MonkeyMagic,

As this is the first program of it's sort within your organisation a pilot, or trial, program across a specific division of your organisation would be a good starting point. You could assess effectiveness and make modifications before implementing an organisation wide program.

However, this pilot program may take more than a year to implement and review, thus putting you quite some time behind implementing a full program. This is ultimately a decision for the organisation but there is merit in pilot programs for large organisations.

If you do wish to start on a small scale I would recommend starting with a thorough program across only part of your organisation in favour of a basic program across the whole organisation. For example, health expos are a common means of providing a wellness programs at low costs to large organisations. However, the effectiveness of this in generating long term lifestyle change and health improvements is questionable. While they do create awareness, they don't offer the thoroughness or detail required when used as an isolated means of improving wellness.

Hope this helps
Ben

Does this mean we would be better to start the program only on a small scale prior to trying to run a large, company wide program?

MonkeyMagic,

This is always a good question. Getting staff to 'buy in' to the program is essential for the success of the program. A couple of beneficial methods of assisting this buy in is to:

- get staff to complete a questionnaire indicating what they would like to see in a program
- have a number of staff involved in developing the program structure
- get management involved in the design of the program
- educate staff on the benefits of a wellness program. This is ideally done using a range of communication methods such as emails, newsletter and office notices.

It is also strongly recommended to launch the program by providing a short presentation about the program, it's benefits, how it will work, and how any collected information will be used. Try and get staff to sign up for participation in the program at the launch. Additionally attract staff to the launch with morning/afternoon tea.

As a general rules, if you can get 70-80% of staff involved in the program you are doing well.

I am sure there are many other ways to boost participation rates, and hopefully this information gives you a good start.

Ben

We are looking at implementing a wellness program within our organisation. We have not previously had a program and our concern is staff participation. Does anyone have any tips on getting as many staff involved as possible?