Posts from — December 2008

To effectively manage your Wellness Program resources, first determine the resources you need and the resources you have. Then develop a plan to fill the resource gaps.

What Wellness Program resources do you need?

• Create a list of people, materials, equipment, space, and logistical support.
• Be as specific as possible.
• Include partnerships that will be needed to make the Wellness Program happen.

Identify available Wellness Program resources.

• Use materials that exist or are already on hand. Resist the temptation to start from scratch!
• Find out what other departments already have.
• Know where to borrow or get free materials.
• Use local or internal resources whenever possible.
• Look for opportunities to cut and/or share costs.

Develop a strategy to fill Wellness Program resource gaps.
• Partner with as many people and organizations as you can. Emphasize what’s in it for them.
o Example: use a Physical Therapist to teach a back health class.
• Take advantage of community organizations and coalitions.
• Use volunteers as often as possible.
o Red Cross volunteers, medical interns or nursing students can supplement your manpower.

Former Wellness Program members make good guest speakers.
• Keep a list of subject matter experts who will provide input for free so you can avoid the expense of an outside contractor or consultant.

Look for innovative Wellness Program opportunities.
• Other funding opportunities may exist at your facility.
o Example: if there is a book fair, see if you can apply to receive some of the proceeds.
• Ask the unit to contribute resources to Corporate Health Promotion Programs directly started at the unit level.
• Get to know the contracting person at your company. They often know the least expensive places to obtain many different types of materials.
• Look for “recycling” possibilities.
o Example: You may be able to give you old computer workstations for use with electronic health assessments.

Good communication will help you find more partners and volunteers.
• Get the word out to the community about your Corporate Health Promotion Programs.
• Describe what you are doing and how you are doing it.
• Presentation is everything. Keep information current and use lots of visual aids.

All Corporate Health Promotion Programs require resources. Some resources you will already have. Some resources you will have to find. Sometimes you will have to make something out of very little. Smart strategies can maximize your Wellness resources.

Business processes are structured activities that achieve a specific result. For example, scheduling appointments is a organization process that results in an orderly work flow and timely patient care.

Wellness Program implementation often requires changes to established organization processes. These changes may be simple, such as adding prescreening appointments to the scheduling process, or more complicated, like determining how time devoted to a particular Wellness Program will be coded.

Not all change can be affected painlessly. However, developing a plan for achieving change will overcome obstacles like:

“But we’ve always done it that way” or “But we’ve never done it that way.”

Each change situation will be different. The path to achieving change may not always be straightforward.

Lesson learned: Making small, incremental changes will be easier than trying to make one big change. It is also easier to modify a current process than to introduce a brand new one.

Develop a road map for change.

Describe the current organization process.
• For example: what is the current registration process for the weight management program? Include steps for both members and staff.

Identify where the new or modified organization process could fit into the current process.
• For example, prescreening appointments for the weight management program could be scheduled when members sign up OR the prescreening could be done at the first class.

Collaborate.
• Consider the change process to be a team effort. Determine everyone who will be affected by the change and get their input.
o For example, be sure to ask the personnel that set up the prescreening appointments AND the personnel that would do the prescreening for their ideas.
• Recruit one or more champions for the change. It helps if the champion has some clout.
• Get buy-in from as many people as you can – including those that might be most resistant to the change.

Communicate.
• Don’t keep the change a secret. The more people know, the more likely they will support a change.
• Anticipate obstacles ahead of time. Be ready to articulate concrete benefits that will result from the change – especially advantages such as costs avoided or training time conserved.

Wellness Program evaluation is critical for effective Wellness and will help you get Senior Management support.

Why evaluate your Corporate Health Promotion Program?

Wellness Program evaluation answers these questions:
• What change(s) occurred in the target population?
• ‘What’s in it’ for Senior Management?
• Are the resources that are being used worth the outcomes that are reached?
• Were Wellness Program outcomes expected? (Unexpected outcomes may have occurred.)
• What Wellness Program areas need improvement?

Wellness Program Fact of Life:

Wellness Program evaluation left to “chance” or until “there is time” will never happen.

• Wellness Program evaluation should be considered as an essential part of the whole plan for Wellness and not as something extra.

Where do you start?

Make it Simple. Wellness Program evaluation does not have to be complicated.
• Get baseline information.
• Baseline information is the health status of the target population at the beginning of the Corporate Health Promotion Program.
• Start by collecting just 3 or 4 primary items as the baseline. You will have better success collecting follow-up information later if you only need to get a few pieces of information.
• Don’t rely only on health indicators that require lab evaluation. Also use self-report information and health indicators that are measurable without lab tests.

