Posted by Company Wellness | Posted in Company Wellness | Posted on 18-01-2009
Locating an individual to lead your organization in creating a Company Wellness Program
Without a qualified Company Wellness Program coordinator to lead and manage your organization’s creation of a culture of health, efforts can be scattered and momentum can stall. While it’s vital that the creation of a culture of health be someone’s priority, not all organizations need a full-time coordinator. There are a number of ways to obtain the time of a qualified coordinator.
Be careful not to confuse Company Wellness Program skills with fitness skills. You are not looking for a personal trainer or a nutritionist to run your Corporate Health Promotion Program. The following are good indications that an individual may be qualified to be a Company Wellness Program coordinator:
• knowledge of population health, community health and worksite Corporate Health Promotion Programs
• experience working with and understanding aggregate data, preferably Company Wellness Program data
• experience managing projects, including developing timelines and facilitating meetings
• experience in strategic planning, including defining goals and related objectives
• ability to understand, and use the findings of, journal articles on effective Company Wellness Program Strategies.
What will a Company Wellness Program coordinator do?
The Company Wellness Program coordinator is accountable for guiding a process that creates worksite facilities, policies and practices that promote health. The individual may do some of all of the following for your Corporate Health Promotion Program:
• act as a liaison between upper management and the Company Wellness Program employee advisory workgroup
• interpret health-related data on your Company Wellness Program
• create and manage work plans and budgets for implementation of selected Company Wellness Program Strategies
• facilitate Wellness Committee meetings
• lead your organization in establishing measurable goals for the Company Wellness Program
• recommend effective Company Wellness Program Strategies, using the evidence in the health behavior literature and national and/or recommended best practices
• document and report short-term and long-term progress on Company Wellness Program Strategies and goals.
Where can we find a qualified Company Wellness Program coordinator?
Consider the following when looking for a Company Wellness Program coordinator:
• Existing staff members: Are there individuals on staff members who have the background, or are interested in gaining the skills, to serve as a Company Wellness Program coordinator? Is it possible to dedicate a portion of someone’s time (e.g., .5 FTE) to the position of coordinating your organization’s Company Wellness Program Strategies? If possible, budget enough to cover not only salary but also continued learning, journal subscriptions and membership fees for this Company Wellness Program position.
• New staff members – Can you hire an individual to be your organization’s Company Wellness Program coordinator? Would it need to be a full-time position, or would part-time be sufficient?
• Company Wellness Program Consultation – Various organizations (e.g., health plans, benefit consultants and public health departments) provide Company Wellness Program consultation on building a culture of health within a worksite.
An outside Company Wellness Program consultant can advise an internal Company Wellness Program coordinator and your Wellness Committee on establishing priorities and selecting Strategies. Or, you can contract with a Company Wellness Program consultant to be your coordinator. If you select the latter approach, you’ll want to contract with the individual for sufficient hours to carry out all of the responsibilities associated with coordinating an effective strategy.