Corporate Wellness Blog

Health screenings are important programs to identify chronic disease in their early stages. Once identified, wellness behavior modification programs can help prevent a disease from progressing. Working with local hospitals and other corporations, you can get information on providing screening and behavior modification programs that might better your employees’ health and save your business money in absenteeism, treatment for disease complications, and reduced productivity. Below are some ideas to help get you started.

Based on your Employee Needs & Interest Survey and the demographics of your workplace, consider offering periodic screenings to find specific health risks such as:

• Blood Pressure Checks to identify staff members with pre-hypertension or hypertension (high blood pressure),
• Cholesterol Screenings for total, HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol) and/or Triglycerides
• Blood Sugar Screenings fasting or non-fasting to screen for possible diabetes,
• Body composition, such as body mass index (BMI) or body fat measures
• Bone density for potential risk of osteoporosis,
• Cancer screenings such as, skin examinations, mammograms, or PSA screenings,
• Vision checks for glaucoma, or visual acuity
• Other health screenings depending on your worker population and needs

Your local hospital, employer physician practice, or health department may support assistance. However, if you have employees you may want to concentrate on programs that will keep them healthy rather than screening for early identification of chronic conditions. The focus of your wellness program might be healthy lifestyle practices to cut risk and prevent disease.

In addition to the health screenings, consider offering a Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment to all employees. The Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment will help to identify factors that may lead to additional risks, such as smoking history, stress levels, image of health, family history, job satisfaction, support systems, and mental health. Often the screening results are included on the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, which supports a more inclusive snap shot of health risks. The summary results provide the valuable information to plan appropriate interventions.

Company Wellness Program Interventions

The key to the performance of screenings and Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments is the interventions or follow-up programs. The information from the screenings increases awareness and frequently motivates employees to consider making healthier changes. It’s the follow up interventions that support the essential reinforcement and assistance required for employees to actually make and maintain those changes. The interventions have the potential to include individual follow-up and ongoing counseling, individual or group health coaching on the risk factors, behavior modification programs, and/or business reinforcement. Examples include:

• Strategies to decrease Blood Pressure
• Managing diabetes
• Taking care of your heart
• Healthy eating
• Weight loss ideas
• Growing physical exercise
• Smoking Cessation

Of course, this is for individual information only. Any follow-up interventions planned by the business would be based on interest expressed by the employee.

Based on the results and your Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee goals/objectives you have the potential to plan the best strategies for your corporation and workers. Consider the neighborhood resources available to support services, such as health associations, hospitals, medical providers, and/or public health agencies.

Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments (HRA’s), are an assessment tool or questionnaire scientifically designed to identify health risks and outline information to help  people in making healthy changes that effect their health and prevent chronic disease.

Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments (HRA’s) have four standard components in worksite settings:
• A Questionnaire
• A Computer Program to Review Health Risk Factors
• Confidential Individual Reports
• Group Summary Report

Workers complete a lifestyle questionnaire that includes for example nutrition practices, height and weight, exercise habits, family history, stress perceptions, smoking history, and work satisfaction. Another valuable feature to consider is readiness to change questions to determine participation interest. Including health screenings such as blood lipids and Blood Pressure (BP) results increases the advantages of an Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment by providing a more accurate health assessment and therefore improving lifestyle choice decisions and program options. However, it is valuable to determine if the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment can be used without including this information.

The health risk questionnaire information is entered into a computer program and an individual confidential report is generated that summarizes health risks as well as information on how to reduce risk factors. Individual reports are completely confidential. Depending on the reason for implementing the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, it’s significant to consider the type of report the business will receive as well. A group report summarizing major risk factors and recommendations for programs to implement in order to reduce employee and business risks supports significant information for your wellness program.

The Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments have the potential to be used to:
• Raise awareness to individual employee’s health status
• Encourage staff members to make healthier lifestyle changes
• Coach elevated-risk staff members
• Develop Worksite Health Promotion Programs based on the identified needs
• Review program effectiveness by comparing Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments (HRA’s) completed at set intervals such as yearly.

