The remaining group is probably the largest group in most employers: employees who are at various stages of readiness to improve their health given the right type of programming and motivation. Summarized below are some tips you may want to employ once your program is up and running.

Key Factors in Corporate Wellness Program

In today’s society there are many key factors that influence people’s health behaviors. Look at the following list in maintaining participation in your program:

1. 1. TIME. Staff members are busy, so the more you can work activity and healthy eating into their existing schedules, the better your chances for success. Example: A walk during lunch doesn’t take away from existing time, it just uses it differently. Also look at the time of the day and length of any activity you might be promoting, since both time components may be factors.
2. ACCESS. How accessible is your Corporate Wellness Program. Is it onsite or at a nearby site? Do you offer access at breaks or outside of normal work hours?
3. KNOWLEDGE. Staff members need to know “Why” they are taking part in (the benefits) and also will need information about the “How to” in areas that are not commonly known.
4. COST. Make sure that you can provide no cost or reduced cost Corporate Wellness Programs will help participation rates. Coupled with incentives for participation, rates of participation will likely increase dramatically.
5. INCENTIVES. Some employees need incentives to get started in a Corporate Wellness Program. A full list of Corporate Wellness Program incentive options can be on the website.

Key Time Periods in Corporate Wellness Program

Good habits are often difficult to develop. There tends to be some critical times when employees drop out or fall off of a physical activity or diet program. The first key time zone seems to be around 6 weeks. If employees can start and stay consistent with a program through the first 6 weeks, they have made a fairly serious commitment to incorporate the habits into their lifestyle.

The second key time is at about 6 months. Those who made it past 6 weeks may get bored and/or distracted from their program after several months. If employees can get past 6 months and sustain behavior through a full set of weather seasons, they have a very good chance of making the changes permanent.

Look at these time periods and think about how you can “boost” your staff members to get them past these critical time markers. Promoting individual or group “challenges”, using incentives, or increased publicity/marketing are a few of the things you can do to help get your staff members through these key time periods

Goal Setting for Corporate Wellness Program

Setting goals has been shown to lead to better participation and more employees making a strong commitment. Whether it be a team goal of walking the equivalent of once around your state or an individual goal of so many miles or minutes of activity, the fact that there is something concrete to shoot for increases the likelihood employees will stick with the program.

Buddy Systems or Team Goals for Corporate Wellness Program

The social aspects of improving one’s health cannot be underestimated. Many studies point to tight social groups being the backbone for a successful campaign because each individual has a commitment to something bigger than themselves and besides, it’s just more fun for most employees. Build your program around some type of teams or partners and see what happens.

Team “Campaigns” for Corporate Wellness Program

Some employees like competition and others don’t. Nevertheless, a worksite wide campaign has the advantage of keeping the message more visible and alive. Encourage campaign participation, but make it voluntary so that those who prefer that type of motivation can join while others can participate in their own way and at their own pace. If the idea of a campaign seems like too much work, consider tapping into existing campaigns where someone else provides resources for you.

Incentives for Corporate Wellness Program

Incentives are often helpful in maintaining or raising interest. Significant incentives such as cash or health insurance rebates have proven to be very strong motivators for employee participation. However, even smaller incentives can be beneficial. Listed below are some sample incentives:

• Achievement awards. Verbal praise and a pat on the back are motivational to some, but a token of recognition of achievement may offer more. A colorful certificate to congratulate an employee for achieving a health-related goal is one example.
• Public recognition. Announced recognition at campaign mid-point or wrap-up festivities.
• Food. Include some healthy foods to kick-off, revitalize or wrap up a wellness campaign.
• Entertainment. Events serve a purpose in jump-starting, reenergizing or wrapping up a campaign. Having entertainment of any kind can boost morale.
• Merchandise. There is a long list of merchandise incentives, including sports equipment and small gift certificates to use at local merchants.
• Monetary rewards. Nothing says incentive better than cash. Worksites that have used cash or rebates as an incentive have shown much higher participation rates.
• Time off. Maybe the next best incentive to cash, or for some employees even better. This type of incentive makes good business sense if the number of absences drops significantly and attendance is used as one of the criteria.

