Evaluation framework for a healthy workers initiative: Get Healthy at Work

In 2015 the Prevention Research Collaboration (PRC) and the NSW Office of Preventive Health (OPH) collaborated to design and implement a summative evaluation of the Get Healthy at Work program (GHaW). Initially developed under the federal Healthy Workers Initiative (part of the previous National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health​), GHaW is a NSW Government initiative that supports businesses to address workplace factors that contribute to increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

GHaW comprises a web-based portal and resources to support capacity building for the implementation of workplace health programs addressing four key risk factors for non-communicable chronic disease: healthy eating, physical activity, smoking and sedentary behaviour. A ‘key contact’ registers their business for the program through the web portal and selects the program mode of delivery. The intervention comprises many interacting groups over different organisational levels (e.g. workers, businesses, service providers and SafeWork NSW). Further, apart from the four risk factors, local action plans were decided by the businesses themselves in collaboration with their service provider. The evaluation called for a pragmatic approach which could incorporate the complexity and multilevel nature of GHaW but also provide information to inform program operations and complement administrative data being collected through the GHaW portal.

Based on the GHaW logic model, discussion between PRC and OPH identified change in organisational culture around workplace health and wellbeing as an important outcome for the program. The evaluation centred on change at the business level rather than individual worker level, consistent with most previous evaluations of workplace health interventions. The evaluation consisted of: 
  • an online key contact survey conducted at baseline, 6 month and 12 month follow-up with businesses registering with GHaW compared with 400 control businesses not registered with GHaW at baseline (responses collected via a market research panel)
  • qualitative interviews with key contacts across business size (small, medium, large)
  • focus groups with workers from a small number of businesses
  • qualitative interviews with service providers.
PRC managed the development of the evaluation and data collection. Regular meetings were held with OPH as the GHaW program progressed and the evaluation framework was deployed. Three journal papers have used data from the evaluation,1-3 and the evaluation design has been used to demonstrate program evaluation with Ministry staff. One further paper is being prepared.

Support for the implementation of GHaW was provided in terms of:
  • ​advice on methods, development of surveys and qualitative discussion guides and interview schedules for evaluation components in collaboration with OPH
  • implementation of the evaluation in terms of instrument development, data collection, data analysis and publication preparation
  • regular feedback in meetings about progress and notable findings from work-in-progress
  • input into GHaW stakeholder communications (‘Health Partners Update’) and an OPH-led journal article on evaluation and other ad hoc results requests.
This was a key example of translating evidence on individual work interventions and delivery (and evaluation) at the organisational and delivery levels. It was an effort to develop and implement a model of scaled up preventive programs for workers across NSW.

References

  1. ​Khanal S, Lloyd B, Rissel C, Portors C, Grunseit A, Indig D, Ibrahim I, McElduff S. Evaluation of the implementation of Get Healthy at Work, a workplace health promotion program in New South Wales, Australia. Health Promot J Austr 2016; 27(3): 243-50.
  2. Crane M, Bohn-Goldbaum E, Lloyd B, Rissel C, Bauman A, Indig D, Khanal S, Grunseit A. Evaluation of Get Healthy at Work, a state-wide workplace health promotion program in Australia. BMC Public Health 2019; 19: 183.
  3. Crane M, Bauman A, Lloyd B, McGill B, Rissel C, Grunseit A. Applying pragmatic approaches to complex program evaluation: a case study of implementation of the New South Wales Get Healthy at Work program​. Health Promot J Austr 2019. First published: 12 March 2019. 
Current as at: Monday 31 May 2021
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