in, and what needs they have.

People  are more willing to participate and support wellness efforts when they’re involved in the decision-making process. Review the sample worker survey provided below.

Worker Interest Survey â.” can be edited (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/business_tools/employee_interest_survey.doc)

When developing a recent survey, keep the following hints in mind -

o  Ask primarily closed form questions, specifically if you will be sending the survey to a large number of workers. Closed form questions provide specific choices and are easy to tabulate.

o  Invite comments, suggestions and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions at the end of the survey. Open-ended items are more challenging to summarize.

o  Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the company president. Make sure to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.

o  Ask a group of representative employees to review the survey before it’s distributed. Find out if the questions will be understood by employees and will not be objected to.

o  Include demographic information at the beginning, or end of the survey (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).

o  Conduct a random drawing for a valued incentive item for all those who returned the survey. This could increase the response rate.

One rule to consider concerning surveys is if you’ve fewer than 500 workers, everyone ought to receive one.  The benefit of everyone receiving a recent survey may be significant. If you’ve over 500 workers, a sample of the work population from each department will suffice.

The higher the response, the more exact and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40 percent to 50 percent is considered valuable.