There are many advantages to thinking of a part-time or full-time occupational and environmental health nurse (OHN). Occupational health nursing is the specialty practice that provides for and delivers health and safety programs and services to employees, and worker populations. The practice focuses on promotion and restoration of health, prevention of illness and injury, treatment of work and non-work related injuries and illnesses, and protection from work related  and environmental hazards.

Onsite Heath Professional roles have the potential to include: Case management, Counseling, Employee Wellness Program, Legal and regulatory compliance, Clinical services, and Hazard detection and controls. The American Association of Occupational and Environmental Health Nurses is the national association, www.AAOHN.org. The State Chapter also has a website with information including local chapter information to help you find a contact near you, www.NCAOHN.org.

Health educators are able to design, conduct and evaluate activities that help improve the health of all your workers. They are subject matter experts who may be a important asset regardless your program needs and objectives and goals. They are able to help form a Employee Wellness Program Committee and start a myriad of of its programs and services, for example or depending on the structure and time commitments of your Employee Wellness Program Committee, they are able to also plan the entire program as well. Integrating the activities of the Committee and/or Employee Wellness Program professional services within your operations, including within your safety and occupational health program will support additional benefits!

We are creating Workplace Health Promotion Programs to help you feel better and stay healthy. In order to plan programs that best meet your needs and interests we would like your ideas! Please take a minute to answer some questions about your interests. Your answers will be combined with those of others’ and reviewed to help plan programs for you. Do not sign your name.

Please complete the survey today and return it to__________. We appreciate your valuable input! Your help is valuable for planning successful programs. Return the completed form by _____________.

Rate your interest on a scale of 1 – 3 with one (1) being of little or no interest; two (2) being of some interest and three (3) indicating that you are very interested. Indicate your response by circling or ‘Xing’ the number.

I am interested in:

Participating in wellness programs before work 1 2 3
Participating in wellness programs after work 1 2 3
Participating in wellness programs during my lunch break 1 2 3
Learning healthy eating options to lose weight 1 2 3
Sports nutrition 1 2 3
Healthier cooking 1 2 3
Helping my children eat healthier 1 2 3
Quick, healthy meals for full lifestyles 1 2 3
Healthy snack options 1 2 3
Learning how to quit smoking 1 2 3
Attending classes to help me quit smoking cigarettes 1 2 3
Stress Mangement skills 1 2 3
Balancing work, family, and personal life 1 2 3
Time upper management skills 1 2 3
Participating in a beginning exercise program 1 2 3
Creating time to exercise for busy people 1 2 3
Getting health information that I can read or watch at home 1 2 3
Learning about cancer prevention 1 2 3
Heart health options 1 2 3
CPR and First Aid 1 2 3
Team sports activities at work 1 2 3
Learning how to stretch 1 2 3
Learning how to stimulate intake of fruits and vegetables 1 2 3
Parenting Topics (age of children: ) 1 2 3
Onsite exercise classes: walking Yoga aerobic other: 1 2 3
Health screening such as Blood Pressure, blood lipids, blood glucose 1 2 3

Program evaluation may be The last step, but it should be planned at the onset of your efforts!  Assessment helps you identify what parts of the program are working well and what parts could use improvement.  Then, based on the evaluation data, adjustments can be made to fine-tune your wellness program.   Adjusting the program based on evaluation data is critical to its continued effectiveness.  

Reviewing your program need not be complicated.  However, it is important to plan how you will monitor your wellness efforts and determine success during the planning phase or Step 5.  Also remember to evaluate the program based on the goals/objectives you already established during your drafting process.  

In order to evaluate your program you must have a system to document specifics as you go along.  This can be as simple as maintaining file folders on programs that are available, or a computer document with a table or spreadsheet summarizing information collecting.  Consider:

• Program topic and numbers of staff members who participated
• The numbers of handouts taken by staff members or distributed and on what subject matters
• The number of participants in a behavior modification program and how many met their objectives as well as how many attended all of the sessions
• Numbers of employees who continued the healthy behavior modification following the program?
• Overall employee satisfaction with the program or each topic.  