Stretching initiatives are another effective tool in injury prevention. According to the Best Practices in Manufacturing Web site, Dayton Parts, Inc. (DPI) in Harrisburg, Pa., conducted research that revealed approximately 80% of all manufacturing injuries occurred within the first two hours of each shift. After implementing a program that required production staff members to stretch for 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of their shifts, they saw a dramatic reduction in injuries.

While the DPI Corporate Wellness Program costs about $75,000 a year to operate, in conjunction with other business initiatives, it has helped bring the annual cost of workers’ compensation from $700,000 to $200,000 per year.6

To help prevent lengthy absences and reduce workers’ compensation claims, Honda instituted a work recovery program. Through the program, workers who have had an injury can work in a modified job—getting better. Employees in the program spend their work days receiving physical conditioning to increase overall fitness, physical therapy to restore functionality, health education and nutrition counseling. The program is based on information that shows fewer work days are lost when an employee stays connected to the work environment.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, www.ohiobwc.com, provides a “10-Step Business Plan” as a guide for employers in providing Corporate Wellness Programs that aim to reduce injuries. The plan includes information on safety and health initiatives to prevent occurrences of on-the-job accidents, including:

employee involvement – To ensure the success of any Corporate Wellness Program, staff members must participate in the safety and health-management process. This can be done through safety and health audits, accident investigations, or by forming safety and health involvement teams, focus groups or committees.

Orientation and training plan – Conduct orientation and training sessions to educate staff members on the business’s safety policies. These sessions should include procedures for the safe use of machinery and tools, chemical hazards and how to prevent contact or exposure, specific job/task safe practices, and hazard recognition and prevention.

Communication – Open communication keeps staff members informed and provides suggestions and feedback on the effectiveness of the Corporate Wellness Program. Through memos, bulletin boards and staff meetings, important safety and health information can be conveyed throughout the organization, keeping all management staff and staff members knowledgeable about the business’s safe practices.

The business plan also outlines incentives for post-injury procedures, including:

Medical treatment and return-to-work practices – arly return-to-work strategies help injured or ill workers return to work in a timely manner. Companies should establish a disability management policy to help injured or ill staff members obtain quality medical treatment, making their transition back to work quick and effortless.

Timely notification of claims – Employers should document workplace injuries immediately after they occur and promptly send that documentation to a claims handler. Quickly providing claim information demonstrates care and concern for the injured employee, prevents delays and confusion with the claim process, and reduces the potential for abuse or needless litigation.

Record keeping – Internal documents should be kept to record work-time injuries and to assess the success of the business’s safety efforts. Business audits, surveys and injury or illness reports can all be used to analyze which safety practices and policies have proven successful, and what areas of health and wellness need improvement.

Medical Interns and Residents

• If your Medical Center has an internship Corporate Wellness Program, get to know the Internship Director.
• Make use of these resources – including having the Director and/or interns/residents implement the outcome information collection plan for your Corporate Wellness Program.

Local college and graduate students

• Where appropriate volunteer agreements are in place, use local college/graduate students to help collect, input, and analyze Corporate Wellness Program data.
• Make use of the fact that these students are often looking for projects.
• If there are no “health-related” students/interns in your area, consider using business students. Let them calculate a cost avoidance or ROI for your Corporate Wellness Program.

Other Medical Personnel

• Partner with other Medical Personnel. Determine who is collecting information, what information they are collecting, and how they are collecting it.
• If they are using a survey and the survey administration process is already in place, ask if you can add a question or two.
• Be aware of other research going on at your facility. They may already be collecting information you need OR may have analysis resources that can be shared.
• Make sure other departments in the Medical center know you can always use some extra help if they have personnel with any down time. Use these resources for information entry or other administrative tasks.
• Make use of the volunteers at your Medical Treatment Facility to help collect and input data.

Past Corporate Wellness Program members

• Past Corporate Wellness Program members are also a good resource.
• They may be willing to lead a class session, provide encouragement to current Corporate Wellness Program members, or help collect data.
You can improve data collection and analysis by taking advantage of local resources. Using these resources expands the reach and impact of your Corporate Wellness Program.

Gap analysis can also be used for your Corporate Wellness Program to determine where the program stands now and how the Corporate Wellness Program can better follow evidence-based recommendations.

