Wellness Plans : Creating and Running Your Health Promotion Program.

Many corporations recognize the need for a robust strategy to help their staff members be the best they can be.

They also know that successful and sustainable health promotion programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your health promotion program ought to include a broad range of key elements, including –

• A clear agenda or statement of goals.

• A plan characterized by passion.

• An effective leader who is creative and organized.

• A focus on short-term outcomes combined with an overall vision.

• A measurable strategy (what’s important gets measured!).

• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Developing Your Wellness Program

Plan carefully to ensure that your wellness program is seen as part of a wide commitment to maintaining the health and safety of all workforce. Yes, building a good plan takes a lot of effort and time (and sometimes resources).

But planning is essential and well worth the investment required.  As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You could begin by conducting a recent survey of staff member needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the results and plan thus. If you don’t, the staff won’t support the wellness program.

Gathering information about what you are already offering is also a good idea. for example, you may be surprised by your business or company’s current wellness and health policies.

Another important step is to establish an agenda and/or measurable goals to help you determine priorities, timelines and the resources required to launch the health promotion program. be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Leadership

The leader of your health promotion program must be able to wear many hats.  The leader’s duties include –

• Creating a vision of the health promotion program after receiving input from all interested workforce.

• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the business (to upper-level managers and fellow personnel alike).

• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.

• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.

• Developing and maintaining leadership skills like giving effective presentations and being well-organized.

Good leaders avoid becoming overwhelmed by overly ambitious and complex plans. You may want to stick to short-term objectives at the starting so that you get immediate and visible results.

These first steps are the basis for a successful wellness program.

Good leaders involve as many individuals  as possible in the health promotion program. for  instance, you’ll want to form a committee made up of a diverse group of personnel to provide advice during the planning phase. This approach will –

• Make certain to help you to obtain valuable information from all parts of the organization.

• Create ambassadors who will help you implement the health promotion program.

Keeping Score and Celebrating

Always rememberhow you’ll monitor progress and evaluate the success of your wellness program. Investigation permits you to –

• Identify areas of excellence.

• Identify factors that affect participation in your wellness programs.

• Gain management’s support for your efforts (and maintain that support).

• Better understand issues that need attention.

• Learn from mistakes and change the health promotion program to keep it on the right track.

When you evaluate your health promotion program, you are able to measure such things as –

• Worker absences.

• Staff Member turnover rates.

• The price of your staff member assistance program.

• The fee of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.

• The cost of your drug plan.

• Accident rates and safety records.

• Employees’ participation in health promotion programs (and whether they’re staying in the health promotion programs).

• Changes in employees’ health habits.

• Level of employees’ awareness of healthful lifestyle issues.

• Results of your environmental wellness audit.

• Other noticeable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A good communications plan provides ongoing information to personnel (including senior level managers) and fosters excitement about the health promotion program.

Positive reinforcement is part of an effective communications plan. for example, you could recognize people who’ve assisted set up the wellness program or offer tangible rewards for achieving goals.

Everybody needs to know whether personnel are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some benefit from them. Showing that a health promotion program has financial benefits is usually an important factor in maintaining strong support from the top.

If you pay attention to the key elements of your health promotion program and communicate openly and continuously while planning and delivering it, you’ll lay a solid foundation and leave a legacy that lasts.