Depending on your goals, gather desired data and compare it to previous data collected during the initial assessment to determine if the goals were met.  Such data might include

• Absentee rates
• Injury rates
• Health risk factors Insurance costs  

Summarize and Report Company Wellness Program Results

Once you have collected all of the assessment information it needs to be reviewed with the Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee and summarized.  You will probably have beneficial results and some areas where a change is necessitated or additional focus necessitated for continuous improvement.  This not-so beneficial information can be used to make any necessitated adjustments as well as to plan for next year and is valuable to include in your report.  

It is valuable to communicate the wellness program outcome to both upper management and staff members.  Consider how upper management usually receives reports on operations and productiveness concerns and include the annual wellness program report in the same format.  At some corporations the reports are made during upper management gatherings using presentation styles such as power point slides.  At other corporations, graphs and bar charts are the norm or a list of the objectives and the summary outcomes reported.  

No matter the format, it’s significant to convey the outcomes and successes achieved, including any anecdotal stories, as well as areas for improvement.  Be sure to link the outcomes to the organization mission and bottom line whenever possible.

Staff Members wish to receive the same information!  You might use the same communication channels used when informing staff members of the wellness program:

• Employer newsletters,
• Bulletin boards,
• E-mails  

Also consider celebrating successes and recognizing achievements by:

• Posting pictures from events
• Highlighting success stories
• Posting pictures of successes
• Hosting a celebration
• Recognizing champions  

Armed with data, Corporate Health Promotion Program topic preferences and objectives and goals – and a Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee rearing to get things done – it is now time to decide how best to take action.  This website supports tools to help you!  You can read about the various types of wellness programs provided by other companies to get an idea of what might work for your organization.  There are Statewide Resources listed as well as national non-profit groups offering resources, and specific examples of resources available on various wellness issues.  In addition, keep looking under Steps to an Effective Program for ideas to get you started!

If your planning phase was properly executed, you should simply have to follow through with the plans you have already made.  

Important Worksite Wellness Program considerations include:

1. Formally Introduce the Workplace Wellness Program and consider policy statements that state the effect of the wellness program.  Examples include a general policy concerning the commitment to employee health and safety as well as specific policies such as No Smoking, Healthy Eating and Physical Activity.
2. Communicate Your Program: The best planned program with great wellness programs will not be productive if your staff members don’t know about it or do not be aware of the options or how to participate.  Communicate your wellness program using a variety of methods to be sure the message and “how-to’s” are heard!

   Employee Health Promotion Program Communication Strategies could include:

   • Newsletter articles
   • Postings on the company’s intranet or internet
   • A designated Champion of the program
   • Formal or informal meeting to announce program, “the kick-off”
   • Flyers / pamphlets / brochures / table tents,
   • Bulletin boards / kiosk where all material is promoted or found,
   • Email / phone messages,
   • Mailings or distributions  

3. Use Employee Health Promotion Program Incentives:  You’ll be amazed to learn what most of us will do for a free T-shirt.  Incentives can both support and excite participation among staff members.  Consider both formal or company incentives and rewards and informal or program rewards/prizes from local resources to reinforce participation in Employee Health Promotion Programs. Either way, it’s valuable to support incentives and rewards that are attractive and meaningful to your staff members.

   Formal Company Wellness Program Incentives:

   • Savings on employee health care insurance premiums or co-pays, or contributions to 401K programs, employee stock options, or other mechanisms.  
   
