Corporate Wellness BlogCorporate wellness and employee wellness blog

Corporate Wellness Programs that support employees and the environment that they work in have been shown to be a good ROI. Corporate Wellness Programs can be extensive and sometimes costly. However, there are ways for small companies to make positive changes at little or no cost.

Corporate Wellness Program: Nutrition Activities

Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

1. Offer healthy eating reminders and prompts to employees via multiple means (i.e. e-mail, posters, payroll stuffers, etc.).
2. Offer appealing, low-cost fruits and vegetables in vending machines and in the cafeteria.
3. Offer cookbooks, food preparation, and cooking classes for employees’ families.
4. Ensure workplace cafeterias follow healthy cooking practices and set nutritional standards for foods served that align with the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
5. Offer healthy foods at meetings, conferences, and catered events.
6. Use point-of-decision prompts as a marketing technique to promote healthier choices.
7. Offer healthy cooking demonstrations that teach skills (i.e. fruit and vegetable selection and preparation).
8. Offer taste-testing opportunities at the workplace.
9. Offer employee-led campaigns, demonstrations or programs.
10. Offer local fruits and vegetables at the workplace (i.e. workplace farmer’s market or community-supported agriculture drop-off point).
11. Use competitive pricing (price non-nutritious foods in vending machines and cafeterias at higher prices).
12. Offer protected time and dedicated space away from the work area for breaks and lunch.
13. Make kitchen equipment available to employees.
14. Offer an opportunity for workplace gardening if possible.

Sweetened Beverage Consumption

1. Make water available throughout the day.
2. Offer appealing, low-cost healthful drink options in vending machines and the cafeteria.
3. Modify worksite vending contracts to raise the number of healthy options.
4. Price non-nutritious beverages at a higher cost.
5. Use point-of-decision prompts to promote healthier choices.

Portion Control

1. Label foods to show serving size and/or nutritional content.
2. Offer food models, food scales for weighing and pictures to help employees assess portion size.
3. Offer appropriate portion sizes at meetings, workplace events and in the cafeteria.

Breastfeeding

1. Support nursing mothers by providing them rooms for expressing milk in a secure and relaxed environment, a refrigerator for storage of breast milk, policies that support breast feeding, and lactation education programs.
2. Offer flexible scheduling and/or workplace or near-site child care to allow for milk expression during the workday.
3. Adopt alternative work options (i.e. teleworking, part-time, extended maternity) for breastfeeding mothers returning to work.
4. Educate personnel on the importance of supporting breastfeeding co-workers.

Television & Food Advertising

1. Place TVss in non-eating areas of the workplace.
2. Limit food advertising in the cafeteria (i.e. print and other media).

(Adapted from The Health Promotion First Act prepared by David Anderson, Ph.D., StayWell Health Management)

Staff Member Lifestyles Impact Staff Member Health
• Approximately 40 percent of all deaths in the United States are premature (at least 900,000 deaths annually) and are due to unhealthy lifestyle choices such as tobacco use, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, misuse of alcohol and drugs, and accidents. Other contributors to early death include genetic predisposition (30 percent), social circumstances (15 percent), poor access to quality medical care (10 percent), and environmental exposures (5 percent).
• Unhealthy lifestyle is the primary contributor to the six leading causes of death in the U.S. – heart disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory diseases, accidents, and diabetes – which collectively account for over 70 percent of all deaths.
• People with healthier lifestyles live an average of 6 to 9 years longer, postpone disability by 9 years and compress disability into fewer years at the end of life.
• The prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults rose to 30 percent in 1999-2000, a 33 percent increase from a decade earlier, and the prevalence of diabetes also rose by 33 percent during approximately the same period (1990 to 1998).
• About two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, 55 percent do not get enough physical activity, 26 percent are completely inactive,10 and only 25 percent eat recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables If diet/physical activity patterns continue worsening at their current rate, these behaviors will soon surpass tobacco use as contributors to mortality.
• Among young people, the prevalence of overweight has more than quadrupled in the past 20 years to 16 percent, daily participation in high school physical education classes has dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 28 percent in 2003, more than 60 percent eat too much saturated fat, and almost 80 percent do not eat recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables.
• Lifestyle diseases disproportionately affect women, racial and ethnic minorities, the poor and seniors:
• The prevalence of diabetes among African Americans is about 70 percent higher than among white Americans, and the prevalence among Hispanics is nearly double that for white Americans.
• Women comprise more than half of the people who die each year of cardiovascular disease.
• Chronic conditions significantly limit daily activity for 35 percent of persons over 65 years of age.

