Create Your Wellness “Fact-Finding” Team

Making your small biz health & wellness program part of the your “corporate culture” will help to ensure the time and money  you put into the program lasts. Create a team of two to three people, and at least one from your management team to start developing your program. Try to pull different people from different departments. It would be really good idea to have someone from human resources be a wellness team member.

It’s important to remember that no-one in the group has to be health professionals, or even know a lot about wellness. But they DO need to be enthusiastic about the program and helping their fellow employees. The wellness team will come up with how the program should be structured. What resources, policies, and benefits are already available for the employees? Are there any gaps that could be filled? Here are some initial questions that you will need to ask.

• Does your company have a position dedicated to employee health & wellness?
• Is employee health & wellness included in any employee work plan?
• Is employee health and wellness considered a high priority in the company’s business plan?
• Is your management team supportive of individual employee initiatives to adopt healthy behaviors?
  
• Does your company provide resources for wellness & health related activities for the employees?
  
• Do employees have access to adequate and affordable health care?
  
• Is there a policy in place that ensures all employees have equal access to health insurance and screenings offered by or through the company?

Now What?

Once your team has the results, you can then decide what’s the first step needed to get your program going. Be sure to include a budget in the action plan for the first year. There are a few strategies that, when implemented, will go a long way to ensure the success of the program: creation of a wellness committee, development promotion plan to help market the program to your employees, and coming up with a way monitor and update the program. These strategies will be the foundation upon which your whole health & wellness program is built.