Developing Your Business Case

• Background
• The Costs of Physical Inactivity
• The Benefits to Employer/Employees of Physical Activity
• Why the Organization Should Consider the Idea
• Principles to Guide the Development of a Program
• Recommended Scope and Objectives of the Program
• Cost of Recommended Program
• Projected Cost/Benefit Analysis for the Organization
• Measurement, Outcomes and Evaluation
• Anticipated Overall Results
• Sample Mission Statement

Background

This section provides the context for your Business Case for active living at work.

This section should include:

• The health benefits of physical activity; and
• A statement about why your organization should consider developing an active living strategy.

The Costs of Physical Inactivity

This section projects or forecasts the costs of physical inactivity to your specific organization.

This section should include:

• Trend data on benefit programs;
• Specifics of costs in your organization;
• Statistics on absenteeism;
• Statistics on staff turnover and the cost of recruitment; and
• Statistics on the aging workforce and its potential impact on the organization's benefit programs. (For example, if you know that 80% of the employees in your organization are over 50 and that health-care costs for those over 50 are twice as high as for those who are 25, you can forecast the additional cost to your organization as your workforce ages.)

The Benefits to Employers/Employees of Physical Activity

This section should include:

• Known benefits of physical activity;
• Links to productivity and cost savings; and
• Where possible, results or findings from a few Canadian studies to include health, economic, and work environment evidence.

Why the Organization Should Consider the Idea

This section should include:

• Workplace culture;
• Results of any internal surveys indicating morale issues, etc.; and
• A recommendation for a workplace survey to determine what employees/union think of the idea.

Depending on how this idea came into being in your organization and the current stage of your workplace wellness programs, you may have the results of the workplace survey in hand before you start.

f you have not checked out this idea with employees and their unions, then a workplace survey to see if the idea is supported is a critical first step. These programs cannot succeed without employee support.

In fact, you may have to do the Business Case in two stages - the first to get senior management interested and secure permission to proceed with a workplace survey; and the second to do a full-fledged cost/benefit analysis.

Principles to Guide the Development of a Program

This section should include:

• Overall health policy and strategic positioning;
• Leadership requirement;
• Staff involvement requirements and plan;
• Communications initiatives;
• Integration;
• Participation strategy;
• Benchmark research requirements; and
• Measuring success activities.

Recommended Scope and Objectives of the Program

This section should include:

• In-house facilities or not;
• Group activities or not;
• 'Event-based' program or not;
• Length of pilot project;
• Education/marketing activities;
• Professional or volunteer leaders; and
• Physical activity and fitness appraisal, as well as counseling.

Cost of Recommended Program

The costs will depend on the type of program that you intend to initiate. Researchers have concluded that you need to establish benchmarks and measures up front so that you can measure results over time.

These costs need to be built into the program up front. It is estimated that, over five years, you should see a return on investment of $3.43 for every $1 invested. To achieve this, you will need to measure the progress of participants to those of non-participants.

Things that contribute to your return on investment:

• Reduced turnover;
• Increased employee satisfaction/morale;
• Reduced rates of absenteeism, particularly incidental rates of absenteeism;
• Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease;
• Reduced number of musculoskeletal injuries;
• Reduced health-care claims;
• Increased organizational effectiveness; and
• Less stress-related illness.

Projected Cost/Benefit Analysis for the Organization

Check out the 'Trends & Impact - The basis for investment decisions' section to help you develop this section. Your own organizations' statistics will have to be mined.

You will need:

• Current data on absenteeism;
• Current turnover rates;
• The average age of employees or a complete chart showing the age of each employee;
• A history of health and dental claims for your organization;
• A history of Workman's Compensation Claims;
• The cost of Workers' Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) and Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) claims to your organization;
• Copies of any research that has been done on morale, etc.; and
• Any data on what competitors are doing.

Measurement, Outcomes and Evaluation

This section should tell the organization how you will measure results. Typically, performance measurement enables an organization to:

• Determine if a program has been implemented as planned (process measurement);
• Determine if a program has met its quality assurance criteria (process measurement);
• Assess if a program is attracting the volume of participants that it intended (process measurement);
• Document the individual employee health impacts of a program (impact measurement);
• Identify the health outcomes of a program as it relates to disability management and absenteeism rates (outcome measurement);
• Determine the cost/benefit of a program (outcome measurement); and
• Establish whether an ongoing commitment to the program is justified.

Anticipated Overall Results

In this section you will need to explain the overall results you are anticipating for your organization. Remember to include quality of life aspects that will help to make your organization an 'employer of choice'.

Sample Mission Statement

You may use or adapt the following mission statement when developing your business case for active living in your workplace:

'To create a workplace environment which encourages employees to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine and which values active living as an essential part of both personal and corporate well-being.'