How Wellsteps Works

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How WellSteps Works

Ideally, every workplace would have a dedicated, full-time, workplace health professional to guide all phases of program planning, implementation and evaluation. But realistically, most small and mid-sized companies do not have the leadership or financial support to make this kind of commitment.

Each new WellSteps employer customer is assigned a team of dedicated “WellSteps Guides” who serve as dedicated worksite health promotion specialists. All WellSteps Guides have BS, MS, or MPH degrees in public health, health promotion or a related degree. All WellSteps Guides undergo a rigorous training and shadowing experience before they are assigned any employer customers.

The WellSteps Guide team will help every worksite assess, plan, implement and evaluate their health program. The goal of the Guide is to provide the planning, education, training, guidance, and behavior programs to maximize the likelihood of positive program outcomes and long-term program sustainability. Guides work via a telecommuting arrangement and are assisted in their work with a highly detailed task management system called a Road Map.

Guides use web conferencing and virtual meetings to effectively manage programs remotely. Extensive use of technology allows a WellSteps Guide team to effectively direct extensive health promotion programming to multiple sites and settings simultaneously. The use of technology helps to keep programming costs low, which is important because “cost” is the single biggest barrier to implementation.

WellSteps Guides cannot be effective if they work alone. A critical component in our business model is the establishment of a close working relationship with an onsite employee liaison or coordinator, and a workplace health committee. Ideally, the liaisons are senior leaders with knowledge of worksite culture and operations, and sufficient influence to help establish employee health as an important worksite emphasis. Each physical location should have a coordinator or wellness committee member.

The Guide team and the coordinator(s) establish a representative workplace health committee. Coordinators and the committee have local ownership of the program, and assist in program planning, implementation, and management. Working together, the Guide assists the onsite coordinators and committee members to create a sustainable program plan. The Guides provide most of the day-to-day program administration until there is sufficient onsite capacity to sustain effective program delivery.

Mission and Vision

Our mission is to help companies change their culture of health and to help people adopt and maintain healthy behaviors.

When culture supports healthy behaviors, employees are more likely to make healthy choices. When employees choose healthy, their health improves and they enjoy a higher quality of life.

Healthy employees use less health care, worker’s comp, short and long term disability, and work better. When worksites invest in employee health, they receive a positive return on their investment.

Our vision is twofold. We believe that simple is sustainable. Thus, everything we do is based on helping companies and people make simple changes that endure. We also believe there is power in a group-based approach to behavior change. The most powerful forces behind behavior change are peer support, competition and collaboration - none of which are fully employed in an individual based model.

Business operation date

WellSteps was founded in 2006 by Dr. Steven Aldana, CEO, and Dr. Troy Adams, COO. In 2006, Dr. Steven Aldana and Dr. Troy Adams prepared to leave the academic world to more fully engage in the development and testing of workplace solutions designed to improve public health. Having published over 100 articles on the impact, benefits, and administration of a variety of health programs, the time was right to create a health solution that would help employers improve employee health while simultaneously addressing the barriers to implementation. This effort resulted in the creation of the WellSteps family of solutions.

Number of clients:

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Average client size:

WellSteps has provided programming, materials or services for micro businesses with 10 employees up to corporations with over 55,000 employees. Our typical client size ranges between 100 – 5000 employees.

Number of clients that have renewed:

WellSteps has an exceptional track record of maintaining client relations long-term. From a business perspective, WellSteps performance can be measured as a function of contract renewal and additional contract awards. The completion of one contract is almost always followed-up with another contract from the same institution. The State of California has hired WellSteps on several different occasions. The State of Illinois has enlisted WellSteps services every year for several years. Kaiser Permanente is established three consecutive contracts with WellSteps. Repeat business is a highly reliable indicator of a successful partnership. WellSteps prides itself on maintaining mutually beneficial public health partnerships and is committed to fulfilling each and every contract with our best efforts.

Client turnover rate:

WellSteps has an exceptional track record of maintaining client relations long-term. Most of our customers renew for at least a second year.

Number of employees:

WellSteps currently employs 19 full or part-time staff.

Describe the advisory board responsible for reviewing your programs.

Dr. Steven Aldana and Dr. Troy Adams, partners at WellSteps, have published over 120 research articles on the impact and effectiveness of workplace health promotion programs. This research, when combined with the research efforts of many others, constitutes the evidence-base that supports the development and operational design of WellSteps.

