The Office of Personnel Management is bringing back its online assessment tool, WellCheck, to gauge the health and wellness of federal agencies.
The WellCheck program began in 2014 as a way for OPM to track health and wellness throughout the federal government.
The survey was part of Presidential Memorandum on Enhancing Workplace Flexibilities and Work-Life Programs and included 131 evidence-based strategies that tracked everything from the healthiness of vending machine and cafeteria items to the information agencies provided on health insurance benefits.
"In 2014, 291 worksites, from 36 different Federal agencies, participated in the WC assessment," said Mark D. Reinhold, associate director of Employee Services, in a July 19 memo.
"On average, agencies scored the highest in addressing vaccine-preventable diseases, occupational health and safety, and tobacco-free living. Agencies had the most room for improvement in the areas of nutrition, lactation support and organizational supports."
As a result of the 2014 survey, OPM offered four recommendations, including offering more worksite health and wellness programs, more health insurance benefit information, more sharing of best practices between agencies and more organization supports to monitor agency health.
The 2016 edition of WellCheck will provide a biennial update on agencies health and wellness assessments, giving agency points of contact from October-November 2016 to complete.
OPM said it will offer a training session for agency points of contact to learn about the survey tool and how to complete it.
For more information, contact Rachel St. John (rachel.st.john@opm.gov) or worklife@opm.gov.
