Posts from — March 2009

The type of evaluation you choose depends on when you do it and the kind of information you collect.

This section describes when to use three types: formative, process and summative evaluations.

During the Development Stage

Use formative evaluations in the planning stages to ensure that your program is built on solid information. These evaluations also help you to develop effective and appropriate materials and procedures.

Examples of formative evaluations include:

• records of management commitments to the program
• employee interest surveys
• workplace environmental assessments
• pre-testing of program materials

During Your Initiative

A process assessment is used when the plan is underway. These evaluations help you:

• track what is going well and what isn’t (and how to revise your program)
• find out if you are reaching the workers you want to reach
• describe the program to others
• monitor who is participating in the plan

During or Following Your Initiative

Summative evaluations happen when the initiative is already in place or completed. Use this type of assessment to measure what staff members like about the initiative and what could be improved.

All three types of evaluations are useful. The evaluation you choose is dependent upon the time and financial resources you have available.

What Do You Want to Achieve?

Consider why you’re evaluating and what your evaluation is going to measure.

If you’re trying to learn whether initiative has been successful, see if you followed your mission statement and met your goals.

If you don’t have a mission statement or objectives, decide with upper management and your employee Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee how your organization will track success.

By way of example, you can track success by changes in:

• Physical measures (e.g., strength, flexibility, waist circumference of staff members).
• Psychological measures (e.g., employee morale, satisfaction levels, stress levels).
• Productivity measures (e.g., decline in absenteeism rates, increased employee productiveness).

Thinking About staff members

If you’re considering making improvements to the program, think about whether the program is still relevant and appropriate for workers. See if there are any barriers to participation in the program or to participation in physical activity during the workday.

As workers are the ones participating in the program, it’s important to give them a chance to offer feedback on the physical activity program.

Choosing an Assessment Method

Decide on your assessment method. Both measurable results (e.g., absenteeism rates or questionnaire responses) and descriptive results (e.g., one-on-one interviews or focus groups) can be used to evaluate. The method you choose will depend on the time and funding available and what you want to measure.

Deciding How to Do the Assessment

Plan when and where you will do your evaluation (and who will be evaluated). For more information, read the “Types of Evaluations” section on this website.
You might want to pilot test your assessment (e.g., with members of the Employee Wellness Program Committee) before sending it out to workers. The employee Employee Wellness Program Committee might also wish to evaluate the initiative’s planning process.

Doing the Assessment

• Compare your outcome to baseline information (i.e., evaluation results from before the launch of your program). If you don’t have this information, save your evaluation outcome to compare with later results. You can also look at other information you may have, such as employee satisfaction survey results.
• Analyze and disseminate meaningful and easy-to-know results with management and workers.
• Assessment results can be used to improve the current physical activity program and/or to develop new initiatives in future.

Prior to launching your Workplace Physical Activity Program, summarize the information you’ve collected and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained reinforcement from senior staff for the Workplace Physical Activity Program
• formed an Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee
• assessed what is possible in your workplace
• found out what workers want and need in a Workplace Physical Activity Program.

Based on this information, you’re now ready to foster your action plan to increase physical exercise at your workplace.

With the Employee Wellness Program Committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the results of the employee survey with the workplace environmental assessment, and report to senior staff and workers.
• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, employer, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. By way of example, suppose a sizable group of workers show an interest in biking to work. Since these people may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you might give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bike racks might also be significant for making employees’ bikes secure during the workday.
• Consult the list of practical ideas found this website.
• Establish a mission statement (one which aligns with your organization’s overriding mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Setting goals/objectives will help you achieve your mission statement.
• Put together a plan or blueprint approaching what you have learned. Make program and exercise recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2: Forming an Employee Committee.” Seek senior staff approval to move ahead.
• Once your plan is in place, it’s important to reward it to employees. Organizing a launch is a good way to do this. A formal launch also demonstrates upper management responsibility. If employees aren’t aware of the plan, they can’t take advantage of it!
• Establish what you need to track to show that you have reached your objectives and goals. Measure these factors before you begin. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know if there has been a change.

