Corporate Wellness Incentives

It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of all Corporate Health Promotion Programs. There are several very simple ways to evaluate Corporate Health Promotion Programs:

How many attended the corporate health and Corporate Health Promotion Program, and was there participation or a visible level of interest?

Use a short and simple pen and paper evaluation that people fill out at the end of the Corporate Health Promotion Program /presentation. Statements that are rated on a scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) will give valuable information. Ask about:
•    The value of the Corporate Health Promotion Programs to the individual
•    The style of the presenter
•    The presenter’s knowledge of the topic
•    The level of knowledge gained by the worker
•    Other areas that would be of interest for future Corporate Health Promotion Programs

Examples of Questions about Corporate Health Promotion Programs
•    This program provided me with information and/or skills I will use.
•    The presenter was knowledgeable about the subject matter.
•    There was adequate time for questions.
•    The methods used to present the information were effective.

Open-ended questions about Corporate Health Promotion Programs may include:
•    The best part of this Corporate Health Promotion Program was…
•    The part that needed improvement was….
•    I would attend another Corporate Health Promotion Program by this speaker…
•    Topics I would like to see included in other presentations or Wellness Programs…

This would be a process evaluation that reviews how well the Corporate Health Promotion Programs were started. It is also important to look at health outcomes and cost outcomes of Corporate Health Promotion Programs.

More in-depth information about the cost-effectiveness of Corporate Health Promotion Programs can be found by analyzing data before and after Corporate Health Promotion Programs concerning medical care claims, workers’ comp claims, sick time, productivity levels, etc. Health outcomes for Corporate Health Promotion Programs can be measured by looking at health claims and sick time.

It is also important to look at the impact of Corporate Health Promotion Programs on family members. For example, smoking by pregnant mothers may lead to the birth of a severely impaired child. This could cost an employer or health plan hundreds of thousands of dollars, an expense that could have been avoided with well-designed Corporate Health Promotion Programs.

You can also compare the cost per worker of running the Corporate Health Promotion Programs to the savings per worker. One evaluation of Corporate Health Promotion Programs involving 20,000 to 25,000 workers at New York City-based Citibank showed a return of $6.70 for every dollar the company invested in Corporate Health Promotion Programs. The findings were based on a study of medical costs and rates of absenteeism.1

An ongoing evaluation of your Corporate Health Promotion Programs should be performed each year and additional periodic evaluations of Corporate Health Promotion Programs should be conducted on an ad hoc basis. An ad hoc evaluation of your Corporate Health Promotion Programs might be initiated by a variety of triggers. For example, at the end of flu season, a company might want to evaluate its flu shot program.