Kick-starting a wellness program

How do you orchestrate and enhance your existing wellness initiatives to be more effective? Ceridian’s Zachary Meyer tackles your questions.

Ann from Illinois writes: "Our public school district has about 1000 employees - mostly women - who work in 15 schools that offer full-year school programs and activities from elementary through high school. We have a couple of smaller programs already (Fruit and Vegetables Club and a Biggest Loser weight contest) but I don't feel like we're reaching everyone. I'm also not sure if we're addressing the greatest needs of our employees. How can we build a better program, and how can I demonstrate that the program is successful?"

Zachary Meyer says: It's great that your district recognizes the importance of wellness programs. Studies show that most Americans will get some form of chronic disease such as cancer, diabetes or cardiovascular disease in their lifetime and most are caused by unhealthy, modifiable behaviors. While changing behavior isn't easy, it's exactly where worksite wellness programs can make a difference. Working with a vendor like Ceridian can enrich your existing program and improve utilization and results.

For your school district or any business, illness prevention can be a significant cost-saving strategy. And for employees, it's a convenient way to stay healthy, happy and working.

It sounds like your greatest challenge is that your home-grown wellness groups are limited in reach and there's not an effective way to measure success. You also have no way of assessing employee health risk factors.   

There are however a lot of positive opportunities in your situation too. Your administration appears to be committed to funding and supporting an employee health and wellness program. Commitment by an organization's leadership is critical to a program's success. Further, employee interest in wellness appears to be high.

Partner with an organization like Ceridian to build a program that meshes your existing wellness groups with programs that will better assess the health of your employee population and address behavioral issues with health coaching.

The first step would be identifying a resource to be focused on the program and accountable to the success. Your school district may even be able to fund and hire an onsite wellness coordinator. Dedicating an employee resource to manage the program would further demonstrate that the administration is committed to creating a culture of wellness.

The wellness coordinator would partner with a Ceridian account representative to choose the right blend of programs for your employee population. Having a dedicated employee with the sole responsibility of managing wellness programs is a huge step toward implementing a program built for success.

The following Ceridian wellness program elements are examples of what may be selected and implemented by the school district:

Health Risk Assessment (HRA)

The HRA identifies overall strengths and weakness of the employee population. You may want to offer this a couple of time periods each year to ensure everyone has a chance to participate. After reviewing the assessments, you may find that your district has a low incidence of employees with stress and who use tobacco, but a higher incidence of challenges with weight management issues.

Outreach and Engagement

HRA data is analyzed and the top 25 percent of employees with at-risk behaviors are identified. Ceridian health coaches contact employees and ask them to enroll in a health coaching program. The identity of at-risk employees would be kept confidential from the school district.

Health Coaching

Based on the assessment, you may want to offer Weight Management, Tobacco Cessation, Stress Management and Cardiovascular health coaching programs.

Incentives Program

Offering a generous incentive, such as cutting the annual health insurance premium in half for employees who enroll in, and complete, a health coaching program can be highly effective. Incentives are another critical component to building a successful program and need to be built around your goals and budget.

Measurement

Working with Ceridian, you may determine that you want to conduct a particular number of biometric screenings and health risk assessments as well as achieve a certain enrollment rate in the health coaching programs within the first year after the program is launched. The key is developing realistic goals upfront so that you know what to measure and when.

The Power of Partnership

When partnering with Ceridian, you can count on an effective working relationship with the power of our know-how on your side. Together, we can tailor a program to help you cultivate a healthier, more productive workforce.

Zachary Meyer is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Ceridian Health & Productivity Solutions.