To succeed in encouraging physical activity during work, you must learn what workers need and want. They are the individuals whose behavior you are trying to effect, so it’s vital to be aware of their needs and gain their backing.

The Employee Interest Survey

Ask employees questions that allow you to assess such key characteristics as age, sex, social relationships, family responsibilities and current physical activity participation.

It’s significant to know this information so that your physical exercise program meets employees’ needs. Workers aren’t going to take part in something they’re not interested in.

Ask employees what they want, and then implement changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. For example, employees may not want to do activities that make them sweat, because they do not want to shower at work.

Ask employees what the company could do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during work. If there’s a common behavior throughout your organization, a single change could affect a lot of individuals.

By way of example, suppose a sizable group shows interest in biking to work. They may want to shower and change after their commute. You might give priority to installing workplace showers and changing facilities. Secure bike storage might be important as well.

If you’re starting a program that requires going outside, begin in the spring. By the time winter arrives, participation is already a habit.

Involving employees is key to expanding physical activity participation rates. People are more willing to take part in and support physical activity drives when they are involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own employee interest survey:

• Keep it short (no longer than 10 minutes to complete).
• See that staff members know why you are doing the survey.
• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which can be long and tough to analyze, ask them to choose from a drop-down list of possible responses.
• Ask for comments and recommendations in one open-ended question at the end.
• Make it confidential and anonymous. Do not request information that may identify a person.
• If you’re including a list of potential programs or environmental changes, be sure your workplace has the facilities and resources to offer them.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Forming an Employee Committee

Although backing from the top is vital to a thriving initiative, backing from other workers is also valuable.

Once you get the go-ahead from upper management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a Worksite Wellness Program Committee to help determine the next steps. Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of employee time management is willing to contribute, this Worksite Wellness Program Committee may be advisory or may plan and carry out the initiative.

The Company Wellness Program Committee might include staff members from human resources(HR), occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve employee from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical activity. Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. For example, it’s valuable for the Company Wellness Program Committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following:

• Assessing your workplace environment
• Carrying out an employee interest survey.
• Establishing a mission statement and goals/objectives.
• Writing a physical exercise or wellness policy declaring the organization’s responsibility to physical exercise.
• Brainstorming program ideas.
• Promoting, communicating and marketing the plan.
• Coordinating specific activities.
• Deciding how the program will be evaluated.
• Continually assessing what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to advocate physical exercise during the workday, it’s valuable to learn what is “doable” in your workplace.

You do not want to raise employee expectations by offering something that’s not feasible due to funding or space limits. By way of example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a fitness facility if there’s no space for it. Be open, however, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Discovering What’s Possible in Your Workplace

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for maps of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Great walking trails may be right around the block from your workplace.

Below are some inquiries to help you assess your workplace:

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space have that make it easier to be physically active during the workday? By way of example, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a fitness facility, factory walking lanes?
• What nearby facilities or opportunities could staff members use to be more physically active during the workday? Are you near sidewalks, walking trails, community centres, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?
• What resources are available?
• Can the program access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?
• What is the structure of your organization? By way of example, consider employee size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining senior staff support is essential to the success of a physical activity initiative.

Whether the changes you’d like to make involve the work environment, central policies or specific programs, successfully implementing your ideas depends on management support.

Support from senior staff is essential for three reasons:

• You need their agreement to involve workers in a workplace plan.
• When senior staff pays attention to and supports program, staff members also see the program as worthwhile.
• Upper Management has the authority to give work time and money to support the plan.

It’s important to keep management involved throughout a physical exercise initiative, but at three points you’ll need backing for:

• An overriding concept, including a go-ahead to assess what employees want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.
• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.
• Analyzing the initiative to better it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Upper Management

Before approaching upper management to gain initial support for promoting physical exercise during work, do your homework.

• Prepare a organization case clearly outlining how the organization will benefit by promoting physical activity during the workday.
• List the individual, social and corporate advantages of physical activity and the advantages of being active during work.
• Present some cursory ideas about what the program might include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from management:

• How will this help our business?
• How can we motivate employees to take part?
• How much will it cost to operate this program or bring about this change?
• How will we know a year from now if this was a good use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the types of activities they would support. Often managers have ideas of their own they would like to see acted on to improve the workplace.

