Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals have four standard elements in workplace settings:
• A Questionnaire
• A Computer Program to Evaluate Health Risk Factors
• Confidential Individual Reports
• Group Summary Report

Workers complete a lifestyle questionnaire that includes for example diet practices, height and weight, exercise habits, family history, stress perceptions, smoking history, and work satisfaction. Another important feature to consider is readiness to change questions to determine participation interest. Including health screenings such as cholesterol and Blood Pressure results increases the advantages of an Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment by providing a more accurate health assessment and therefore improving lifestyle choice decisions and program options. Nonetheless, it is important to determine if the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment can be used without including this information.

The health risk questionnaire information is entered into a computer program and an individual confidential report is generated that summarizes health risks as well as information on how to reduce risk factors. Individual reports are fully confidential. Depending on the reason for launching the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, it’s valuable to consider the type of report the company will receive as well. A group report summarizing major risk factors and recommendations for programs to start in order to reduce employee and company risks supplies valuable information for your wellness program.

The Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals can be used to:
• Raise awareness to individual employee’s health status
• Encourage workers to make healthier lifestyle changes
• Coach high-risk workers
• Plan Employee Health Promotion Programs based on the identified needs
• Assess program performance by comparing Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments completed at set intervals such as yearly.

Onsite Heath Professional roles can include: Case management, Counseling, Company Wellness Program, Legal and regulatory compliance, Clinical services, and Hazard detection and controls. The American Association of Occupational and Environmental Health Nurses is the national association, www.AAOHN.org. The State Chapter also has a website with information including local chapter information to help you locate a contact near you, www.NCAOHN.org.

Health educators are able to design, conduct and evaluate activities that help better the health of all your workers. They are subject matter experts who may be a important asset regardless your program needs and goals/objectives. They are able to help form a Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee and start countless of its programs and services, for example or depending on the structure and time commitments of your Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee, they are able to also plan the entire program as well. Integrating the activities of the Committee and/or Workplace Health Promotion Program professional services within your operations, including within your safety and occupational health program will support additional advantages!

Please complete the survey today and return it to__________. We appreciate your significant input! Your help is significant for creating successful programs. Return the completed form by _____________.

Rate your interest on a scale of 1 – 3 with one (1) being of little or no interest; two (2) being of some interest and three (3) indicating that you are very interested. Indicate your response by circling or ‘Xing’ the number.

I am interested in:

Participating in wellness programs before work 1 2 3
Participating in wellness programs after work 1 2 3
Participating in wellness programs during my lunch break 1 2 3
Adopting healthy eating options to lose weight 1 2 3
Sports nutrition 1 2 3
Healthier cooking 1 2 3
Helping my children eat healthier 1 2 3
Quick, healthy meals for hectic lifestyles 1 2 3
Healthy snack options 1 2 3
Learning how to quit smoking 1 2 3
Attending classes to help me quit smoking cigarettes 1 2 3
Stress Mangement skills 1 2 3
Balancing work, family, and personal life 1 2 3
Time senior staff skills 1 2 3
Participating in a beginning exercise program 1 2 3
Starting time to exercise for busy people 1 2 3
Getting health information that I can read or watch at home 1 2 3
Learning about cancer prevention 1 2 3
Heart health options 1 2 3
CPR and First Aid 1 2 3
Team sports activities at work 1 2 3
Learning how to stretch 1 2 3
Learning how to increase intake of fruits and vegetables 1 2 3
Parenting Topics (age of children: ) 1 2 3
Onsite exercise classes: walking Yoga aerobic other: 1 2 3
Health assessment such as Blood Pressure (BP), cholesterol, blood sugar 1 2 3

Evaluating your program does not have to be be terribly complex.  However, it is important to plan how you will oversee your wellness efforts and determine success during the planning phase or Step 5.  Also remember to evaluate the program based on the objectives you already identified during your planning process.  

In order to evaluate your program you must have a system to document specifics as you progress.  This can be as simple as maintaining file folders on programs that are available, or a computer document with a table or spreadsheet summarizing information collecting.  Consider:

• Program topic and numbers of workers who participated
• The numbers of handouts taken by workers or distributed and on what topics
• The number of participants in a behavior modification program and how many met their goals/objectives as well as how many attended all of the sessions
• Numbers of employees who continued the healthy behavior modification following the program?
• Overall employee satisfaction with the program or each topic.  

