Corporate Wellness Blog

There is no single correct way to approach wellness programs but successful programs share common success factors. These include commitment from management, employee involvement, adequate resources, and a health policy that goes hand in hand with the organization’s mission, vision and values.

Worksite Wellness Program: A Range of Approaches

Although the objective is to eventually have a long-term, comprehensive wellness program, some businesses prefer to begin with a single program at a basic level. By way of example, the first steps could be as simple as offering lunch-hour sessions on first aid or healthy eating; or they could launch a pilot project to learn how interested staff members are to ensure staff members needs are being met before taking on anything more ambitious. This approach supports a chance to show the effect on staff members and the workplace so upper management will be more willing to consider a larger and more far-reaching plan.

Other businesses plan a variety of initiatives to meet the needs of the different types of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to foster a sound company case, complete with a health strategy, before beginning any sort of program. Employers want to make sure that a new program is fully integrated with their overall company vision and mission.

Workplace Wellness Program: Success Factors

Whether your corporation chooses to think big from the outset or to begin with something smaller, always keep in mind the following key success factors:

• reinforcement and participation from management;
• employee participation in organizing;
• programs that meet employee needs;
• a realistic budget; and
• continuous review.

In sports, a game plan is a series of steps that a group must follow to accomplish its goal of winning. Most winning teams plan to win. Businesses also need game plans, even if they do not call them by that name.

Good planning will help to ensure that your wellness program happens the way you want it to, and that expenditures are able to be identified in advance and kept within budget. Good planning prevents small issues from becoming bigger.

Steps in Creating a Workplace Health Promotion Program

Get senior staff reinforcement. You may need to cultivate a business case to convince managers that the wellness program is a business strategy-that employee health and job satisfaction affects their productivity. workers need to see evidence that senior staff believes in and is committed to employee health.

Establish a planning committee. Members can include representatives from employee groups as well as from human resources(HR), health and safety, and communications.

Gather information. To prove that your Employee Wellness Program is constructive, establish a benchmark before the program begins. You may wish to look at employee satisfaction, absenteeism rates, stress levels, drug expenditures or WCB expenses. Evaluate what workplace facilities are available to support workers to make healthy choices such as showers and change areas or a secure place to store a bicycle. Evaluate employee needs through a survey or questionnaire, suggestion box or focus group. Communicate the outcome.

Organize the plan to reflect the information gathered. Include program objectives, activities and how you are going to measure whether your objectives were met. Keep the plan flexible. You may have to change direction in response to employee feedback or changes in the company’s structure.

Get management approval. Support for employee time and a budget are necessitated.

Put activities in place. Provide a variety of activities that establish awareness, expand knowledge, foster skills, and support social interaction. (Activities might include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Worksite Health Promotion Programs Week, SummerActive, WinterActive, corporate challenge, golf days, and newsletters that support information about community resources.) Workplaces are able to also make it easier for staff members to make healthy choices by providing flextime to allow staff members to fit activity in when it is convenient or by subsidizing programs in cooperation with community or private fitness facilities. A policy on catering for meetings can make sure that healthy foods are available.

Evaluate the plan. Share your successes with others, learn from your mistakes and modify activities.

A wellness program doesn’t have to be complicated or a huge expenditure. Just do it. Get support from management, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.

How does it feel to walk into your worksite? Do people look happy? Is the place illuminated and cheerful? Do you feel welcome, wanted and energized? Or do you feel a gloom descend upon you, and count the hours until you are able to leave?
The importance of the workplace environment on the health and wellness of staff members is huge. First there is the physical look, feel, smell, and sounds of the place. Then you’re affected by the policies, like whether others are allowed to smoke around you. As time passes, more subtle factors begin to affect you. Do your attempts to live a healthier lifestyle get recognized at work, or are they sabotaged? Are your managers inspiring you by being healthy role models? Do you get regular opportunities to learn healthier behaviors?
In a supportive environment, workers feel that the employer they work for supplies them with encouragement, opportunity, and rewards for healthy lifestyles. And the spirit that results is highly contagious. Workers who feel cared are naturally more loyal and constructive.
The following ideas will help you transform your workplace environment into one that truly supports the wellness of your staff members and corporation.

