The Small Business Health Model - A Guide to Developing and Implementing the Workplace Health System in Small Business

Section 3 (Continued)

Step 5 The Small Business Health Plan

The Coordinating Agency and the Small Business Health Committee are responsible for creating the direction of the Small Business Health Plan and planning program strategies.

To prepare the Health Plan, both use their observations of the Workplace Health Profile and special feedback groups and make recommendations to participating small business owners.

Their response gives the Coordinating Agency and the Small Business Health Committee their general direction and the resources they need to proceed with programs.

Charting the Course

The Small Business Health Plan is an important blueprint. It charts the programming direction for a two-to three- year period. It acts on the major needs specified by the Coordinating Agency and the Small Business Health Committee and small business owners. It contains strategies that respond to identified needs and sets a time frame for acting upon strategies in relation to the other priorities identified.

The Small Business Health Plan should also include an estimate of the cost of implementing programs that require funding. Suggestions for raising funds or cost sharing could be included too.

The Small Business Health Plan should address the Five Guiding Principles and the Three Avenues of Influence. For example:

Program direction should reflect the needs of all employees, regardless of current health levels.

In considering how to implement the programs, the Plan must address the challenges for reaching employees with literacy or language difficulties, cultural differences and the variety of social and skills backgrounds of employees.

Programs should not be implemented in isolation from one another. Links between specific programs can enhance impact and success.

Programs should be designed with the principle of personal responsibility in mind. They should provide the necessary support through a healthy social, physical and emotional environment to help employees fulfil that responsibility.

Program requirements should recognize that health is a product of interactions between individuals and their environments. One employee, for example, may participate in a program at home; another may participate at work or an outside facility.

Small businesses should keep the Plan in mind when making other decisions. Its information should become an important part of doing business.

The Plan's recommendations must address clearly the elements of the Three Avenues of Influence: the environment, health practices and personal resources.

The Small Business Health Plan is a working document. It should not be carved in stone, but be reviewed each year and revised to reflect new or changing employee needs.

Appendix 7 provides information on how to prepare a Small Business Health Plan.

Tips for Success

All meetings and discussions about the Small Business Health Plan should be held in confidence until it has been approved by all the small businesses concerned.

References to and the use of existing programs and resources should be included in the Plan.

Once the Health Plan has been approved, tell employees of all participating small businesses what programs are being planned, what the next step is (the Action Plan) and how they can take part as volunteers.