Posted by Company Wellness | Posted in Company Wellness, Wellness Programs | Posted on 02-09-2010
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 workers.
The information you need to get from a recent survey depends on the scope of your wellness program. A sample survey can be obtained 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 primarily closed-choice questions, specifically when you will be sending the survey to a large number of workers. Closed-choice questions provide specific choices and are easy to tabulate. You may 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 challenging to summarize.
• Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the corporation president. Make sure to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.
• Ask a group of representative workforce to review the survey before it is distributed. Find out if the questions are going to be understood by workforce and will not 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 members, everybody should receive one. The public relations benefit of everybody receiving a recent survey can be significant.
Over 500 personnel, a sample of the work population will suffice. A sample saves on costs and time. You could want to consider consulting with a statistician to determine an appropriate sample size for your worksite.
Needs surveys are confidential and anonymous; they do not request information that may identify a person.
Getting support from upper-level management is critical to the success of the wellness program.
One way to do this is to survey managers (see forms) and conduct interviews with decision-makers in the business. You can use the surveys here or make up your own.
If 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. Give concise fact sheets on the benefits of wellness 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 intriguing findings that could be used immediately to make decisions about the health promotion 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 organization newsletter.
The higher the response the more precise and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40 percent to 50 percent is acceptable.