To begin a gap analysis, ask these simple questions about your Corporate Wellness Program:
• What is the current state of the Corporate Wellness Program?
• How does the Corporate Wellness Program measure up to evidence-based practices? (i.e., the desired state)

The gap is the difference between the current and desired states.

After the gap has been identified, the next step is to determine the action steps that are needed to close the gap. These actions answer the question: “How can the Corporate Wellness Program move forward towards the desired state?”

Sometimes the gaps that need to be filled can be addressed through Corporate Wellness Program changes; other gaps might require policy changes. However, using a gap analysis will help you identify areas for Corporate Wellness Program improvement and the actions needed to make progress towards those goals.

More smart Corporate Wellness Program business planning strategies

Planning the Corporate Wellness Program
• Determine how your organization plans so that your planning process will be in sync with what already happens in the organization.
• Involve other employees. A planning team brings their combined experience and perspective to the process. Including potential partners as you plan will make it easier to get their buy-in later.

Thinking of the big picture
• Look at the barriers and challenges that might be encountered during Corporate Wellness Program implementation. Develop strategies ahead of time to overcome these potential problems.
• Do a SWOT analysis and examine Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

This analysis will help you identify potential problem areas or resource shortfalls and opportunities for growth or increased partnerships with other installation personnel.

The WORST business planning strategy: sitting in your office; working by yourself.

The best Corporate Wellness Program business planning strategies
• Get out of your office; get out of the business. The more employees you involve in the Corporate Wellness Program planning process, the better. Always look for ways to expand your network.
• Keep your budget employees informed. Get to know their philosophy of financial management.
• Be able to articulate the impact if your budget is not fully funded.
o Stay away from basing your impact-if-not-funded argument only on: “We have to.”
o Instead, describe the impact-if-not-funded with phrases like: injuries to workers, increased compensation costs, increased medical care costs for patients, lost work time, loss of licenses/accreditations, loss of workload to the Tricare network.
• Always have purchase requests ready to be submitted. There is often a short window of time to process these requests. Having the information gathered ahead of time will make it easy to submit the information right away.

A well thought-out Corporate Wellness Program business plan is essential in these times of shrinking budgets and resources. A good business plan will help you gain leadership support and help you get and keep resources needed to implement the Corporate Wellness Program.

What is a business plan?

• A plan for success
• A document that convincingly demonstrates that your Corporate Wellness Program will help the organization to achieve its goals.

Questions to ask when developing a Corporate Wellness Program business plan

• Why do you need to do the Corporate Wellness Program?
• What are you going to do?
• Where are you going to do it?
• Who is the target audience?
• How are you going to do it?
• Who is going to implement the Corporate Wellness Program?
• How much will the Corporate Wellness Program cost Upper Management?
• What is Upper Management going to get out of the Corporate Wellness Program? Why should Upper Management invest in the Corporate Wellness Program?

Corporate Wellness Program business Plan Components

• Title and duration of the Corporate Wellness Program
• Points of contact
• Background information (description of need; bibliography/literature review; how the Corporate Wellness Program will help achieve the organization’s goals)
• Corporate Wellness Program description
• Goals and objectives
• Implementation site
• Target population
• Work plan
• Partnerships and collaborations
• Timelines and milestones
• Budget and resource requirements (dollars and employees)

Gaining the support of leadership

• Clearly link the Corporate Wellness Program goals and objectives to the organization’s strategic plan.
• Focus on the desired outcomes.
• Use the right language for the right audience. By way of example, Upper Management is interested in decreased clinic visits, increased provider productivity, management of the health of the population. However, Upper Management is interested in increased readiness, decreased lost duty/training time, and decreased disability and FECA claims.
A well thought-out Corporate Wellness Program business plan will help you gain leadership support, help you get and keep resources needed to implement the Corporate Wellness Program, and keep the Corporate Wellness Program on track towards meaningful outcomes.

Strategy #5: Using a small number of targeted priorities maintains Corporate Wellness Program focus.

• Needs assessment data can be used to identify leading health needs and also high risk populations.
• Choosing a handful of specific health needs on which to focus will maximize efficient use of resources.
• Keeping the Corporate Wellness Program focus small will avoid duplication of other ongoing installation Corporate Wellness Programs.

Strategy #6: Use standardized processes whenever possible.

