Before you start a corporate wellness program

If you’re planning to initiate a wellness program and you don’t know where to begin, it’s understandable. One internet search and you’ll find yourself faced with many reasonable alternatives, but which are the right choices:  maybe you should start with health assessments; maybe a health fair or maybe you should bring in a yoga instructor every Wednesday at noon.

What if all of those were right for your company?  Could you afford to jump in all at once?

Small businesses don’t have the luxury of spending a lot of money and hoping that goals get met.  We specialize in working with small business, providing direction, support and advice on scheduling, who to put on the project and how to stay within a budget.

Take a look at the following questions.  You should not move forward with a wellness program without determining the answers.  Think of it as the foundation to build your program.  Remember, it’s easy to get lost on program particulars and fancy incentives, but you don’t want to lose focus on why you’ve started down this exciting path in the first place.

What is your current wellness culture?

You don’t need to have a wellness program in place to have a wellness culture.  Your culture starts at the top.  What does wellness mean to your managers and how does that trickle down to your employees today?  What are their expectations?  Do staff meetings often include unhealthy foods? What is the tolerance for harassment or drug abuse? How do people react when a father needs to take off early to make his girl’s dance recital?  Knowing where you are currently helps you figure out what incentives you can push now, and what may take a little longer to integrate.  If your culture maintains that employees need to stay until 2am to push through a project; asking people to get in 60 minutes of exercise everyday isn’t going to hold water.  Supplying a healthy meal for those working through dinner might be a better option.

Ask yourself, what are you REALLY trying to accomplish?  (Really, really).

This is significant; this is where you evaluate if your wellness program is worth its salt.  If a goal is to lower your health care costs; that’s fine.  Just keep that in mind when you design a program.  You don’t want to offer incentives to the already healthy people that represent just a fraction of your insurance costs only to have them participate in the local 5K.  Once you’re clear about your objective, whether it be saving money, morale boosting, attracting new employees or just having healthy employees, remember that vision when you begin to design programs.

Will you treat everyone equally?

When you have contract workers, satellite employees or employees that are on the road – you need to ask yourself: “Is it o.k. for the employees at corporate headquarters to get more promotion, access, etc to the wellness program?”  Decide that up front.  Otherwise, as each program gets designed, you’ll have to ask yourself whether or not it’s possible to include that ‘special’ group.  Make the decision early so that you can be consistent in your messaging and expectations.

What resources do you already have on hand?

This is beyond budgets.  Wellness programs live and die on creative thinking, willingness to communicate ideas and sound medical knowledge.  Think about who you already have on hand that would be excited to work on this project with you.  What areas of expertise would you still need to cover?  Also, think about what budgets are already in place that you can piggyback your wellness program onto.  Does someone already organize the Bike to Work Day?  What options are available through your benefits provider at no cost?  After you know what you have, then you can start to fill in the holes.

There’s no doubt about it; a successful wellness program takes a lot of thought and planning…months before the first program is even announced.  Knowing your goals and what resources you’re starting with is like laying the foundation of a house.  Your support will be in place and you’ll be ready to build.

About the Author: Quan Campbell MBA, MS, RCEP is President and Clinical Director for Lifewellness Institute. Her field expertise in athletic training, injury rehabilitation and team coaching serve as a launching point for designing effective wellness programs for individuals, corporations and athletes.