How to Write Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals and Objectives
Why have Employer Health and Wellness Program objectives?
Employer Health and Wellness Program objectives take your corporation’s priorities for employee health improvement and make them specific and measurable. Well-defined Employer Health and Wellness Program objectives provide direction for selecting Strategies and a basis for which to measure progress.
Writing Employer Health and Wellness Program objectives
Writing Employer Health and Wellness Program objectives is not complicated or difficult. It does require some thought, about your corporation’s Employer Health and Wellness Program vision for a culture of health and they should be:
Specific Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals
Measurable Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals
Attainable Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals
Realistic Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals
Timely Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals
Specific Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals: What is the specific outcome your corporation is looking for? “Reduce tobacco use among employees” is more specific than “Improve the health of employees.” You may wish to write some objectives about specific outcomes (reducing smoking among employees) and other objectives about specific progress (implementing a smoke-free campus policy or lowering the price of fresh fruit in the cafeteria to 25 cents a piece).
Measurable Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals: Making your objectives measurable provides a means of evaluating your progress and success. There is an adage: “what gets measured, gets done.” Goals which are measurable can be powerful motivators for your corporation. “Provide more time for employees to be physically active” is much less measurable than “implement a daily 15-minute walking break into the schedule of all employees.” “Increase the number of employees who want to quit smoking” is less measurable than “increase enrollments in the stop-smoking program to 120 employees per year.”
Attainable Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals: Determine objectives that challenge your corporation to change and that will demonstrate a real commitment to the health of the employees. At the same time, set objectives that are achievable. Goals that are set too far out of reach can be overwhelming and may become a barrier rather than a motivator.
Realistic Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals: Write objectives that are do-able, given the skills, time, finances and overall strategy of the corporation. A realistic project may push the skills and knowledge of the people working on it but it shouldn’t break them.
Timely Employer Health and Wellness Program Goals: When do you hope to achieve the goal? Next week? Next year? Without a timeframe, the goal is still vague and is much less likely to galvanize resources and energy within your corporation.
“Reduce the percent of employees who use tobacco from 20% to 10%” is much less of a challenge than “By the end of 2010, reduce the percent of employees who use tobacco from 20% to 15%”.