We’ve explored how to help employees get back into shape through exercise and diet. But, physical fitness is just one reward of a tailored Workplace Wellness program.

Setting up a workplace program requires total ‘top-down’ involvement with your organisation. Ideally, it should be part of a broader workplace health and wellbeing policy and an essential element of your employee induction process.

Start by cherry-picking ideas and tools from among the wealth of resources developed by the Federal Government, and Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and Northern Territory governments.

Here are the 5 basic steps to developing a Workplace Wellness program:

Securing commitment
Success hinges on multi-level support. Finding one or more champions will help you ‘sell’ the benefits, generate enthusiasm, and ensure the program is relevant to your people and tailored to your organisation’s needs.

Start the planning process
To support implementation, set up representative working group to help in defining the program’s overall aims and goals, as well as roles and responsibilities once it’s underway.

Make a needs assessment
Your assessment should include (1) a workplace profile – including demographic information, health status of workers, the physical workplace etc., (2) an internal SWOT analysis of the program’s prospects, and (3) getting stakeholders’ views on the health issues and priorities for the workplace.

Turn plans into actions
Your action plan must identify goals, objectives, strategies and activities and, once released, provide for feedback and evaluation. Lay down a timeline and arrange a launch – it will create interest and provide momentum. A good program will cater for varied interests and should include an educational component (i.e. seminars, workshops, newsletter) on health and wellbeing topics, along with practical strategies designed to change behaviour.

Keep evaluating
Consistent evaluation provides valuable insight into the successes – and failures – of your program. It enables you to refine your initiatives, generate new ideas, and demonstrate the value of your workplace health and wellbeing program within the organisation.