Financial Impact of Lifestyle
• It is estimated that lifestyle-related chronic diseases account for 70 percent of the nation’s medical care costs, which translates to over 11 percent of the entire U.S. gross domestic product.
• Two comprehensive scientific reviews identified 83 peer-reviewed studies reporting that people with unhealthy habits have higher medical costs.
• Research conservatively estimates that high health risks (high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc) account for at least 25 percent of total medical costs.
• Recent research indicates a direct relationship between modifiable lifestyle risks and lower worker productivity, and relevant data suggest that the costs to companies in lost productivity due to poor employee health may be substantially more than the direct medical and disability costs.
• Unhealthy lifestyles often lead to chronic disease, many of which cannot be cured and require years or decades of costly treatments. Below are estimated annual costs of selected unhealthy lifestyles and chronic diseases including obesity, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, stress, and inactivity.

Corporate Wellness Programs Improve Health and Yield Major Savings
• Comprehensive scientific reviews identified 378 peer-reviewed studies showing that Corporate Wellness Programs improve health knowledge, health behaviors, and underlying health conditions.
• Research has demonstrated that lifestyle modification may often be more effective and cost-effective than medical intervention in reducing morbidity and mortality.
• Several scientific reviews indicate that Corporate Wellness Programs reduce medical costs and absenteeism and produce a positive ROI. The most definitive review of financial impact reported that:
• 18 studies indicated that these programs reduce medical costs, and 14 studies indicated that they decrease absenteeism costs.
• 13 studies that calculated benefit/cost ratios all showed the savings from these programs are much greater than their cost, with medical cost savings averaging $3.48 and the absenteeism savings averaging $5.82 per dollar invested in the programs.
• Medical costs are expected to exceed 16 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005 and to grow at 7.2 percent annually through 2015, when medical expenditures will account for 20 percent of GDP:
• Per capita medical costs in the U.S. are the highest in the world and more than double the median for OECD countries, yet the United States ranks 26th in terms of healthy life expectancy.
• Medicaid is the second largest item in most state budgets, and its portion of the total budgets is increasing each year.
• Rising medical costs for U.S. companies continue to outpace general inflation, averaging 12 percent per year for the past 10 years. This trend is causing a tremendous financial hardship on U.S. companies.

1. Senior management involvement in the Corporate Wellness Program- Evidence of enthusiastic commitment and involvement of senior management helps employees understand their companies’ serious commitment to health. Employees need to perceive that their senior management, supervisors, and coworkers have positive attitudes toward health since these factors have all been associated with improved employee health status. Management-related factors have been shown to contribute more to success than the content of the intervention.

2. Participatory planning – A Corporate Wellness Program should be undertaken in partnership with the workforce. Employees from all levels of staff should be actively engaged in the health and management aspects of the project as well as all on-going processes of any Corporate Wellness Program. Planning must also include processes for maintaining communication with all staff and building their commitment to the process. Starting Corporate Wellness Program steering committees to guide interventions during the planning and delivery of workplace health promotion programming improves worker awareness, participation, and satisfaction. Staff Member committees can identify perceived employee interests regarding educational programming, determine work site-specific characteristics that may affect the intervention or influence participation, and suggest the best methods for promotion and delivery of Corporate Wellness Programs and activities. Ways to maximize employee input and involvement might include interest surveys, focus groups, and peer counsellors.