Employee Health Promotion Program Ideas for Creating Supportive Environments

Wellness Friendly Facilities

When you enter a workplace, do you feel comfortable? Could you be happy working there? Is there sufficient light and clean air? Are there pleasant work areas, places to eat decent food, take a walk before lunch? Close your eyes. How does it smell? Sound? Do the staff members have sufficient space?
• Vending machines with healthy meal choices like low-fat milk, fruits, sugar-free and caffeine-free beverages and low-calorie snacks
• Workout area, walking paths, playing fields, basketball hoop, or other exercise opportunities workplace or nearby
• Cafeteria offers healthy foods including a salad bar with low-fat dressing
• Natural light is used whenever possible; all lighting is appropriate and adequate
• Heating and ventilation is adjustable, comfortable and healthful
• No cigarette machines, ashtrays, or smoking areas workplace
• Noise levels are safe and conducive to concentration
• Work station furniture conforms to ergometric standards
• Safety hazards have been eliminated
• Lockers and showers are available for employees who work out before work or during breaks
• Stairs are clean and well lit, convenient and pleasant to use
Familiarity can make it hard to evaluate a workplace. People get used to hectic conditions and forget that conditions ever bothered them. It may provce useful to ask people who are unfamiliar with your workplace to walk through with you. Professional consultants can also assist.

Proactive Wellness Policies

One clear way to impact behavior is through policies and procedures. If nurses aren’t permitted to work more than twelve hours in a row, there will be fewer medication errors. If parents are given flextime to manage their children’s needs, they’ll be less stressed. If staff members can apply unused sick days to planned vacation time, they’ll save them up rather than calling in sick to use them all.

Supportive corporate policies may include:

• Seat Belt use required in corporation vehicles
• Alcohol and drug policies are appropriate to the industry
• Emergency procedures are developed, known, and practiced
• Flexible work schedules allow workers to exercise, attend children’s school conferences, etc.
• Tobacco-free policy is enforced
• Excessive overtime is discouraged
• Membership at fitness facility is partially reimbursed
• Shift staff members are scheduled to allow adequate rest
• Healthcare Costs coverage rewards great health
• Absenteeism policy rewards staff members who don’t use sick days
• EAP available to help employees with chemical dependencies, depression, family issues
• Meaningful consequences are given for unsafe, unhealthy, prohibited behavior.  Your organization may have a policy against alcohol use during work hours, but if everyone looks the other way when someone comes back from lunch reeking of beer, the culture is one that permits drinking at lunch-and one in which written policies can be safely ignored. Prohibited behaviors must be confronted promptly. Otherwise your policies remain mere lip service instead of springboards to health.

Consistent Recognition And Rewards For Success

Attention, praise, and rewards are given for wellness achievements.
You are able to show you value the Company Wellness Programs by celebrating your programs and those who have made lifestyle improvements in company newsletters, on bulletin boards, and at yearly banquets, meetings, and celebrations. Incentives are a direct way to show appreciation, too.
Wellness mentors are sought and applauded, too. Staff Members who support others’ efforts to better their health are noticed and appreciated. Peer modeling and mentoring classes can promote those who enjoy assisting others to step forward into a new role.

Managers Model And Support Healthy Behavior

Nothing might say “We bolster you to exercise often” better than a manager going on a bike ride during the lunch hour–or your supervisor sitting next to you in a weight management class. Wellness activities encourage relaxed interaction between people from different departments and at different echelons in the chain of command. That promotes relaxed communication and a feeling of solidarity that is pure gold.
Managers can also provide support for employees who are working on bettering their health. It doesn’t take anything fancy-just a “great job” or “nice to see you at the fitness center” can put a glow on the cheeks of most of us.
Managers have the potential to also help by allowing employees the flexibility to attend wellness events.