   Click here for more information on health plan incentive ideas
   
   • fitness center/Fitness Center discounts or enrollment fee coverage
   • Public transportation vouchers
   • Flexible work time options
   • “Wellness Days” off work  

   Prizes or Informal Corporate Wellness Program Incentives:

   • Cash – a very effective incentive!
   • Prize incentives such as gift certificates to heart-healthy restaurants; media player to use while exercising, emergency kits, or any other prizes that would motivate your employees.
   • T-Shirts, water bottles, or other inexpensive rewards

4. Evaluate community resources available to offer some of the wellness services.  The local health department or your corporation health care provider may be able to support  you with this information.  There are also vendors throughout the State providing excellent wellness services for corporations.  They are available to help you strategize and find the best options available.

5. Start your program as planned documenting information and outcomes as you go such as numbers of participants, dates of activities, and any other special details you are tracking.

The Workplace Wellness Program Committee must set out a plan for the entire year that outlines accomplishing goals, as well as supports details for marketing and evaluating the program. The plan is the detailed map of what types of programs will be provided, when and where they will be scheduled, how they will be marketed and evaluated, and what the budget is.  It is valuable to plan your wellness activities based on your goals, as well as the budget since different strategies will provide different outcomes.  By way of example, if your intention is to increase awareness on a topic, then distributing handouts or scheduling a one-time education session may be appropriate.  However, if your goal is to change behavior, then different strategies may be necessary, such as ongoing weekly meetings and support groups.  Click here to link to Program Design Options for additional ideas.

Employee Health Promotion Program Marketing

This is the time to coordinate your marketing strategies!  How can you market the wellness program and ongoing activities?  No matter how you decide to, market often, keep it fresh, and remind employees again and again!  Consider having an overall kickoff activity to inform everyone of the wellness program.  Senior Leadership ought to provide the introduction or invitation so that all employees are aware of their reinforcement and leadership in the program.

Possible marketing methods:

• Sending email messages, including reminders
• Design flyers,
• Displaying bulletin board postings,
• Composing articles,
• Sending letters or
• Sending special invitations.  

Other Worksite Wellness Program Considerations:

• Is the Workplace Health Promotion Program promoted to all employees or to a specific target audience?
• Do you have a Workplace Health Promotion Program champion (someone who is coupled with different groups in the organization, and well respected) who can help in your promotion efforts?
• If your marketing efforts do not seem to be working, do you have a way to revisit and adjust your plan?
• How will you determine performance and evaluate your program?  And how will you gather the information needed to evaluate your program?  

Topics most often included in Workplace Wellness Programs:

• Nutrition
• Physical Activity/Exercise
• Tobacco Use Cessation
• Bone Health
• Heart Health
• The Spine
• Stress Reduction
• Chronic Disease Awareness & Prevention
• Self-care; Wise Healthcare Consumer
• Screening Services (BMI, Blood Pressure, bone density, blood lipids, glucose, posture, vision, and other…)
• Ergonomic Assessments
• Health Fairs
• Kids/family Events
• Others topics that employees have interest in  

The subject matters and type of Worksite Health Promotion Program planned hinge upon the needs and interest, central intention and resources available.  Program Design Options   include awareness programs such as pamphlets and/or education sessions, behavior change programs such as smoking cessation and weight loss classes, and environmental or organization support such as no smoking policies or healthy selections in snack machines.  

The programs planned also depend on the demographics of your workforce.  If you have a young, healthy workforce, you may want to focus the wellness attention on keeping workers healthy and not need to screen for disease.  Instead you might want to focus on healthy lifestyle behavior such as exercise and great nutrition to prevent the on-set of disease.  Click here for more information on strategies for keeping workers well, identifying disease early, or returning workers to work who already have a chronic disease.

It is also significant to consider, and plan how you will evaluate the performance of your wellness program.  The system needs to be established for tracking certain data and recording events depending on the program goals.  Step 7 discusses program assessment in more detail.   And Step 6 will launch your program!

A Company Wellness Program without goals/objectives is somewhat akin to taking a family trip without any planning; you won’t know where you’re going, how to get there, what you want to do once you have arrived, or even whether or not you have arrived!  The trip may end up ok, or it may end up disastrously.  Yet, with a bit of thoughtful planning, you broaden your chances for a successful experience.  Clear goals/objectives are required to plan your wellness program in order to ensure success!

