Wellness Programs : Health Promotion Program - Needs Assessment.

An initial biometric testing can include a recent survey of employees’ interests as part of the assessment. Successful health promotion programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the employees.

The information you need to get from a recent survey depends on the scope of your wellness program. A sample survey can be acquired in the HOPE Publications Web site.

When you plan to adapt this sample survey or develop your own survey, keep the following hints in mind -

• Ask mainly closed-choice questions, namely when you’ll be sending the survey to a large number of employees. Closed-choice questions provide specific choices and are easy to tabulate. You might want to use a computer for data entry and analysis.

• Invite comments, suggestions and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions at the end of the survey. Open-ended items are more difficult to summarize.

• Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the business president. Make certain to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.

• Ask a group of representative workers to review the survey before it is distributed. Find out when the questions are going to be understood by workers and won’t be objected to.

• Include demographic information at the beginning or end of the survey. Consider various ways that you may analyze the responses by demographic characteristics (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).

When considering who should get the survey, a simple rule is if you have under 500 staff, everybody should receive one.  The public relations advantage of everybody receiving a recent survey can be significant.

Over 500 workforce, a sample of the work population will suffice. A sample saves on costs and time. You may want to consider consulting with a statistician to determine an appropriate sample size for your workplace.

Needs surveys are confidential and anonymous; they don’t request information that may identify a person.

Getting support from senior management is crucial to the success of the health promotion program.

One way to do this is to survey managers (see forms) and conduct interviews with decision-makers in the company. You can use the surveys here or make up your own.

When you decide to do your own, keep the survey short. It should not take more than ten minutes to complete.

The interview process can also serve to educating management. Provide concise fact sheets on the benefits of health promotion programs for management.

When surveys and interviews are completed, tally the surveys and write brief summaries of the interviews. Provide these reports to management.

Once completed present a brief executive summary to management. Highlight a few interesting findings that can be used immediately to make decisions about the wellness program.

Utilize charts and graphs to make your points. Pull together a detailed report for wellness committee members itemizing each response. Provide a short article about the survey in the corporation newsletter.

The higher the response the more valid and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40% to 50% is acceptable.