Ongoing Employee Wellness Programs

It’s significant to give staff members the sense that the wellness program is a permanent and significant part of the organization, not a organization fad. That can begin as soon as a new employee is hired.
New workers are oriented to the wellness program as one of the employee benefits. Information about the program must be presented by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable person who invites the new employee to participate.
The staff members are familiar with the ongoing wellness programs.
The wellness programs and wellness coordinator are well known in the company. Opportunities to take part are abundant and it’s simple to sign up.
A wide variety of awareness classes are available. There are subject matters of interest for everyone.

These are fun and easy events that have the potential to be done within your corporation to motivate healthy behaviors during a contest or during other times. The intention is to bolster employee participation. Some examples:
• Design a sub-committee of enthusiastic workers who will help encourage the exercise program by offering ideas, ideas and encouragement to fellow workers.
• Establish monthly mailbox brochures to promote a contest or support fitness-related education/encouragement information.
• Send a periodic voicemail on each member’s phone with encouraging wellness messages.
• Provide regular cumulative health progress reports.
• Offer reduced fat or heart-healthy lunch selections weekly in your cafeteria or have employees bring a healthy snack to share, with a recipe book compiled at the culmination of the contest or specified time period (such as a National Nutrition Month in March).
• Distribute employee gifts (pedometers or other novelty item related to some aspect of your contest theme) as registration kicks off.
• Allocate for employees “Fitness 15-Minute Walk Breaks;” organization time to walk, physical activity, etc. If appropriate, you might use a space not currently used to set up a treadmill, elliptical, bicycle, some free weights and meditation music.
• Have a T-shirt design contest.
• Create posters to map contest (or fitness) progress and to serve as reminder of your goals/objectives:
   • Use push pins or other identifiers for each individual to display in the office showing how they have progressed – employees have the potential to get very creative with this and design pins that reflect their personalities.
   • Use a bar graph to compare progress.
   • Use a “thermometer” type graphic and illustrate progress – consider a different, fitness-related graphic all together and color it in as you progress.
• Provide aerobic dance or walking videos in your conference or break rooms.
• Compile a list of organized activities in the area that offer opportunities to get staff members exercising by participating as a team (below are just a few):
   • Race For The Cure
   • March of Dimes Walk America event
   • Juvenile Diabetes Research
   • Foundation Walk to Cure
   • American Heart Association’s Heart Walk
   • American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life
   • American Lung Association’s Lung Run
   • Local marathons or special general area walks or runs
• Designate or catch a health-and-fitness workshop or retreat.
• Have a soup-and-salad luncheon followed by a hula-hoop contest!
• Use the mall as an alternate walking location during inclement weather.
• Designate “Move it Mondays” – allow workers to take an extra ten minutes during lunch for exercise.
• Designate “Tasty Tuesdays” – provide workers with low-calorie treats/snacks.
• Designate “Walking Wednesdays”- allow workers to take an extra 10 minutes at lunch to walk, or “Wacky Wednesdays” that allow workers to explore new exercises.
• Designate “Thirsty Thursdays” – make healthy smoothies or juice drinks for staff members.
• Create “Fresh Fruit Fridays” for employee – offer seasonal produce treats.
• Send weekly physical activity tips to staff members via the most effective communications vehicle in your workplace.
• Partner with another employer representative for local media events coordinated through your advertising or communication department.
• Urge departmental teams to challenge each other (examples: Customer Service, Marketing, Health Support).
• Create walking clubs with executive/supervisory leadership.
• Seek out local aerobic opportunities or classes through churches, community groups, college, YMCA, etc.
• Contact several local area fitness centers and ask if they can or will offer group discounts for exercise programs, waive enrollment fees, or set up a 12-week program as opposed to signing an extended contract.
• Have a Frozen Yogurt Social – “Reap the Benefits of Fitness.”
• Map out a walking track around the building including the number of laps needed for one mile.

These are concise informational “Health Tips” in an e-mail format on many different health-related subject matters. You are able to appoint someone within your organization to find specific subject matters on the Internet from sites that are in the public domain or subject matters can be purchased from businesses. Some qualified sources include:
• Hope Health
• Sound Ideas, Inc.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• National Institutes of Health

These e-mails can be sent daily, weekly or monthly. Our experience indicates weekly is the best frequency.