Wellness program goals are different from one business to another depending on the population, needs, interests and resources.  Nevertheless, well thought out objectives based on your company’s needs assessment will form the foundation of a successful wellness program!

Employee Wellness Program Mission Statement

The first consideration is a mission statement for your Worksite Wellness Program. The mission statement is the overriding expression of what the Worksite Wellness Program Committee wants to accomplish by launching a wellness program.  It is significant to consider how your Worksite Wellness Program fits in with the corporation mission statement, contributes to the overriding mission and supports the corporation bottom line.  This will integrate your efforts throughout the corporation operations.  

Here are some examples of Employee Wellness Program mission statements:

“At XYZ Corporation, maintaining an environment that supports employee health and safety is our underlying value.  It is the mission of the Employee Wellness Program to help  in planning Employee Wellness Program services that fosters and upholds that value.”

“It is the mission of the XYZ Employee Wellness Program Committee to cultivate healthier lifestyle choices to cut health risk factors, better overriding wellbeing, and maintain a productive, active work force.”

Employee Health Promotion Program Goals

The objectives further define your mission and are based on your needs assessment.  Depending on the needs assessment, management expectations and employee interests, examples of objectives can include:

The intention(s) of XYZ Workplace Wellness Program in year XXXX is to:  (one or more of the following examples)

• Decrease absenteeism by one day per employee
• Lower musculoskeletal injuries by 10 percent
• Cut down on unnecessary emergency room visits
• Cut down on or contain medical care costs
• Improve dietary habits of employees
• Decrease health risk factors  

Company Health Promotion Program Objectives

Specific Employee Health Promotion Program objectives help meet your long-term objectives and goals.  Both short term and long term objectives ought to be developed as the stepping stones to accomplish the objectives and goals.  In addition to objectives for the expected colleague outcomes, process objectives ought to also be developed for the program process itself.  For example, process objectives may include how many workers you want to take part in the programs, how many sessions on a topic will be offered, the type of wellness sessions that will be implemented, etc.

Objectives must be easily measurable within a set time frame.  Try using the SMART formula to create both your long and short-term goals and objectives:

• Specific (one behavior or outcome)
• Measurable (one result that can be observed or evaluated),
• Attainable (but also challenging),
• Realistic (do you have the resources to achieve?), and
• Time specific (within 3 months – up to 5 years)  

This is the who, what, when, where, why, and by how much method.  For example, an intention for a weight loss program that has an central intention of improving healthy eating and promoting a healthy weight is that:

Participants (who) will lose an average of .5 – 1 lbs per week (specific what that is measurable) at the end of the 12 week lunchtime program (time specific what, when and where) for a minimum of 6 lbs weight loss per participant (attainable and realistic).

Or:

Members (who) will attend 11 of the 12 sessions (specific what that is measurable) and name at least one healthier eating change at the end of the program (specific what, when, where)

An example of a goal for coaching staff members with elevated cholesterol might be:

To cut the total cholesterol (specific what) of high risk staff members with cholesterol over 240 mg/dl (specific who) to 200 mg/dl (measurable how much) through one-on-one counseling sessions provided at the worksite (where) by X date (ex, after 6 months) (attainable, realistic & time specific when) to cut the risk factor for heart disease (why).  

And one last example of a process goal for a tobacco cessation program with an overall intention to support  participants in committing to quit for life:

By the end of the 4-week smoking cessation program, 10% of the participants will have quit smoking.  Each attendant will be contacted at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months from the program’s end to determine quit status (process objective) and 10% of those who quit will still be smoke-free after one year.

You have now completed Steps 1 through 4, including implementing your Corporate Wellness Program Committee.  It is now time to plan your wellness activities!

