Locating a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Coordinator

Locating an individual to lead your employer in establishing a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative

Without a qualified Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator to lead and manage your employer’s creation of a culture of wellness, efforts can be scattered and momentum can stall. While it’s essential that the creation of a culture of wellness be someone’s priority, not all employers need a full-time coordinator.  There are a number of ways to secure the time of a qualified coordinator.

Be careful not to confuse Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative skills with fitness skills. You are not looking for a personal trainer or a nutritionist to run your Workplace Wellness Program. The following are good indications that an individual may be qualified to be a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator:

• knowledge of population health, community health and worksite Workplace Wellness Programs
• competent working with and understanding aggregate data, preferably Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative 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 Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies.

What will a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator do?

The Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator is accountable for guiding a process that establishes worksite facilities, policies and practices that promote health. The individual may do some of all of the following for your Workplace Wellness Program:

• act as a liaison between leadership and the Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative employee advisory workgroup
• interpret health-related data on your Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative
• establishe and manage work plans and budgets for implementation of selected Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies
• facilitate Workplace Health and Wellness Initiative Committee meetings
• lead your employer in establishing measurable goals for the Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative
• recommend effective Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies, 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 Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies and goals.

Where can we find a qualified Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator?

Explore the following when looking for a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator:

• Existing employees: Are there individuals on employees who have the background, or are interested in gaining the skills, to support as a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator? Is it possible to dedicate a portion of someone’s time (e.g., .5 FTE) to the position of coordinating your employer’s Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies? If possible, budget enough to cover not only salary but also continued learning, journal subscriptions and membership fees for this Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative position.
• New employees – Can you hire an individual to be your employer’s Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator? Would it need to be a full-time position, or would part-time be sufficient?
• Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Consultation – Various employers (e.g., health plans, benefit consultants and public health departments) provide Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative consultation on building a culture of wellness within a worksite.

An outside Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative consultant can advise an internal Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative coordinator and your Workplace Health and Wellness Initiative Committee on establishing priorities and deciding on Strategies. Or, you can contract with a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative consultant to be your coordinator. If you go with 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.