Remember to include middle managers when gaining backing for your plan. They can be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical exercise challenges.

In today’s employer climate, the health of workers is frequently related to the health of the employer. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, reduced illness and injuries, and increased work rate are just some of the benefits of having healthy workers. Promoting health in your workplace need not be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any employer, big or small, can encourage healthy eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some recommendations:

Healthy Eating

• For breakfast gatherings, instead of serving donuts, big muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives such as bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100 percent fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.
• For lunch gatherings, avert serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100  percent fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.
• Reimburse staff members staff members for items purchased to better their health (e.g. healthy eating cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).
• Arrange for the cafeteria or food vendors to offer healthy diet choices.
• See that you have healthy choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in vending machines.
• Offer a means for individuals to share healthy recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Develop programs and group activities to encourage employees to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge events, stretch breaks, group sports or participation in local or provincial events.
• Offer onsite health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in EAPs to help employees work towards physical activity goals.
• Give a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices easy: bike racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairwells, walking or running routes in the vicinity of the workplace, and fitness center facilities.
• Provide|Offer|Give} flex time so that employees have more opportunities to participate in fitness programs as part of their working day.
• Reimburse workers health club membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment purchases.
• Give corporate health club memberships to lower expenditures of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to:

• Establish lunch ‘n learn sessions to support information and motivation for healthy eating and active living.
• Invite demonstrators to provide cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.
• Display a list of local restaurants that offer healthy diet choices on their menus.
• Distribute information to educate employees on portion sizes.
• Include physical activity and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.
• Plan activities that encourage healthy eating and physical activity. By way of example, start a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities

Can a small business support workplace wellness? You bet! In fact, in some ways it is easier to set up a healthy workplace in a small business than in a large business.

Limited resources, especially in small corporations, can prevent a organization from setting up a Workplace Health Promotion Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of fiscal resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level support;
• minimal knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• problem about making wellness available to all staff members.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small organization owners may have an incorrect idea of what is involved in maintaining a Corporate Health Promotion Program. Some employers aren’t sure a program would truly work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  Maybe they don’t understand that it doesn’t need to be costly and that they don’t need special employee. They may not be aware that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Accomplished

Many small organizations have found ways to have a Corporate Wellness Program that works for them. They keep the expenditure and effort to a minimum and still have results that are positive for everyone. In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthy workplaces frequently have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a positive culture, individuals feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a beneficial workplace culture than for a sizable workplace. Many staff members prefer to work for a small organization, he says, because it provides more opportunities to work closely with others and develop a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most efficacious organizations with fewer than 100 staff members have:

• great employee benefits;
• policies that reward a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• excellent leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible corporation policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal well-being ahead of the personal gain of Upper Management.

All or most of these elements are also elements of a good Workplace Health Promotion Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are various ways to include health and wellness in a small employer. You may not necessarily need a wellness professional or a fancy gym. What you do need is backing from upper management and a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee of a few committed people. Here are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter on paper or internet based. Or send out a simple message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Use promotions that are already designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthy Eating

• Urge employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing contest.
• Have pedometers for employees and track their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or neighborhood gym and offer exercise classes.
• Hire a local fitness instructor to teach classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenses can be shared with staff members.
• Install safe bicycle parking.
• Offer healthy alternatives at corporation meetings and lunches.

Policy and Corporation Programs

• Hire an ergonomics professional to evaluate workstations.
• Create policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).
• Offer a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Offer financial incentives and rewards to be healthy.
• Offer wellness rewards and incentives as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an corporation health audit.
• Become a partner with the neighborhood (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Establish a Workplace Wellness Program Committee.

Small businesses may not have a lot of time, money, or human resources available for a Workplace Health Promotion Program. But they often have a huge advantage over big companies-a positive workplace culture. That is a great foundation for a Workplace Health Promotion Program. When workers are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more productive, and tend to be healthier.  With a modest amount of creativity and passion, small businesses can advance efficacious Workplace Health Promotion Programs. Get backing from senior staff, establish a Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to establish healthy workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury prevention for staff members.