• Collect information that relates to readiness.
• You should always be ready to communicate to leadership the ways that your Wellness Program impacts readiness. Plan ahead to collect information that will demonstrate this connection.
• Think like Senior Management: what Wellness Program outcomes will be important from Senior Management point of view?

• It’s never too late to incorporate Wellness Program evaluation into Corporate Health Promotion Programs.
• If your Wellness Program is already up and running and you didn’t plan for information collection ahead of time, start collecting information NOW.
• If you don’t have baseline information, then collect interim information and compare that to end-of-program information.
• Or, you can compare final Wellness Program outcomes to similar programs elsewhere.

If you can’t make any comparisons to other information, use resources like The Community Guide (http://www.thecommunityguide.org/ ) that have already evaluated the effectiveness of Wellness Program components. Compare the components of your Wellness Program to those that have been proven effective elsewhere.

Think ahead: what unexpected challenges might come up as you implement your Corporate Health Promotion Program? How could you adapt and change the Wellness Program to meet those challenges?

• Consider the “what if’s?”
• What if your classroom space is suddenly no longer available?
• What if you can’t hold the Wellness Fair in the usual place?
• Have a ‘Plan B’ (or even Plan C or Plan D) in mind for when the “what if’s” happen.

• Build a team that can help with the Wellness Program
• Who else could teach the health education class if the regular instructor cancels at the last minute?
• Know what areas of expertise your staff has besides their ‘main’ job. For example, find out who has fitness instructor credentials besides just the physical therapist.
• Don’t wait for a crisis before you build a network of people that you can call on.

• Be ready to roll your sleeves up
• Jump in to fill a gap if you need to.
• YOU may have to help restock the milk case in the dining facility when the Dairy Month ‘Milk Mustache’ contest results in increased sales during lunch.

• Be willing (and ready) to respond to feedback about the Wellness Program
• Get member feedback while the Wellness Program is ongoing. Then be ready to adapt to those suggestions.
• For example, if kids in a pediatric obesity Wellness Program fight the idea of completing physical fitness logs, then get a verbal summary of their activity for the week instead.

• Simplify Wellness Program
• If part of your Wellness Program is not working, try making that part less complicated.
• For example, if getting follow-up information is not going the way you planned, then make the process to get information easier OR decrease the number of pieces of information that you collect.

• Use lemons to make lemonade
• What do you do when the Wellness Program doesn’t turn out exactly as you planned? Look for what did turn out. Often, the ‘unexpected outcomes’ produce positive results.
• For example, one company’s database to collect sick call data was made obsolete by a regional system. However, the company database was able to be used in a different way to track vaccination information that enhanced delivery of care to Employees.

Take the time to plan Corporate Health Promotion Programs before they are started.

Strategic planning enables better use of all your resources. Include all the steps below when you plan a Wellness activity.
• Do your homework - Locate the science and research that support your initiatives. Look for similar Corporate Health Promotion Programs that already exist.
• Determine the specific health need(s) - Use these needs to target initiatives to problems that are an issue for your population.
• Organize a team - A team is a resource multiplier. Network and build as many partnerships as you can.
• Make a plan, but don’t start completely from scratch. Create a written plan for your Corporate Health Promotion Program. Look for every opportunity to take advantage of resources that already exist. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
• Select a focus - Choose one or two main target areas for Corporate Health Promotion Programs. Address all five stages of change in the target areas rather than trying to hit every possible Wellness topic.
• Determine your resources - What assets do you have? What assets will you need? How can you fill the gaps?
• Get Senior Management support - Think like Senior Management. Communicate the value of Wellness from Senior Management’s perspective.
• Start the activity- Be flexible. Be prepared for unexpected challenges.
• Market the activity - Keep your Wellness Program visible for Senior Management, line and medical personnel, Wellness Program members, and potential partners and volunteers.
• Collect and analyze outcomes - Outcomes indicate Wellness Program impact. Start with just a few outcomes – you don’t have to collect everything. Remember that it’s never too late to start measuring Wellness Program impact.
• Evaluate, improve and re-evaluate - Use member feedback and Wellness Program outcomes to determine Wellness Program impact. Identify areas in need of improvement. Use outcomes to determine if expended resources were worth the results.

