More smart Worksite Wellness Program employer planning strategies

Planning the Worksite Wellness Program

• Determine how your organization plans so that your planning process will be in sync with what already happens in the organization.
• Involve other workers. A planning team brings their combined experience and perspective to the process. Including potential partners as you plan will make it easier to get their buy-in later.

Thinking of the big picture

• Look at the barriers and challenges that might be encountered during Worksite Wellness Program implementation. Develop strategies ahead of time to overcome these potential problems.
• Do a SWOT analysis and examine Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

This analysis will help you identify potential problem areas or resource shortfalls as well as opportunities for growth or increased partnerships with other installation personnel.

The WORST employer planning strategy: sitting in your office; working by yourself.

The best Worksite Wellness Program employer planning strategies

• Get out of your office; get out of the employer. The more workers you involve in the Worksite Wellness Program planning process, the better. Always look for ways to expand your network.
• Keep your budget workers informed. Get to know their philosophy of financial management.
• Be able to articulate the impact if your budget is not fully funded.
o Stay away from basing your impact-if-not-funded argument solely on: “We have to.”
o Instead, describe the impact-if-not-funded with phrases like: injuries to workers, increased compensation costs, increased medical care costs for patients, lost work time, loss of licenses/accreditations, loss of workload to the Tricare network.
• Always have purchase requests ready to be submitted. There is often a short window of time to process these requests. Having the information gathered ahead of time will make it easy to submit the information right away.

A well thought-out Worksite Wellness Program employer plan is essential in these times of shrinking budgets and resources. A good employer plan will help you gain leadership support and help you get and keep resources needed to implement the Worksite Wellness Program.

What is a employer plan?

• A plan for success
• A document that convincingly demonstrates that your Worksite Wellness Program will help the organization to achieve its goals.

Questions to ask when developing a Worksite Wellness Program employer plan

• Why do you need to do the Worksite Wellness Program?
• What are you going to do?
• Where are you going to do it?
• Who is the target audience?
• How are you going to do it?
• Who is going to implement the Worksite Wellness Program?
• How much will the Worksite Wellness Program cost Upper Management?
• What is Upper Management going to get out of the Worksite Wellness Program? Why should Upper Management invest in the Worksite Wellness Program?

Worksite Wellness Program employer Plan Components

• Title and duration of the Worksite Wellness Program
• Points of contact
• Background information (description of need; bibliography/literature review; how the Worksite Wellness Program will help achieve the organization’s goals)
• Worksite Wellness Program description
• Goals and objectives
• Implementation site
• Target population
• Work plan
• Partnerships and collaborations
• Timelines and milestones
• Budget and resource requirements (dollars and workers)

Gaining the support of leadership

• Clearly link the Worksite Wellness Program goals and objectives to the organization’s strategic plan.
• Focus on the desired outcomes.
• Use the right language for the right audience. For example, Upper Management is interested in decreased clinic visits, increased provider productivity, management of the health of the population. However, Upper Management is interested in increased readiness, decreased lost duty/training time, and decreased disability and FECA claims.
A well thought-out Worksite Wellness Program employer plan will help you gain leadership support, help you get and keep resources needed to implement the Worksite Wellness Program, and keep the Worksite Wellness Program on track towards meaningful outcomes.