Posts from — October 2008

The worksite environment is a effective, but frequently overlooked, element in managing employee health.  Here we will identify some of the best-practices in establishing a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative that supports your organization’s employee health strategy and allows employees to take charge of their own health.  For example, a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative that includes a smoke-free worksite policy improves the likelihood that employees will try to quit smoking and will quit using tobacco successfully. Similarly, a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative that includes discounting healthy foods in your cafeteria and vending machines helps increase employees’ consumption of healthy foods which supports your investment in disease management programs for employees with diabetes, heart disease or hypertension. The following will guide you through the ten key steps in establishing a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative and worksite environment that promotes employee health.

In an era of rising health care costs and fierce competition, businesses have a vested interest in the health of their employees.  Studies have found that, on average, employees with healthy behaviors (such as not using tobacco or being active for 30 minutes a day) incur lower health care expenses, are absent from work less frequently, and are more productive when at work (higher presenteeism) than employees with unhealthy behaviors.

Workplace Wellness Program: Getting Leadership Support

Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative support from the highest level of leadership is essential to your success in establishing a culture of wellness within your worksite. Look for Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative support from a leader who is respected by and can sway other leaders. (It’s not necessary that he or she be the fittest executive within your organization just that they directly support the Workplace Wellness Program.) You will be relying on this culture-of-health champion to advocate for changes that you recommend and to ensure the organization allocates adequate Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative resources (staff, time, and money) to maintain and improve the worksite policies, physical environment, and social norms.

Obtain Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Staff and Budget

Starting and maintaining a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative within your employer needs to be someone’s priority. However, unless your employer is quite large, you likely don’t need to hire a full-time staff person for the Workplace Wellness Program.  There are a number of ways to find an individual with the necessary skills to guide and support your employer’s Workplace Wellness Program.

Beginning facilities and Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative policies, such as those allowing employees to be physically active during the workday, does not need to be costly, but it does require adequate and sustained funding.  If possible, include the creation of a worksite environment that supports the Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative as a permanent part of the operating budget; that helps to ensure it’s an ongoing priority for your employer.

Staff Member Involvement in the Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative

Pulling together a cross section of staff members to advise your employer’s Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative ensures that improvements in worksite facilities, policies and practices address the true needs and barriers of all groups of staff members.   In addition, these employees can support as the front-line Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative supporters of policies and practices with their peers.

Develop a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative “Brand” and Vision

A Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative vision and a brand are effective first steps in bringing a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative from an idea to a reality. What would you like your worksite environment to look like five years from now? A succinct Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative vision statement summarizes for all (employees and leaders alike) the reasons for establishing a Workplace Wellness Program. It also reminds everyone of the link between employee health and your employer’s ability to achieve its overall mission.

Branding your employer’s Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative sends a message to employees that the employer’s commitment and support of healthy behaviors is important and is here to stay. Choose a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative name and logo that resonate with employees. Then use that brand on all Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative communications with employees about the policies, facilities and programs your employer offers to promote healthy behaviors.

Determine Your Existing Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Situation

Exactly how your employer establishes a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative that promotes healthy eating, physical activity, and reduces tobacco use will depend on the unique characteristics of your employer and employee population.

Determine how the current worksite facilities, policies, and unwritten norms support — or discourage — healthy behaviors.

Gather information on the health and health-related behaviors of your employee population.  The most common method is by using a validated health risk assessment. If you don’t have data specific to your employees, you can estimate the prevalence of different health risks and behaviors within your employee population using state or national data.  Note: Information on staff members’ health interests alone is not sufficient; but can be a useful supplement to health risk data and might help you set priorities.

Establish Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Goals and Priorities

Use what you’ve discovered about the health of the employees and about your current worksite environment to determine your employer’s Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative priorities. From those Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative priorities, define clear and measurable Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative goals for improving the health of the employees and your employer’s culture. Well written goals will provide the basis for planning and for measuring your progress.

Choose Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies

Focus your employer’s Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative resources (time, energy and money) on tactics that are most likely to produce results:  a rise in healthy eating, a rise in physical activity, and a reduction in tobacco use. There’s no need to guess at what might work. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reviewed thousands of research studies and has identified the Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative approaches most likely to result in significant, lasting, and widespread improvements in health behaviors. Those Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative tactics are included in the physical activity, tobacco, and healthy eating sections of this website.

The formula for Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative success is to make the healthier choices the easier choices.

Implement Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies

Once you’ve chosen your Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies, it can be useful to arrange the work on a timeline.  The “right” amount of time for implementing each Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative strategy depends on the staff time, budget, and business demands of your employer.  Work plans keep your efforts moving and help to ensure that plans to create a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative stay on track even if there are changes in staffing or other challenges.

Educate and Communicate About the Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative

Ensure employees are aware of the Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative opportunities you’ve provided.   Planning your Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative communications allows you to communicate regularly with employees without overwhelming them at any one time.

Monitor and Report Your Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Results

At the same time that you plan your Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative Strategies, think about how you’ll measure success.  It’s much easier to gather information – or to create systems for collecting information — before you implement a Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative strategy rather than as an afterthought.   Keep in mind that you’re likely to see improvements in employee morale and/or behaviors before you see decreases in rates of absenteeism or health care claims.

Report both your Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative successes in building a healthy worksite environment (such as complete implementation of a policy that provides employees time for walking during the workday), and Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative successes in getting staff members to take charge of their health (a rise in the number of employees who contacted the stop-smoking program, or a rise in the number of fruit-cups purchased from the cafeteria following a promotion and price-cut).

Health Testing:
• Blood pressure
• Breast cancer Testing
• Skin cancer Testing
• Diabetes Testing
• Cholesterol Testing
• Eye exams
• Body-fat Testing
• Influenza (Flu) shots
• Posture screening, spinal analysis
• Worksite child immunizations
• Prostate cancer screenings
• Fitness Testing
• Depression Testing

Fitness Ideas:
• Worksite fitness center or exercise room
• Walking and/or running club (during lunch hour or breaks)
• Worksite bike rake
• Mind and Body classes (yoga, tai chi) initiatives
• Team sports (basketball, volleyball softball)
• Host an exercise equipment swap

Behavior Change or Lifestyle Change Initiatives:
• Tobacco cessation
• Weight management initiatives
• Substance abuse initiatives
• Fitness activity
• Stress management initiatives

Safety and Prevention Initiatives:
• Back-injury prevention and training
• Education about Ergonomics
• Hand-tool safety initiatives
• Fire safety initiatives

Health Education, Awareness, and Support Initiatives:
• Lunch-and-learn or brown-bag wellness seminars (see your EAP for a list)
• Diet and Nutrition information, plus offer healthy food alternatives in your vending machines and cafeteria, and offer food storage and preparation facilities to encourage healthier eating
• Prenatal care initiatives
• Work/Life Balance initiatives
• Elder care initiatives
• Cancer support groups
• Financial education

Stress-Reliever Initiatives:
• Laughter bulletin board where employee can post jokes and cartoons (in good taste)
• Onsite Chair Massage
• Stretch breaks
• Group lunches or celebrations

Disease Management Initiatives:

• Obesity
• Depression
• Asthma
• Back pain
• Hypertension
• Diabetes
• Cancer