Evaluating Success
Program evaluation is often overlooked in work site settings. However,
evaluation is necessary to determine if programs are having the intended
effects. It need not be expensive, difficult, or time-consuming.
Basic evaluation questions for this program include the following:
- Are your employees using the discount fitness club network (DFCN) service?
- If they aren’t, why not?
- Are there changes that could be made to enhance their experience?
- What did you, as the program planner, learn from this experience that you can apply to other programs you implement?
A simple evaluation plan will help you answer those questions.
Conducting the Evaluation
Identify an evaluation plan while you are in the early planning stage of
the project. Consider employee surveys, comment phone lines, e-mail
inquiries, or suggestion boxes as resources for evaluation data. Before
collecting data from employees, obtain guidance from appropriate agency
experts to help determine what approvals may be needed. For example, federal
agencies are subject to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations
and OMB approval may be needed. Similarly, if your evaluation is part of a
research project, check with the appropriate institutional review board (IRB)
to determine if IRB approval is needed. Each agency or company should work
with its own internal and legal staff to develop appropriate guidelines and
procedures for evaluating the project.
Information you might want to include in your process evaluation data
includes the following:
- Number of inquiries to the company
- Number of guest passes they’ve issued (if they provide that service)
- Number of employees that have actually joined a club through the DFCN
- Number of clubs they offer in areas convenient to your employees
- Number and content of the inquiries your company receives from employees
- Number of e-mails and/or hits your Intranet page receives
- Number of posters, fliers, or letters distributed
- Data from your company’s/agency’s employee survey about physical activity habits
It might be possible to find a DFCN that is willing to help develop a
plan to collect aggregate data on the number of visits employees make to the
fitness clubs they join. Be sure to include this in the DFCN selection
criteria and agreement, as it will require the DFCN to work with individual
clubs and could entail an additional fee.
Direct employee feedback provides good evaluation information as well, even
if the feedback is unsolicited or received in various ways (e.g., e-mail,
written and verbal comments).
Track and use evaluation data to address problems, drive an ongoing
communication plan, and determine the need for the service and work with the
DFCN to make program improvements.
Next Steps
After you have conducted the initial evaluation of your DFCN, consider periodic evaluations to ensure its ongoing success and identify potential areas for improvement.
DFCN Example Tools
Other Helpful Information
Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.
* Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
Page last updated: May 22, 2007
Content Source: Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
