Program evaluation may be The previous step, but it must be planned at the beginning of your efforts! Assessment helps you identify what parts of the program are working well and what parts could use improvement. Then, based on the evaluation data, adjustments can be made to fine-tune your wellness program. Adjusting the program based on evaluation data is vital to its continued effectiveness.
Evaluating your program does not have to be be terribly complex. However, it is important to plan how you will monitor your wellness efforts and determine success during the planning phase or Step 5. Also keep in mind to evaluate the program based on the goals you already established during your planning process.
In order to evaluate your program you must have a system to document specifics as you progress. This can be as simple as maintaining file folders on programs that are offered, or a computer document with a table or spreadsheet summarizing information collecting. Consider:
• Program topic and numbers of staff members who participated
• The numbers of pamphlets taken by workers or distributed and on what topics
• The number of participants in a behavior change program and how many met their objectives and goals as well as how many attended all of the sessions
• Numbers of employees who continued the healthy behavior change following the program?
• Overall employee satisfaction with the program or each topic.
Depending on your objectives and goals, gather desired data and compare it to previous data gathered during the initial assessment to determine if the objectives and goals were met. Such data might include
• Absentee rates
• Injury rates
• Health risk factors Insurance costs
Summarize and Report Company Wellness Program Results
Once you have collected all of the evaluation information it needs to be reviewed with the Company Health Promotion Program Committee and summarized. You will probably have beneficial results and some areas where a change is necessitated or additional focus necessitated for continuous improvement. This not-so beneficial information can be used to make any necessitated changes as well as to plan for next year and is significant to include in your report.
It is valuable to communicate the wellness program results to both management and workers. Consider how management usually receives reports on operations and productiveness concerns and include the annual wellness program report in the same format. At some employers the reports are made during management gatherings using presentation styles such as authority point slides. At other employers, graphs and bar charts are the norm or a list of the objectives and the summary outcomes published.
No matter the format, it’s significant to convey the outcomes and successes achieved, including any anecdotal stories, as well as areas for improvement. Be sure to link the outcomes to the organization mission and bottom line whenever possible.
Workers desire to receive the same information! Consider using the same communication channels used when informing employees of the wellness program:
• Business newsletters,
• Bulletin boards,
• E-mails
Also consider celebrating successes and recognizing achievements by:
• Posting pictures from activities
• Highlighting effectiveness stories
• Posting pictures of successes
• Scheduling a celebration
• Recognizing champions
