A coordinated, systematic, integrated and comprehensive approach to building a healthy business with healthy employees requires a deliberate process. This process results in a planned, organized, and comprehensive set of programs, policies, benefits, and environmental supports all designed to meet the needs of both employees and the business.
This approach typically emphasizes four main practices:
1. Assessment - Conducting an organization-wide assessment to identify and describe employee and organization strengths, risks and concerns is critical. Also included in this assessment is the identification and description of currently available resources and tools. An assessment should aim to capture a picture of the many factors that influence employee and organizational health including: individual level factors such as lifestyle choices, the work environment (e.g., physical working conditions and social support), and the organizational level (e.g., culture, policies, and practices).
2. Planning - A planning process is undertaken to develop a plan for how to best utilize the information gained from the assessment. The plan should include goal determination; selecting priority interventions; and building an organizational infrastructure
3. Programming/Intervention Implementation - Implementation involves all the steps needed to put the strategies, programming and interventions into place per the plan created.
4. Evaluation - An evaluation systematically investigates the merit (e.g., quality), worth (e.g., effectiveness), and significance (e.g., importance) of the programming and interventions utilized.
Skip one of these practices at your own peril.
Bill McPeck is a Certified Worksite Wellness Program Consultant, Employee Well-Being Strategist, Stress Management Trainer and Wellness Culture Coach. For help with your employee well-being issues or for questions and comments, contact Bill at 207-355-1203 or williammcpeck@gmail.com.
At a recent program of the Wellness Council of Maine and the Maine Health Management Coalition, the presenter spoke about the need for the worksite to become a lifeboat for employees trying to survive in today’s less than healthy societal culture. His lifeboat analogy reminded me of my nearly year-long emphasis on how employers might create a workplace Blue Zone. Recent conversations have occurred that will hopefully result in a Blue Zone initiative being created for the Pittsfield – Newport area. Now that would be exciting! The lifeboat analogy also reminds me that we are all in this together. Creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not easy, especially in light of how unsupportive the greater culture is. My understanding of the research and change literature is that successful change involves many elements including awareness, knowledge, skills, psychological components, having the opportunity to practice new skills in a safe environment and having support available. The good news is that there are many resources and tools available to you to help make your wellness journey a successful one. In fact, this gives me an idea. Maybe future columns will address some of the available tools and resources. How would that be? Bill McPeck is a Certified Worksite Wellness Program Consultant, Employee Well-Being Strategist, Stress Management Trainer and Wellness Culture Coach. For help with your employee well-being issues or for questions and comments, contact Bill at 207-355-1203 or williammcpeck@gmail.com.
Read More