Once your strategy has been implemented, it’s important to evaluate and review whether it has helped you achieve your goals and objectives.
Impact evaluation will help you to determine the value or success of your strategy and guide improvements. Some changes will take longer than others, so it is useful to evaluate every 12 months.
Has your program:
- Shown continual improvement or has the quality of individual projects improved? Could you do it better?
- Changed the attitude, behaviour, knowledge or skill of participants? Was it effective?
- Shifted the culture, morale and satisfaction level within the workplace? Has the program contributed to improved workplace relationships and a healthy culture?
- Led to sustained changes in people’s health, in particular program participants? Has the program influenced participant health outcomes?
- Delivered a return on investment? Did the business get value for money?
You can use the results of your evaluation to:
- motivate and re-energise people by celebrating their successes
- reward management for their support and leadership
- seek further funding for your program.
As the complexity and size of your health and wellbeing strategy grows, evaluation will be more resource intensive. If you don’t have the time or skills to analyse your findings, think about allocating funds to outsource the work. Once again, consult with management and other key members of staff to consider the essential evaluation elements, and those that can simply be monitored, against your action plan.