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

• Absentee rates
• Injury rates
• Health risk factors Insurance expenditures  

Summarize and Report Workplace Wellness Program Results

Once you have collected all of the evaluation information it needs to be reviewed with the Employee Wellness Program Committee and summarized.  You will probably have beneficial results and some areas where a change is needed or additional focus needed for continuous improvement.  This not-so beneficial information can be used to make any needed changes as well as to plan for next year and is valuable to include in your report.  

It is significant to communicate the wellness program outcome to both upper management and workers.  Consider how upper management usually receives reports on operations and work rate concerns and include the annual wellness program report in the same format.  At some companies the reports are made during upper management meetings using presentation styles such as authority point slides.  At other companies, graphs and bar charts are the norm or a list of the objectives and the summary outcomes published.  

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

Staff Members want to receive the same information!  You might use the same communication channels used when informing workers of the wellness program:

• Organization newsletters,
• Bulletin boards,
• E-mails  

Also consider celebrating successes and recognizing achievements by:

• Posting pictures from activities
• Highlighting effectiveness stories
• Posting pictures of successes
• Having a celebration
• Recognizing champions  

If your planning phase was well executed, you should simply have to follow through with the plans you have already made.  

Important Company Wellness Program considerations include:

1. Formally Introduce the Worksite Health Promotion Program and consider policy statements that state the significance of the wellness program.  Examples include a general policy concerning the responsibility to employee health and safety as well as specific policies such as No Smoking, Healthy Eating and Physical Activity.
2. Communicate Your Program: The best planned program with great wellness programs will not be advantageous if your workers are unaware of it or do not know the options or how to participate.  Communicate your wellness program using a variety of methods to make sure the message and “how-to’s” are heard!

   Worksite Health Promotion Program Communication Strategies might include:

   • Newsletter articles
   • Postings on the company’s intranet or internet
   • A designated Champion of the program
   • Formal or informal meeting to announce program, “the kick-off”
   • Flyers / handouts / brochures / table tents,
   • Bulletin boards / kiosk where all material is promoted or found,
   • Email / phone messages,
   • Mailings or distributions  

3. Use Workplace Wellness Program Incentives:  You’ll be amazed to find out what most of us will do for a no cost T-shirt.  Incentives can both support and encourage participation among employees.  Consider both formal or organization rewards and incentives and informal or program rewards/prizes from local resources to reinforce participation in Workplace Wellness Programs. Either way, it’s significant to provide rewards and incentives that are enticing and meaningful to your employees.

   Formal Employee Health Promotion Program Incentives:

   • Savings on employee healthcare insurance premiums or co-pays, or contributions to 401K programs, employee stock options, or other mechanisms.  
   
   Click here for more information on health plan incentive ideas
   
   • fitness center/Fitness Center discounts or enrollment fee coverage
   • Public transportation vouchers
   • Flexible work time options
   • “Wellness Days” off work  

   Rewards or Informal Corporate Health Promotion Program Incentives:

   • Cash – a very effective incentive!
   • Prize incentives such as gift certificates to heart-healthy restaurants; media player to use while exercising, emergency kits, or any other prizes that would arouse your staff members.
   • T-Shirts, water bottles, or other inexpensive rewards

4. Assess area resources available to provide some of the wellness services.  The local health department or your employer health care provider may be able to support  you with this information.  There are also vendors throughout the State providing great wellness services for employers.  They are available to help you strategize and find the best options available.

5. Begin your program as planned documenting information and outcomes as you go such as numbers of participants, dates of activities, and any other special details you are tracking.

Corporate Health Promotion Program Marketing

This is the time to coordinate your marketing strategies!  How can you market the wellness program and ongoing activities?  No matter how you decide to, market often, keep it fresh, and remind employees again and again!  Consider having an overall kickoff activity to let everyone know about the wellness program.  Upper Management should support the introduction or invitation so that all employees are alert to their support and leadership in the program.

Possible marketing methods:

• Distributing email messages, including reminders
• Develop bulletins,
• Hanging bulletin board postings,
• Composing articles,
• Mailing letters or
• Distributing special invitations.  

Other Worksite Health Promotion Program Considerations:

• Is the Worksite Wellness Program promoted to all workers or to a specific group?
• Do you have a Company Health Promotion Program champion (someone who is joined with different groups in the organization, and well respected) who can help in your promotion efforts?
• If your marketing efforts don’t seem to be working, do you have a way to revisit and adjust your plan?
• How will you determine performance and evaluate your program?  And how will you collect the information needed to evaluate your program?  