If the majority of your staff members do not have e-mail, consider offering the information to them through:
• Bulletin boards
• Check stuffers
• Mailbox stuffers
• Newsletters

SAMPLE #1 Job Site Wellness E-mail Messages

From: Worksite Wellness Program
To: Wellness Team
Subject: Layering for Exercise

One way to help ensure enjoyment of a winter walk (or run) is to make sure you’re dressed properly for the weather. And the secret to that, for a winter workout, is to dress in layers.
Layer 1 — Avoid 100 percent cotton in the first layer, next to your skin. Cotton holds moisture. Wear underwear made from manmade fabrics to wick perspiration away from skin.
Layer 2 — A zippered sweatshirt and sweatpants will keep you warm. Just open the zipper if you get too warm.
Layer 3 — If needed, over the sweatsuit, you can add a waterproof and windproof jacket. If it’s very cold, you may want to wear a jacket made with goose down.
Hands — Mittens will keep your hands warmer than gloves.
Feet — Wear socks made from wool or manmade fabrics that keep your feet dry and warm. Avoid 100 percent cotton socks. Don’t wear sneakers or boots that fit too tightly … this will restrict blood flow and your feet will end up feeling colder.
Head — About 40% of your body’s heat is lost through your head. Wear a hat and cover your ears.
Lips — Don’t forget lip balm containing sunscreen … even in winter!

SAMPLE #2 Worksite Wellness E-mail Messages

From: Company Health Promotion Program
To: Wellness Team
Subject: Energy Boosts

Need an energy boost? Here are some ideas for tapping into your own energy sources — and most require little effort.
• Get an extra hour of sleep. No surprise here — it is able to make a large difference in your energy level the next day.
• Eat less more often. Have little, balanced meals or snacks throughout your day for a steady supply of fuel and energy. Make note of which foods seem to boost your energy level.
• Drink plenty of water. Dehydration leads to to fatigue, which you can offset by drinking water throughout the day.
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Both can contribute to dehydration and fatigue. They also tend to disrupt sleep patterns.

Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs are learning sessions planned and organized by you to meet specific goals and objectives. Decide on a topic and find a speaker. Choose a site for the “Lunch and Learn” session, usually a lunchroom or break room. Depending on your budget and objectives, workers have the potential to brown bag the lunch or you could offer the meal. Meetings have the potential to be mandatory or elective, your choice.
Experience tells us the most success will be experienced if these Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs are elective and if the company provides lunch.
Goals for Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Sessions

Education on a specific health problem. You may want to choose one of your group’s top diagnoses. Examples are:
• Diabetes – diabetes prevention and care by a certified diabetic educator
• Cardiovascular disease – cardiovascular health (individual counseling sessions with a nutritionist)
• High Blood Pressure (BP)
• High cholesterol
• Flu and pneumonia
• Breast cancer – breast health or breast self-exam sessions have the potential to be taught by a trained instructor

Education on health care insurance benefits:
• Diabetes – what are the covered benefits, where to purchase diabetic supplies, support groups for employees with diabetes.
• Worksite Health Promotion Program Benefits
• Well baby/child care.

Education on the effect of enrolling in your health plan or local health department’s health education programs or disease management programs. Example programs:
• Diabetes
• Respiratory
• Low-Back Pain
• Cardiovascular
• Tobacco use

Community Resource Speakers for Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs
• Local health plan office
• Local heart association
• Local cancer society
• Pharmacies – many pharmacists are available to speak on pharmacy-related concerns.
• Prescription Drug Companies – countless corporations have standard presentations developed for employers that are provided no cost of charge to use at your own direction. Some examples are:
   • Know Your Numbers (elevated cholesterol) – Pfizer
   • Respiratory Wellness (flu and pneumonia) – Pfizer
   • Men’s and Women’s Health – Pfizer
• Local gyms/personal trainers/YMCA – are able to discuss walking safety, benefits of walking, swimming and aerobics.
• Yoga and/or Pilates instructors
• Running, cycling club representatives
• Local hospital nutritionists
• Stamp Out Smoking – Tobacco Coalition representatives

