Workplace: Action and evaluation planning
This factsheet has been developed to assist your workplace with action and evaluation
planning.
Action Planning
Prioritising
Collecting baseline data which includes employee absence, employee turnover, accidents in the
workplace, and current policies can provide useful information to help inform future action and to
measure any improvements against. This information, along with the information gathered from other
sources such as an employee health needs assessment or a workplace health and wellbeing survey, will
provide your health and wellbeing team with the information they need to identify areas of strength and
areas for possible development.
It is important not to look at different sources of information in isolation. When viewed together these
sources can provide your organisation with specific information about employee attitudes and interests in
relation to health and wellbeing.
Once the health and wellbeing team have gathered all of the baseline data they need to decide on which
health priorities the organisation is going to focus on.
It is important that the health and wellbeing team know what works before deciding on specific actions to
address the health priorities identified. The Achievement Program benchmarks have been developed to
support you in this process.
Once your health and wellbeing team have gathered baseline data to inform the health priorities for your
workplace and developed an action plan it’s important to keep track of progress regularly. By keeping
track of your action plan and assessing against the benchmarks you can see how you are progressing,
review any actions that aren’t working, identify other possible actions and know when to apply for
recognition.
Developing an action plan
An action plan helps to track progress and identify strategies that have been successful and those that
could be improved upon. An action plan should include:
 Rationale – Why are you doing this?
 Goal – What do you want to achieve?
Creating healthier early childhood services, schools and workplaces

Objective – What do you hope to achieve in the short or medium term? Ensure your objectives
are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely)
 Actions – How you are going to do it? (The actions you are going to take).
 Timeframes - When you are going to do things by?
 Responsibilities – Who is going to do what?
 Resources – What people, finances etc. will you need to achieve the goal?
Below is a description of what goals, objectives and actions are, how to ensure that objectives are
SMART and an example action and evaluation plan.
Goals
A goal is a long term improvement or change – what is it you want to achieve?
Example: A healthy and physically active workplace.
Objectives
Objectives are short or medium term improvement or change the workplace is working towards.
Objectives must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time specific. The SMART
framework aids the development of high quality objectives.
SMART Objectives
Specific
Indicates clear action on a factor that you want to influence (e.g. workplace policies, physical
environment, knowledge and skills of employees) in the workplace and is explained in simple terms.
Having specific objectives helps to clearly define what will happen and ensures they are not too vague
or general. This also helps when measuring change.
Measurable
Change can be measured as a result of taking action.
If objectives are not measurable it will be impossible to demonstrate a change has occurred and that
progress is being made towards achieving the objectives and overall goal.
Achievable
Can be realistically achieved, on time and with available resources.
This ensures that the objective(s) is not too ambitious but also is not below expectations.
Relevant
Is a logical way to achieve your goals and relevant to all involved.
If objectives are not relevant, it will be difficult to get the resources and support from others to achieve
the objectives.
Timely
Indicates a timeframe for achieving the outcome(s).
It is important to have a time frame or target date to help focus efforts to achieve outcomes before or by
the due date.
A good way to “test” your objectives is to gauge them against the SMART framework.
Example: Increase physical activity opportunities for employees
Specific
Yes. Who: Employees, What: Increase physical activity opportunities
Measurable
Yes. Assuming a baseline of current opportunities is captured an increase can be measured. It can
sometimes help to set a specific target for some objectives (e.g. reduce absenteeism by 30%).
Achievable
Yes
Relevant
Yes
Timely
No. Consider timeframes such as by [x date] or within [x time period].
Example: Increase the number of employees using active transport to and from work by 25% by December 2013
Specific
Yes. Who: Employees, What: Increase active transport by 25%
Measurable
Yes. After establishing a baseline, improvement in use can be measured.
Achievable
Yes.
Relevant
Yes.
Timely
Yes.
Adapted from Department of Health (2010). Tip sheet: Municipal public health and wellbeing planning.
Impact matrix
When deciding on actions for the action plan the health and wellbeing team may have come up with a
number of strategies to achieve the objectives. To help the team prioritise, and to see if the actions are
likely to have the desired impact, they can use an Impact Matrix to assist this process.
An impact matrix is a decision making tool that helps prioritise possible actions.
When is it useful?

When a list of options need to be narrowed to one or two choices.

When considering a range of criteria before deciding on a particular action or approach.
Using an impact matrix
Write out the suggested actions on separate pieces of paper, this can be done using post-it notes.
As a group:

Discuss each option and plot them on the impact matrix. When deciding where to place actions
remember to consider things such as time, funding, barriers, personnel, supports available, and
the environment.

Decide what the workplace can realistically achieve. Start with some of the easier strategies with
small gains to see some quick results, but think strategically to achieve larger impact strategies.

