Implementing a health and wellness program takes time, money, and effort.  If you're going to invest, make sure it's worth it.  The success of a health and wellness program depends on several different factors, but how do you know your organization is ready for wellness in the first place?  In this post, we’ll provide three critical tools that will help you create a successful wellness program.

#1: Corporate Wellness Evaluation

Before you implement a wellness initiative to “check the box,” evaluate why you’re doing it in the first place.  A Corporate Wellness Evaluation can help you establish the “why,” and determine if your company is ready to move forward with a wellness program, from an organizational standpoint.  The questionnaire measures ten key areas of your organization, including everything from company culture, to buy-in, to budget.

Once completed, you'll receive a score that tells you how ready your organization is for a wellness program based on ten critical factors.  It's important to acknowledge "readiness" because it can ultimately impact how successful your wellness program will be.  For example, if your HR department lacks the proper communication channels, employees might be confused about your wellness initiatives, and therefore might not be as engaged. 

The bottom line is that the more prepared your organization is, the more successful your wellness program will be.

#2: Cultural Wellness Audit

Whether you’ve determined you’re ready for a wellness program or already have one in place, a Cultural Wellness Audit can help set an overall wellness strategy. 

The audit analyzes company culture and examines factors such as nutrition, physical fitness, leadership, and communication.  It will also help set an overall wellness strategy and bring to light the opportunities for wellness in specific aspects of company culture.  These aspects must support your overall wellness efforts to ensure your employees receive comprehensive support.  For example, what kind of message are you sending to employees if you're preaching a healthy diet, but the foods in your company cafeteria and vending machines are all processed or unhealthy?  How is your environment supporting your overall wellness strategy?  You’re telling employees one thing, but the environment says another.  A Cultural Wellness Audit can highlight mixed messages within the company culture and help you realign your environment with your wellness initiatives. 

#3: Health Screenings and Aggregate Data

Once you know your organization is ready for wellness and there’s room for improvement in the company culture, it’s time to understand the health of your population!  To run a successful wellness program, you need to know,

a) just how unhealthy your population is; and

b) what health factors are driving their risk. 

Health screenings and aggregate data can paint a picture of the overall health of your population.  Data can show potential health risks and future costs to your company, highlighting your population's needs.  From there, you can form a more targeted wellness strategy. 

For example, if you currently have a strict tobacco policy in place, but aggregate data shows there aren’t many employees who smoke, there's less need for a tobacco cessation program. On the other hand, if aggregate data shows a large amount of your population is obese, you’ll want to implement more wellness initiatives and education around weight loss to prevent pre-diabetes and diabetes.

Below is a sample of TargetCare Aggregate Data.  The table shows what percent of the population is struggling with different risk factors.  Weight and blood pressure issues consume this population, which means the employer may want to implement a wellness strategy that prioritizes these two chronic disease risk factors.

To recap, a Corporate Wellness Evaluation helps determine if your organization is ready for wellness, a Cultural Wellness Audit helps set an overall wellness strategy, and Aggregate Data can highlight your population's specific needs, helping you form more targeted wellness initiatives.  When choosing a wellness partner, make sure they can provide you with these three tools to get the most out of your wellness strategy.

Download the TargetCare Corporate Wellness Evaluation to determine your organization's readiness, Cultural Wellness Audit to help set an overall wellness strategy, and Aggregate Data to understand the health of your population.