| Course | HW425 Health and Wellness Programming - Design and Administration |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 5 |
| Paper type | Budget and resource plan |
| Length | About 920 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health and Wellness |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HW425 Unit 5
Eleven Thousand in Cash, Seventy Thousand in Full: A Unit 5 Budget and Resource Plan for a Grocery Chain's Diabetes Prevention Program
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HW425: Health and Wellness Programming - Design and Administration
Unit 5 Budget and Resource Plan
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Tallgrass Market, its wages and every figure are composite; the economic evaluation and workplace wellness sources cited are real.
Why Show Full Cost
A budget that listed only cash would tell the owners the program costs about $11,500, which would understate it by a factor of six. Most of the program's cost is employee time that the chain already pays for but would otherwise use for other work. Economic evaluation of health programs treats staff time as a real cost, valued at wages plus benefits or taxes, because it has an alternative use (Drummond et al., 2015). Showing full cost lets the owners decide with accurate information and protects the program from being cut later when the time cost becomes visible on the store floor.
Assumptions
1. Participants: 90 employees, 22 one-hour sessions each.
2. Median participant wage: $16.40 an hour.
3. Employer payroll tax: 7.65 percent, applied to wage-based lines. The chain's benefits are not added for part-time participants, who receive none.
4. Prep time for coaches: half an hour per session led.
5. All figures are for one program year.
Budget Table
Staff time:
1. Participant time: 90 people x 22 hours x $16.40, plus 7.65 percent: $34,956.
2. Retail dietitian: 2 cohorts, 44 sessions plus 22 hours of prep, 66 hours at $42.11 plus payroll tax: $2,992.
3. Pharmacy technicians as coaches: 4 cohorts, 88 sessions plus 44 hours of prep, 132 hours at $15.87 plus payroll tax: $2,255.
4. Pharmacy counter backfill while technicians coach: 132 hours at the same rate: $2,255.
5. HR benefits specialist coordinating at 15 percent time, salary plus payroll tax: $9,204.
6. Store managers protecting schedules: 11 managers x 12 hours at a loaded rate of $31.00: $4,092.
Staff time subtotal: $55,754.
Purchases (cash):
7. Lifestyle coach training for 3 coaches at $1,150 each: $3,450.
8. Digital scales for 4 session rooms at $90: $360.
9. Participant materials, bilingual workbooks and logs, 90 x $40: $3,600.
10. Recruitment flyers and posters in two languages: $640.
11. Healthy snacks at sessions, 132 sessions x $15: $1,980.
12. Evaluation data entry and analysis, contract: $1,520.
Cash subtotal: $11,550.
In-kind:
13. Community room use, 132 room-hours at an estimated $19.15: $2,528.
Total full cost: $69,832.
Explaining the Gap
Staff time makes up $55,754 of the $69,832 full cost, about 80 percent, and half of the total is a single line: the paid hours participants spend in sessions.
The largest line, participant time, is also the program's most important design choice. The needs assessment found that most employees would attend only during paid shift time. Removing paid time would cut about half the full cost and, very likely, most of the attendance.
Coach and backfill lines together cost $4,510. They are needed because pharmacy technicians cannot leave the counter uncovered. The coordination line reflects the specialist's time spent scheduling cohorts, tracking enrollment and liaising with store managers.
Cost per Participant
Full cost per enrollee is about $776, of which about $128 is cash. If 60 participants remain through month twelve, the full cost per completer rises to about $1,164.
What the Budget Does Not Claim
The budget does not estimate savings. Workplace wellness programs have produced mixed results: a randomized trial across a large retail employer's worksites saw gains in two self-reported habits and no measurable drop in medical spending at eighteen months (Song & Baicker, 2019), and a randomized study of a large university employer's program likewise found no significant effects on medical spending or most health outcomes in its first years (Jones et al., 2019). Diabetes prevented in this program's participants would reduce claims, if at all, over several years. The case for the program rests on employee health and on the prevention evidence, not on a first-year return.
Where the Costs Fall
The costs do not fall evenly across the chain. The four stores hosting day cohorts give up community room time and see more coach and manager hours, while the seven overnight stores carry most of the recruitment effort. The pharmacy department absorbs the technicians' absence from the counter. For that reason, the plan recommends that the program's cost be charged centrally to the human resources budget, rather than to individual stores, so that store managers are not penalized for hosting it.
Sensitivity
Two figures drive most of the full cost: participant wage and the number of sessions. If the median wage were a dollar higher, the participant time line would rise by about $2,100. If the program cut the six monthly maintenance sessions, it would save about $9,500 in participant time but would remove the part of the curriculum designed to help people keep weight off. The plan keeps all twenty-two sessions.
