Business of Well-being

Choosing Wellness Interventions

Choosing the appropriate interventions is a critical step in developing and delivering a results-oriented worksite wellness program. Wellness interventions are focused on modification of risk factors and behavior change. Interventions encourage participants to begin or maintain healthy lifestyle habits including physical activity, nutrition, weight management, stress management and tobacco cessation.


You can enhance your participation goals and impact the health of your staff through careful planning. When choosing appropriate interventions for your wellness program, be sure to accumulate appropriate data. Here are the five crucial pieces of information you must have to develop interventions for your program:

  1. Assessment of the overall health of the organization
  2. Health claims data
  3. Assessment of employee interests
  4. Funds and resources
  5. Wellness program goals and objectives.

Do not let this list scare you; it is not as hard as it looks. Here are some "easy to follow" steps to help you stay on the right track. Remember, your aim should be to tie your employee wellness programming decisions back to data to ensure you are on track to achieve your wellness programming goals.

Assess the Health of the Organization

Prior to developing the intervention programs, you first need to know the health of your organization. There are three ways to assess the health of your organization: A health risk assessment, an employee health screening and a review of health claims data to provide a big picture of the health of your employees.


A Health Risk Assessment (HRA) is a questionnaire used to uncover lifestyle trends and health issues. An HRA is an effective tool to identify risk, and to track population health trends over time. HRA's are available through your medical carrier and through wellness vendors. HRA's may be delivered to staff in a variety of methods including online, paper and telephonic depending on the best method for your staff.


Some  may be customized to include questions specific to your programming efforts. As an employer you will have access to aggregate reports to identify key population risks. The aggregate reports are essential to developing appropriate health interventions. The HRA is best accompanied with the results of an employee health screening.


Typical employee health screenings include Blood Pressure, BMI/Weight/Body Composition, Cholesterol/Lipid Profile Screenings and Glucose Test. Health screenings must be performed by health and wellness professionals and can be offered at the worksite or offsite.


Additional options for delivering health screenings are through home testing kits or primary care physician. Health screenings can help employees proactively detect health risks by increased awareness of current "health numbers." Most of the time you will receive an aggregate report which will further identify the key population risks.

Health Claims Data

Another way to determine the health trends of your employees is to review the claims data from your medical and prescription plans. This will show medical care trends and the most pressing health conditions within your workforce. It is useful to know how much is your business paying for employee medical care.


If you're self-insured, your benefits manager or consultant can analyze claims and tell you where the dollars are going. Consider reviewing your internal absence management data as well. Seek to determine trends in employee leaves and workers compensation. These additional resources may assist in determining how effectively your wellness program is impacting absenteeism and employee injury costs.

Assessment of Employee Interests

In addition to determining the current health of the organization, it is also helpful to engage employees in program design by asking what they want in a wellness program. We recommend the development of an employee interest survey. The survey should be short and take less than 8-10 minutes to complete.


The goal of the survey is to ask employees what programs they wish to see in their wellness program. In addition, you can learn the preferred method of program delivery (on-site, off-site, one-on-one, team, computer based, etc.), preferred time, day and length of programs. Ask employees what type of incentives will motivate them to participate.


Provide a number of options for employees to select from as well as write-in area for employees to submit ideas. When developing your employee interest survey, also take the opportunity to assess what may impede participation. Ask employees what may hinder participation so you may address these concerns during program development.

Determine Budget and Resources

Determine budget and organizational and external resources available before you begin program planning. The budget includes the hard dollars your organization has earmarked for your wellness program. Organizational resources include the use of company facilities and time for events and programs, as well as overall leadership support and encouragement for your program.


Once you determine your budget and organizational resources, review what wellness programs are feasible and most effective for your employee population to then connect them with external resources. The first resource you should incorporate in your wellness program is the benefits from your medical, dental, financial and EAP providers.


Your benefit providers offer a variety of tools and resources at no additional cost. Your goal should be to maximize the resources you are already paying for before you open your checkbook. Additional external resources include community and wellness vendors.


Reach out to local non-profit agencies to conduct on-site educational programs, and for a provision of educational resources for distribution. Connect with local fitness facilities, wellness organizations and health food stores to provide discounts, passes and resources to your staff.


You may also seek to engage a wellness vendor and wellness consultant to manage your wellness programming efforts. Getting support will help ensure your program is effective and you meet your overall programming goals.

Define Wellness Program Goals and Objectives

Most importantly: make a plan. Putting a program together without a plan is like putting the carrot afterthe horse! Determine participation goals you wish to achieve. Determine the impact you wish for your interventions to have on the health of the organization. Be very specific in what you hope the program will do for your staff and organization.


It is imperative that you align your program goals and objectives with your program interventions. Typical interventions include tobacco cessation, stress management, disease management and health coaching, fitness programs, financial wellness, nutrition education, flu vaccinations, mammography and much more.


Develop your program with the unique needs of your organization in mind. Target your interventions based upon the data you obtain from HRAs and screenings and health claims data. Engage your employees and ask for their input in your program but above all align your program interventions with your overall goals and objectives. Taking the time to gather data and plan will help ensure your program is successful in influencing the lives of your employees.

About the Author

Lisa Weston, CWC Director - Employee Wellness Promotion joined the bagnall company in as Director of Employee Wellness Promotion in 2010. She brings superior administrative skills gained through positions in healthcare, education and the public sector.


Her past experience includes development, implementation, management and monitoring wellness programs for a variety of employers. Lisa believes that wellness programs should be educational with a "whole health" approach. She has implemented a variety of wellness initiatives that have enjoyed a history of excellent participation rates. One of the programs (implemented for a large employer encouraging exercise) achieved a 65% participation rate among active employees.

Lisa is a Certified Corporate Wellness Coach with a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Phoenix. She has a strong background in health education, organization and efficiency management and healthcare improvement.

To learn more about the bagnall company, visit: www.bagnall.us.

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