3. Primary focus on employees’ needs – A Corporate Wellness Program should meet the needs of all employees, regardless of their current level of health and recognize the needs, preferences, and attitudes of different groups of participants. Program designers should consider the major health risks in the target population, the specific risks within the particular group of employees, and the corporation’s needs. In other words, interventions should be tailor-made to the characteristics and needs of the recipients. This means that different programs must be provided at different levels. Participation and commitment can be increased if a group of staff members has the opportunity to address a specific modifiable risk factor of their choice.

4. Optimal use of on-site resources – Planning and implementation of Corporate Wellness Programs should optimize use of on-site personnel, physical resources, and organizational capabilities. For example, whenever possible, initiatives should use on-site health and safety, management, work organization, communication, Human Resources, and other specialists. Well-qualified external leadership may be introduced when in-house expertise is lacking.

5. Integration – An overall workplace health policy should be developed. The policies governing employee health must align with the corporate mission, vision, and values, supporting both short- and long-term objectives. These consistent policies must affirm the value of employee health and a commitment to engage employees in health enhancement. Corporate Wellness Program Procedures should be integrated into a company’s regular management practices and eventually should be formally incorporated into the company’s corporate plan with adequate resources attached to them.

6. Recognition that a person’s health is determined by an interdependent set of factors – Any Corporate Wellness Program must address multiple components of an individual’s life:
• the workplace physical and psychosocial environment;
• their personal resources such as social support, sense of empowerment, etc.; and
• their lifestyle practices influencing health.

7. Tailoring to the special features of each workplace environment – Corporate Wellness Programs must be responsive to the unique needs of each workplace’s procedures, organization and culture. Integrating health behaviors and program participation into the existing corporate culture will normalize program participation.

8. Corporate Wellness Program Evaluation – Project management should flow through needs analysis, establishing priorities, planning, implementation, continuous monitoring, and evaluation. Evaluation must include a clearly-defined range of process measures and outcomes as well as mechanisms for monitoring the impact of non-intervention workplace changes such as plant closure, major workplace re-organization, and new technology on staff health.

9. Long-term commitment – To sustain the benefits of the Corporate Wellness Program, the worksite must continue the initiative over time, reinforcing risk-reduction behaviours and adapting the programs to ongoing personal, social, economic, and workplace changes.

Introduction to Corporate Wellness Programs

Risky health behaviors by employees cost a company. Changing those behaviors can save the employer money and raise the employee’s productivity.

Because work gives an employee a stable setting and support system, Corporate Wellness Programs can have a great impact on reducing high-risk behaviors. This impact results in reduce health claims cost, less absenteeism, and less short-term disability.

Corporate Wellness Programs can include:

Awareness Rasing Activities: Health and wellness newsletters, health topics covered in payroll stuffers, healthy emails.

Health Risk Assessment: Employee health screenings, health and wellness fairs, health rist assessments.

Educational Programs: Lunch & Learn wellness presentations, guest speakers at staff meetings.

Skill Building: Healthy cooking demostrations, activity challenges, CPR instruction opportunites, stress management classes, weight management classes.

Interventions: Massage, tobacco cessation, and skills to help you get the most out of your doctor visit.

Physical environment: Healthy items in the vending machines and cafeterias, clean air practices, ergonomics, bike racks, flex time, welllit stairways.

Evaluation: Staff Member needs assessment, baseline Corporate Wellness Program evaluation measures, ongoing Corporate Wellness Program evaluation of overall effectiveness.

Why Offer Corporate Wellness Programs

The typical employer spends about $8,000 a year on an employee’s health care. This includes medical insurance, disability and worker’s compensation. As these costs climb, medical insurance is expected to rise at least 10 percent per year.

A 1999 study showed that organizations using Corporate Wellness Programs had a ROI from $1.49 – $13 in benefits per dollar spent. The amount depended on the nature of the Corporate Wellness Programs used. (S. Aldana, American Journal of Wellness, 2001; 15:296-320)

One study showed that a “stop smoking” element to Corporate Wellness Programs can save between $404 -$40,829 per employee, depending on the age and sex of the employee.