WellSteps rests squarely on the shoulders of research giants who have contributed much to the worksite health evidence-base. We have also contributed to the evidence-base with evaluations that support the ability of the WellSteps solutions to improve employee behaviors, lower employee health risks, and significantly reduce employee health care cost and absenteeism trends.

Who is your target market?

WellSteps provides comprehensive health promotion programming to hospitals, medical clinics, community coalitions, insurance carriers and brokers, schools, church groups, municipalities, non-profits, and employer groups from every sector of the economy including farming, food services, engineering, legal, energy, utilities, shipping, manufacturing, retail, and more.

WellSteps customers can be found in almost every state. They include blue color and white color workers, migrant laborers, professionals, and underserved populations. There is tremendous diversity within the current WellSteps book of business. Yet, despite this diversity, WellSteps works tirelessly to provide relevant, culturally appropriate programming. All materials are written to include those with low literacy levels. Generally, our target market is a company with fewer than 5,000 employees who does not yet have a fully established wellness program.

Why is WellSteps the Best Fit for our group?

1) We have an aggressive performance guarantee.

2) We have a very good working relationship with all the major health insurance carriers.

3) Our solutions are based on evidence that we continue to produce as researchers/practitioners.

4) Our account management structure means we do the heavy lifting.

5) We commission brokers, or we can pass lower prices on to the customer.

6) We have a track record of high engagement (over 50%)

7) We are focused on changing behavior in total populations and on changing culture in organizations, which means we are in it for the long haul.

How do you differentiate yourself from other Wellness Service providers?

SHORT ANSWER:

Three things differentiate us from other Wellness Vendors:

1. Our solutions are based on scientific evidence that we helped produce. The founders are nationally known and respected researcher/practitioners.
2. Our model is designed to help companies change culture and at the same time, to help employees change behavior in a simple, sustainable way.
3. Our approach is unique in that it is group based versus individual-based but we have an integrated way to reach out to individuals who have unique health challenges.

We create culture change and lower employee related expenses through evidence-based solutions, and are fully invested in the success of the groups we work with.

LONG ANSWER:

WellSteps has one mission: to improve public health. We provide free resources and tools to help those who are starting or improving existing health promotion efforts. Many of our competitors use our free tools and participate in our free webinars.

Over 4,000 companies, consultants and competitors use our ROI calculator ( each month. This tool helps worksites build a business case, provides the data needed to justify investment in employee health programs, and helps calculate the financial impact of these programs on health care costs, absenteeism, and presenteeism. Our “Checklist to Change” is used to identify environmental policy strengths and weaknesses. It is used to access resources and tools to help create a healthier workplace environment.

WellSteps was an early adopter of webinar technology. For the past several years, WellSteps has offered free monthly webinars in which national content experts provide attendees with up-to-date information and tools on a wide variety of workplace health topics. All webinars are recorded, archived, and posted at WellSteps.com. It is common to have over 700 attendees in any given webinar. Public health and workplace health professionals, insurance carriers, brokers and consultants, and academics recognize these webinars as a source of valuable, content-rich information. All webinars are conducted live with live Q&A.

With webinars, tools, resources and posted presentations, WellSteps helps improve the quality of health promotion interventions by freely disseminating information. Even books like the Stop & Go Fast Food Nutrition Guide can be downloaded for free at We have found that serving the industry as trusted advisors has created good will and has also helped the WellSteps value proposition.

There are several other important factors that differentiate WellSteps from other wellness vendors:

A) Intervention Fidelity

With a single provider like WellSteps, employers will get a tailored health promotion program that includes standardized health promotion interventions. These interventions help maintain intervention fidelity across and within worksites. Our standardized but flexible approach will improve the likelihood of successful program translation and dissemination.

The WellSteps program design includes:

1. Assessment through completion of the WellSteps Culture Audit called the “Checklist to Change,” and the WellSteps Personal Health Assessment;

2. A uniform planning process, which includes feedback from the assessment tools listed above and a series of committee meetings with set agendas, building branded materials and online program centers with a company logo, and a CEO image and message.

3. A program implementation process that includes behavior change campaigns, policy change and environmental support interventions.

4. The ability to balance uniformity and customization is a strong WellSteps differentiator.

B) WellSteps is Evidence-Based

The foundation of WellSteps is firmly based on the workplace health and behavior change literature much of which was produced by the founders. Research evidence supports everything included in the WellSteps solutions including behavior change programs, policy and environmental supports, health risk appraisals, and effective marketing and communication materials.

