Wellness Analysts: Creating your Employee Population Health “Story”

Posted by: BeneFIT Corporate Wellness
Date: February 7, 2019

Many employers are understanding the importance of health and wellness initiatives to boost employee productivity and morale. However, they need data to identify where they should focus their attention to have the greatest impact. Data-driven programs can yield higher returns to employers. Sufficient and reliable data can help employers better plan and implement their wellness programs. On the surface, it might be easy for an employer to assume a weight management program is needed, when data reveals that stress management is actually the underlying issue.

Collecting and interpreting data

Higher quality corporate wellness providers recognize the value of data when planning, implementing, and evaluating their client’s programs, and have specialists available to help guide employers in the most effective direction. A wellness analyst, like Leah-Posivak-Khouly, CHES^® at BeneFIT Corporate Wellness, can produce a clear and highly informative “story” of an employee population through various information-gathering avenues, from surveys to results reporting*. “Individually, each of our wellness services can provide a unique set of insights,” says Posivak-Khouly. She itemizes sources of data that BeneFIT might include, but is not limited to:

• Culture and Environmental Analysis provides information on the physical environment as well as what programs are already available within an organization.
• The Health Risk Assessment offers information on biometrics, readiness to change, and employee health status.
• Patient Satisfaction Surveys produce data on the satisfaction of employees with the current program in place, and evaluate whether employees are participating in the program.
• Employee Health Coaching Reports tell employers what health goals employees are working toward, and what kinds of assistance they are looking for in the future.

A comprehensive view of employee health

“By bringing all the pieces together, we are able to obtain a multi-dimensional story,” says Posivak-Khouly. “We work with the employer to develop a program that’s not one-size-fits-all, but that can serve the unique needs of that particular employee population. With this data-based foundation, we custom plan and design programs, add or subtract services, evaluate program effectiveness, as well as find out what barriers might be keeping employees from reaching their goals.”

Posivak-Khouly explains that a full picture is key to a program’s effectiveness, since optimum employee health isn’t just about taking employees’ blood pressure or cholesterol readings. In sync with the National Institutes of Health definition, health is a “state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being … and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” This supports the wellness analyst approach, which can determine employee population health status from any, and all angles.

Teamwork and insightful results

Posivak-Khouly joins a team of certified and master-certified health education specialists who strategize with employers to plan, implement, and evaluate BeneFIT health and wellness programs. Four board-certified health coaches bring personalized coaching to clients, along with a range of additional services, from onsite health and wellness presentations to tobacco cessation and weight management. Results reporting for all services also helps employers evaluate the success of the programs they initiate.

“We’re interested in delivering real results. We would just be guessing if we didn’t have participant data to back up our decisions, designs, and recommendations,” says Posivak-Khouly. “As a wellness analyst I drill down to provide employers with the best guidance possible on employee health. Our goal is to help employers achieve measurable improvements in the health of their employee populations and, consequently, the health of their businesses.”

* This information is de-identified and provided in aggregate (an overall view), so employees need not be concerned about the privacy of individual health information.

Interested in learning more about how data insights can shed light on your current or prospective wellness program? Contact us for a custom walk through of our offerings.