When an employer implements a workplace wellness program, it typically does so for a specific reason – to reduce a health risk (such as obesity, physical inactivity or diabetes) for the workforce, to manage health care spending or as a more general investment in the health and well-being of employees. The only way to know if a company has achieved any of these objectives is to measure them.
According to the Program Measurement and Evaluation Resource Guide published by Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) in collaboration with Population Health Alliance (PHA), an effective measurement strategy can help an organization advance its corporate health goals in many ways, including:
- Fostering continuous program improvement – ongoing measurement allows an organization to check its progress at regular intervals and to ensure that it is continuing to strive for better, more effective programs and outcomes
- Demonstrating program outcomes to corporate leadership – outcomes data help tell a program’s story, including what the program has accomplished and the difference it has made for the company and its employees.
- Understanding financial impacts generated from the wellness program – the right metrics can help translate outcomes into relatable terms for business leaders
- Understanding the impact of the wellness program on employee health, engagement and satisfaction – a well-known benefit of measuring wellness program outcomes is that it demonstrates whether or not there is a connection between the program and the health of employees, how engaged they are in wellness offerings and how satisfied they are with their program experience.
The guide defines the following seven categories of process, impact and outcomes measures as being critical to every wellness program evaluation strategy:
- Employee Participation measures – examples are completion rates for health assessments, health coaching programs, wellness seminars, telephone based programs, team challenges and daily activities in the workplace.
- Satisfaction measures – Questions related to overall satisfaction with services/programs, program effectiveness, scope of offerings, convenience of program components, communications, member experience and perceived value.
- Organizational support – The degree to which an organization commits to employee health in the context of (a) programs, policies, and procedures related to health (b) employee perceptions of organizational support for their health and (c) leadership perceptions of organizational support for employee health.
- Health Impact measures – These are categorized into four areas: the impact of wellness programs on physical health, mental/emotional health, health behaviors and overall health risk status of a workforce.
- Financial Outcomes Measures – These focus on quantifying health care cost outcomes that are directly observed by analyzing factors such as health insurance claims, pharmaceutical claims.
- Productivity and performance metrics – These are measures that address time away from work due to poor employee health – absenteeism and performance on the job due to health status.
- Value on Investment (VOI) – Entire range of outcomes that are considered to be of value to an employer. There is more to measuring the effectiveness of a wellness program than return on investment alone. It can take two to five years to realize the impact of wellness programs on health care costs trends and other financial outcomes.
Increasingly, leading corporates are looking at employee wellness as an investment in worker productivity, staff retention and an opportunity to directly impact utilization and health care costs. It is a fact that a workforce which does not smoke, is not overweight, participates in exercise programs and eats healthy will perform more efficiently and cost the company less in terms of fewer sick days and lower healthcare costs. The only way to know if objectives have been met is to measure and evaluate.