C) WellSteps is Evidence Producing

Peer-reviewed, published data is the strongest form of evidence that programs are effective. WellSteps is committed to a process of designing and conducting rigorous, peer-reviewed evaluations. WellSteps is also passionate about sharing these results with the profession through research publication. We believe that this work helps all ships rise.

D) Unmatched Leadership

Dr. Steven Aldana is the CEO of WellSteps. The Chief Operations Officer is Dr. Troy Adams. Combined they have nearly 50 years of experience in workplace health research and practice. No other vendor of our size possesses this rare combination of academic and practical knowledge of how to create and evaluate effective workplace health programs.

E) Emphasis on Policy and Culture Change

Of the four main components of effective behavior change: awareness, motivation, skills, and policy, policy has been identified as the most important. Historically, health promotion programming has been focused on awareness. WellSteps understands the importance of policy and environmental change and works with each customer to maximize behavior change sustainability by helping workplaces create health promoting policies and supportive environments.

F) WellSteps Guides

The WellSteps Guide is the glue that holds everything together. WellSteps Guides receive extensive training on all aspects of the WellSteps model. All WellSteps Guides participate in weekly training, in service, and accountability meetings. The Guides provide program continuity, tailored service and support, onsite training and capacity building. The key to the success of WellSteps is the outstanding commitment and service delivered by our Guides. The best compliment we receive is when a workplace client tells us they are treated as if they were the only WellSteps account!

G) WellSteps Does Everything Possible to Reach the Underserved

Many employee adults are underserved. Language barriers and lack of access to the web prevent many from participating in health promotion interventions. WellSteps programs are available off line and many programs are available in Spanish. Many WellSteps employees are multi-lingual and speak Spanish, Portuguese, or French.

From a business perspective, it makes little business sense to have invested the time and money required to translate our programs and materials. However, since our mission is to change public health, we understand that it is imperative to reach and serve the underserved. Most vendors are financially disinterested or unable to effectively serve the underserved.

What is the required client commitment?

As with any worksite initiative, the best predictor of success is leadership support. For WellSteps to deliver on our guarantee, we ask that client companies meet the minimal performance expectations included in our Statement of Work including:

• Provide a letter of support from the CEO
• Create an onsite wellness committee
• Distribute campaign materials
• Allow distribution of marketing and communications
• Entertain policy and work environment changes
• Facilitate the delivery of health care claims data

What will be required of the wellness coordinator and committee?

• Meet with WellSteps Guides before each campaign to gain an understanding what to expect with each campaign and to provide appropriate input.
• Viewthe Success Standardvideos in which we share the best practices of wellness coordinators.
• Display posters and distribute campaign materials.
• Complete the Checklist to Change.
• Wellness Webinar preparation. The coordinator will need to schedule a room if the company plans to watch as a group. We ask that they email the staff, facilitate viewing, and send out a link to the recording after the webinar (for those who were unable to attend live).
• Distribute WellSteps Rewards prizes.
• Answer questions from staff.
• Show enthusiasm and participate in mostactivities!

COACHING

Describe your coaching model.

Employees are eligible for and invited to receive Integrated Health Coaching if they:

A) provide permission for a health coach to access their Health Assessment data,

B) are at high risk for physical inactivity, poor nutrition, impaired sleep or stress, and

C) are ready to change behavior.

Employees receive up to 6 coaching sessions during which they set and work on health-related goals.

Our group-based solutions enable powerful behavior change motivators like competition and collaboration. Health coaching when integrated with our solutions is like tutoring provided to students who are also embedded in a classroom. Providing health coaching for employees who need extra help enhances our group-based solutions.

What science-based behavior change principles are used in your health-coaching model?

We apply research from the Trans-theoretical model to determine coaching eligibility and from the Motivational Interviewing literature in our proprietary coaching process.

Additionally, we have conducted and updates reviews of the health coaching literature. We already knew that our group-based model was superior to health coaching which is why we built all our solutions on this model. However, we wanted to see if there was any evidence that coaching might improve outcomes when added to our solutions. Though we did not find the evidence to be conclusive, we felt there was enough to warrant the integration of health coaching into our group-based solution.

Do participants stay with one coach throughout the program?

Ideally, participants will remain with the same coach throughout all six coaching sessions. However, if there are schedule conflicts or other setbacks, a new coach may be assigned. Detailed coaching session notes that are shared among our health coaches enable consistency in the coaching process.