Topics most often included in Workplace Health Promotion Programs:

• Nutrition
• Physical Activity/Exercise
• Tobacco Use Cessation
• Bone Health
• Heart Health
• Healthy Back
• Stress Reduction
• Chronic Disease Awareness & Prevention
• Self-care; Wise Health Care Consumer
• Screening Services (BMI, Blood Pressure, bone density, cholesterol, glucose, posture, vision, and other…)
• Ergonomic Assessments
• Health Fairs
• Kids/family Events
• Others issues that employees have interest in  

The issues and type of Corporate Wellness Program planned hinge upon the needs and interest, overriding objective and resources available.  Program Design Options   include awareness programs such as brochures and/or education sessions, behavior change programs such as tobacco cessation and weight loss classes, and environmental or corporation support such as no smoking policies or healthy selections in snack machines.  

The programs planned also depend on the demographics of your workforce.  If you have a young, healthy workforce, you may want to focus the wellness attention on keeping workers healthy and not need to screen for disease.  Instead you might want to focus on healthy lifestyle behavior such as exercise and good nourishment to prevent the on-set of disease.  Click here for more information on strategies for keeping workers well, identifying disease early, or returning workers to work who already have a chronic disease.

It is also important to consider, and plan how you will evaluate the effectiveness of your wellness program.  The system needs to be established for tracking certain data and recording activities depending on the program goals and objectives.  Step 7 discusses program evaluation in more detail.   And Step 6 will launch your program!

Wellness program goals/objectives are different from one business to another depending on the population, needs, interests and resources.  Nonetheless, well thought out objectives based on your company’s needs assessment will form the foundation of a efficacious wellness program!

Worksite Health Promotion Program Mission Statement

The first consideration is a mission statement for your Company Wellness Program. The mission statement is the overriding expression of what the Company Wellness Program Committee wants to accomplish by implementing a wellness program.  It is important to consider how your Company Wellness Program fits in with the business mission statement, contributes to the overriding mission and supports the business bottom line.  This will integrate your efforts throughout the business operations.  

Below are some examples of Employee Health Promotion Program mission statements:

“At XYZ Company, maintaining an environment that supports employee health and safety is our underlying value.  It is the mission of the Workplace Health Promotion Program to assist  in starting Workplace Health Promotion Program services that fosters and upholds that value.”

“It is the mission of the XYZ Company Wellness Program Committee to foster healthier lifestyle choices to lower health risk factors, improve overall wellness, and maintain a productive, active work force.”

Workplace Health Promotion Program Goals

The goals/objectives further define your mission and are based on your needs assessment.  Depending on the needs assessment, upper management expectations and employee interests, examples of goals/objectives can include:

The goal(s) of XYZ Worksite Health Promotion Program in year XXXX is to:  (one or more of the following examples)

• Reduce absenteeism by one day per employee
• Decrease musculoskeletal injuries by ten%
• Lower unnecessary emergency room visits
• Decrease or contain health care expenditures
• Improve dietary habits of employees
• Lower health risk factors  

Corporate Health Promotion Program Objectives

Specific Workplace Wellness Program objectives help meet your long-term goals and objectives.  Both short term and long term objectives should be developed as the stepping stones to accomplish the goals and objectives.  In addition to objectives for the expected colleague outcomes, process objectives should also be developed for the program process itself.  By way of example, process objectives may include the number of staff members you want to participate in the programs, the number of sessions on a topic will be provided, the type of wellness sessions that will be implemented, etc.

Objectives must be easily measurable within a set time frame.  Try using the SMART formula to set up both your long and short-term goals/objectives:

• Specific (one behavior or outcome)
• Measurable (one result that can be observed or evaluated),
• Attainable (but also challenging),
• Realistic (do you have the resources to achieve?), and
• Time specific (within 3 months – up to 5 years)  

This is the who, what, when, where, why, and by how much method.  For example, the mission for a weight loss program that has an overriding goal of improving healthy eating and promoting a healthy weight is that:

Members (who) will lose an average of .5 – 1 lbs per week (specific what that is measurable) at the end of the 12 week lunchtime program (time specific what, when and where) for a minimum of 6 lbs weight loss per participant (attainable and realistic).

Or:

Members (who) will attend 11 of the 12 sessions (specific what that is measurable) and name at least one healthier eating change at the end of the program (specific what, when, where)

An example of an objective for coaching staff members with elevated cholesterol might be:

To cut the total cholesterol (specific what) of high risk employees with cholesterol over 240 mg/dl (specific who) to 200 mg/dl (measurable how much) through one-on-one counseling sessions offered at the workplace (where) by X date (ex, after 6 months) (attainable, realistic & time specific when) to cut the risk factor for heart disease (why).  