The Corporate Wellness Programs at Traveler’s Company included a self-care book, a newsletter, single-topic brochures, and videotapes. The Corporate Wellness Programs saved the company $7.8 million in employee benefi t costs, decreased doctor visits, and it reduced absenteeism by 1.2 days per employee per year. The estimated Corporate Wellness Programs ROI was $3.40 per dollar spent.

In 1998, the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) reported a study of 46,026 employees from six large companies for three years. Employees with an inactive lifestyle had 10 percent higher costs; employees with depression had 70 percent higher costs.

Benefits of Corporate Wellness Programs

Increased Productivity – The Canada Life Assurance Company realized a 4 percent increase in productivity after starting an employee fitness program.

Increased Job Satisfaction – According to employee opinion surveys conducted by the Silverstone Group about thier Corporate Wellness Programs, employees’ morale increased, which helped support a more creative work setting.

Improved Recruitment & Retention – In the midst of a tight labor market, Corporate Wellness Programs could be a important tool to draw new recruits.

Decreased Absenteeism – Canada Life Assurance Company’s absenteeism dropped 42 percent among employees in the Corporate Wellness Programs.

Decreased Workers Comp & Disability – In one year, Boeing Company’s number of back injuries decreased by 34 percent. Six million dollars was saved by tracking injuries as they occurred.

Managed Health Care Costs – Golden, Colorado Adolf Coors Company’s Corporate Wellness Programs returned $6.19 for every dollar spent.

Why have Corporate Wellness Program objectives?

Corporate Wellness Program objectives take your corporation’s priorities for employee health improvement and make them specific and measurable. Well-defined Corporate Wellness Program objectives provide direction for determining Procedures and a basis for which to measure progress.

Writing Corporate Wellness Program objectives

Writing Corporate Wellness Program objectives is not complicated or difficult. It does require some thought, about your corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program vision for a culture of health and they should be:

Specific Corporate Wellness Program Goals
Measurable Corporate Wellness Program Goals
Attainable Corporate Wellness Program Goals
Realistic Corporate Wellness Program Goals
Timely Corporate Wellness Program Goals

Specific Corporate Wellness Program Goals: What is the specific outcome your corporation is looking for? “Reduce smoking among employees” is more specific than “Improve the health of employees.” You may wish to write some objectives about specific outcomes (reducing smoking among employees) and other objectives about specific progress (implementing a tobacco-free campus policy or reducing the price of fresh fruit in the cafeteria to 25 cents a piece).

Measurable Corporate Wellness Program Goals: Making your objectives measurable provides a means of evaluating your progress and success. There is an adage: “what gets measured, gets done.” Measurable objectives can be powerful motivators for your corporation. “Provide more time for employees to be physically active” is much less measurable than “implement a daily 15-minute walking break into the schedule of all employees.” “Increase the number of employees who want to quit smoking” is less measurable than “increase enrollments in the stop-using tobacco program to 120 employees per year.”

Attainable Corporate Wellness Program Goals: Determine objectives that challenge your corporation to change and that will demonstrate a real commitment to employee health. At the same time, set objectives that are achievable. Goals that are set too far out of reach can be overwhelming and may become a barrier rather than a motivator.

Realistic Corporate Wellness Program Goals: Write objectives that are do-able, given the skills, time, finances and overall strategy of the corporation. A realistic project may push the skills and knowledge of the people working on it but it shouldn’t break them.

Timely Corporate Wellness Program Goals: When do you hope to achieve the goal? Next week? Next year? Without a timeframe, the goal is still vague and is much less likely to galvanize resources and energy within your corporation.

“Reduce the percent of employees who use tobacco from 20 percent to 10 percent” is much less of a challenge than “By the end of 2010, reduce the percent of employees who use tobacco from 20 percent to 15 percent”.

If your corporation is interested in measuring the impact of your Corporate Wellness Program efforts in future years, you’ll want to gather relevant baseline data on the health and health behaviors of your employee population.

Corporate Wellness Program Data on your employee population

Health Risk Assessments

Some health plans offer companies free online health risk assessments (HRA), complete with summary aggregate reports. If your health plan does not offer a free HRA, you could pay for an HRA either through your health plan or through a third party vendor.

