Four steps to building a better workforce wellness program

When building a workforce wellness program, it can be tempting to start with activities such as screenings, walking challenges, or health education.

A better starting point is the larger strategy: What workforce health challenge are you trying to address, and what combination of resources can help?

Answering those questions requires clinical data, employee insights, and expertise from across several disciplines. At Capital Blue Cross, teams specializing in client analytics, wellness, population health, and other areas work together to help employers understand their workforce and identify appropriate solutions.

Dr. Mark Jacobson, Senior Medical Director of Client Analytics at Capital, helps analyze the health conditions, utilization patterns, and costs affecting an employer’s population. Senior Health Education Consultant Nicole Cassel helps translate those findings into practical programs and communications designed around employees’ needs.

Their work illustrates an important point: A wellness program is not the entire strategy. “Clients are looking for solutions to drivers within their populations,” Dr. Jacobson said. “Curating those solutions around an employer’s data ultimately helps provide better value for the resources invested in their workforce.”

Here are four principles Capital’s teams help employers apply when building a more strategic, data-informed wellness program:

1. Know your workforce’s health needs

Many employers choose to begin by reviewing available utilization and health trend information, such as information provided through Capital's Executive Client Review (ECR). Dr. Jacobson said the objective is to identify major drivers and help the employer determine which combination of resources could address them.

That analysis can distinguish between different workforce needs. An employer experiencing substantial musculoskeletal costs may require a different approach than one seeing concerns related to diabetes or cardiovascular health.

Wellness programs can help address those health drivers, but it cannot accomplish them alone.

A step challenge, for example, may encourage physical activity and engage employees who are generally healthy. It may also give people managing certain health risks a more approachable way to become active.

But employees with chronic conditions may need additional clinical resources, medication support, or care management. Employers who identify high ER utilization may need education about when to use virtual care, urgent care, and emergency services when they can’t see their primary care doctor. For leaders, the first questions could therefore be:

• Which conditions and utilization patterns are most significant in our workforce?
• Which employees are we trying to reach?
• What behavior or outcome are we trying to influence?

At Schuylkill County, Senior Benefits Administrator Elaine Fucci said she reviews claims data monthly and uses biometric screening results and other health information to guide planning. Starting with workforce needs “has helped us build a culture of wellness and an effective wellness program,” Fucci said. One data point that Fucci points to as proof of this: nearly 95% of Schuylkill County’s approximately 600 employees have a primary care doctor.

2. Listen to employees before designing the experience

Data can identify a population health priority, but it cannot fully explain why employees do or do not engage in wellness initiatives.

That requires listening.

Surveys, focus groups, and employee conversations can help employers understand which activities interest employees, how they prefer to participate, and what barriers may stand in their way.

Cassel said Capital helps implement employee health interest and well-being surveys, and helps analyze the results to provide actionable recommendations for wellness activities that align with overall strategy.

Feedback is particularly valuable when an employer needs to translate a broad goal, such as increasing physical activity, into an experience that works for its workforce.

Schuylkill County’s walking challenge demonstrates the difference that feedback can make.

Employees wanted the 12-week program to continue, but some said its initial threshold of 50,000 steps per week put participation beyond their reach. The county responded by creating several step ranges, with a prize drawing for each one. Employees who completed between 25,000 and 50,000 steps per week could participate in one drawing, while those reaching higher totals entered another.

The county also allowed activities such as swimming and weightlifting to be converted into step equivalents. This created additional ways to participate for employees with knee problems, mobility limitations, or other health concerns.

During the 2026 walking challenge, employees collectively recorded 86,365,737 steps – the equivalent of walking 1½ times around the globe.

Participation totals still matter, but employers also look at short-term measures like who is participating. A smaller program that repeatedly engages already-active employees may not have the same value as one designed to reach people facing greater barriers to physical activity.

“It’s about meeting the employee and the employer where they are,” Cassel said.

3. Make participation accessible and visible

Employees do not experience wellness programs in the same way. Their schedules, work locations, languages, and physical abilities can all affect participation.

Fucci said Schuylkill County tries to provide multiple options for each wellness activity, including a recent biometric screening session.

“We always have two sessions at the courthouse and another at our 911 building,” Fucci said. “If you want to reach as many employees as possible, you need to make it convenient to participate.”

Leadership visibility can reinforce that accessibility. Cassel pointed to an employer whose leaders completed biometric screenings alongside employees at Capital’s Enola Connect health and wellness center.

“When leaders actively participate, it shows that wellness is an organizational priority rather than only an HR initiative,” Cassel said.

4. Measure progress with short-term and long-term goals in mind

While it’s important to establish key performance indicators and gauge progress, employers need to recognize that different results emerge on different timelines, said Dr. Jacobson.

Short-term indicators may include participation, repeat engagement, preventive exam rates, and enrollment in relevant clinical programs. Employers may also track whether employees are using appropriate care settings.

Improving chronic conditions and financial outcomes generally require long-term thinking.

For example, an employee who begins managing hypertension or diabetes may start visiting a physician, filling prescriptions, or receiving recommended tests. Those services add costs during the first year, but they represent employees receiving care they may have previously delayed or missed.

Dr. Jacobson said those costs may contribute to better outcomes over time. Employers could consequently monitor a combination of measures.

Short-term measures may include:

• Participation and repeat engagement.
• Preventive exam and screening rates.
• Enrollment in relevant chronic condition programs.

Longer-term measures may include:

• Hospital admissions.
• Cost avoidance associated with clinical programs.
• Overall healthcare cost and utilization trends.

Keep connecting the pieces

There is no universal blueprint for workplace wellness. The strongest strategies begin by identifying the conditions and utilization patterns affecting the workforce and making sure all activities align with big-picture goals.

Employee input makes that strategy practical. It can reveal whether an activity is accessible, whether it is reaching the intended population, and what adjustments could bring more people into the effort. The process requires sustained attention and realistic expectations.

“It can be a big morale booster,” Fucci said. “If your people are healthy, they’re happier and more productive.”