How to build a data-driven corporate wellness program
You’ve completed all the steps to build a successful corporate wellness program and it's time to launch. Employees are ready to engage, and leadership is excited to see the results and return on investment. But how will you determine the success of your program? Data. Without it you’ll be in the dark about who is participating, how they’re participating, and any progress made by your employees.
Like any initiative implemented within your company, you need to track its effectiveness and redirect efforts as needed. You need to determine the return on investment (ROI) and the value of investment (VOI). In general, ROI may involve assessing the organization’s medical claims to see if the wellness program is producing quantitative changes, while VOI evaluates results such as higher workplace productivity, reduced absenteeism, or increased employee morale and satisfaction.
To measure the impact of your corporate wellness program, you need to track:
- High-risk conditions
- Engagement
- Healthcare utilization and costs
- Feedback
- Productivity and performance
High risk conditions
Launching your corporate wellness initiative with comprehensive health risk assessments and biometric screenings provides a baseline understanding of your employees' health status. These assessments can include measurements like blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body mass index (BMI), and blood glucose. By conducting these assessments annually or biannually, you can track changes in health indicators over time. Positive shifts in these metrics can be indicative of the program's success in promoting healthier behaviors.
Engagement
Monitoring the level of employee engagement with your wellness program is a straightforward yet insightful way to assess its impact. High participation rates suggest that your employees are finding value in the program. Know who is participating, which teams/divisions are involved and how often the benefits are being accessed. Many of the programs you incorporate should provide an interface for admins to see this information in easy-to-see data points and reports that can be pulled as needed.
Healthcare utilization and costs
One of the primary goals of a corporate wellness program is to reduce healthcare costs by preventing chronic diseases and promoting healthier lifestyles. Monitoring changes in healthcare utilization and costs before and after implementing the program can provide tangible proof of its impact. Analyze data on the number of doctor visits, hospitalizations, and prescription drug use. A decrease in these metrics can indicate that your wellness program is positively influencing employees' health and leading to cost savings.
Feedback
In whatever way you choose to do it, whether manually or through a digital solution, polling feedback through surveys and in-person follow-ups will provide a detailed temperature reading of how employees feel about the program(s), what they enjoy the most, what they wish was offered and more. These insights will help identify areas of improvement and make informed decisions about program adjustments. Positive feedback will reinforce the importance of the program and motivate continued participation.
Productivity and performance
While not directly related to wellness, keeping an eye on employee productivity and absenteeism can indirectly reflect the success of your wellness program. While these key indicators may be more difficult to pinpoint and track, you can choose variables like sick days, goal tracking/job performance measures, job-related engagement, etc., to determine a trend and indirect causation based on employee involvement with the wellness benefits.
A corporate wellness program is an investment in your employees' health and, subsequently, the health of your organization. Tracking its success is crucial to ensure your efforts are achieving your desired results. Remember: A successful wellness program is a dynamic one—be open to adjusting based on the data you gather to continually improve employee well-being and engagement.
Learn more about the robust set of metrics you’ll have access to with ClassPass as part of your corporate wellness programs.