To encourage taking part in an HRA, assure employees of confidentiality and consider providing incentives and rewards for completing the assessment. The higher the participation rate, the more likely that the aggregate data will accurately represent the behaviors and risks of your employee population.

Corporate Wellness Program Health Surveys

You can get a general sense of employees’ health-related attitudes and behaviors using a “lowtech” paper survey. As with a health risk assessment, employees will be more likely to respond to a survey if there is an incentive and if they are confident that their responses are confidential. Remember that without widespread participation you’ll only get a “feel” for employee behaviors rather than a statistically accurate picture.

Corporate Wellness Program Focus Groups and Informational Interviews

The information you can collect from focus groups or informational interviews with employees is an important supplement to the anonymous survey or HRA data. Listening to employees discuss their attitudes, values, receptivity and barriers related to health provides a wealth of information on which to base decisions on how to improve your corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program. Corporate Wellness Program focus groups are especially useful for capturing information from hard-to-reach employee populations, such as those for whom English is a learned language.

Keep Corporate Wellness Program focus groups small (8-19 employees, ideally all of a similar job class). If possible, offer incentives and rewards such as movie tickets or lunch, to recruit participants. Develop a list of open-ended questions in advance and allow 60-90 minutes for the discussion.

Informational interviews are an alternative to Corporate Wellness Program focus groups. The Corporate Wellness Program coordinator of your health improvement Procedures or selected members of the Corporate Wellness Program Committee can conduct one-on-one interviews with employees in a variety of positions to better understand their attitudes, interests and barriers related to a) health behaviors and b) the workplace policies, environments and practices.

Population data

If data on the employee population are not available, you can use state or national data to estimate the prevalence of risk behaviors among employees.

In addition to looking at the health behaviors of employees, take a good look at your corporation. The following questions can help you identify opportunities for your corporation to support and encourage healthy behaviors among employees.

A strong foundation for employee health improvement

1. To what extent does the senior management in your corporation actively and visibly support the Corporate Wellness Program?

__ No support for the Corporate Wellness Program
__ Support, but not at senior level
__ Support at senior level, but not visible to employees
__ Strong and visible Corporate Wellness Program support
Comments:

2. Is the Corporate Wellness Program tied to your corporation’s mission statement?

__ No
__ Yes, the Corporate Wellness Program is tied to business plan OR mission statement
__ Yes, the Corporate Wellness Program is tied to both business plan and mission statement
Comments:

3. Is there an employee within your corporation whose job responsibilities include Corporate Wellness Program coordination?

__ No
__ Yes, but has little time available to dedicate to Corporate Wellness Program
__ Yes, and has at least component of the job dedicated to Corporate Wellness Program
__ Yes, and has at least one full-time position dedicated to Corporate Wellness Program
__ Yes, and has at least component of the job dedicated to wellness AND has a background that includes Corporate Wellness Program qualifications
__ Yes, our corporation has at least one full-time position dedicated to health improvement AND the employee’s background includes Corporate Wellness Program qualifications
Comments:

4. Does your corporation have an active wellness committee with diverse representation?

__ No (does not have a Corporate Wellness Program Committee, or has a committee that doesn’t meet)
__ Yes, we have a Corporate Wellness Program Committee, but with limited representation
__ Yes, we have a Corporate Wellness Program Committee with widespread representation
__ Yes, we have a Corporate Wellness Program Committee with widespread representation AND committee involvement is part of each representative’s job responsibilities
Comments:

5. Does your corporation have an annual budget for Corporate Wellness Program expenses? (Corporate Wellness Program expenses may be associated with providing a health assessment, paying for behavior change programs/coaching programs, covering incentives and rewards that encourage healthy behaviors, subsidizing healthy food options, communications and activities around specific health topics, fitness centers/walking paths, etc).

