Bottom Line Up Front Workplace Wellness Programs

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

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

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

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

Step 1: Think about the end of the Worksite Wellness Plan 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 Workplace Wellness Program, be able to answer the questions: how will participant health be improved? What’s in it for Upper Management?

Step 2: Establish concrete Worksite Wellness Plan outcomes.
• Establish up front what the Worksite Wellness Plan is working towards.
o By way of example: will members lose weight? Walk more steps? Decrease injuries? Move to another stage of change?
• Establish 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 Worksite Wellness Plan goals were achieved.
• Look at what information is really needed to show Worksite Wellness Plan effectiveness. Avoid the temptation to collect every possible piece of data. Choose a handful of important information points and stick to those.
• Think backwards when determining what information to collect – consider how easily follow-up information can be collected when a Worksite Wellness Plan ends. Getting follow-up information is frequently a challenge.
• Only collect information for health behaviors or indicators that the Worksite Wellness Plan actually affected.
o By way of example: if the main Worksite Wellness Plan goal is that members will walk more steps, then it may be better NOT to choose changes in cholesterol level as a Worksite Wellness Plan outcome (unless the Worksite Wellness Plan specifically addresses cholesterol).
• Avoid measuring outcomes that the Worksite Wellness Plan cannot (or did not) affect.

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

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