Topics for Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs

• Bicycling – benefits and opportunities for cycling
• Nutrition and health (Heart Healthy lunch for all attendees)
• Cardiovascular health
• Women’s health problems
• How to recognize the signs and symptoms of heart attack and stroke
• National Employee Fitness Day within the office setting – Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness representatives can encourage event
• Exercise tolerance and healthy heart problems
• Initiating an exercise program – include the significance of seeing the doctor before beginning of any new exercise program
• Self-defense
• Domestic violence
• Safety in general
• Exercise safety
• Walking/running benefits and safety tips Tobacco dangers and avoidance

Conducting an Employee Fitness Challenge at your workplace is a fun and exciting way to raise awareness among workers about the significance of beginning and sustaining an exercise program. It is a concentrated effort in which to engage them in physical activity for a specific time period that, hopefully, will help them start a healthy habit that will last a lifetime.
Still, it is significant to take part in wellness all year. This section supports a accross the board list of Workplace Health Promotion Program ideas that have been implemented within wellness programs.
All ideas presented in this section have been thriving for one or both of the entities. Each exercise/idea can be used as a stand-alone event, even if you don’t conduct a fitness contest, or can be held in conjunction with your Employee Fitness Contest.
You may want to choose some of the ideas you believe will work for your employees or come up with others and start your plan to establish a better state of health.

Studies have repeatedly shown that inclusive Worksite Health Promotion Programs, or Worksite Health Promotion Programs, have the potential to reduce medical care and insurance costs, lower absenteeism, and better performance and productivity. Other benefits shown in studies include improved ability to attract and retain key personnel, greater employee allegiance, and improved public perception of the organization.

Healthcare and Insurance costs

A number of research studies support evidence of decreased medical and insurance costs for participants in Employee Wellness Programs, particularly wellness programs involving physical activity.

For $30 per person, the Bank of America implemented a Company Wellness Program for retirees using a risk assessment questionnaire, self-care books and other mailed materials. Insurance claims were reduced an average of $164 per year in this group while they increased $15 for the control group. Since they were able to document significant changes in risk behavior, they anticipate greater savings in future years.

Pacific Bell’s FitWorks participants claim $300 less per case for a 1-year savings of $700,000. Savings for conditions related to a sedentary lifestyle are $722 per case.

Coca Cola stated a decline in health care|medical|medical care|healthcare} claims with an physical activity program alone, saving $500 per employee per year for the workers (60%) who joined their HealthWorks physical activity program. Prudential Insurance Company reports that the corporation’s major medical expenditures dropped from $574 to $312 for each participant in its wellness program.

Decreased Absenteeism

Absenteeism has been determined to be impacted by wellness programs. The evidence indicates a significant decrease in absenteeism and resultant dollars saved as a result of employee fitness programs.

Pacific Bell’s FitWorks program lowered absent days .8 percent to save $2 million in one year. FitWorks members also spent 3.3 days less on STD for an additional savings of $4.7 million.

Focusing Employee Health Promotion Program efforts on high-risk employees can lead to better results. A national manufacturing corporation reports a reduction of 12.2% in illness days for these employees.

A two-year study by The DuPont Corporation of the effect of its comprehensive Worksite Wellness Program on absences among staff members reports that blue-collar staff members at intervention sites had a 14 percent decline in disability days vs. 5.8 percent decline for controls. There were a total of 11,726 fewer net disability days.

Enhanced Performance, Productivity and Morale

A number of employers with Worksite Wellness Programs report documented improvement in job attitude, work performance, energy level, and/or overall morale among program participants–all essential factors in enhancing productivity.

A Johnson & Johnson study observed that employee attitude changes were greater at Employee Health Promotion Program intervention sites with significant beneficial attitude changes noted in the categories of employer responsibility, supervision, on the job conditions, job competence/security, and pay/benefits.

In a Canadian government study, the Canada Life Assurance Organization experimental group realized a 4% increase in productivity after starting a employer fitness program, compared to the control group. Further, 47% of program participants reported that they felt more alert, had better rapport with their co-staff members, and generally enjoyed their work more.

