Key Message:
No initiative is complete until a formal Evaluation is carried out. Evaluation is essential in order to:
- Measure and demonstrate the comprehensive benefits of your initiative
- Feedback information for continuous improvement of programme quality and efficiency & effectiveness of resource investments
- Measure the progression of your Healthy Workplace culture
You’ve successfully completed all preliminary steps (Steps 1, 2 & 3) and implemented your initiative (Step 4), but the process is not complete until you’ve evaluated your initiative. Evaluation should be as comprehensive as possible and should directly tie into the indicators of success of each of your objectives from Step 2.
Tips from the WHO: Evaluation should include:
- The process of the implementation (participant satisfaction questionnaires, implementation team reviews/debriefings etc.) – these will inform initiative refinements that can be made to increase efficiency and suitability of your employee wellbeing efforts
- The specific outcomes of the initiatives (where your goals and objectives met? Did your baseline data from Step 2 improve?)
- There should be short-term and long-term outcome evaluations
- It should include individual initiatives and the overall workplace wellness programme
- How successful your workplace has been over the last 3-5 years at transitioning to a Healthy Workplace
Additional Tips from the Evidence Base:
- Worksites should plan to evaluate the programmes, policies, benefits, or environmental supports implemented
- Gain information that will be relevant and useful to the departments that will use the findings (e.g., the HR department, decision-makers, wellness officers etc.)
- Include a financial assessment (identification and collation of all costs and benefits)