Situational Assessments & Tools for Employee Population & Current Situation

Part A: Introducing Situational Assessments

Purpose and Summary:  Understanding the value and purpose of a Situational Assessment and the situation assessment tools that gather data about the priority population is a critical component of the program planning process.  

In this assignment, you will create a presentation in preparation for a wellness committee meeting to demonstrate the importance of a situational assessment, recommend appropriate situational assessment tools for a given scenario, and create your own situational assessment tool.

Evaluation: this assignment is an individual assignment worth 15% of your final grade

The Situation: Based on current circumstances at your placement, you and your supervisor notice a need to understand the employee population and current situation; however, the wellness committee you work with isn’t well versed with understanding situational assessments, or situational assessment tools that are available.  As such, you decide to prepare a presentation to increase their awareness and understanding of situational assessments, which will include Parts A to C outlined on the following pages.

Assignment Submission:

 A PowerPoint/slide deck that includes a written script in the notes section; the written script would include what you would say to the wellness committee if you were to give the presentation verbally

Assignment Components

 Part A: Introducing Situational Assessments (Weight: 15% of assignment)

In your PowerPoint/slide deck presentation, explain what a situational assessment is and its’ importance/benefits.  Get your point across to the wellness committee by answering the following questions:

• What is a situational assessment?
• Why is a situational assessment important?

Part B: Situational Assessment Tool(s) Recommendation (Weight: 45% of assignment)

Review the three scenarios below and select one as your ‘placement site’ for the purposes of this assignment.  Based on the scenario, which Situational Assessment tool(s) would you recommend?  Why?  Please share this with the committee through your PowerPoint/slide deck presentation.

Scenario 1 – Corporate Placement Site:  your placement is at a large corporation where an acquisition has just been completed.  There is uncertainty among the employees about their job security and what this change will mean in the long term.  Some employees have already left the organization, leaving other employees with a heavier workload, which means working overtime.  The management has reported that many of their employees are struggling with work/life balance and are feeling the pressures of managing work and home life.  Because of the focus on the acquisition, wellness programming was put on hold.  Now that the process is complete, the CEO has asked the wellness committee to focus on creating appropriate programs to support employees through the transition, and beyond.  The committee is not sure where to start or how to identify the needs of the employees.  Knowing you have studied this topic in your WWHP program, your placement supervisor asks you to provide some input.  Use the information you have learned in Program Planning to propose a solution: What situational assessment tool(s) would you use to gather the necessary information in this case?  Please explain your recommendation and why you selected the tool(s) that you did.

Part B: Situational Assessment Tool(s) Recommendation

Scenario 2 – Community Center Placement Site: your placement is at a community center where managers have commented that their employees are feeling the emotional and physical stress associated with their program and outreach work, which takes most of the team out into the field 3-4 days per week.  There is a small budget for wellness programming and since many team members work in the field, there are limited technology resources for the employees.  Many employees have reported that they are not able to sustain the workload and are currently looking for other work.  The management has given their approval for a wellness program to improve the health and well-being of their employees in order to maximize retention and minimize sick days, but have limited resources and time to collect information.  Your placement supervisor has asked you to take on this project as part of your Placement Work Plan.  Use the information you have learned in Program Planning to propose a solution: What situational assessment tool(s) would you use to gather the necessary information in this case?  Please explain your recommendation and why you selected the tool(s) that you did.  

Scenario 3 – Manufacturing Placement Site:  your placement is at a manufacturing plant where there is a fitness center onsite, which is being underutilized by the staff and production line workers.  It was once used to its fullest capacity in past years, however over time, utilization has consistently declined.  The organization invests a lot of funding into the maintenance of the fitness center, hiring of wellness professionals and creating a variety of wellness programming.  In the meantime, workplace injuries have increased which has led to higher spending on health / drug claims as well as cases of employees on STD (short term disability) and LTD (long term disability).  The management is looking to the wellness committee to help determine a solution and increase utilization of the services available to employees.  The committee needs some help with how to collect the most appropriate and relevant information and you speak up and share that you covered situational assessments in your coursework.  Use the information you have learned in Program Planning to propose a solution: What situational assessment tool(s) would you use to gather the necessary information in this case?  Please explain your recommendation and why you selected the tool(s) that you did.  

In your answers, consider the following criteria in explaining your choice of situational assessment tool(s) to the committee:

• Relevance/usefulness: What kind of information does the organization need?
• Cost: What would it cost to implement?
• Ease of implementation: How would you do it (steps), and how easy/complex is it to implement?  What kind of resources might be required (people, time)?

What other criteria should the planning committee consider in selecting a situational assessment tool (hint: refer to pages 20-22 in the “Comprehensive Workplace Health Promotion: Recommended and Promising Practices for Situational Assessment Tools, THCU” document)?

Part C: Creation of Your Own Situational Assessment Tool (Weight: 25% of assignment)

In case the wellness committee is concerned with the cost and time it will take to complete a more elaborate situational assessment, before your presentation to them you decide to create your own short, low cost situational assessment tool in the form of a questionnaire.  Create five questions that you feel would yield the most important, relevant information for the scenario you chose in Part B.  The questions can be obtained or adapted from an already existing questionnaire (in which case, please reference the tool from which it came), or can be completely your own creation.  In your PowerPoint/slide deck presentation, please share your questionnaire and explain your reasoning for why you selected the questions that you did and why your tool would be a valuable tool to use.