Swedish investigators found that mental effectiveness was significantly better in physically fit staff members than in non-fit staff members. Fit staff members committed 27% fewer errors on tasks involving concentration and short-term memory, as compared with the effectiveness of non-fit staff members.

The Bottom Line

The following sample of Company Health Promotion Programs wellness program results have been reported by individual employers:

Corporation: Dollars Saved/Dollars Spent

• Bank of America (Fries): $5.96/$1
• PacBell: $3.10/$1
• Wisconsin School District Insurance Group: $4.47/$1
• Prudential Insurance: $2.90/$1
• Bank of America (Leigh): $4.73/$1
• General Mills: $3.50/$1

Summary

There is compelling evidence that a large portion of the billions of dollars currently invested by employers on health-related costs is avoidable by means of Worksite Wellness Programs. Well-planned, all-inclusive Worksite Wellness Programs (Worksite Wellness Programs and Worksite Wellness Programs) have been established to be cost-effective, especially when the Worksite Wellness Programs is matched to the health problems of the specific employee.

Free Worksite Health Promotion Programs and Low Cost Health Management Alternatives

Establish a no cost Corporate Wellness Program or run a successful health management program in the office for little or no cost to your corporation. The benefits of workplace wellness and learning how to implement a health management program at work are many. The articles on health management have generated a variety of questions, mostly from wellness providers but also from organizations trying to implement their own wellness workplace programs. There are a number of things to do to implement a successful health management program at work.

Recommendations for Starting a Free or Low Cost Corporate Health Promotion Program

Before starting an inexpensive or free wellness program for your organization, learn more about what employees desire. Survey employees to learn more about their wellness issues. Keep the survey confidential to protect employees’ identities. Typically the most popular workplace wellness subject matters are tobacco cessation, weight loss issues and heart and cholesterol health.

Look for Corporate Health Promotion Program Freebies

Discover who will come in for no cost to talk to workers and look into partnerships with outside agents related to workplace wellness. For example, contact a local branch of a well-known weight loss corporation and ask if someone has the potential to come in and talk to workers. Look for agencies that are willing to come in and talk about issues related to wellness at no expenditure to workers, in exchange for something from you.

Find Corporate Health Promotion Program Partnerships

Working with a weight loss business to set up a speaking engagement for workers is an excellent opportunity to explore a potential wellness partnership. The weight loss business may say that if ten workers join the program, they will have regular meetings at business headquarters for the people who joined. The weight loss group also may offer business workers a discount if multiple people join the program.

Nonprofits an Untapped Health Leadership Resource

There are also plenty of nonprofit agencies who would be thrilled to visit a employer to discuss health management. But it’s up to you to offer them something in return. For example, if the MS Society came in and talked about the signs of MS, the employer might offer to organize an MS walk (in keeping with employer health management objectives and goals, right?), or an auction with employee and employer-donated items where the proceeds go to MS. The people at the nonprofit agencies would be glad to open a dialog with your employer and to talk about what they would want in return for a speaking engagement. In countless cases, they won’t need anything at all for a first meeting.

Gathering Data and Evaluating Company Wellness Program Results

Collecting data and analyzing results of a Company Health Promotion Program can be tricky because of HIPPA laws. However, if at least ten employees joined the weight loss program, or 20 people take part daily in the all-new “Let’s Walk a Mile at Lunch” program, that sort of progress can speak strongly to management. And, employer successes will potentially give management more incentive to offer money for additional health management and Company Health Promotion Programs in the future.

Small company wellness programs are catching on. A well-designed wellness program is able to boost productiveness, boost morale and vitality, reduce stress, reduce absenteeism, and control preventable medical care expenditures within a company. The beauty of it is that you’re simply helping employees to make smart choices so the expenditures of launching a wellness program are minimal compared to the benefits.

Employee health is a primary problem for small company owners. In a small company, even a few sick staff members are able to disrupt the flow of the workplace and bring the operation to a standstill.