Reduce the amount of variation within your Corporate Wellness Programs by standardizing all the processes needed for Corporate Wellness Program planning and implementation. By way of example:
• Use the same spreadsheet format for data collection so that the columns are in the same order. This way you can compare information more easily.
• Reuse the same forms for enrollment and attendance. Change the heading as needed.
• Look at other Wellness Programming processes (like registration, evaluation, marketing, etc.). What parts of those processes can be standardized?
• The Wellness and Prevention Initiatives website (http://chppmwww. apgea.army.mil/dhpw/Population/HPPiFunction.aspx) has many standardized Corporate Wellness Program resources in a variety of topic areas.

Strategy #7: Corporate Wellness Program delivery methods should be flexible and adapted to population needs.

• Delivery of products and services may depend on: unit needs, training requirements, other scheduling considerations (such as work/duty schedules, school scheduling, etc.), participant preference, and/or availability of staff or space.
• Be flexible: the same produce/service delivery methods may not work for every population.
• Some units may want services provided to them as close as possible to the unit location; other units may prefer as many services as possible bundled together at once (regardless of location).
• Take Wellness and preventive medicine beyond the walls of the business in order to meet leadership and employee needs. Answer the question: “How can we best help leadership and Employees to fulfill their mission?”

Strategy #1: Communication with leadership is essential

• Assess leadership priorities.
• Report Corporate Wellness Program outcomes back to leadership in a timely manner.
• Equal investments of support from both the medical and line community will result in enhanced Corporate Wellness Program success.

Strategy #2: Corporate Wellness Program planning must be driven by information.

• Determine specific needs of the target population.
• Focus on the health status of the population as a whole to identify the top health concerns.
• Data should drive decisions regarding which health needs should be addressed first.

Strategy #3: Use electronic information collection and reporting as often as possible.

• Centrally collected information in an electronic format is essential for determining population health needs.
• Electronic reporting is also very valuable when communicating Corporate Wellness Program outcomes to leadership and other stakeholders.
• Flexible reporting capabilities allow information to be presented as information that can support decision-making, in formats that decision-makers prefer.

Strategy #4: Multidisciplinary collaboration enhances employee health and maximizes available resources.

• Collaboration between health disciplines increases effectiveness of Wellness and preventive medicine interventions.
• Don’t forget to look outside the business for collaboration partners.
• Optimized Corporate Wellness Program outcomes can be achieved by coordinating the activities of medical experts, cadre, community agents, and funding sources.
• Bundling services together also provides the additional benefit to units by conserving training and mission time.
Implementing these strategies can improve Corporate Wellness Program effectiveness and optimize available resources.

Assess the health needs of the population.

Collect information about the health needs in the community. How?

• Community- or target group-specific surveys

Identify health needs and at-risk populations.

Use the information to identify leading health needs and also high risk populations. By way of example:
• Obesity and overweight
• Injury prevention
• Self care

Reduce the list.

Not every health need can (or should) be addressed. Use the following questions to determine which health needs should be addressed first.
• How does the health need impact operational readiness? How big is the impact?
• What are the Upper Management priorities? How does the health need fit into those priorities?
• What are the behavioral factors affecting the health need? What is the evidence that a behavior change will make a difference? Has the behavior been successfully changed by other Corporate Wellness Programs?
• What other physical, social, or environmental factors influence the health need or the target population?
• Is the health need a greater problem at the local level than in the U.S. population as a whole?
• Does the business have the subject matter expertise and resources to address the health need?

Develop Corporate Wellness Program recommendations.

Only a handful of specific health needs should be focused on in a given year. Keep the following in mind as recommendations are developed as to which specific health needs will be addressed:
• Avoid duplication of other ongoing Corporate Wellness Programs whenever possible. Identify Corporate Wellness Programs already addressing the health need and/or the target population.
• Identify and assess available resources. Build on existing services whenever possible.

Use the recommendations to offer tailored, targeted, integrated interventions to address the prioritized list of health needs. Prioritizing health needs will keep Corporate Wellness Programs focused, maximize efficient use of resources, and align Wellness efforts with Upper Management goals and priorities.

References
• US Department of Health and Human Services, Planned Approach to Community Health, http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/publications/PATCH/index.htm.
• Implementing a Comprehensive Community Wellness and Well Being Program, presentation by CHPPM-EUR at the 2006 Force Health Protection Conference