Corporate Wellness ConsultantsCorporate Wellness Consultants and Corporate Wellness Programs

Keeping Corporate Wellness Program data organized is essential in order to be able to determine Corporate Wellness Program impact and participant progress. Use the simple steps below to keep your data organized.

Manage Corporate Wellness Program data electronically.
• Storing Corporate Wellness Program outcomes data electronically is the best way to manage that information.
• An electronic system will enable you to review and analyze the data more efficiently.
• Scan old surveys and other Corporate Wellness Program information that exist only on paper into .pdf format for permanent storage.

Find the Corporate Wellness Program system that works best for you.
• Some individuals are more comfortable with spreadsheet applications; others prefer to work with database applications.
• You will be more likely to use a Corporate Wellness Program that you are familiar and/or comfortable with.
• Standardize data collection and organization. Keep data columns/fields in the same order for all Corporate Wellness Programs.

Keep the Corporate Wellness Program as simple as possible.
• You do not have to be a Wellness Programming wizard or use complicated data entry interfaces in order to manage Corporate Wellness Program outcomes data.
• A simple spreadsheet is an excellent way to keep your data organized.

Store all Corporate Wellness Program data numerically.
• Using numbers (instead of words) will make the data much easier to enter and analyze. By way of example: use “1” for yes; “0” for no OR “1” for male; “2” for female.
• Number survey responses that contain strings of words. By way of example: instead of entering the responses: “patient education videos”, “news,” or “no TV,” number the responses so you only have to enter “1,” “2,” or “3.”

Label all Corporate Wellness Program data clearly.
• Make sure all the data columns, rows, or fields are labeled. The data is worthless if you don’t know what data is in which column.
• The spreadsheet/database should include an explanation for column, row, field, and data abbreviations and a key for numbered responses.

Use consistent Corporate Wellness Program data units.
• Make sure all data entered into a given column is expressed with the same unit of measure. By way of example, enter all heights as total inches, not as a combination of feet and inches.
Putting your data in order by using a simple system that works for you will enable you to track participant accomplishments. Keeping your data organized also makes it easier to communicate Corporate Wellness Program impact to leadership and make Corporate Wellness Program improvements as needed.

A gap analysis is an assessment tool that enables a business to compare its current capabilities and performance with industry benchmarks and expectations for performance. A gap analysis is used to identify areas that have room for improvement.

Gap analysis can also be used for your Corporate Wellness Program to determine where the program stands now and how the Corporate Wellness Program can better follow evidence-based recommendations.

To begin a gap analysis, ask these simple questions about your Corporate Wellness Program:
• What is the current state of the Corporate Wellness Program?
• How does the Corporate Wellness Program measure up to evidence-based practices? (i.e., the desired state)

The gap is the difference between the current and desired states.

After the gap has been identified, the next step is to determine the action steps that are needed to close the gap. These actions answer the question: “How can the Corporate Wellness Program move forward towards the desired state?”

Sometimes the gaps that need to be filled can be addressed through Corporate Wellness Program changes; other gaps might require policy changes. However, using a gap analysis will help you identify areas for Corporate Wellness Program improvement as well as the actions needed to make progress towards those goals.

Corporate Wellness Program business plan review (from Key #19)
• A Corporate Wellness Program business plan is a roadmap for success.
• Your Corporate Wellness Program business plan should convincingly demonstrate that your Corporate Wellness Program will help the organization to achieve its goals.

More smart Corporate Wellness Program business planning strategies

Planning the Corporate Wellness Program
• Find out how your organization plans so that your planning process will be in sync with what already happens in the organization.
• Involve other individuals. 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
• Consider the barriers and challenges that might be encountered during Corporate 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 business planning strategy: sitting in your office; working by yourself.

The best Corporate Wellness Program business planning strategies
• Get out of your office; get out of the business. The more individuals you involve in the Corporate Wellness Program planning process, the better. Always look for ways to expand your network.
• Keep your budget individuals 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 Corporate Wellness Program business plan is essential in these times of shrinking budgets and resources. A good business plan will help you gain leadership support and help you get and keep resources needed to implement the Corporate Wellness Program.

