Designing and managing an employee wellness program is an important step in improving the health and productivity of employees and potentially improving the overall cost of employer-provided health care. Wellness programs can benefit employers by:
Because of the ever-increasing costs of health insurance and the importance of employee health, employers should consider implementing a well-thought-out wellness program that benefits both the employee's health and the employer's bottom line.
Obtaining information about the health of the workforce—and the organization's willingness to make improvements based on this information—is a critical step in developing a workforce wellness program. This information will enable the employer to design programs and services that are most beneficial to both the employer and the employee. Below are suggested steps and tools for obtaining this information:
Support from management is essential to building a successful wellness program. As with any initiative, management buy-in is critical for funding purposes, for obtaining support throughout the organization, and for approving policies and processes related to the program. Management can provide additional assistance by helping link the health promotion objectives to business outcomes, thereby positioning wellness as a fundamental part of the organization.
The challenge in obtaining management support is communicating the potential value of a wellness program to the organization's bottom line. See Business Case for Employees for ideas on building a business case for wellness programs.
Addressing the three questions below may help in obtaining the required support from senior management:
After conducting a needs assessment and obtaining management support, an employer can create an internal, employee-driven committee that helps build and sustain a wellness culture in the organization. This committee will help build organizational support and effectiveness for the wellness program. The responsibilities of the wellness committee might include the following:
Employers should solicit committee members by invitation or ask for volunteers, ensuring there is cross-sectional representation, such as members from the top management, the HR department, information technology, communications/marketing, and the health and safety department; union representatives; and employees interested in health and wellness.
Employers may want to address these additional considerations for the wellness committee:
Using the information gathered from the workforce assessment, employers can establish goals and objectives for the program. For many organizations, a key goal is to improve workers' health and thereby reduce health care costs. Other goals may include reducing absenteeism, boosting worker productivity and increasing retention. Wellness program goals and objectives are statements of broad, long-term accomplishments expected from the program. Each goal has one or more objectives to ensure that the goal will be successfully accomplished. Objectives should be clear, time-limited and stated in such a way that it is easy to determine whether they have been achieved. Below are a few examples of goals and objectives:
Establishing a budget is a critical step in creating the wellness program. Without funding, the program will stall.
When creating a wellness budget, organizations should include the cost of incentives, marketing and program design in the budget. Typical items in a budget would include screening vendor/other provider fees; incentives for participation; promotional materials; meeting provisions; pedometers/fitness trackers; HR representative and committee member time; etc.
Additionally, employers may want to consider taking the following steps to look for hidden funding resources:
Employers have great latitude in designing the wellness program. There is not one standard program, as each will vary based on organizational needs and resources. The wellness program may range from a very simple program to an elaborate multi-prong program. It is important to include a variety of components that target risk behaviors and the needs and interests of the employees. Organizations can use the resources obtained in previous steps of organizational assessment, in wellness committee data gathering and in budgetary constraints, as well as in the goals and objectives, to determine the types of wellness programs to include in the design. See the sections on "Actions Employers Can Take" in the Transamerica Center for Health Studies report, From Evidence to Practice: Workplace Wellness that Works for ideas and guidance on specific types of programs. The company's level of desired involvement, determined from the organizational assessment in step 1, will be a key consideration in determining the types of programs to include. Examples of common programs are as follows:
Although employers do have great latitude in designing wellness programs, like with the health risk assessments discussed earlier, employers still need to consider the legal issues and compliance requirements provided by the ADA, GINA, HIPAA and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), such as:
Incentives or rewards are an effective tool to change unhealthy behaviors, to adhere to healthy behaviors, to increase participation rates or to help individuals complete a program. The argument for rewarding employees for participating in a wellness program pulls from the basic principles of behavioral psychology: People are driven to act by the positive consequences they expect from their actions. Building a rewards system into a wellness program is a great motivator. Rewards can take many forms, including points that can be exchanged for goods, gifts celebrating accomplishments or monetary awards. Over time, the motivation for rewards shifts from an external incentive to intrinsic reinforcement.
Effective incentives will be commensurate with the effort required to practice the desired behavior. For example, incentives attached to smoking cessation or weight loss should be greater than incentives for participating in a lunch-and-learn seminar.
Federal and state regulations may limit incentives, so employers should keep up to date on applicable compliance obligations.
The next step is to write and communicate the organization's wellness policy. This policy statement should include the organization's intent, level of involvement, and rewards and incentives system with respect to employee wellness. In communicating the reward system to employees, presenting a John Doe example may help them see the program in real-life terms.
Communication is important to marketing the program and ensuring participation. It is helpful to use communication to create a social culture where being healthy is valued. This can be done in many ways, using well-established techniques of marketing and changing behavior, such as the following:
Ongoing communication and marketing are important for maintaining engagement in the wellness program.
As with any investment or project, evaluating the effectiveness of the wellness program is important in sustaining management and employee support and in revising or implementing new programs. Employers should have established metrics and baselines at the rollout of any wellness initiative, which will vary depending on the programs implemented. For example, employers may measure participation rates, program completion rates, reduction in health care costs and percentage of employees who stopped smoking or lost weight. Employers may also want to measure the return on investment (ROI). Regardless of the tools or measurements used, evaluating the effectiveness of the wellness program is an important step in the ongoing management of the program.