And one last example of a process mission for a tobacco cessation program with an overall intention to support  participants in committing to quit for life:

By the end of the 4-week smoking cessation program, ten% of the participants will have quit smoking.  Each colleague will be contacted at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months from the program’s end to determine quit status (process objective) and ten% of those who quit will still be smoke-free after one year.

You have now completed Steps 1 through 4, including adopting your Employee Wellness Program Committee.  It is now time to plan your wellness activities!

It is often tempting to rush the assessment – especially when time is short or those with experience already have an idea of needs.  Do not give in to this temptation!  It is critical that you be aware of what your company needs are, what management expects, and what workers want as well as expect, before you create a Workplace Wellness Program.  

Consider and collect data on:

• Employee Demographic Information
• Employee Health Risk Factors
• Medical Claims
• Injury Rates & Causes
• Workers’ Compensation Claims
• Short and Long Term Disability Claims
• Rates of Absenteeism
• Corporation Culture Audits
• Employee perceived needs and health risks
• Senior Management’s expectations or desired outcomes

There are many ways to evaluate this information.  Although some of data gathering process may be time consuming, remember that it is nonetheless essential to plan programs that target specific problems.  This information will be essential to set objectives and for evaluating program success.  How else can you know if outcomes have been achieved?

Options to help gather the information:

• Confidential Health Risk Appraisals (HRAs) with a Company Group Summary Report
• Wellness Screenings such as blood lipids, Blood Pressure (BP) and blood glucose click here for additional information on wellness screenings.
• Employee Needs and Interest Surveys
• Suggestion boxes placed around the organization
• Focus Groups or hosting a luncheon meeting as a focus group
• Sending out a confidential email questionnaire
• Review records and databases including OSHA logs, first aid reports, insurance costs  

Once your needs assessment is complete, the Corporate Wellness Program Committee can review the results and start organizing and prioritizing program options.  Starting should be based upon objectives and identified outcomes, Step 4 of the seven step process!

Typical Functions of a Company Wellness Program Committee:

• Evaluating needs & interests
• Brainstorming program ideas
• Beginning activities
• Developing communication plans
• Promoting programs to co-workers
• Serving as champions of the Company Wellness Programs
• Assisting with assessment  

Your Company Health Promotion Program Committee ought to be representative of all levels of the business.  Consider all areas of the workforce – multiple sites, shift workers, diversity (race, gender, ethnicity), and departments.   It’s also important to consider who will chair or co-chair the Company Health Promotion Program Committee and whether or not there are the finances to support a Company Health Promotion Program manager or occupational health consultant, even on a part-time or contractual basis.  Click here for more information on the benefits of a health consultant.  

Depending on your organization size and resources, if you already have a organization Safety Committee you might want to consider making it the Safety & Employee Wellness Program Committee.  You have the potential to request volunteers or invite staff members to participate.  

The number of Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee participants depends on the size of your business; however, you need a sufficient number of participants to get the work done and yet not too many to keep it manageable, usually a minimum of 4 participants and maximum of 12 to 15 participants.  It’s important to include skeptics of wellness as well and not just those employees already practicing healthy lifestyles.  

Depending on your worksite, consider representatives from the following areas:

• Employee representatives from a cross section of different departments,
• Senior Management
• Health and safety consultant(s),
• Human Resources (HR) consultant(s),
• Employee benefits representative or someone from finance,
• Your EAP provider (if applicable), Click here for more information on EAPs
• Occupational health employee (if applicable).

Establish an effective Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee!  The Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee ought to meet on a regular basis with a planned agenda and action items.  Successful Wellness Committees have a shared mission, vision and objectives.  Participants must believe that their participation is worthwhile and appreciated, that their work is important, benefits the organization and co-staff members, and they are recognized for their contributions. Refer to the NC Workplace Programs section for examples of what other businesses have implemented.

employees need to be involved on several levels so that they feel ownership of the wellness program.  Workers are the program stakeholders!  All employees must have a chance to provide input and feedback through needs & interest surveys and program assessment tools.  The information gathered must be used to plan programs that target those needs and interests to ensure participation, buy-in, and backing.

There are several methods to identify employee needs and interests such as:

• Having Employee Focus Groups
• Discussing Wellness Interests During Department meetings
• Administering and Summarizing a Needs & Interest Survey
• (Including|Allowing for|Making sure to include} a Time to Give Suggestions on Each Assessment Tool  

Any one or combination of several techniques will be sure that the wellness program meets what workers want.

Step 3 provides additional information on determining wellness program needs.  But first, implementing a Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee can help you involve upper management & employees, determine need, and plan your wellness program.