Worksite Wellness Quiz
Starting a Worksite Wellness Program can seem like an overwhelming task. That’s why we’ve designed this
special quiz to guide you through utilizing the Toolkit most effectively to design, implement and evaluate your
worksite wellness program. The quiz will help you assess where your organization is now and recommend the next
appropriate step. By taking this quiz and following the steps outlined, you will be guided on a step-by-step journey
to simplify the tasks associated with designing the most effective worksite wellness activities, so you can spend your
time on what really matters -- changing the health of your employees! For each of the following questions, choose
the response that fits best. If there is a need to work on the topic area, please refer to the section of the Toolkit
referenced after each question.
1. The most successful workplace health promotion programs have senior management
support. Do your health promotion initiatives have support from the senior management in
your organization? (Step 1-C, page 6)
□ We have complete support of the senior management in our organization. We have been given a
budget, staff time has been allotted and health promotion is seen as a priority by our leadership.
□ A few senior managers have verbalized support of health promotion, however a budget has not
been assigned, human resources have not been allocated and it is not seen as a priority by all our
senior staff.
□ I think health promotion should be a priority of our organization. However, I have not sought out
support from our senior management.
2. Have you identified a worksite wellness coordinator? (Step 2-A, page 8)
□ We have identified a worksite wellness coordinator who will coordinate program design,
implementation, evaluation and communication.
□ We have a person in mind, however we have not allocated time and resources for this position.
□ We have not selected a wellness coordinator and currently do not have someone in mind.
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3. Have you set-up a wellness committee with representation from all levels of the
organization to support your health promotion activities? (Step 2-B, page 8)
□ To create a worksite wellness program that is integrated into the workplace culture, we have set
up a committee with representation from all levels of the organization: upper management, mid-
level management and grass-root employees.
□ We have a committee, but have not included representation from all levels of the organization.
□ We have not set-up a worksite wellness committee.
4. Have you completed a thorough assessment (qualitative and quantitative) of your employees
and workplace? (Step 2-C, page 9)
□ We have completed a thorough evaluation of our employees and workplace. Our assessments have
included absenteeism rates, claims review, healthcare costs, health risk assessments, cultural audit,
personal habit surveys and focus groups. We have also reviewed the successes and challenges of
previous health promotion activities in our workplace.
□ We have done a few assessments (previous health promotion activity review, absenteeism rates,
claims review, health risk assessment, cultural audit, personal habit survey and focus groups), but
our organization could benefit from additional data.
□ We have not begun the assessment process in our organization.
5. Have you explored the potential of working with a partner to develop, implement and/or
evaluate your wellness program? (Step 2-E, page 13)
□ We have explored the potential of working with a partner (e.g. our health plan, employee union,
health club, park and recreation service, etc.). We have thoroughly reviewed the pros and cons of
working with another party and feel comfortable with our decision.
□ We have thought about the potential of working with a partner, but have not explored the idea
any further.
□ We have not explored the idea of working with a partner.
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6. Writing a detailed wellness plan is a key step in developing and implementing an effective
health promotion program. Listed below are 10 key items to address in your wellness plan.
(Step 2-F, page 15)
A. We’ve reviewed the data we’ve collected through our assessments and have a thorough understanding
of the data that’s available to us at this time.
□ We’ve thoroughly reviewed our data from claims, absenteeism rates, health risk assessments,
healthcare cost analyses, cultural audits, person habit surveys and focus groups.
□ We’ve collected our data, however we haven’t pulled it together and analyzed it.
□ We are still collecting our data, so we do not have it to review.
B. We’ve written a clear vision statement outlining the health improvement potential for our organization.
□ We’ve spent time writing a vision statement. This vision statement has been approved by senior
management.
□ We’ve started writing a vision statement, but haven’t formalized it or had it approved by senior
management.
□ We have not written a vision statement for our health promotion plans.
C. We understand that writing clear program goals is important to establishing victory landmarks toward
which all our programming efforts are directed.
□ We’ve written clear program goals. These goals have been reviewed and are supported by senior
management.
□ We’ve started writing goals for our health promotion efforts, but we have not formalized these
goals or shared them with senior management.
□ We have not written goals for our health promotion efforts.
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D. Once the goals are established, we know it is important to write objectives for the overall wellness
strategy. These objectives will keep our worksite wellness program focused on its desired outcomes.
□ We’ve written clear program objectives. These objectives have been reviewed and are supported
senior management.
□ We’ve started writing objectives for our health promotion efforts, but we have not formalized these
objectives or shared them with senior management.
□ We have not written objectives for our health promotion efforts.
E. Identifying a target audience is important in understanding who we are trying to reach with our health
promotion activities.
