Finding a Corporate Wellness Plan Coordinator
Finding an individual to guide your business in starting a Corporate Wellness Plan
Without a qualified Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator to guide and manage your business’s creation of a culture of wellness, efforts can be scattered and momentum can stall. While it’s vital that the creation of a culture of wellness be someone’s priority, not all businesss need a full-time coordinator. There are a number of ways to gain the time of a qualified coordinator.
Be careful not to confuse Corporate Wellness Plan skills with fitness skills. You are not looking for a personal trainer or a nutritionist to run your Corporate Wellness Program. The following are good indications that an individual may be qualified to be a Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator:
• knowledge of population health, community health and worksite Corporate Wellness Programs
• competent working with and understanding aggregate data, preferably Corporate Wellness Plan data
• competent managing projects, including developing timelines and facilitating meetings
• competent in strategic planning, including defining goals and related objectives
• ability to understand, and use the findings of, journal articles on effective Corporate Wellness Plan Procedures.
What will a Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator do?
The Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator is accountable for guiding a process that creates worksite facilities, policies and practices that promote health. The individual may do some of all of the following for your Corporate Wellness Program:
• act as a liaison between leadership and the Corporate Wellness Plan employee advisory workgroup
• interpret health-related data on your Corporate Wellness Plan
• create and manage work plans and budgets for implementation of selected Corporate Wellness Plan Procedures
• facilitate Health and Wellness Committee meetings
• guide your business in establishing measurable objectives for the Corporate Wellness Plan
• recommend effective Corporate Wellness Plan Procedures, using the evidence in the health behavior literature and national and/or recommended best practices
• document and report short-term and long-term progress on Corporate Wellness Plan Procedures and objectives.
Where can we find a qualified Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator?
Consider the following when looking for a Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator:
• Existing staff members: Are there individuals on staff members who have the background, or are interested in gaining the skills, to support as a Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator? Is it possible to dedicate a portion of someone’s time (e.g., .5 FTE) to the position of coordinating your business’s Corporate Wellness Plan Procedures? If possible, budget enough to cover not only salary but also continued learning, journal subscriptions and membership fees for this Corporate Wellness Plan position.
• New staff members – Can you hire an individual to be your business’s Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator? Would it need to be a full-time position, or would part-time be sufficient?
• Corporate Wellness Plan Consultation – Various businesss (e.g., health plans, benefit consultants and public health departments) provide Corporate Wellness Plan consultation on building a culture of wellness within a worksite.
An outside Corporate Wellness Plan consultant can advise an internal Corporate Wellness Plan coordinator and your Health and Wellness Committee on establishing priorities and determining Procedures. Or, you can contract with a Corporate Wellness Plan consultant to be your coordinator. If you select the latter approach, you’ll want to contract with the individual for sufficient hours to carry out all of the responsibilities associated with coordinating an effective strategy.
