Wellness Forum

Step 5: Program Design

Program design is a great way for your worksite wellness team or coordinator to use their creativity and imagination to develop programs that your employees will support. They can develop new programs or use existing online resources.

When developing a program, consider packaging related strategies together. What does this mean? For example, develop a program that encourages physical activity at break time. Then, give away pedometers as incentives and provide maps of on-site trails to get staff walking. This will lead to greater success than if a program or policy existed alone. By packaging related strategies together, your employees have greater incentive to participate. This, in turn, can lead to the long-term success of your worksite wellness program.

Using the objectives developed in Step 2, begin developing programs that will help you reach these objectives. Consider whether existing programs need to be changed or whether new ones need to be developed.

Review the Worksite Wellness Program Design Options and the following samples to give you some ideas of the types of programs you can develop.

Program 1: Healthy Food
Program 2: Health Awareness
Program 3: Physical Activity
Program 4: Smoke-Free Workplace

Special Note: When developing programs, be sure to include how the programs will be evaluated in your operating plan. That includes developing evaluation forms before implementing the program.