Health Fairs

The program design options depend on the objectives and goals and desired outcomes of your program.  If your objective is to help employees modify behavior, lower risk factors, or save health care money then your wellness program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be helpful to support that design.

There are different wellness program design levels depending on desired outcomes and budgets.  Each level has pros and cons.  The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining the same results, and therefore ought not be confused.  For example, planning activities such as an employee health & wellness fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having brochures available do not usually result in behavior change, but may increase awareness on a topic.  If the objective is behavior change then a different design is required, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Company Support.  The outline below outlines the wellness design levels with a short explanation.

Awareness Programs: At this level a business makes health information available and accessible to employees.  This type of program frequently includes handouts on a variety of topics, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc.   Also, most health & wellness fairs are designed as awareness programs with vendors providing information and providing wellness screenings to employees.

Awareness programs are cheap and do not require extensive employee or business time commitments.  However, these programs do not usually yield behavior modification.  Improving awareness isn’t usually enough to generate lifestyle changes for most people, unless used to excite employees to register for a program being provided at the business or neighborhood on the topic.  An example of this would be providing information on the harmful effects of smoking and inviting employees who smoke to register for a tobacco cessation class.

Education Programs: Educational programs frequently support more information on a topic and are able to also provide time for Q & A, but are similar to awareness programs.  An example is lunch-n-learn sessions on a health related topic.  These cost the business a little more than awareness programs; however, they are still inexpensive and do not require much time for planning or attending a session.  Again, expanding awareness and providing information may not lead to the desired behavior change unless ongoing reinforcement or incentives/rewards are also planned.

Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs:  These programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or sessions to support health and wellness education, address barriers and support opportunities to practice the desired skills.  Behavior change programs therefore require more business resources, cost more, and also require more employee commitment, time and effort.  The results are frequently the desired positive lifestyle change, which if sustained can lead to potential cost savings.

Examples are tobacco cessation classes, weight loss and weight management meetings, or an ongoing exercise program.

Environmental and Company Support:  Environmental reinforcement is frequently considered the highest and most significant level to include when starting your wellness program in order to support and maintain healthy lifestyles.  These  design options include policy changes such as:

• Creating a tobacco-free workplace
• Designating a walking path,
• Securing onsite fitness centers,
• Ensuring healthy snack machines choices,
• Offering healthy meal choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Securing flex-time policies.

Other examples include subsidizing healthy snack machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing health club or weight loss and weight management program memberships; or providing insurance incentives/rewards for healthy lifestyles.

Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of each of these options.  The more integrated the approach, the more efficacious the results will be.  For example, a business can have tobacco cessation information available; can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking and how to quit; can implement an onsite tobacco cessation program, supply self quit smoking kits, or support employees to catch a neighborhood program; and/or on an environmental reinforcement level can establish a tobacco-free workplace and grounds, offer decreased medical insurance for non-smokers, or support pharmacological quit smoking aids for free.

Employee Wellness : Components for Success

There are several critical parts that must be considered to see to the performance of your Employee Wellness  or Employee Wellness .  These include:

• Upper Management Support & Employee Participation
• Active Employee Wellness  Committee
• Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Goals and Objectives are Established
• Detailed Action Plan Based on Resources & Budget
• Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Assessment of Outcomes and Program