Why use small steps toward behavior change?

Small steps give members immediate feedback on the changes they make towards better health. Measuring these small steps is also an excellent way to collect interim Wellness Program effectiveness information.

Wellness Program small steps make a big difference

Small steps for Wellness Program members
• Walk to work.
• Use fat free milk instead of whole milk.
• Each day think of two things you are grateful for.
• Do sit-ups while you watch TV.
• Drink water before a meal.
• Take 10 deep breaths to relieve tension.
• Eat half your dessert.
• Skip second helpings and buffets.

Measuring small Wellness Program steps
• Use short pre- and mid-point surveys to ask:
• How many glasses of water do you drink a day?
• How often you do eat fast food?
• How often do you skip a meal?
• How often do you engage in physical activity?
• How many servings of fruits and vegetables do you eat each day?

Use the results to show members how their health behaviors are changing for the better.

• Ask members to rate their health status and/or stress levels before and after an intervention.
• Add up individual (or team) steps and mark the progress on a map towards a far away destination.
• Be innovative! Do not rely only on weight loss, BMI, or cholesterol tests as health status progress indicators or behavior change feedback.

Wise words for taking small Wellness Program steps

• The first wealth is health. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
• We are what we repeatedly do. (Aristotle)
• The victory is not always to the swift, but to those who keep moving. (CDC)
• There are 1440 minutes in every day…schedule 30 of them for physical activity. (CDC)

Why Wellness Program follow up?

Getting feedback from Wellness Program members serves two purposes: to obtain information that quantifies a Wellness Program’s impact, and to find ways to improve a Corporate Health Promotion Program.

Building follow up into your Wellness Program

Make it Simple
• Keep follow up to information you absolutely require. A three-question survey is more likely to get a response than one with 20 questions.
• Use email or phone for follow-up. Use personal and business email addresses; use cell phone and unit phone numbers.
• Go to the Employees: go to the unit or somewhere else they will all be gathered, and get follow up information there.
• Give members a stamped envelope addressed to you, with a printed form listing the information you will need.

Keep it structured
• Tell members right from the beginning that you will be doing follow up after the Wellness Program is finished. Be specific about the information you will collect.
• If you need to do hands-on measurements, find out if members will be coming back to your location for another reason (like another clinic appointment). Ask them to stop by while they are in the building – or, better yet, go to where they will be.
• Ask members where they will be the next time you will be collecting information. They may already know their next duty station if they will be PCSing soon.
• Plan ahead for follow up and put it on the schedule. Planning to do follow up “when you have time” usually means follow up will never get done.

Keep it catchy
• Give members something to go along with the request for information. For example, if you send an email to ask for information, send along a yummy recipe or a timely fitness tip.
• Schedule a ‘reunion’ day to collect follow up information. Invite members to come back and share successes and challenges. Have some (healthy) munchies available.
• Have a silly contest – the team with the most follow up information wins something, like having their photos posted on a prominently-placed bulletin board or an eggplant trophy, or some other fun thing.

Why bother to market your Corporate Health Promotion Programs?

Because of the transient nature of the many employee populations, you must market your Corporate Health Promotion Programs all the time. Your goal should be to keep your Corporate Health Promotion Programs as visible as possible.

Innovative marketing can increase awareness of your Wellness Program for:
• Potential Wellness Program members
• Senior Management
• Line and medical personnel
• Potential partners and volunteers

Innovative Wellness Program marketing ideas

Involve Senior Management in your marketing Wellness Program as often as possible.
• For example: invite Senior Management to judge a Wellness Program logo contest.

Link your Corporate Health Promotion Programs to national advertising campaigns
• …like the Great American Smokeout and the Dairy Council’s Milk Mustache campaign.

Collaborate closely with personnel in the home office.
• Submit articles about your Corporate Health Promotion Programs that coincide with National Health Observances. For example: highlight your Asthma Program in May, which is National Asthma Awareness Month.
• Let the home office know you can always provide an article to them when they run short on material. (Then make sure you always follow through.)
Word of mouth is the most effective advertisement for your Wellness Program
• Use real people in your advertising: enlist the help of successful Wellness Program members or use Employees and other post personnel for your marketing materials, when possible.
• Create “buzz” by incorporating an element of competition: which ‘team’ had the most steps over the past week? Which department engaged most frequently in physical activity?
Take advantage of technology
• Use post television and radio resources.
• Use email whenever you can.
Don’t simply market your Wellness Program to potential members, but market the opportunities for others to be involved, as well.
• For example: does the Red Cross know you can always use a volunteer? Do other departments/clinics know that you can always use personnel with some temporary down time?
Don’t be “old news”
• If you put advertising materials up, be sure to take them down in a timely manner.
• Update marketing logos and themes as appropriate.

