An Evaluation of the Wellness at Heart Toolkit

• Main Author: Jones-Clark, Pamela
• Other Authors: McKenna, M. L.
• Language: en
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Health promotion literature; toolkit; evaluation; RE-AIM model
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1882/7918

Studies have shown that workplace wellness is associated with increases in employee productivity and job satisfaction and reductions in employee absenteeism and turnover rates (Kruger, Yore, Bauer, & Kohl, 2007). To help organizations improve and design workplace wellness programs in New Brunswick, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of New Brunswick published the Wellness at Heart Toolkit in January 2009. The toolkit provides health promotion information, policy templates, and a program planning model for workplace wellness. The purpose of this study was to conduct the first formal evaluation of the Wellness at Heart toolkit. The framework for the evaluation was guided by the RE-AIM model (Caperchione & Coulson, 2010), which stands for reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. The model has been used to evaluate public health interventions, policies, and health promotion resources. In association with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, contacts for New Brunswick workplaces were provided. Open-ended semi-structured phone survey interviews were used to collect data. Twenty participants provided information on their workplace wellness programs. Each of the participants interviewed are workplace wellness programmers. Eleven participants who used the toolkit provided their perceptions and attitudes toward it and nine non-users’ shared their views on workplace wellness. For the data analysis, NVivo 8 was used to help organize themes found in participants’ responses. All 11 participants that used the toolkit stated that it is effective for enhancing and implementing workplace wellness. They used the toolkit as intended by the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Most participants stated that they would continue to use the toolkit for wellness purposes. Non-users’ (9) reasons for not utilizing the toolkit include: they had an existing program, they did not have enough time or they only organize wellness initiatives and do not have a structured program. This research provides valuable information to the Heart and Stroke Foundation on the utility of the toolkit and adds to the literature on the evaluation of workplace wellness resources.