Performance Against WELCOA’s Worksite Health Promotion Benchmarks Across Years Among Selected US Organizations

Abstract

In an era marked with economic swings and health-care reform, it appears that organizations are staying consistent in their performance across these benchmarks. The WWC could be useful for organizations, practitioners, and researchers in assessing the quality of WHP programs.

Tracking Changes in US Organizations’ Workplace Health Promotion Initiatives: A Longitudinal Analysis of Performance Against Quality Benchmarks

“…1,2,[6][7][8][9][10] The Wellness Council of America (WELCOA), Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are among the national agencies that have established benchmarks and accompanying tools for organizations to assess the quality of their WHP initiatives. 8,11,12 There appears to be a significant overlap across the multiple sets of benchmarks, even aligning with studies that examined components vital for quality WHP initiatives, 2,7,9 providing some face validity to these quality benchmarks.…”

“…Additional information regarding the creation, administration, and scoring of the WWC was included in an earlier publication. 12 Quality of WHP initiatives. The WWC has 100 items that measure organizations' performance against WELCOA's original 7 benchmarks: (1) senior leader support for WHP initiatives, (2) employee wellness teams focused on WHP efforts, (3) data collection to drive WHP initiatives, (4) operating plans that integrate WHP, (5) programs to promote health and wellness, (6) environments supportive of health and wellness, and (7) evaluation of WHP initiatives.…”

“…Despite the presence of benchmarks and guidelines, only 6% to 17% of US organizations that are implementing WHP initiatives have a high-quality or comprehensive initiative, [12][13][14] leaving around 83% to 94% of those implementing WHP initiatives with room to improve the quality of their WHP initiatives. Yet, there are limited studies that have examined changes made by organizations to improve the quality of their WHP initiatives over time, making it difficult to discern which benchmarks are likely to be improved upon across different types of organizations.…”

The Art of Health Promotion: linking research to practice

“…Over the past decade, the wellness field has evolved to embrace a broader kind of health and wellness and recognize the value of health-supportive environments and cultures. 1,2 To better reflect this evolution and to guide the advancement of the wellness field, WELCOA undertook development of an updated Well Workplace Checklist (the Checklist) in 2016. The revised Checklist reflects best practices and innovations from many fields with relevance to human health and well-being.…”

The Art of Health Promotion: linking research to practice

“…6 –8 And we refer to numerous industry best practices scorecards and studies that identify the elements that support successful HWB initiatives. 9 –12 Ongoing research from the HERO Scorecard consistently reveals that organizations with the strongest outcomes do more than just provide an interesting array of health-promoting programs and services. Successful initiatives are supported by solid strategic plans with measurable goals, active and genuine leadership support, supportive and aligned policies, a workplace environment that contributes to well-being, and ongoing measurement and evaluation to keep making adjustments to ensure the right people are being engaged in the right programs for them and that those programs are implemented effectively.…”