Health Fairs

A Employee Wellness without objectives and goals is somewhat akin to taking a family trip without any planning; you won’t know where you’re going, how to get there, what you want to do once you have arrived, or even whether or not you have arrived!  The trip may end up ok, or it may end up disastrously.  Yet, with a little thoughtful planning, you expand your chances for a efficacious experience.  Clear objectives and goals are required to plan your wellness program in order to ensure success!

Wellness program objectives and goals are different from one business to another depending on the population, needs, interests and resources.  However, well thought out objectives based on your company’s needs assessment will form the foundation of a efficacious wellness program!

Employee Wellness  Mission Statement

The first consideration is a mission statement for your Employee Wellness . The mission statement is the overall expression of what the Employee Wellness  Committee wants to accomplish by implementing a wellness program.  It is significant to consider how your Employee Wellness  fits in with the business mission statement, contributes to the overall mission and supports the business bottom line.  This will integrate your efforts throughout the business operations.

Here are some examples of Employee Wellness mission statements:

“At XYZ Company, maintaining an environment that supports employee health and safety is our underlying value.  It is the mission of the Employee Wellness  to support  in creating Employee Wellness  services that fosters and upholds that value.”

“It is the mission of the XYZ Employee Wellness  Committee to cultivate healthier lifestyle choices to lower health risk factors, improve overall wellness, and maintain a advantageous, active work force.”

Employee Wellness  Goals

The objectives and goals further define your mission and are based on your needs assessment.  Depending on the needs assessment, management expectations and employee interests, examples of objectives and goals can include:

The objective(s) of XYZ Employee Wellness  in year XXXX is to:  (one or more of the following examples)

• Reduce absenteeism by one day per employee
• Lower musculoskeletal injuries by 10 percent
• Lower unnecessary emergency room visits
• Lower or contain health care expenditures
• Improve dietary habits of employees
• Lower health risk factors

Employee Wellness  Objectives

Specific Employee Wellness  objectives help meet your long-term objectives and goals.  Both short term and long term objectives should be developed as the stepping stones to accomplish the objectives and goals.  In addition to objectives for the expected colleague outcomes, process objectives should also be developed for the program process itself.  For example, process objectives may include how many employees you want to participate in the programs, how many sessions on a topic will be provided, the type of wellness sessions that will be implemented, etc.

Objectives need to be easily measurable within a set time frame.  Try using the SMART formula to set up both your long and short-term objectives and goals:

• Specific (one behavior or outcome)
• Measurable (one result that can be observed or evaluated),
• Attainable (but also challenging),
• Realistic (do you have the resources to achieve?), and
• Time specific (within 3 months – up to 5 years)

This is the who, what, when, where, why, and by how much method.  For example, an objective for a weight loss program that has an overall objective of improving healthy eating and promoting a healthy weight is that:

Participants (who) will lose an average of .5 – 1 lbs per week (specific what that is measurable) at the end of the 12 week lunchtime program (time specific what, when and where) for a minimum of 6 lbs weight loss per colleague (attainable and realistic).

Or:

Participants (who) will catch 11 of the 12 sessions (specific what that is measurable) and name at least one healthier eating change at the end of the program (specific what, when, where)

An example of an objective for coaching employees with high blood lipids might be:

To lower the total cholesterol (specific what) of high risk employees with cholesterol over 240 mg/dl (specific who) to 200 mg/dl (measurable how much) through one-on-one counseling sessions provided at the worksite (where) by X date (ex, after 6 months) (attainable, realistic & time specific when) to lower the risk factor for heart disease (why).

And one last example of a process objective for a tobacco cessation program with an overall objective to support  participants in committing to quit for life:

By the end of the 4-week tobacco cessation program, 10 percent of the participants will have quit smoking.  Each colleague will be contacted at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months from the program’s end to determine quit status (process objective) and 10 percent of those who quit will still be tobacco-free after one year.

You have now completed Steps 1 through 4, including implementing your Employee Wellness Committee.  It is now time to plan your wellness activities!