Rather than sitting back and hoping for the best, some small organization owners are taking the matter of employee health into their own hands by launching Workplace Health Promotion Programs. Here’s how they work.

Overview of Employee Wellness Programs

Employee wellness programs are programs initiated by the business to better the overall health of their work force and to help individual employees overcome specific health-related hurdles. These programs are able to be offered in a variety of formats: In mandatory employee training sessions, as voluntary seminars, or through an outside provider offering a wide-range of EAPs.

In every case, however, the business picks up the bill for the programs because an investment in employee health is a business investment that directly impacts the business’s bottom line.

Why offer Workplace Wellness Programs?

Apart from the obvious issue for the health of your staff members, there are many other reasons why Workplace Wellness Programs make sense for small businesses. Right off the bat, your organization will profit from the lowered level of absenteeism that goes hand in hand with a healthy workforce.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs will also reduce the number of injuries that occur in the workplace, not just from accidents, but also from repetitive motion and other recurring sources. Since even a minor blip in worker attendance has the potential to have a big impact on a small business, a more reliable workforce will inevitably translate into a smoother work cycle and a more robust bottom line.

Workplace Health Promotion Program Features

Workplace Health Promotion Programs are able to cover a broad range of health-related subject matters. Based on your employees’ needs, it’s entirely up to you to figure out the kind of programming you want to offer. Nevertheless, most Workplace Health Promotion Programs offer some at least some programs in the following areas:

• Nutrition. Diet can significantly impact an employee’s ability to do their job effectively. Nutritional programs educate employees about meal options and equip them to make healthy dietary choices.
• Physical Fitness. In addition to diet, exercise is an important factor in a healthy lifestyle. Worksite Wellness Programs commonly support staff members with opportunities to incorporate exercise into their daily lives.
• Tobacco Cessation. Statistics prove that smokers tend to fall ill more generally than their non-smoking peers. Since sick staff members disrupt the workplace, smoking cessation programs are a no-brainer for both employers and staff members.
• Physiological Testing. Many employers offer physiological as a regular part of their wellness programs. Cholesterol tests, Blood Pressure (BP) screenings, and other simple exams have the potential to support early warning signs for more genuine issues.
• Stress Management. Stress itself takes a toll on workers. Still, stress is also linked to other health concerns such as depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. Employee Health Promotion Programs that help workers deal with stress better not only the psychological health of your workers, but their physical health, too.

Establish a Employer Workplace Health Promotion Program for Your Employees Today

The advantages to starting a workplace health and wellbeing program are many.

A few corporate health and wellness tips to get employees started on the path to a healthier lifestyle:

1. Look around, and determine if workers lead a healthy lifestyle before initiating an Worksite Wellness Program. How many workers run outside during lunch for a tobacco break? Would a smoking cessation program help? How frequently do the junk food-laden snack machines have to be replenished? Is anyone exercising or taking advantage of local walking trails as part of their healthy living goals? The answers to these questions will give organizations a clearer idea of the Worksite Wellness Program that’s right for them.

2. Survey staff members to evaluate their healthy lifestyle habits. Are they exercising regularly? Eat three square meals a day? Have regular physicals? Really? Then what planet are they on? Because we would love to visit! A corporate wellness program benefits most employers because staff members don’t have the time or energy to stay on top of health and wellbeing problems at work or when they leave the office to go home.

3. Give Company Health Promotion Programs a big kick-off with a healthy living “fair.” Provide employees free flu shots, Blood Pressure (BP) checks, cholesterol screenings, body/fat ratio assessments, tobacco cessation programs and free mammograms- and contact the local hospital, because there’s plenty more where this came from. Employers keep their employees hopping during the week. Give employees a chance to increase their healthy lifestyle on the business dime. A corporate wellness and health program is an added benefit that employees get for working for the business!

4. Incent to live- offer cash money for workers to lose weight, commit to a smoking cessation program and generally enjoy a healthier lifestyle. Encourage humankind’s innate competitive nature by offering prizes for health and wellness employee “winners.” And, advocate a healthier lifestyle by sponsoring workers who wish to enter a local 5K for charity race, run a marathon or play a sport.