What is Wellness Program data?

Wellness Program data is information that is collected about your Corporate Health Promotion Program. All Corporate Health Promotion Programs should include data as an integral part of the Wellness Program plan.

Why should you care about Wellness Program data?

Data tells the Wellness story. Data is the tangible proof of a Wellness Program’s impact.

Building data into Corporate Health Promotion Programs

Why bother with Wellness Program Data?

You need Wellness Program data to:
• Evaluate whether or not your Wellness Program is working.
• Answer the ‘so what?’ about the need for a Corporate Health Promotion Program.
• Offer information to Senior Management about the impact of the Corporate Health Promotion Program.
• Write a budget justification so you can secure Wellness Program resources.
• Use Wellness Program resources efficiently and market your Wellness Program more effectively.

Where to begin collecting Wellness Program data:
• MAKE A PLAN to collect the data: decide what, when, and how information will be collected.
• Find out what information is ALREADY BEING COLLECTED.
o For example: use dairy sales information in the dining facility to measure the impact of a milk marketing/dairy month campaign.
• Start collecting JUST A FEW small pieces of information. Be innovative!
o For example: BMI, APFT scores (before & after), tobacco quit rates

IT’S NEVER TO LATE TO START collecting Wellness Program data.

Innovative Wellness Program data strategies
• Use local college/graduate students to help collect, input, and analyze Wellness Program information.
• If your organization has an internship program, get to know the Internship Director. Take advantage of intern resources – including having the Director and/or interns implement the data collection plan for your Corporate Health Promotion Program.
• Use information to let upper management know about the Corporate Health Promotion Programs affect on the workers.

Present this information at their monthly/quarterly meetings.
• Use innovative follow-up strategies to get information. Phone calls can be effective, but also consider email, mailed surveys with return postage provided, and going to the units in person to collect the information.
• Make data collection ‘fun’ for Wellness Program members.
o For example: use a team approach – the team with the ‘best’ overall results gets some sort of award or recognition.
• ALWAYS relate the impact of your Wellness Program to readiness.

Collaboration and Effective Corporate Health Promotion Programs

Why should you collaborate?

Active, ongoing partnerships and cooperative efforts multiply Wellness Program resources in order to better serve Employees and their families.

How can you build collaboration into a Corporate Health Promotion Program?

Get Ready…
• Brainstorm a list of every potential Wellness partner you can think of. Be innovative!
• Be a politician: introduce yourself to everyone BEFORE you need their help.
• Develop a plan to get Senior Management support from as high up the chain as possible. Ensure that to include specific ways that your Wellness Program will impact force readiness.
• Determine how YOU can help your organizations (not just what they can do for you).

Be Steady…
• Get input from everyone that your Wellness Program will affect. Make a special effort to talk to the people closest to Wellness Program implementation (those with “boots on the ground”).
• Your most frequently asked questions should be: “What would you suggest?” and “How do you think this would work best?”
• Locate someone who has done the same type of Wellness Program before and ask their advice. (Hint: the Wellness Program has a list of many Wellness POCs.)
• Plan NOW to show Wellness Program effectiveness. Identify who may ALREADY BE COLLECTING information that will show the Wellness Program is working.

Get Set…
• Step back and review your Wellness Program from a potential partner’s point of view.
• Brainstorm questions your collaborators might have, and have the answers ready.
• Be ready to frame your “selling points” in terms that are important to each specific partner.
• Put the Wellness Program benefits in language your collaborators will understand.
• Emphasize to potential partners how this Wellness Program will provide benefit to them.

And Go…
• Build as many partnerships as you can BEFORE you implement a Corporate Health Promotion Program.
• Make your partnerships a two-way street: always let your collaborators know what you can do for them – then follow-up and do what you say you would do.
• Maintain Senior Management support by offering a regular flow of information. Invite Senior Management participation in the Wellness Program and special events whenever possible. (Hint: they make great judges if you have a contest.)
• Offer regular feedback to your collaborators.
• Don’t hog the spotlight: let your collaborators share in the visibility of the Corporate Health Promotion Program.