__ No
__ Yes, but funds are earmarked for Corporate Wellness Programs (e.g. only for Weight Watchers or fitness discounts) and do not meet all existing Corporate Wellness Program needs
__ Yes, funds are available to meet current Corporate Wellness Program needs
Comments:

6. Does your corporation have a plan for engaging employees in the Corporate Wellness Program?

__ No
__ Yes, we have a communications plan for our Corporate Wellness Program
__ Yes, we have a communication plan AND we offer meaningful incentives or rewards (such as premium discounts or debit cards) for the Corporate Wellness Program to engage in healthy behaviors.
Comments:

A data-based approach to the Corporate Wellness Program

7. Does your corporation have clearly stated Corporate Wellness Program objectives and priorities for employee health improvement?

__ No
__ Yes
__ Yes, data (e.g. HRA, claims, productivity) are the basis for defining Corporate Wellness Program objectives or priorities
__ Yes, data AND evidence-based best practices are a basis for defining Corporate Wellness Program objectives or priorities
__ Yes, data and best practices are basis for defining Corporate Wellness Program objectives or priorities as well as measuring Corporate Wellness Program progress (evaluation)
Comments:

8. Has your corporation completed a Health Risk Assessment?

__ No
__ Yes, but more than 2 years ago
__ Yes, within the last two years, and achieved a participation rate of less than 50 percent
__ Yes, within the last two years, and achieved a 50 percent – 79 percent participation rate
__ Yes, within the last two years, and achieved an 80 percent or greater participation rate
Comments:

A workplace environment that supports healthy behaviors

9. Does your corporation’s tobacco reduction strategy reflect best practices?

(Check all that apply)
__ A no-smoking policy that includes both buildings AND grounds
__ 100 percent coverage for the cost of over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy
__ Staff Member access to – and strong promotion of — a tailored stop-smoking program
Comments:

10. Does your corporation provide opportunities (time and places) for physical activity during the work day?

__ No
__ Yes, indoor places for physical activity (on-site fitness center) OR outdoor places for physical activity (walking paths)
__ Yes, both indoor AND outdoor places for physical activity
__ Yes, indoor and outdoor opportunities AND workers can use work time for physical activity
Comments:

11. Does your corporation promote healthy eating by providing access to fruits and vegetables?

__ No
__ Yes, fruits and vegetables are available at the workplace (in vending machines, break areas, or cafeterias)
__ Yes, fruits and vegetables are available and discounted at the workplace
Comments:

Benefits that support employee health improvement

12. Does your corporation provide employees with self-care resources?

(Check all that apply)
__ Distribution of self-care books
__ online access to health information
__ Nurse advice line
Comments:

13. Which of the following preventive services are covered at 100 percent by your corporation’s health benefits?

(Check all that apply)
__ Vision screening
__ Hearing
__ Immunizations (per CDC/ACIP recommendations)
__ Radiology
__ Laboratory services
__ STD screening
__ Preventive medical examination for adults
__ Cancer screen (includes: colon, cervical, breast, prostate and ovarian cancers)
__ Contraceptive management
Comments:

14. Which of the following are included in your corporation’s pharmacy benefit?

(Check all that apply)
__ Mail order or other 90-day supply option for medications
__ Specialty pharmacy network
__ Incentive-based tiered formulary design
Comments:

15. Do your corporation’s health benefits provide coverage for behavioral health (such as depression, mental illness, counseling, stress management, and chemical dependency)?

__ Yes, at the same level as medical benefits
__ Yes, but at a lower level (less coverage) than medical benefits
__ No coverage for mental or behavioral health
Comments:

Why it’s important and how to do it

The Corporate Wellness Program Vision

A Corporate Wellness Program vision statement is a concise statement that summarizes the purpose and objectives of your corporation’s commitment to starting a Corporate Wellness Program. Taking the time to clarify and describe your corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program vision can provide a focus and a consistent direction for your Procedures for years to come. The vision statement reminds leaders and employees of the link between employee health and the corporation’s ability to achieve its overall mission.

Answer the following questions and you’ll have the components needed to build a simple and powerful Corporate Wellness Program vision for your corporation’s culture of health:

• What do you want your Corporate Wellness Program to accomplish?
• How do you plan to accomplish it?
• How does this Corporate Wellness Program mission support or further the corporation’s mission?

