Incentives can be used to elevate participation rates, help with completion or attendance at programs, and to help individuals change or adhere to healthy behaviors.

The purpose of the incentive is to encourage workers to adopt positive behaviors or maintain an existing positive behavior.

Everybody who achieves a goal or maintains a behavior should receive something. A lot of organizations also provide incentives merely for participating in events.

Stay away from being the “best” or doing the “most.” Encouraging people  to be the best or doing the most promotes excessive behavior, discourages others, and creates elitism.    

The best designed incentive programs are ones which are based on achieving objectives that are attainable by most person. Recognition, acknowledgment by top management, or special privileges are examples of excellent intangible incentives.   

Incentive ideas –    

• Free or Low-Cost Incentives-     

   o Certificates

   o Movie passes

   o Recognition in employee newsletter

   o Mugs

   o Water bottles

   o Commendation from management

   o T-shirts

   o Hats

• Moderate Cost Incentives –     

   o Entertainment tickets

   o Sweatshirts

   o Waist packs

   o Subscriptions to health magazines

   o Health and fitness books

   o Videos

• High Cost Incentives –     

   o Week-end getaways

   o Dinner for two

   o Clocks

   o Watches

• Other Incentives –     

   o Cash

   o Gift certificates

A major concern in health promotion programming is attracting employees to participate and maximizing participation. When introducing a program, a letter briefly explaining the program signed by the president or CEO is a great endorsement.

Utilizing posters, newsletter articles, and flyers are good means of promoting the program. Other promotional methods to consider are e-mail and announcements at staff meetings. Ask wellness committee members to recruit participants.

Once the program is kicked off you might want to provide an incentive for any employee who recruits another employee to any of the program offerings.

When picking  a program from a vendor you should ask the following questions –

• How many worksites have done the program?

• What kinds of employee population was the program offered?

• What educational materials are used?

• Will the program meet the needs of employees?

• What are the techniques used to help change behaviors?

• Does the program help people  move through stages of readiness to make health behavior changes?

• How do you market the program to employees?

• What follow-up do you provide?

• How do you make referrals for medical care or other supportive services staff members may need?

• How do you know the program works?

• How do you measure participant satisfaction?

When staffing your health promotion program you need to consider whether to hire a wellness staff or contract with wellness specialists from outside your organization.

Small and medium size worksites don’t ordinarily have a wellness expert on staff. When your worksite is in this category, you’ll need to contract with providers outside your corporation.

Large corporations have a few choices. They can hire a staff solely for the health promotion program, they can contract with outside wellness providers, or they can use a combination of internal staff and outside providers.

When picking  a provider some key questions in the areas of staff, program structure, process, and effectiveness need to be addressed. Each of these key questions is discussed in the following sections.

Health Promotion Company Staff

Health professionals become wellness professionals when they are trained in the full range of wellness activities. Health Promotion professionals are generalists who come from a broad variety of backgrounds and schooling.

They may be nurses, dietitians, health educators, counselors, exercise physiologists, or have other backgrounds. But besides to their primary training, they know something about all wellness topics, including smoking, stress, exercise, and nutrition.

They also know how to engage and support people  in making and sustaining health improvements and have good people  skills.

Normally, wellness experts at worksites fall into three wide categories, wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and wellness instructors.

• Health Promotion screeners introduce workers to the program, take health measurements, collect health-related information, provide initial counseling, and help workers define for themselves what they need and want in a health promotion program.

• Health Promotion counselors work with staff members after the screening to help them develop and carry out a plan to reduce their risks and improve their health.

• Health Promotion instructors teach classes and minigroups on different health topics.

A health promotion program in a small business may be staffed by a single staff individuals who fills all three roles. Bigger worksites will use different individuals  to fill these roles.

When choosing  staff or choosing  among wellness corporations, ask the following questions –

• Do prospective staff members have a range of health backgrounds that will provide appropriate specialistise in the topics to be addressed?

• Have prospective employees functioned well as wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and/or wellness instructors?

• Will this staff include people  from the racial and ethnic backgrounds found in your employee population?

• Is each staff member comfortable with the range of backgrounds found in your staff member population, and able to communicate effectively with the various social and educational levels of your employees?

• Do employees have a warm, but specialist, counseling style when interacting with employees?

An annual plan for the major health promotion programs and activities is a useful management tool. This is an excellent wellness committee task. Often an activity and wellness theme per month is offered to staff members.

Some organizations select to follow a National Health Observances calendar which offers advantages. the materials developed by these various national health organizations are very credible. the materials are generally high quality and available free or at a nominal cost.

The company benefits from additional publicity that occurs in various media throughout the community related to the national observance. for planning suggestions you might want to utilize the HOPE Publications Health Promotion Resource Planning Guide available for free at this Web site.

A Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal}  is sometimes used joined with a biometric testing.  An Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} is a computerized assessment tool which looks at an individual’s family history, health status, and lifestyle.

An Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} seeks to identify precursors associated with premature death or serious disease and quantifies the probable impact for each individual.

An Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} instrument is derived from an understanding of the in a disease. Based on this understanding, useful prediction instruments may be constructed to assess the health risks of an individual. Individuals with a higher number of health risks tend to have more serious health problems over time.

Drawing attention to their health risks can help patrons reduce risk factors which lead to the onset of unnecessary illness and subsequent premature death.

The questionnaire covers lifestyle habits (such as tobacco use, seat belt use, and exercise) and physical measures (such as cholesterol, blood pressure (BP) levels, height, and weight).

