What are some key things you need to do to create a successful wellness strategy?
The Wellness Council of America recommends that you:
- Concentrate on senior-level support.
- Create a cohesive wellness team that can help administer the program, give feedback and reach into different areas of the company.
- Collect data to help drive your health efforts.
- Craft an operating plan. You have to decide where you’re going, what the goal is, who will be involved and what the budget is. The key is to look at wellness as a business strategy.
- Choose appropriate interventions for the population.
- Create a supportive environment. Carefully evaluate outcomes.
You should work with your health plan and determine whether you want to imbed a wellness program into your health plan with benefit design coverage or offer it in conjunction with the plan. The two should mirror each other and work together.
You should also look at other community organizations, such as health departments or groups that can provide various services to your employees. Don’t take everything on; instead, get in the mindset of partnering with those around you. Take advantage of these resources, including community walks and runs.
How can you use incentives to encourage employees to participate in a wellness plan?
You need to find incentives that will engage employees and drive participation. Incentives should grab people who wouldn’t normally participate and help those at a healthy status maintain that status. People are so busy that they sometimes need a small reward to encourage them to take time to focus on themselves.
Examples of incentives include cash, reduced insurance premium, contribution to a health savings account, gift cards, merchandise, a paid vacation day, contributions to 401(k) accounts, discounts and subsidies.
How do you evaluate the program to make sure you’re getting the intended results?
You first need to look at participation. People talk with their feet, so you have to find out if they are attending programs. Then you ask for feedback. Find out if the programs drove employees to make health changes, taught them something new or provided them with actionable information.
Then use that feedback to modify your programs. You can look at programs embedded in the benefit design and compare them against claims to see if you are maintaining or reducing health care costs.
How can you make your program flexible to adapt to changes in your business?
Like most business plans, you look at it every year, re-evaluate and make tweaks as appropriate. A wellness program should be flexible enough to meet business demands. You may find that as your business is growing, you want to incorporate more technology into the program. Or you adopt a health coaching program if employees want more one-on-one intervention. There are a lot of options to use different communication methods to reach and educate people in different ways.
Kristine Sapak is the manager of member and corporate wellness at Priority Health. Reach her at [email protected] or (616) 464-8766.