Creating corporate wellness programs

A corporate wellness program is an investment in your corporation's most valuable asset, your workers. Corporate wellness programs are a great way to get your workers to perform well on the job because they are designed to get your employees into optimal physical and psychological health. Not only do corporate wellness programs enhance your corporation's productivity they are also very effective tools in slowing the growth of health care costs. WELCOA, which is an organization that is dedicated to corporate wellness programs, has identified seven best practices that you should follow when creating a corporate wellness program.

Here is a closer look at the seven practices that you should be following.

Number one:
Make sure that you capture senior-level support. If you are going to have any kind of success with the wellness program you are going to want to have approval from senior management. The reason for this is that employees learn from example, if the senior management is taking part in the program, more employees will be willing to get involved in the program. In order to gain their support you are going to need to make them understand the benefits that the wellness program has for both the employees and the business as a whole.

Number two:
Put together a corporate wellness team, which needs to include a wide range of potential program participants including workers. The team that you are going to be putting together is going to be in charge of establishing the wellness program, setting up the program and evaluating the program. This team is going to be marketing the program to both management and employees so you want people who are going to be actively involved.

Number three:
You will need to collect information that will drive your health initiatives. The information that you will need to obtain is considered to be baseline information that is going to be used to help assess the employees' wellness interests and their health risks. The results of the data that you obtain is what will determine what type of corporate wellness programs you will be offering.

Number four:
Create a yearly operating program for your wellness program. You will need to do this if you are going to want your wellness program to succeed because it cannot succeed if you do not have a goal. Your operating plan is going to need to include a mission statement for the wellness program, and specific measurable short-term and long-term goals.

Number five:
Be sure to select the right corporate wellness activities for your business. When you are selecting the corporate wellness activities you are going to need to select activities based on the results of the data that you obtained from your employees, but the activities must also meet the goals and objectives you created in your operating plan. The activities should address prevailing risk factors in your employee population, but also be what workers want from the program.

Number six:
Create a supportive atmosphere for your employees who are involved in the wellness program. A supportive atmosphere is going to provide your employees with praises, opportunity, and rewards which is going to encourage them to become involved in the wellness program. If you are providing wellness programs around healthy eating try stocking the vending machines with healthy snack choices instead of junk food. What you want to do is stand behind your employees that are trying to change their lives.

Number seven:
Always evaluate the results of your wellness program. This is going to involve taking a close look at your goals and determining if you have reached those goals or not. This review process is going to allow you to celebrate the goals that have been achieved and stop or change the goals that are not being achieved.

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