Identify the priorities and develop an action plan to implement these. This could be a one, two or
three year plan.
How difficult is it to implement?
Easy
Medium
Difficult
Small
How
much
impact
will
it
have?
Medium
Large
Evaluation planning
The Achievement Program is a process of continual improvement. As you gain momentum in identifying
health and wellbeing priorities and implement actions it’s important to capture progress so you can see
what is working and what isn’t. In order to do this it’s important to evaluate how you are doing at each
stage of the process. The type of information you will gather or need at each stage varies as you move
through the cycle. To assist you in gathering the right information at the right time, the type of evaluation
you could consider for each stage of the Achievement Program process has been outlined below.
Identify current situation and plan (Steps 2-3)
This involves gathering data in order to plan and refine an activity. An important part of this stage is to
develop clear goals, objectives and actions. Baseline data can be gathered by completing an
organisational profile and a health needs assessment for employees. You may have other useful data
sources for example, employee satisfaction surveys or key discussion areas from meetings.
Remember: It’s important that the health and wellbeing team get input from other employees and
management to help identify priorities and actions and feedback the results so that everyone knows what
has been identified to work on and why.
Implement (Step 4)
Evaluation at this stage of the process involves tracking the progress and reviewing the actions in your
action plan as you are implementing. This can help you understand why certain actions are producing
specific results. It can also provide insight to refine or improve a specific activity.
Possible questions the health and wellbeing team can use to reflect on your progress include:
Are we on track?




Are our actions producing the level of engagement we hoped to see?
Are there any noticeable changes as a result of the actions (positive or negative)?
Are we staying within budgets and timeframes?
Are there any actions we weren’t able to do and why?
This information can be collected:




Through conducting a health needs assessment and comparing results against baseline data
(information you originally collected at step 2)
By asking for feedback from employees (see consultation methods factsheet)
Based on observations
By reviewing whether there have been changes in absenteeism, accidents in the workplace etc.
Remember: It’s important for the health and wellbeing team to:



Feedback progress to management and employees
Gain input from management and employees as to how they feel the actions are tracking
Inform management and employees if actions are changing and why
Results and improvements (step 5)
Evaluating at this stage of the process can help guide future action. It can answer questions such as:


Was it worth doing?
Should it be repeated?
Information collected at this stage will be very similar to the information collected at implementation.
This information can be collected:




When conducting a health needs assessment and comparing results against your baseline data
(information you originally collected at step 2)
By asking for feedback from employees (see consultation methods factsheet)
Based on observations
By reviewing whether there have been changes in absenteeism, accidents in the workplace etc.
It will help the health and wellbeing team: identify any immediate short term effects, what progress has
been made towards meeting the objectives, identify if you have met the health priority area benchmarks
and can help identify the overall long term effects, for example, have we achieved our goal?
Action and Evaluation plan: Example
The example below is a guide only.
Workplace health priority area
Physical activity
Rationale:
Being physically active is an important aspect of a healthy lifestyle. There are a range of benefits associated with
physical activity including helping to prevent heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, some
cancers, promote mental health and wellbeing and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints and reduce injury
risk. Employee survey results indicated that employees wanted to improve physical activity rates.
Goal/s:
To become a health promoting and physically active workplace.
Objectives:
•
•
•
Actions
1.
2.
3.
4.
To develop a physical activity and active transport policy for the workplace
To create a physical environment that supports physical activity and active transport for employees
To increase awareness of physical activity opportunities
When
Who
How
Evaluation
Date, week or month
Person/s responsible
Resources (budget, equipment, space)
Measures to monitor
progress to meet expected
outcomes
•
Health and
wellbeing team
Senior
management
•
•
•
Draft policy developed
•
•
•
•
•
Employees
•
Policy communicated to all
employees
Draft physical
activity and active
transport policy
1.
Feb-April 2013
2.
April 2013
3.
April 2013
Consult with all
employees
4.
May-June 2013
Finalise policy and
have signed off by
management and
health and wellbeing
team
Communicate policy
to whole workplace
Meeting and planning time
Newsletter articles /intranet
Mapping of active transport
Employees consulted
Policy finalised and
approved by management
and health and wellbeing
team
5.
6.
Provide information
to employees about
how to incorporate
physical activity into
their work day. E.g.
walking groups,
lunch time activities
like yoga
5.
July – October 2013
•
Health and
wellbeing team
•
Senior
management
•
6.
•
•
•
External partners
Information about physical activities
•
Pre and post survey to
determine levels of
awareness
•
No. of unique visits to the
Intranet for maps
•
Feedback from staff about
active transport
Planning meetings
Resources to develop maps and
sources for local active transport
activities
July – October 2013
Map walking, cycling
and public transport
routes close to the
workplace and
promote these to
employees
Evaluation
Achievement Milestones (changes in practice or behaviours)
Measures (Data/information collected to measure change)

Increase in number of employees actively travelling to work and being physically active


Employees have an increased awareness about how to incorporate physical activity into
their work day

Use the Achievement Program employee survey on an annual basis to monitor
employee’s improvements around physical activity and health and wellbeing.
Increased availability of physical activity resources.
Physical activity and active transport policy developed and disseminated across the
workplace
Physical environment supports physical activity and active transport
Health and wellbeing team member______________________
Date: ________
Senior Management ____________________________________ Date: _________
Employee representative_________________________________ Date:_________
Action and Evaluation Plan: Template
Workplace health priority area
[insert priority area]
Rationale:
[insert rationale]
Goal/s:
[insert goals]
Objectives:
[Insert objectives]
Actions
When
Who
How
Evaluation
Date, week or month
Person/s
responsible
Resources (budget, equipment, space)
Measures to monitor progress to
meet expected outcomes
Evaluation
Achievement Milestones
Measures
References
Round, R, Marshall, B & Horton, K 2005. Planning for effective health promotion evaluation, Victorian Government Department of Human Services, Melbourne.
Department of Health 2010. Tip sheet: Municipal public health and wellbeing planning. Victorian Government Department of Health, Melbourne.