A business plan is a roadmap for success. Use the guidelines below to develop a realistic business plan and budget for your Corporate Wellness Programs.

What is a business plan?

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

Questions to ask when developing a Corporate Wellness Program business plan

• Why do you need to do the Corporate 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 Corporate Wellness Program?
• How much will the Corporate Wellness Program cost Senior Management?
• What is Senior Management going to get out of the Corporate Wellness Program? Why should Senior Management invest in the Corporate Wellness Program?

Corporate Wellness Program business Plan Components

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

Gaining the support of leadership

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

As they say: “timing is everything.” Use the guidelines below to guide the timing of Corporate Wellness Program activities and data collection.

Timing: Corporate Wellness Program Start-up
• Consider the optimal time to start a new Corporate Wellness Program. Take into account preferences of the target population and other factors that could affect enrollment and participation.
• By way of example, coordinating the start of an adult weight management initiative with the start of school in August or September may be a good tie-in with a “fresh start.”
• On the other hand, starting an adult weight management initiative In January may not be a great idea because of the constraints that weather may put on exercising outdoors.
• Take advantage of other timing cycles at your installation. Planning a marketing blitz just after the PCS turnover has been completed is a good way to let new personnel know what Corporate Wellness Program options are available.

Timing: Corporate Wellness Program Participant Support
• Consider how frequently Corporate Wellness Program sessions should be offered to provide the best support and education for members and the best opportunity for success.
• Get feedback from members regarding what session frequencies work best for them.
• Consider the timing for other support mechanisms like email encouragement. What timing of those messages will benefit members most: Weekly? Bi-monthly? Monthly?

Timing: Corporate Wellness Program Data Collection
• Collecting data is an excellent way to track participant progress and also to identify potential problems within a Corporate Wellness Program. So, give some thought to the frequency and timing of data collection.
• Select metrics that can realistically change during the Corporate Wellness Program implementation time period. By way of example, BMI and weight may not change very much during a 10-week Corporate Wellness Program; however, step counts are more likely to noticeably change.
• Some data, such as participant responsiveness to out-of-class assignments (like food journals) and other interim data (like step counts) will provide important information needed to “adjust fire” as needed and make Corporate Wellness Program changes if something is not working.
• Be flexible regarding data collection frequency. Instead of requiring that members complete an exercise log every day, for example, consider asking for a “snapshot” summary from two or three days during the week. You will still get information to review, but members will have an easier time complying with the assignment.

Timing: Corporate Wellness Program Follow-up
• Because the we are such a mobile population, it’s best to plan some sort of post-Corporate Wellness Program follow-up data collection within two to four months after the Corporate Wellness Program ends.
• You can always try to collect additional follow-up data at 6 or 12 months after Corporate Wellness Program completion. However, if you collect the data sooner, you’ll at least have collected some short term Corporate Wellness Program impact information before members are lost to follow-up.

Corporate Wellness Program communication is important to all aspects of Wellness and preventive medicine and is relevant to:
• Healthcare provider-patient relationships
• An individual’s exposure to, search for, and use of Corporate Wellness Program information
• Effective counseling and patient education for behavior change
• Content of public health messages and community campaigns

Effective health communication should have these attributes:
• Accuracy: content is valid and error-free
• Availability: delivered or placed where the intended audience can access the information
• Balance: content presents benefits and risks of potential actions
• Consistency: content is locally consistent over time and is also consistent with information from other reliable sources
• Evidence-based: content and methods of delivery are based on relevant scientific proof
• Reach: content gets to or is available to as many individuals as possible in the target population
• Reliability: content source is credible; content is kept up-to-date
• Repetition: delivery of/access to the content is continued over time, to reinforce the impact with the audience and to reach new members of the target population
• Timeliness: content is provided when the audience is most receptive to, or in need of, the specific information
• Understandability: reading, language levels, and format are appropriate for the specific audience (i.e., Employees, Family Members, Garrison leadership, etc.)