□ We’ve identified who our target audience is. We’ve conducted focus groups with members of this
target audience to understand their opinions.
□ We think we know who are target audience is, but we haven’t taken the steps to understand their
desires around health promotion.
□ We haven’t identified a target audience. We are focusing our activities on our entire employee
population.
F. After analyzing our data and understanding our target audience needs, we’ve determined our best
programming options to most effectively support a change in behavior. We explored lifestyle change
programs, policy changes, environmental changes, direct-to-employee interventions, etc.
□ We’ve successfully analyzed our programming options and have made appropriate program
selections based on the needs of our target audience, budget availability, staff requirements, and
desired outcomes.
□ We’re started looking at program options, but have not made selections based on target audience
needs, initiative goals,/objectives, staff time allotments, and desired outcomes.
□ We’ve not selected programs based on understanding our target audience, desired behavioral
outcomes, outlined goals/objectives, staff availability and desired outcomes.
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G. For programming efforts to be successful, we must continually talk with our target audience to
determine communication strategies, programming materials, implementation ideas and overall program
philosophy and ideas.
□ We have included time to talk to our target audience in our timeline.
□ We have thought about testing our programming ideas with our target audience, but have not
built this into our plan.
□ We have not thought about getting feedback from our target audience.
H. To effectively develop a plan for health promotion, we must determine available human and financial
resources.
□ We have built human and financial resources into our plan. Our programming efforts have been
designed with resource consideration.
□ We have thought about our resources, but have not built this into our plan.
□ We have not determined our available resources (human and financial).
I. It is important to outline implementation procedures and a timeline. This will ensure that everyone
participating in the implementation will know their roles and responsibilities, as well as help keep the
program flowing smoothly.
□ The implementation procedures and timeline have been written and approved by our wellness
committee and senior management.
□ We have discussed implementation procedures and our timeline, but they have not been formally
written into our plan.
□ We have not written our implementation procedures or timeline.
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J. Preparing an itemized budget will ensure you can afford to implement your planned activities within
your available resource limitations.
□ We have prepared an itemized budget and it has been approved by senior management.
□ We have discussed our budget, but have not itemized it and shared it with senior management.
□ We have not formalized our budget.
7. Have you explored the option of offering incentives to your employees to encourage
participation in wellness activities, completion of programs offered, improvement in health
risk and/or adoption of healthy lifestyles? (Step 2-G, page 24)
□ We have thoroughly explored our incentive options, designed an effective incentive strategy (if
applicable) and made our decision whether we’ll offer incentives as part of our wellness initiative.
□ We’ve talked about the potential of offering incentives to our employees, but have not designed
an incentive strategy.
□ We have not yet explored including incentives as part of our wellness initiative.
8. Have you worked with your leadership team to determine if your wellness plan should
be reviewed by your organization’s legal team? There are several federal and state laws
(Americans with Disabilities, Equal Opportunity Commission, Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act) that could impact the design of your wellness program. (Step 2-I,
page 28)
□ We’ve had our wellness plan reviewed by our legal team.
□ We’ve discussed a few issues with our legal team, but have not had our plan formally reviewed.
□ We have not thought through the legal implications of our wellness efforts.
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9. Even the best programming attempts can fail without an effective communications strategy.
Have you developed a communication strategy to help meet your wellness program goals
and objectives? (Step 2-J, page 29)
□ We’ve developed a communications strategy and have tested the messages and materials with our
target audience.
□ We’ve thought about our communication options, but have not tested our ideas and/or messages
with our target audience.
□ We haven’t thought about a communications strategy yet.
10. Have you put together an evaluation plan to measure the impact of your wellness activities?
(Step 4, page 35)
□ We have an evaluation plan that includes: measurable goals and objectives; baseline data; staff to
complete the evaluation; and a communications plan to disseminate the evaluation results.
□ We’ve talked about the importance of measuring the outcomes of our wellness activities, but we
have not put together a formal evaluation plan.
□ We haven’t included an evaluation plan in our wellness program design.
11. Do you have a plan to review your wellness program annually? (Step 4, page 35)
□ We have it built into our annual plan to review our health promotion vision, goals and objectives.
Each year we will reprioritize our wellness goals for the year.
□ We don’t have a formal plan yet.
□ We haven’t even thought about what we will do at the end of the year.
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Congratulations on completing the Work Well Worksite Wellness Quiz. Review your responses to decide your next
steps for your worksite wellness programming. Any question(s) that you checked the first response, congratulations
you are following the recommendations for that worksite wellness area. For any question(s) you answered with
the second or third response option, we recommend you visit that specific section of the Toolkit to review the
recommendations outlined. (see each question above to determine which section of the Toolkit to visit).
We wish you the best of luck with your worksite wellness activities!
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