An initial health screening can include a survey of employees' interests as part of the assessment. Successful wellness programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the employees. The information you need to get from a survey depends on the scope of your program. A sample survey can be obtained in the HOPE Publications Web site. If you plan to adapt this sample survey or develop your own survey, keep the following hints in mind:

• Ask mostly closed-choice questions, especially if you will be sending the survey to a large number of employees. Closed-choice questions provide specific choices and are easy to tabulate. You may want to use a computer for data entry and analysis.



• Invite comments, suggestions and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions at the end of the survey. Open-ended items are more difficult to summarize.



• Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the company president. Make sure to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.



• Ask a group of representative employees to review the survey before it is distributed. Find out if the questions will be understood by employees and won't be objected to.



• Collect demographic information at the beginning or end of the survey. Consider various ways that you might analyze the responses by demographic characteristics (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).

When considering who should get the survey, a simple rule is if you have under 500 employees, everyone should receive one. The public relations benefit of everyone receiving a survey can be significant. Over 500 employees, a sample of the work population will suffice. A sample saves on costs and time. You may want to consider consulting with a statistician to determine an appropriate sample size for your worksite.

Needs surveys are confidential and anonymous; they do not request information that may identify a person.

Getting support from management is crucial to the success of the program. One way to do this is to survey managers (see forms) and conduct interviews with decision-makers in the organization. You can use the surveys provided here or make up your own. If you decide to do your own, keep the survey short. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to complete.

The interview process can also serve as a means of educating management. Provide concise fact sheets on the benefits of wellness programs for management. When surveys and interviews are completed, tally the surveys and write brief summaries of the interviews. Provide these reports to management.

Once completed, present a brief executive summary to management. Highlight a few interesting findings that can be used immediately to make decisions about the program.

Utilize charts and graphs to make your points. Prepare a detailed report for wellness committee members itemizing each response. Provide a short article about the survey in the company newsletter.

The higher the response the more valid and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40% to 50% is acceptable.