What the research says about health communication
• Health communication best supports Wellness when multiple communication methods are used to reach specific audiences.
• Effective Wellness and communication initiatives should reflect an audiencecentered perspective, and reflect the preferred formats, contexts, and method of communication for the intended audience.

Material adapted from: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010. 2nd ed. With Understanding and Improving Health and Objectives for Improving Health. 2 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 2000.
http://www.healthypeople.gov/document/HTML/Volume1/11HealthCom.htm

Evaluation of successful Corporate Wellness Programs has revealed several key Corporate Wellness Program strategies to increase Corporate Wellness Program effectiveness and impact overall Soldier health.

Strategy #5: Using a small number of targeted priorities maintains Corporate Wellness Program focus.
• Needs assessment data can be used to identify leading health needs and also high risk populations.
• Choosing a handful of specific health needs on which to focus will maximize efficient use of resources.
• Keeping the Corporate Wellness Program focus small will avoid duplication of other ongoing installation Corporate Wellness Programs.

Strategy #6: Use standardized processes whenever possible.

Reduce the amount of variation within your Corporate Wellness Programs by standardizing all the processes needed for Corporate Wellness Program planning and implementation. By way of example:
• Use the same spreadsheet format for data collection so that the columns are in the same order. This way you can compare data more easily.
• Reuse the same forms for enrollment and attendance. Change the heading as needed.
• Look at other Wellness Programming processes (like registration, evaluation, marketing, etc.). What parts of those processes can be standardized?
• The Wellness and Prevention Initiatives website (http://chppmwww. apgea.army.mil/dhpw/Population/HPPiFunction.aspx) has many standardized Corporate Wellness Program resources in a variety of topic areas.

Strategy #7: Corporate Wellness Program delivery methods should be flexible and adapted to population needs.
• Delivery of products and services may depend on: unit needs, training requirements, other scheduling considerations (such as work/duty schedules, school scheduling, etc.), participant preference, and/or availability of staff or space.
• Be flexible: the same produce/service delivery methods may not work for every population.
• Some units may want services provided to them as close as possible to the unit location; other units may prefer as many services as possible bundled together at once (regardless of location).
• Take Wellness and preventive medicine beyond the walls of the business in order to meet leadership and employee needs. Answer the question: “How can we best help leadership and Employees to fulfill their mission?”

Evaluation of successful Corporate Wellness Programs has revealed several key Corporate Wellness Program strategies to increase Corporate Wellness Program effectiveness and impact overall Soldier health.

Strategy #1: Communication with leadership is essential
• Assess leadership priorities.
• Report Corporate Wellness Program outcomes back to leadership in a timely manner.
• Equal investments of support from both the medical and line community will result in enhanced Corporate Wellness Program success.

Strategy #2: Corporate Wellness Program planning must be driven by data.
• Determine specific needs of the target population.
• Focus on the health status of the population as a whole to identify the top health concerns.
• Information should drive decisions regarding which health needs should be addressed first.

Strategy #3: Use electronic data collection and reporting as often as possible.
• Centrally collected data in an electronic format is essential for determining population health needs.
• Electronic reporting is also very valuable when communicating Corporate Wellness Program outcomes to leadership and other stakeholders.
• Flexible reporting capabilities allow data to be presented as information that can support decision-making, in formats that decision-makers prefer.

Strategy #4: Multidisciplinary collaboration enhances employee health and maximizes available resources.
• Collaboration between health disciplines increases effectiveness of Wellness and preventive medicine interventions.
• Don’t forget to look outside the business for collaboration partners.
• Optimized Corporate Wellness Program outcomes can be met by coordinating the activities of medical consultants, cadre, community agents, and funding sources.
• Bundling services together also provides the additional benefit to units by conserving training and mission time.
Implementing these strategies can improve Corporate Wellness Program effectiveness and optimize available resources.

Keeping the bottom line up front Bottom Line Up Front in Corporate Wellness Program will help you get and sustain Senior Management support. A Bottom Line Up Front approach will also help you more realistically measure the impact of your Corporate Wellness Program.

The bottom line in Corporate Wellness Programs answer two key questions:
• How will participant health be improved?
• What’s in it for Senior Management?

