Wellness Assessments

Ten Steps Toward Strategic Workplace Wellness Programs 

The Workplace Wellness Program management world is evolving rapidly. Each month, there are new research findings that support the premise that Workplace Wellness Programs and disease management have a long-term impact on healthcare costs. Many large organizations that started Workplace Wellness Programs three to five years ago are showing savings in health, disability, and workers compensation costs. Small to mid-size organizations are watching all this and wondering where to start with wellness. 

Getting upper management support and budget approval is one of the challenges at the beginning of a Workplace Wellness Program. This is the case because Workplace Wellness Programs can be expensive, averaging $150-300 per staff member per year in large organizations. Most of the savings are not realized for a number of years. This long-term investing is hard for organizations on the move. 

The key to success for Workplace Wellness Programs is to take a strategic approach. Here are ten steps to consider when starting a Workplace Wellness Program. 

1. Begin with upper management. Without upper management support, a health promotion strategy can fall flat. Begin with the health of your executive team and discover your wellness champions at the top of the company.

2. Assess the problem. Look at your healthcare claims and analyze the trends. Which conditions are driving your medical, disability, and workers’ compensation claims and which are modifiable? What’s worked and what hasn’t thus far? What is the long-term impact of doing nothing?

3. Hold an initial wellness meeting. Invite your primary stakeholders both outside and inside the company. Ask your broker to facilitate the meeting and invite primary health vendors including health, disability, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), fitness, and occupational nursing. Review claims and utilization data and identify primary areas of concern. Look at current offerings and see how they can be tailored to the needs of the population.

4. Look at both healthy and unhealthy employees. Since 85% of claims are usually attributed to 15% of claimants, it is essential to reach those with the most costly conditions while also reaching workers who are at risk for developing preventable diseases in the future. Voluntary Workplace Wellness Programs such as lunch & learn wellness seminars miss many of the workers who need them most. Look at programs that are population-wide or target intact workgroups. Wellness incentives help but do not motivate everyone.

5. Establish short-term goals for the Workplace Wellness Programs. Establish some realistic short-term goals based on your primary areas of concern. Are there any plan design changes that could have an immediate impact on spending? Are there some programmatic actions that could have immediate results?

6. Find out what employees are thinking. Hold some focus groups to determine where workers are with wellness. What’s working? What isn’t? How much interest do workers have in the Workplace Wellness Programs? What obstacles and barriers are employees experiencing when they try to change behavior?

7. Ensure that you have a high-impact Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Your first wellness dollars should go into upgrading your Employee Assistance Program (EAP). A highly utilized Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can provide a foundation for all of your future wellness activities. A good Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a trusted link to the hearts and minds of employees. At no additional cost, the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can provide needed follow-up coaching and personal attention for employees who are working on modifiable health behaviors or involved in disease management programs. Nutritionists, fitness, pregnancy, and stress management specialists are all part of a high-value Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

8. Establish three to five year goals for healthcare savings and measure them. Get help from your broker and insurance carrier help you on long-term goals for your health, disability, and workers compensation plans. Establish program metrics that will help you to measure return on investment. Go beyond participation rates, completion rates and program satisfaction. Measure changes in readiness, changes in behavior, and changes in risk factors. Establish rigorous methods to measure healthcare savings over the long term.

9. Establish goals for organizational health. Look at the more intangible benefits of a wellness initiative and quantify them whenever possible. Include staff member turnover rates, cost of new hires, staff member morale, benefit satisfaction data, and employer of choice issues in setting goals. Establish ways to measure success in these areas.

10. Add specifics to your short and long-term plan. Include a Workplace Wellness Program strategy, a communication strategy, and a Workplace Wellness Program incentive strategy that will fit with your corporate culture. Focus on integration of related components along a health continuum with communications that are focused, simple, and human. Establish a budget that includes primary components such as consumer education, health promotion, health risk assessments, and regular biometric screens.