Developing an operating plan for employee wellness programs

The one thing that all successful employee wellness programs share is an outcome oriented operating plan. Having an operating plan for your wellness program is important because it is going to link the employee wellness program to the company's needs and strategic priorities. The operating plan is also going to legitimize the wellness program, which in turn will increase the likelihood of continued resources and support for the wellness program.

When you are developing an operating plan for your wellness program the first thing that you are going to need to have is a clear vision or mission statement. This statement is going to be how you envision the future of the wellness plan; you want to write down what you want the plan to achieve in the future. The vision statement also needs to include the values that drive the program and the goals or accomplishments that they wellness program is trying to achieve. When coming up with the vision statement for your wellness program keep in mind that it should support the company's overall mission statement.

The second thing that you are going to need to include in when developing your operating plan for the wellness program is the goals of the wellness program. The goals that you are going to include in your plan are going to be long-term accomplishments that you are hoping your employees will achieve from completing the wellness program. The one thing to keep in mind when setting the goals for the program is that there is a higher chance of your employees accomplishing these goals if they are realistically set. However, the goals will also need to reflect the needs of both management and the employees and they will need to flow naturally from all of the data that is collected. The goals that you are setting are going to need to include clear time limits, which is going to make it easy to determine if a goal has been accomplished or not.

The third thing that you will want to include in your wellness plan is the program objectives. These objectives are going to be the tactics that you are implementing so that you can achieve your goals. When writing down the tactics you is going to want to make sure that they are clearly written so you will know if they have been accomplished or not.

You are also going to need to make sure that you include a timeline and a budget for your wellness program. The timeline is going to need to be realistic and it is going to include the information needed on how long it is going to take to implement and evaluate the program, as well as when you will need to reach certain goals and objectives. In order to carry out your wellness program you are going to need resources, such as people running the program, materials to support the program, etc. You want to create a budget for the program so that you can see how the costs are comparing with the outcome.

In order to get your employees involved in the wellness program you are going to need to communicate and market your wellness program to them. In your operating plan you are going to want to include what marketing efforts you will be using to inform your employees about the program. You are also going to want to include information on how you plan to implement the program, such as when certain things will be offered and who is going to be responsible for what.

The last thing that you are going to need to include in your operating plan is how you are going to evaluate your wellness program. You are going to need to provide information on how you will measure your program to see if it is successful, which is going to include how well the program is working and if you are achieving your expected results.