A sample Corporate Wellness Program vision statement might be . . .

To have employees who perform at their best and who enable XYZ Corporation to be an industry leader in printing quality and customer service (corporation’s mission), XYZ Corporation is committed to providing opportunities for healthy behaviors during the workday (how) in order to encourage employees not to smoke, to be active, and to eat healthfully (what).

The Corporate Wellness Program Brand

In the same way that your corporation’s name and brand image provide visibility for your business, your Procedures toward starting a Corporate Wellness Program will benefit from being easily recognizable to employees:

• A consistently used Corporate Wellness Program brand on all communications sends a message to employees that the commitment to a culture of health is here to stay.
• A Corporate Wellness Program brand institutionalizes the culture and makes it more likely to withstand changes in staff and budget.

Do what you can to engage employees in starting the identity (brand) for your corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program. Not only are they more likely to accept the name, it’s also a great way to announce to employees the corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program commitment. Here are two possible approaches to involving employees:

Option 1: Have a Corporate Wellness Program contest

1. Announce the Corporate Wellness Program contest guidelines and deadline.
2. Have the Corporate Wellness Program Committee review the ideas submitted, and choose a name.

If, for example, your organization, Premier Building and Design, is in the commercial construction business, you might receive the following Corporate Wellness Program ideas from employees:

• Cornerstone: Feeling well is what it’s all about
• Premier Elements: Building healthier employees
• Custom Build: Building health builds wealth
• Building Health: Designing better employee health

After reviewing the entries, your Corporate Wellness Program Committee determines that it likes the name “Premier Elements” and the subtitle “Building health builds wealth”. Your committee awards the “name the Corporate Wellness Program contest” prize to the two employees, those who submitted the pieces of the name that represent the final product.

Premier Elements: Building health builds wealth

3. Choose a Corporate Wellness Program logo to go with the name.

The Corporate Wellness Program logo is an important piece of the branding

• Review any ideas submitted for Corporate Wellness Program logos.
• If you’re fortunate to have a graphic design professional at your organization, enlist her or his help with developing the Corporate Wellness Program logo!
• As an alternative, choose a piece of clip-art that fits with the Corporate Wellness Program name you’ve selected. For example, the organization referenced above might look for a symbol that conveys building, health and wealth.

Option 2: Corporate Wellness Program Committee determines the name and brand

1. Have your Corporate Wellness Program Committee brainstorm Corporate Wellness Program names.
• To get ideas flowing, ask members to write down all health-related words and words associated with your corporation or industry.
• Try clustering words together as in the construction organization example above.
2. Once your Corporate Wellness Program Committee has narrowed down the possibilities to about three ideas, have committee members vote to select a name for your culture of health.
3. Choose a Corporate Wellness Program logo to go with the winning name.
4. Announce the corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program and the corresponding Corporate Wellness Program name. Explain that workers on the advisory committee chose the name.

Sample Corporate Wellness Program meeting agendas and topics for discussion

Is your corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program Corporate Wellness Program Committee new? Has it existed on paper but been inactive for a while? In either case, some of the following may be appropriate agenda items for your first Corporate Wellness Program meetings. You may also want to revisit these topics annually.

• Clarify roles of Corporate Wellness Program Committee members
­ Are members responsible for implementing changes or recommending changes?
­ How long are members’ terms on the Corporate Wellness Program Committee?
­ How will new members be selected?

• Determine Corporate Wellness Program Committee meeting frequency and processes
­ Determine dates, times, and locations.
­ Determine how agendas will be set.
­ Plan for recording and distributing meeting notes.

• Plan Corporate Wellness Program communication with leadership
­ Does a leader sit on the group or does the coordinator report on progress (and to whom)?
­ How often do leaders want reports on Corporate Wellness Program progress?

• Select a name and brand for your corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program

• Create a vision statement for your corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program

• Identify existing allies Corporate Wellness Program for promoting employee health within your corporation
­ Who do Corporate Wellness Program Committee members know who could be relied on to support workplace changes needed to develop a culture that promotes health?

