Wellness Program Investigation.

Program investigation might  be the last step, but it should be planned at the starting of your efforts!  Evaluation assists you identify what parts of the program are working well and what parts need improvement.  

Then, based on the analysis data, adjustments can be made to fine-tune your wellness program.   Adjusting the program based on analysis data is critical to its continued success.  

Analyzing your program doesn’t have to be complicated.  HOWEVER, it is important to plan how you will monitor your wellness efforts and determine success during the planning phase.  

Also remember to evaluate the program based on the goals and goals you already identified during your planning process.  

In order to evaluate your program you need to have a system to document specifics as you go along.  This can be as simple as maintaining file folders on programs that are offered, or a computer document with a table or spreadsheet summarizing information gathering.  Consider -

• Program topic and numbers of employees who participated

• the numbers of  flyers taken by employees or distributed and on what topics

• the number of participants in a behavior change program and how many met their goals in addition to how many attended all of the sessions

• Numbers of employees who continued the healthy behavior change following the program?

• Overall staff member satisfaction with the program or each topic.  Here is a sample analysis form.  

Depending on your objectives and objectives, gather desired data and compare it to previous data accumulated during the initial assessment to determine when the objectives were met.  Such data might include

• Absentee rates

• Injury rates

• Health risk factors Insurance costs  

Summarize and Report Wellness Program Results

Once you’ve gathered all of the examination information it needs to be reviewed with the Wellness Committee and summarized.  You’ll probably have positive results and some areas where a change is needed or additional focus required for continuous improvement.  

This not-so positive information may be used to make any needed changes in addition to to plan for next year and is important to include in your report.  

It is important to communicate the wellness program results to both management and employees.  Consider how management typically receives reports on operations and productivity issues and include the annual wellness program report in the same format.  

At some companies the reports are made during management meetings using presentation styles like power point slides.  At other companies, graphs and bar charts are the norm or a list of the objectives and the summary outcomes reported.  

No matter the format, it’s important to convey the outcomes and successes achieved, including any anecdotal stories, as well as areas for improvement.  Make sure to link the outcomes to the corporation mission and bottom line whenever possible.

Workers want to receive the same information!  Consider using the same communication channels used when informing workers of the wellness program -

• Company newsletters,

• Bulletin boards,

• E-mails  

Also consider celebrating successes and recognizing achievements by -

• Posting pictures from events

• Highlighting success stories

• Posting pictures of successes

• Scheduling a celebration

• Recognizing champions