The ultimate bottom line: all roads should lead to readiness.
• Always be ready to communicate to leadership the ways that your Corporate Wellness Program impacts readiness.
• Think like Senior Management: what Corporate Wellness Program outcomes will be important from a Senior Management point of view?
• Develop line-centered language that communicates those outcomes.
• Ask members how they think a particular Corporate Wellness Program enhances force readiness. This input is a valuable source of information.

Use the following steps as a Bottom Line Up Front approach to Corporate Wellness Programs.

Step 1: Think about the end of the Corporate Wellness Program first and plan backwards.
• It has been said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”
• Before planning or beginning any part of the Corporate Wellness Program, be able to answer the questions: how will participant health be improved? What’s in it for Senior Management?

Step 2: Identify concrete Corporate Wellness Program outcomes.
• Identify up front what the Corporate Wellness Program is working towards.
o By way of example: will members lose weight? Walk more steps? Decrease injuries? Move to another stage of change?
• Identify any processes or procedures that will be improved.
o By way of example: which pharmacy operations will become more efficient? How will record-keeping be streamlined?

Step 3: Determine what will be measured to show that Corporate Wellness Program goals were achieved.
• Consider what data is really needed to show Corporate Wellness Program effectiveness. Avoid the temptation to collect every possible piece of data. Choose a handful of important data points and stick to those.
• Think backwards when determining what data to collect – consider how easily follow-up data can be collected when a Corporate Wellness Program ends. Getting follow-up data is often a challenge.
• Only collect data for health behaviors or indicators that the Corporate Wellness Program actually affected.
o By way of example: if the main Corporate Wellness Program goal is that members will walk more steps, then it may be better NOT to choose changes in cholesterol level as a Corporate Wellness Program outcome (unless the Corporate Wellness Program specifically addresses cholesterol).
• Avoid measuring outcomes that the Corporate Wellness Program cannot (or did not) affect.

Step 4: Determine what Corporate Wellness Program elements must be included to move members towards the Corporate Wellness Program goals.
• The concrete Corporate Wellness Program outcomes identified in Step 2 are the compass for keeping the Corporate Wellness Program on track. All Corporate Wellness Program elements should lead towards that ultimate goal.

Working backwards when planning and beginning Corporate Wellness Programs is really forward thinking. Keeping the bottom line up front is a smart approach to Corporate Wellness Programs.

Most companies do not have the Corporate Wellness Program resources to address all of their health needs at once. Priorities must be set to determine the most pressing health needs. Use the steps below to prioritize installation Wellness needs.

Assess the health needs of the population.

Collect data about the health needs in the community. How?

• Community- or target group-specific surveys

Identify health needs and at-risk populations.

Use the data to identify leading health needs and also high risk populations. By way of example:

• Obesity and overweight
• Injury prevention
• Self care

Reduce the list.

Not every health need can (or should) be addressed. Use the following questions to determine which health needs should be addressed first.
• How does the health need impact operational readiness? How big is the impact?
• What are the Senior Management priorities? How does the health need fit into those priorities?
• What are the behavioral factors affecting the health need? What is the proof that a behavior change will make a difference? Has the behavior been successfully changed by other Corporate Wellness Programs?
• What other social, physical, or environmental factors influence the health need or the target population?
• Is the health need a greater problem at the local level than in the U.S. population as a whole?
• Does the business have the subject matter expertise and resources to address the health need?

Develop Corporate Wellness Program recommendations.

Only a handful of specific health needs should be focused on in a given year. Keep the following in mind as recommendations are developed as to which specific health needs will be addressed:
• Avoid duplication of other ongoing Corporate Wellness Programs whenever possible. Identify Corporate Wellness Programs already addressing the health need and/or the target population.
• Identify and assess available resources. Build on existing services whenever possible.

Use the recommendations to offer tailored, targeted, integrated interventions to address the prioritized list of health needs. Prioritizing health needs will keep Corporate Wellness Programs focused, maximize efficient use of resources, and align Wellness efforts with Senior Management goals and priorities.