Step 2: Determine who will coordinate the program

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Your organization's size will determine who will actually lead your worksite wellness program. However, all wellness leaders' goals are the same. They promote and encourage participation in your worksite wellness program. Their work aims to inspire behavior change, which will ultimately create a culture of health and wellness among your workforce. 

Check out our suggestions for determining your program's leadership below. Options are customized according to organization size.  Remember, successful worksite wellness programming can be achieved with as little as 1 to 5 hours a month! 

If your ORGANIZATION is... 

  • Small: Choose a Wellness Coordinator!  
  • Medium:  Choose a Wellness Coordinator and recruit Wellness Champions. If resources allow, consider a Wellness Committee.
  • Large: If resources allow, choose a Wellness Coordinator, recruit Wellness Champions and form a Wellness Committee. You should use Wellness Champions to create a healthy buzz throughout your workforce. Check out the Louisiana Business Group on Health Toolkit for additional information. 


Leadership Options

Wellness Coordinator

The Wellness Coordinator will be responsible for encouraging wellness throughout the business.  The coordinator will complete an employee wellness survey, plan, promote and execute program activities and conduct evaluations.

Wellness Champion

If your organization has multiple locations or a staff larger than 50, you may want to consider recruiting wellness champions in addition to forming a worksite wellness committee. Wellness champions can be great assets in creating momentum and excitement around your program.

 

A wellness champion is an employee who volunteers to help encourage participation in the worksite wellness program. This person would dedicate 1-5 hours a month to promoting the program by disseminating provided communications regarding the program, attending onsite wellness program events, tracking participation using provided tracking forms and distributing program event surveys to program participants. On a higher level, this person is someone any co-worker can approach to ask questions about the program and the champion can provide an answer or connect the co-worker to the for an answer.

 

The best way to recruit and retain champions is through incentives. Wellness champions need to feel like they have a very special and valuable role within the organization. Provide them with a personalized wellness champion t-shirt, coffee cup, water bottle, lunch kit or lunch box; a branded wellness logo for email signatures; a sign for office door or desk and/or customized name badge. Be creative!

Wellness Committee

If your organization has multiple locations or a staff larger than 50, we recommend forming a worksite wellness committee. It is recommended that committees are formed by establishing a group of volunteers.  If you have utilized wellness champions, you should pull from these champions to form your committee. Once you know who will be on your committee, you will want to send out an introduction letter/email to your committee members. A sample introduction letter/email is below. Be sure to include the date/time/location of your first committee meeting.

 

Dear Employee, 

 

You have recently indicated interest in serving on the [insert organization name] Worksite Wellness Committee. We appreciate your interest in helping create a healthy workplace at [insert organization name].

 

The responsibilities of the Worksite Wellness Committee will include, but not be limited to:

  • Hold quarterly meetings
  • Provide insight for program, services and policies related to the program
  • Assess employee needs and preferences
  • Develop and lead a subcommittee within each office
  • Disseminate communication emails for monthly newsletters, events and activities
  • Aid and support a workplace environmental assessment
  • Develop a mission statement, and goals and objectives
  • Provide input, guidance and support to the wellness program coordinator and/or other wellness committee members  

The goal of this committee is to motivate, advocate and encourage participation in the worksite wellness program. Our work will focus on behavior change and inspiring a culture of health and wellness at [insert organization name].

 

If you cannot serve on the committee at this time, please notify me as soon as possible. I am available to explain the nature of the work if you need to discuss further. If you accept this opportunity, you will receive a calendar invite for our first committee meeting.

 

I am looking forward to working with you!

 

Healthy Wishes,

 

 

Your Worksite Wellness Coordinator

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