Wellness programs can take many forms: lectures at lunchtime, exercise rooms, stop smoking programs, health club subsidies, nutrition education, health fairs, bulletin boards and so much more.

If you are in charge of creating a wellness program, how do you know which elements are most effective? Which approach gets you a return on your investment? How will you get this done? Who will coordinate? Do you have the resources to plan and implement this yourself? What should you do?

If you want wellness programs where you work, think about these same questions. You don’t want to just add activities for the sake of activities.

We recommend that you tie elements together to get the best results. Our objective is to create a healthier work culture. So we need to create an approach to wellness that is coordinated and measurable.

Creating a healthy work environment is like any culture change. It is very hard, takes a long time and doesn’t convince everyone. But what percentage of change makes it a success?

How much does an avoided heart attack save? Medical costs, personal costs, productivity lost? Will only the really healthy people participate?

We need the right interventions, for the right people, at the right time.

Employees are hungry for this effort from the company. They can’t do it themselves or they would already be healthy.

We found that a coordinated, work-based program involves many people – not just healthy people. We are seeing results from a wide variety of people. Participation has been excellent, which demonstrates the pent up interest in change.

There are many ways to supplement this coordinated effort that make sense

• We like to see incentives or rewards for participation
• We like the tie to charitable activities so employees understand that this is about more than just them.

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