“Working on Wellness:” Protocol for a Worksite Health Promotion Capacity-Building Program for Employers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Erck L ; Li W ; Lin W-C ; McCabe K ; McGovern L ; Myers K ; Nobrega S ; Punnett, Laura ; Ryan M
• Description:
  Background: In the United States, worksite wellness programs are more often offered by larger employers. The Massachusetts Working on Wellness (WoW) program is an innovative, statewide capacity-building model designed to increase the number of smaller employers (200 or fewer workers) adopting health promotion initiatives. This article describes the WoW program design and approaches to recruitment, implementation, and evaluation. Methods/design: WoW provides employer training, technical assistance and seed funding, utilizing a Wellness Program Development framework based on recognized good practices. For-profit employers with 200 employees or fewer are eligible for and encouraged to apply for a Massachusetts Small Business Wellness Tax Credit. During the phase described in this paper, employer organizations applied to the program and committed to designating a champion responsible for program implementation. Interventions were to include policy and environmental supports, as well as those targeting individual behavior change through raising awareness and education. Supports provided to employers included seed grants for qualifying activities (up to $10,000 with matching required), community linkages, data collection and organization-specific feedback tools, an on-line curriculum supplemented with technical assistance, and an expert webinar series. Data collection at multiple time points, from the initial application through program completion, provides information for evaluation of recruitment, planned and completed activities. Discussion: This model is grounded in literature on good practices as well as in local knowledge about Massachusetts employers. It does not directly address the influence of working conditions, which can affect both worker participation and health behaviors. Implementation may be less successful with some organizations, such as those with many workers who are part-time or geographically distributed rather than in a centralized physical location. Program evaluation will assess the extent to which WoW achieves its goals. The data are expected to increase understanding of the needs of smaller employers and industries not traditionally implementing employee wellness programs. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Health Promotion Occupational Health Safety Small Business
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Small Employers Employee Health Health Promotion Intervention Intervention Planning Small Businesses Total Worker Health TWH Worker Health Worksite Health Promotion Worksite Wellness

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• ISSN:
  1471-2458
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Kansas ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  19
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20061827
• Citation:
  BMC Public Health 2019 Jan; 19:111
• Contact Point Address:
  Laura Punnett, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA
• Email:
  Laura_Punnett@uml.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• NORA Priority Area:
  Healthcare and Social Assistance ; Public Safety
• Performing Organization:
  University of Massachusetts, Lowell
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20060701
• Source Full Name:
  BMC Public Health
• End Date:
  20210831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:62876e2f66b63d4882fe40cb92ff05d9a5ed852d7dfba8a6eb8133404ebe11f9e1722cd274056e1518f87241f65adeb2014cd8a99e6588675227f96827c88b76
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225200/cdc_225200_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 706.25 KB ]