• Brainstorm challenges your corporation may face in working to develop facilities, policies and Corporate Wellness Program practices that promote employee health
­ What do committee members regard as opportunities? How about potential Corporate Wellness Program obstacles?

• History of past Corporate Wellness Program efforts
­ If relevant, summarize past Corporate Wellness Program efforts. Discuss what your corporation learned from those efforts.
? What has the corporation tried over the last few years?
? What has worked well?
? What hasn’t worked well?
? How, if at all, was success of previous Corporate Wellness Program efforts measured?

A representative Corporate Wellness Program Committee is a cornerstone of a successful Corporate Wellness Program, regardless of the size of the corporation.

Membership of your Corporate Wellness Program Committee

Aim for a committee of a manageable size (no more than 15 members, depending on your corporation’s size). Your Corporate Wellness Program Committee should represent all employee groups (e.g., full-time and part-time employees, managers and front-line staff, salary and hourly staff members, union representation, Human Resources, marketing or communications, legal, and occupational health/safety).

Here are some additional considerations:

• Corporate Wellness Program Committee members can be selected by leadership or can be selected from among volunteers.
• Determine in advance how long Corporate Wellness Program Committee members will support and how new members will be selected. Balance the need for continuity with the need to bring fresh ideas and energy to your corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program.
• It’s not necessary, or even desirable, to have your healthiest employees on the Corporate Wellness Program Committee. Ideal Corporate Wellness Program Committee members are those who best can represent their peers, motivate others and support the implementation of the Corporate Wellness Program.
• Consider providing an incentive or recognition to Corporate Wellness Program Committee members. It legitimizes their positions and encourages participation. Some corporations that have implemented stipends have generated enough employee interest that the selection of Corporate Wellness Program Committee membership becomes a competitive process. The Corporate Wellness Program Committee responsibilities become a formal component of the member’s job accountabilities.

Role of your Corporate Wellness Program Committee

In some corporations the Corporate Wellness Program Committee is responsible for the implementation of the Corporate Wellness Program. In other corporations, the Corporate Wellness Program Committee plays an advisory role. In either case, the group members can be asked to:

• Attend regular meetings of the Corporate Wellness Program Committee.
• Help establish a vision and name for the corporation’s Corporate Wellness Program.
• Represent their peers by sharing ideas, needs, concerns and feedback from their work areas and colleagues about proposed Corporate Wellness Program Procedures, policies, and programs.
• Offer feedback on the possible barriers to proposed Corporate Wellness Program Procedures and offer suggestions for addressing those barriers (e.g., how does a proposed policy fit with the schedules of employees?).
• Suggest effective Corporate Wellness Program communication Procedures and solutions to challenges. For example, what is the best way to communicate with employees who work the third shift? How will employees react to a proposed message from leadership?
• Be a voice of support for a culture of health, carrying the message from the Corporate Wellness Program Committee to their work areas and colleagues.

Functioning of your Corporate Wellness Program Committee

Meet. Schedule regular Corporate Wellness Program Committee meetings on paid work time. Your Corporate Wellness Program Committee may want to meet frequently at first, then slightly less often as your health improvement strategy is more established. If your Corporate Wellness Program Committee is new, it might be useful to ask members to provide information about themselves and their interests.

Communicate. Set up regular channels of communication with Corporate Wellness Program Committee members so they are up to date and engaged. An email list is often the easiest way to do this. Encourage communication to flow both ways: from Corporate Wellness Program coordinator to members and from members to coordinator.

Check-in. At least once a year, assess how effectively the Corporate Wellness Program Committee is functioning. Is the Corporate Wellness Program Committee serving its original purpose? Ask committee members for their feedback. Do they feel like their work is making a difference? Do they feel like their input is valued and taken into account when planning and implementing initiatives? Do they understand their expected Corporate Wellness Program roles and responsibilities? Are there members who want to rotate off of the committee? How will new members be selected?