Resource Risks
1. Backfill availability: if stores cannot cover the pharmacy counter, sessions led by technicians may be canceled.
2. Wage changes: a raise for store staff would increase the participant time line proportionally.
3. Coach turnover: losing a trained technician would require another $1,150 for training and several weeks' delay.
Funding Request
The plan asks the owners to approve $11,550 in cash from the human resources budget and to authorize $55,754 in staff time, with the in-kind room use provided by the four stores.
References
Drummond, M. F., Sculpher, M. J., Claxton, K., Stoddart, G. L., & Torrance, G. W. (2015). Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Jones, D., Molitor, D., & Reif, J. (2019). What do workplace wellness programs do? Evidence from the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(4), 1747-1791. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjz023
Song, Z., & Baicker, K. (2019). Effect of a workplace wellness program on employee health and economic outcomes: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 321(15), 1491-1501. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.3307
The Purdue Global HW425 Unit 5 instructions
The budget unit asks students to estimate what a program will cost and what resources it needs. Prompts usually expect a budget table, stated assumptions, an explanation of major lines, and often in-kind contributions and a justification. Count staff time, including participants' paid time, coaches, coordinators and backfill, valued at wages plus payroll costs. Separate cash from time and in-kind contributions so the reader sees both. State every assumption that drives a line. Explain the largest lines and what would happen if they were cut. Calculate cost per participant. Avoid promising savings the evidence does not support. Note resource risks such as backfill or turnover. Most budgets for this unit fill four or five pages around their table.
Inside the HW425 Unit 5 example
The plan opens by explaining why full cost matters, citing a standard text on economic evaluation. Five assumptions follow. The budget table lists six staff-time lines, six purchases and one in-kind line, each with its arithmetic, totaling $69,832. The highlighted sentence shows that staff time makes up about 80 percent. A section explains the largest lines and why paid time stays. Cost per enrollee and per completer follow. A section explains what the budget does not claim, citing two randomized workplace studies. Sections on where costs fall across stores, sensitivity to wages and sessions, resource risks and the funding request close the plan. Every line shows its arithmetic, so the finance reader can check it without asking.
Reading the HW425 Unit 5 grading rubric
HW425 budget rubrics generally weight completeness and accuracy most: all significant costs included, with correct arithmetic and stated assumptions. Points go to valuing staff time realistically and separating cash from in-kind resources. Justification is a major criterion, judged by whether the largest lines are explained and linked to the design. Honest treatment of savings claims, backed by evidence, earns credit under critical thinking. Sensitivity analysis and resource risks add depth. A clear table and citations complete the rubric. Budgets that list only purchases, hiding staff time, or that promise a return on investment without evidence, typically lose points. Graders also notice whether the budget's figures match the design and timeline exactly.
HW425 Unit 5 help: mistakes that cost points
Program budgets in this course often list only cash purchases and leave out the staff time that makes up most of the cost. Another weakness is arithmetic that cannot be traced because assumptions are not stated. Students frequently promise first-year savings, which the evidence on workplace programs does not support. Backfill for staff pulled from their usual duties is commonly forgotten. Cost per participant is rarely calculated. If your program design is settled and you need a budget that shows its true cost, list the people involved and their hours, and a writer can build the table and explain each line. Showing cost per completer as well as per enrollee helps owners see what dropouts would mean.
Get an HW425 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Share the program design your Unit 5 budget must cost, local wage rates if you know them, and the rubric or any template your section provides. Participant time, coach time, backfill and coordination appear as priced lines, with arithmetic shown and in-kind resources kept apart. A first budget carries no fee and returns in 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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HW425 Unit 5 questions, answered
Do I have to count participants' time if the program is voluntary?
If the employer pays for attendance, yes, because it is a real cost. If sessions run on employees' own time, say so and explain the likely effect on attendance. Either choice is defensible; leaving the question unaddressed is not. Many workplace budgets show both versions so a funder can see the trade-off directly.
Where do I find realistic wage and cost figures?
Use the organization's own figures if the prompt supplies them, otherwise published sources such as Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for the occupation and region. Label every figure's source. Vendor prices can be estimated from published rates and marked as estimates. Each number should be checkable by someone else.
Should the budget include evaluation costs?
Yes. Someone has to collect, clean and report the data, and that time is part of what the program costs. Evaluation lines are often small, but a budget without them implies the evaluation plan will happen by itself. Price the analyst's hours and any data or reporting fees separately.
Where can I find a free HW425 Unit 5 sample paper?
This page holds a complete Unit 5 budget and resource plan showing cash and full cost for a grocery chain's prevention program, with margin notes and APA references.
Why count participants' paid time as a cost?
The employer is paying wages for hours that would otherwise go to other work, so that time has a real value. Leaving it out would understate the program's cost by more than half.