For accuracy, it is critical to obtain direct measures of blood pressure, cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol. the Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} also provides recommendations and indicates what risks are modifiable. Types of measures to assess health risks are discussed under Screening Programs.

The impact of a health risk (assessment|appraisal} is much greater when it is given in-person, with immediate feedback to the patron. This also provides an opportunity to invite the patron’s participation in continuing health counseling and to gain their written consent to do pro-active outreach to them.

A health age may be computed based on the individual answers to the questionnaire and physiologic factors. the health age may indicate the individual to be younger or older than their chronological age.

HRA programs are one the most prolific kinds of wellness activities utilized by organizations. Continuing research on HRAs is examining the efficacy of this tool.

One of the large advantages of this tool is that it can provide an aggregate group report of a company and can be utilized as an investigation tool.

Detailed information is available from the Society of Prospective Medicine (www.spm.org/desc.html) who publishes a handbook on HRAs.

The most common screening performed in health promotion programs is heart health assessment.

The screening can include a written heart health test, blood pressure measurement, cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol test, glucose (blood sugar), weight, educational materials specific to diet, nutrition, exercise, cholesterol, smoking, and weight.

The health expert conducting the screening then provides a consultation and helps set objectives with the participant.

The backbone of health promotion programming at the worksite is health screening. It’s the first major activity a business should do when first beginning a health promotion program.

Health testing is often used paired with the administration of a Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} .

The most effective way to screen is to utilize a health specialist trained in wellness screening techniques and counseling to privately and individually assess participants.

This wellness professional takes a brief health history and measures blood pressure and cholesterol. With computerized cholesterol desktop analyzers, results are obtained in about four minutes.

Immediate feedback, consultation, and educational materials are provided. for those identified at-risk, follow-up appointments may be scheduled at this time. the whole process takes about twenty minutes per individual.

The screening also provides an immediate opportunity to register participants in various health improvement programs based on their interests and identified health risks.

Medical screening may be done annually and used to monitoring health risks within the worksite.

A health testing program needs to provide multiple opportunities for participation. the service should be provided for all the various shifts of a corporation. the screening program should be conducted in highly visible areas so the process may be observed.

Reluctant workers often like to be able to see what the program is about before they participate. When wellness screeners aren’t busy, they ought to perform outreach going to areas where workers gather and try to recruit workers.

When well-planned and promoted, medical screening can attract participation rates of 60 percent to 100 percent. These high participation rates have a positive impact on management producing support for further programming.

Goals are broad-based statements about what the program is expected to do. the goal of the health promotion program is to enhance the health of the individual and the organization. Goals like mission statements provide direction in a program.   

Goals are specific and provide a means of measurement of the program to determine effectiveness. There are two types of objectives, process and outcome.    

Process goals state the activities that need to occur to achieve a desired outcome.

Examples of process goals are –

• Number of participants screened

• Number of participants in and completing health betterment programs

• Satisfaction of program participants

• Number of participants who were medically referred and saw their doctor

• Number of promotional activities

• Number of participants seen in follow-up

Example of outcome goals are –

• Number of participants who improved fitness level

• Number of participants who decreased cholesterol level

• Number of participants who lost weight, body fat

• Number of participants who quit tobacco use

• Number of participants with high blood pressure (BP) who decreased their blood pressure (BP)

• Number of participants whose initial level of alcohol consumption put them at-risk who are no longer at-risk

• Number of participants with risk factors who saw their doctor and are being treated for high blood pressure (BP) or cholesterol years later

Health Promotion committees are important in that they develop a sense of ownership in the program, and facilitate various tasks involved in health promotion programming at the workplace.

The committee must be composed of a cross-section of workers representing various occupations, levels, and subgroups with the organization.

A common mistake is filling the committee with the most health/fitness-conscious individuals  in the company. Do not rely solely on volunteers to fill a committee. Make sure that your committee members have enough power in the company to run an effective health promotion program.

The wellness committee is made up of employees from the workplace. It oversees the health promotion program and assists carry it out.

The committee ought to meet about once a month to review the previous month’s activities and plan future ones. When the program is just starting, the committee may meet on a weekly basis until things get going.

Committee members don’t carry out medical procedures, counsel clients, or handle confidential medical information. Health Promotion experts perform these tasks.

In general, the committee’s duties fall into three areas –  planning, promoting, and assisting to run programs.

Creating the programs can include –

• Locating space for activities

• Creating and organizing worksite-wide events such as contests

• Assessing reports prepared by the program staff and making recommendations

Promoting the program can include –

• Recruiting employees to participate in screening and health betterment programs

• Encouraging workers to participate in follow-up counseling

• Organizing promotional strategies using newsletters, signs, bulletin boards, computers, and other media available within the workplace

Assisting to run the program can include –

• Establishing up equipment for various activities

• Helping to conduct worksite-wide activities

• Monitoring all activities and reviewing  the performance of the expert staff

• Acting as wellness mentors to fellow employees

The size of the wellness committee will be dependent on the size of the organization. Choose members by asking day management to nominate or appoint staff members.

Make an announcement through flyers, memos, and meetings to recruit potential members. Explain the purpose of the committee, duties and responsibilities, and the time commitment.

Recognize your wellness committee volunteers. Allow them to participate in programs at a decreased cost. Hold appreciation breakfasts/lunches/dinners.

Print names of committee members on company communications about the health promotion program.

Purchase special T-shirts, caps, and buttons for them. Write letters to supervisors saying that you appreciate the member’s service. Create awards certificates for members.

The following could be used as a guide for committee size –    

• Less than 300 employees   2 to 4

• 300 to 1,000 employees   4 to 6

• 1,000 employees or more   6 to 12