Establishing CEO/senior management support is critical for long-term health promotion success. “The extent to which senior management and mid-level managers support the program will probably be the single most important variable in determining whether the program will ultimately succeed.” -Larry Chapman, Planning Wellness – Getting Off to a Good Start.

The wellness program coordinator will design and implement an “effective employee wellness program” for their organization. They will act as a wellness program advocate, be able to communicate effectively with written and verbal skills to management, participants and vendors (wellness partners). The wellness program coordinator is responsible for programming, evaluations and continuing program improvements.

A background in a health related field or health promotion is helpful and encouraged, but the program coordinator role also requires marketing, communications, volunteer management, data analysis and interpretation, vendor relations and more.

A clear and concise mission statement is the quickest and most succinct way to tell people who you are and what you do. A good mission statement reflects the organization’s corporate culture and the program’s operating philosophy.

It can also be used as a litmus test when deciding what programming activities to include (i.e., if it’s not in your mission statement, don’t use it; or revise your mission statement to reflect what you actually do).

The only way to target interventions and design programs so they are specific to the organization is to evaluate (assess) the population. Health screenings are used to identify individuals with specific risk factors. The Health Risk Appraisal or Assessment (HRA) evaluates disease risk factors based on lifestyle habits. Additional tools examine medical claims data to determine disease or pharmacy trends.

Employee interest surveys can cultivate interest in programs as well as offer an opportunity to examine attendance potential and incentive preferences.

A targeted or affected audience refers to the group of individuals within an organization who have surfaced, as a result of the assessment tools, as those needing specific interventions. There are two populations that are most important to target—the high risk (identified through assessment tools) and the low risk or healthy (“keep the healthy people healthy”).

The most common organizational target audiences are those at risk for or with a current diagnosis of depression, metabolic syndrome, diabetes or heart disease (high risk). The low risk or healthy, according to Dee Edington, Director, Health Management Research Center, University of Michigan, are essential to target as well and should receive prevention strategies because individuals who appear healthy will migrate to the at-risk and more costly group overtime (especially if not encouraged to stay healthy).

Identification of your target audience allows you to design programs focused on their risks and risk reduction. Identification of such individuals can be derived from an HRA, claims and clinical data. This step is an important step in matching expectations, objectives, ROI and allocated resources for operations at the selected workplace health promotion level.

Interventions are the programs, classes or services you offer. Programs can range from giving out general information to interventions targeting a specific population based on their needs (assessment tools) and readiness to change to elicit long-term positive behavioral results and skill development. For an effective intervention, getting the right information to the right people at the right time is important.

A tracking system, which monitors participant activity or utilization, is critical for measuring outcomes and communicating results. Your electronic tracking system should be on a secure site, easy to administer and include query functions that reflect program objectives. All tracking systems must be HIPAA compliant. A Health Risk Appraisal or Assessment (HRA) is regarded as an industry best practice assessment, tracking system and outcomes measurement tool.

All workplace health promotion programs should have a formal evaluation process. Care and effort must be taken to document the program’s effectiveness and value to (1) justify the program’s existence and costs to senior management, and (2) provide the wellness practitioner with participant feedback to continually improve the program.

Outcome measurement can range from participant utilization and satisfaction to implementing an HRA and collecting and comparing the progressive data from year to year. This enables the program to measure movement of risk (low to high, high to low), ROI and economic impact of risk factor trends.

Stakeholders at all levels want to know how the workplace health and productivity management programming is working within the organization. Communicating the program’s success to employees will help to encourage ongoing participation.

Communicating program effectiveness to senior management may be the most important tool for long-term sustainability of the program. Reports should be designed for the audience (what employees need/want to hear may be different than senior management) and can include program accomplishments, challenges, utilization, goals, aggregate data, return on investment or economic impact information.

Effective promotion to employees is critical to the success of any program. The marketing strategy is the vehicle to compel or motivate the maximum number of employees to participate. It is best to have several advertising methods to reach the highest participation because people are attracted to different styles.

Various forms of communication provide the best results for reaching an entire population (electronic options, reports, paychecks, home mailers, verbal information, bulletin board posters, etc.). The most effective communication is personalized and individualized.