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Dr. Michael O’Donnell

Wellness Works Conversations: Leading thinkers, practitioners and experts discuss the ideas that drive workplace wellness, health management, and healthy living.

The idea behind any workplace wellness program is fairly straightforward: Help employees gain the information, insights, and tools they need to live healthier lives – improving what they do at the office with colleagues and extending what they do at home with their families.

So how do you know when these programs work?

It’s not a trivial question. From health advocates to CFOs, from ROI to healthy outcomes, questions around the effectiveness of workplace wellness programs remain active. And like so much else in business today, it often comes down to measurement.

• But how, exactly, should employers measure the impact of their wellness programs?
• In an age of growing concern around data privacy, how can firms properly collect just the information they need – and should have?
• And are outcomes all that matter? Or are there other important areas to consider?

Dr. Michael O’Donnell is Director of the Health Management Research Center in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan. Not only has Dr. O’Donnell managed health promotion efforts in four major health systems, but he has helped more than 100 additional employers, health care organizations, government agencies, foundations, insurance companies, and health promotion providers refine existing programs – and develop new ones. He is Founder, President, and Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Health Promotion.