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Employee health promotion professionals — who cultivate a spirit of cooperation and communication, within the organization and the surrounding community — excel at finding what they need. The keys are networking, knowing what’s available, tapping into local resources, and reducing costs whenever possible. Let’s explore strategies to make you a great resource detective:

• Send an inventory wish list to all departments/units asking what could be loaned on occasion to the wellness program. Be as specific as possible — tables, chairs, computers, printers, TVs, projectors, conference rooms… even work stations where participants could use interactive wellness programs. Compile the input, identify the gaps, and go from there.

• Form cooperative networks within the organization and the community to multiply wellness program resources. Providers in the employee health network may be willing to do presentations on some aspect of health and wellness. Community employer coalitions often provide funds or resources for programs of mutual interest. If no coalitions exist, consider having your organization start one.

• Know where to get free employee health brochures, handouts, and other education aids. Free or low-cost materials are available online from government and nonprofit sources. Pharmaceutical companies also offer free literature, especially relating to disease management and lifestyle topics.

• Determine whether other departments/units or local organizations have services similar to what’s planned for your corporate wellness program. For instance, if the EAP has a stress management program, you may be able to join forces and offer it to both audiences. A nearby business might consider opening their programs up to your employees if you would do the same.

• Ask health and wellness vendors for samples of materials being considered for purchase. Test these free materials to gauge how well the products work with the target audience.

• Augment existing materials to conserve resources, especially when the program targets a specific cultural/ethnic population or addresses unique work environments/career fields. For example, materials already translated into Spanish could be a foundation, with new supplemental information appropriate to the audience. A commercial handout on single parenting could be supplemented with details on the unique needs of shift worker single parents. Using this approach, you only need to create the parts that haven’t been addressed.

• Be innovative. Ask for volunteer art students from a local community college or high school to do a graphics project for class credit. Perhaps an employee or family member who’s an aspiring artist or writer can help create handouts or brochures as a project to build their portfolios.

• Assess multiple vendors when reviewing commercial products to see which offers the best total value. Look for reproducible materials. Some vendors such as Health Enhancement Systems sell kits authorizing the purchaser to copy materials for internal use.

• Research opportunities for discounts. For instance, vendors of corporate wellness products typically discount large quantity purchases and carry multiple lines of educational materials, targeting different functions (EAP, Occupational Health, Safety, Human Resources). Ask other departments/units if they order from the same vendor or would consider changing to a vendor offering comparable products. Suggest combining orders for cost-efficiency.

• Maintain an inventory of commercial products used in the wellness program. Besides being able to anticipate when an item is running out, inventories allow you to monitor utilization and identify waste. Brochure turnover, for instance, can be a simple method of evaluating program impact.

• Explore other options. For example, if recurring wellness program offerings require an outside presenter or facilitator, would it be more cost-effective to get an internal trainer certified to conduct these sessions? If your weight management or other program uses a fairly expensive product, have you surveyed participants about their use of the item and how their behavior has changed as a result? If it’s not having the desired impact, reconsider whether this is a wise use of program resources.

In this tight economy, being a good steward of your organization’s money just makes sense. Effective resource management is a big part of that responsibility. Often all it takes is a little detective work, patience, and creativity.

Dean Witherspoon, CEO and founder of employee wellness firm, Health Enhancement Systems, has 25 years in health promotion. He has served on the board of the Association for Worksite Health Promotion and held several regional as well as state offices. Dean is a nationally known speaker and author, having presented at more than 70 conferences and written hundreds of employee wellness articles for national publications.