More recently, programs are designed to assist  employees to choose healthier behaviors like increasing physical activity levels or stopping smoking. Campaigns to raise awareness, educational sessions to broaden knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for employees to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a good way to reach people, since most adult Canadians spend a big part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are two aspects that contribute to the health of employees, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace impacts health.

Increasingly, it is recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is harmful, they feel stressed. Stress has a big influence on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on work rate.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the corporation overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that employers must truly are concerned about the wellbeing of their employees.

Organizations today who want to attract and retain great employees have leaders who be aware of the association between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a corporation plan.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving employees in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance life at work and home.

Employers know that workers are looking for jobs that pay well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include great health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more important than ever for organizations to enhance job satisfaction and be sure that workers enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and workers.

How does workplace wellness profit the company?

A workplace wellness initiative can help a company to:

• attract and keep employees;
• lower the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;
• reduce the effects of a stressful workplace;
• cut health costs or keep them contained; and
• improve morale by planning a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Company Health Promotion Programs Benefit employees?

employees of businesses that have a Corporate Health Promotion Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to improve their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellness;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productiveness and performance at work;
• reduced personal medical costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health problems.

Both employers and staff members have a responsibility for planning a healthy workplace. Workers are expected to arrive at work in great health, and the organization is expected to offer an environment that allows staff members to maintain great health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about beginning a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of staff members, starting a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep staff members healthy and happy at work. A good Workplace Health Promotion Program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.

Ideally, you will foster an central plan for a Company Health Promotion Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. By way of example, you can begin by getting the following elements in place:

• support from senior staff
• a Company Wellness Program Committee or team
• information about the wellness needs and interests of employees
• a budget
• program objectives
• an assessment plan

Even if you have few financial and/or human resources(HR), you are able to still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you might focus on only one specific issue. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning are able to help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for establishing Worksite Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps are able to have an impact.

Whether you choose to begin with a single program or foster something larger, planning is critical. First consider the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Identify an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the workers and business?
• Encourage. How can you most effectively get the word out to workers? What are the opportunities for promotion? Consider everything, since workers have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, workers receive information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow workers.
• Deliver. Who is the best individual or group to put the program into action? Ask other organizations about approaches they have utilized. Solidify your budget before making a decision.
• Evaluate. What should you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when planning your program:

• planning and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the type of program or campaign

The Elements of a Workplace Health Promotion Program

Initiatives to reward wellness in the workplace don’t need to be restricted to one area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting positive personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure clinics, brochures on heart disease, “lunch and learn” sessions on eating habits and short-term physical exercise programs.

These activities are important, but workplace wellness ought to also be part of organization’s business plan and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently identified 3 key elements of a healthy workplace:

• physical environment
• social environment and personal resources
• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider offering the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for staff members to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in snack machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist employees join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairwells that invite staff members to use them.
• Assessing the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.
• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, as well as ways of doing business, have the potential to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Organizations must consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that provide safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• Employee Assistance Programs

To cultivate a beneficial social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include:

• being respected
• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission
• freedom of expression
• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” may not address current employee needs. Making sure that people enjoy being at work is not an simple task, but making the right changes has the potential to have a huge effect.

Health Practices

Provide programs and set policies that help staff members remain healthy or better their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading diet labels.
• Stop smoking clinics or subsidies to help employees quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the problems raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks provided at meetings and conferences.

Personal Workplace Health Promotion Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your workplace, do not let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to think about:

• Be active at work. There are many ways to bring exercise into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Have walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office rather than sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy meal. Keep a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for gatherings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you have the potential to leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and be sure not to take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Arrange your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Develop and prioritize to make sure that the most valuable things get done first.

There is no limit to the number or variety of Company Health Promotion Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the outcome so that you can sustain momentum.

Talk to other wellness practitioners to find out what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And don’t forget to promote, promote, promote.