Prior to you start planning your Workplace Wellness Program you need to know where you are now and then decide where you want to go.  Attaining a thorough needs assessment is vital to the success of your wellness program for two reasons:  First it ensures that your Workplace Wellness Program activities will be targeted to meet your company’s specific needs so that outcomes can be achieved.  Secondly the needs assessment supports the information you will need to evaluate the effectiveness of your wellness program.

It is frequently tempting to rush the assessment – especially when time is short or those with experience already have an idea of needs.  Do not give in to this temptation!  It is critical that you know what your corporation needs are, what upper management expects, and what staff members want as well as expect, before you create a Worksite Wellness Program.  

Consider and collect data on:

• Employee Demographic Information
• Employee Health Risk Factors
• Health Claims
• Injury Rates & Causes
• Workers’ Compensation Claims
• Short and Long Term Disability Claims
• Rates of Absenteeism
• Business Culture Audits
• Employee perceived needs and health risks
• Senior Management’s expectations or desired outcomes

There are many ways to evaluate this information.  Although some of data gathering process may be time consuming, remember that it is nonetheless critical to plan programs that target specific problems.  This information will be vital to set objectives and for evaluating program performance.  How else can you know if outcomes have been achieved?

Options to help gather the information:

• Confidential Health Risk Appraisals (HRAs) with a Corporation Group Summary Report
• Health Screenings such as cholesterol, Blood Pressure (BP) and blood sugar click here for additional information on health screenings.
• Employee Needs and Interest Surveys
• Suggestion boxes placed around the organization
• Focus Groups or hosting a luncheon meeting as a focus group
• Sending out a confidential email questionnaire
• Review records and databases including OSHA logs, first aid reports, insurance costs  

Once your needs assessment is complete, the Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee can review the outcome and start laying out and prioritizing program options.  Developing ought to be based upon objectives and identified outcomes, Step 4 of the seven step process!

Organizing an active Worksite Wellness Program Committee provides opportunities for both senior staff and employee participation in the program.  The Wellness Committee ought to be a team of employees and managers who formally meet to plan activities to encourage healthier employee lifestyles.

Typical Functions of a Company Wellness Program Committee:

• Analyzing needs & interests
• Brainstorming program ideas
• Creating activities
• Establishing communication plans
• Promoting programs to co-workers
• Serving as champions of the Corporate Health Promotion Programs
• Assisting with assessment  

Your Employee Health Promotion Program Committee must be representative of all echelons of the company.  Consider all sections of the workforce – multiple sites, shift staff members, diversity (race, gender, ethnicity), and departments.   It’s also valuable to consider who will chair or co-chair the Employee Health Promotion Program Committee and whether or not there are the finances to support a Employee Health Promotion Program manager or occupational health professional, even on a part-time or contractual basis.  Click here for more information on the benefits of a health professional.  

Depending on your organization size and resources, if you already have a organization Safety Committee you may want to consider making it the Safety & Workplace Wellness Program Committee.  You can request volunteers or invite workers to participate.  

The number of Company Wellness Program Committee participants is dependent upon the size of your business; however, you need a sufficient number of participants to get the work done and yet not too many to keep it manageable, usually a minimum of 4 participants and maximum of 12 to 15 participants.  It’s valuable to include skeptics of wellness as well and not just those employees already living healthy lifestyles.  

Depending on your worksite, consider representatives from the following areas:

• Employee representatives from a cross section of different departments,
• Upper Management
• Health and safety professional(s),
• Human resources consultant(s),
• Employee benefits representative or someone from finance,
• Your EAP provider (if applicable), Click here for more information on EAPs
• Occupational health employee (if applicable).

Establish a strong Corporate Wellness Program Committee!  The Corporate Wellness Program Committee must meet regularly with a planned agenda and action items.  Effective Wellness Committees have a shared mission, vision and goals.  Members must believe that their participation is worthwhile and appreciated, that their work is important, benefits the organization and co-workers, and they are appreciated for their contributions. Refer to the NC Workplace Programs section for examples of what other businesses have implemented.