Company Wellness Programs

It is important to assess the effectiveness of all Corporate Health Promotion Programs. There are several very simple ways to assess Corporate Health Promotion Programs:

How many attended the corporate health and Corporate Health Promotion Program, and was there participation or a visible level of interest?

Use a short and simple pen and paper assessment that people fill out at the end of the Company Health and Wellness Program /seminar. Statements that are rated on a scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) will give valuable information. Ask about:
 • The value of the Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives to the individual
 • The style of the presenter
 • The presenter’s knowledge of the topic
 • The level of knowledge gained by the employee
 • Other areas that would be of interest for future Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives

Examples of Questions about Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives
 • This program provided me with information and/or skills I will use.
 • The presenter was knowledgeable about the subject matter.
 • There was adequate time for questions.
 • The methods used to present the information were effective.

Open-ended questions about Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives may include:
 • The best component of this Company Health and Wellness Program was…
 • The component that needed improvement was….
 • I would attend another Company Health and Wellness Program by this speaker…
 • Topics I would like to see included in other seminars or Wellness Programs…

This would be a process assessment that reviews how well the Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives were implemented. It is also important to look at health outcomes and cost outcomes of Corporate Health Promotion Programs.

More in-depth information about the cost-effectiveness of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives can be found by analyzing data before and after Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives concerning health care claims, workers’ comp claims, sick time, productivity levels, etc. Health outcomes for Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives can be measured by looking at health claims and sick time.

It is also important to look at the impact of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives on family members. For example, tobacco by pregnant mothers may lead to the birth of a severely impaired child. This could cost an employer or healthcare plan hundreds of thousands of dollars, an expense that could have been avoided with well-designed Corporate Health Promotion Programs.

You can also compare the cost per employee of running the Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives to the savings per employee. One assessment of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives involving 20,000 to 25,000 employees at New York City-based Citibank showed a return of $6.70 for every dollar the company invested in Corporate Health Promotion Programs. The findings were based on a research study of health costs and rates of absenteeism.1

An ongoing assessment of your Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives should be performed each year and additional periodic evaluations of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives should be conducted on an ad hoc basis. An ad hoc assessment of your Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives might be initiated by a variety of triggers. For example, at the end of flu season, a company might want to assess its flu shot program.

Employee retention is a challenge. Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives can help. providing perks such as incentives to exercise, healthy food, stress management and weight loss programs at work is a way to maintain your employees satisfied.

Attracting new staff members are also a challenge, and anything you can do to “stand out” from other employees is to your advantage. Remember, salary isn’t everything. Often, the possibility of flex hours or a discount at the local gym may be the deciding factor for a future employee. Once again, Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives to the rescue!

How Are Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives Administered?

Whether running small Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives in-house or using outside corporate wellness corporations to oversee the whole thing, program promotion is of utmost importance. You may have a great speaker come in to talk about a very “hot topic,” but if no one knew about it, it was a waste of the speaker’s time and your money.

Corporate Company Health and Wellness Program setup and promotion go hand and hand. Depending on the size of your company, it may be handled by one person or an entire Corporate Health Promotion team. You may even have an employee who is interested in physical fitness and would love to organize some educational wellness presentations and programs.

Other employees may have areas of interest and would be willing to set up some educational programs. Especially for smaller businesses, once you have chosen your events and programs, it is best to set up a calendar with a schedule of events. Then publish the entire calendar as well as announcing each individual event as it comes up.

Access to Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives

To make access easy, offer a wide range of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives and programs that can fit into everyone’s schedule. For example, some employees may find it difficult to get to a seminar at work or make a commitment for 8 weeks of the Weight Watchers at Work program. However, they will take advantage of a decreased rate at the gym and will borrow tapes from the health and wellness library.

If you have shifts, remember to schedule events for the after 5:00 group. Nothing will undermine Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives more quickly than promoting great programs that are only convenient for first shift employees.

Sometimes, Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives can take advantage of “special situations” that happen and which offer an excellent opportunity for employee education and support, at little or no expense to the employer. Not only do these situations help employees personally, but also they are an opportunity for the employer to be seen in a positive light. For example:

A company had several employees with cancer, as well as a number of employees with family members with cancer. Their Human Resources staff had received numerous questions about what to say to a coworker with cancer, as well as hearing about how difficult it was for the caregivers to manage work and home demands. They thought that it would be a great idea to initiate a lunchtime monthly “discussion/support group” to talk about the struggles, frustrations, and fears that people were facing. This activity was included under the umbrella of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives that the company offered.

The group was facilitated by a rep from the Employee Assistance Program, but it was not a therapy group, nor was it promoted as such. It was informal and employees came as they could fit it into their schedules.

Did it solve all their problems? Of course not, but it did give them a place to vent, talk, and get some information and support. It was a powerful statement from the employer saying, “We care about you and we’d like to help you with this,” and the employees were very grateful. Effective Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives clearly convey this type of message to their employees.

Another employer had an employee who was autistic and often exhibited some odd or unusual behaviors. He had some significant difficulties and had to be out of work for several months. As time came for him to return, coworkers became anxious about what to expect.

The employer had someone come in to talk about autism and how best to deal with a person with the disease. It was a general discussion, and there was no discussion of the employee’s personal information. However, coworkers felt much more prepared to handle his return.

An employee with epilepsy told her coworkers about her condition in case she had a seizure. The employer then had someone from an epilepsy advocacy group come in and educate employees about the illness and what to do.

You may believe taking steps like this are not the responsibility of the employer, that it is not your business. But physical and mental illnesses affect just about everyone and are natural elements of Corporate Health Promotion Programs.

Workers who are preoccupied and worried about someone having a seizure or catching HIV from a coworker are not focused and productive. When you spend time informing and supporting employees, you not only have productive employees, you also have their respect.

Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives are also an effective way to educate employees/parents about substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, depression, mental illness, learning disabilities, and other issues that affect adults, children, and teens. Arming parents, other relatives, and concerned friends with information is a way to prevent problems in the future, for themselves and their children.

Workers may not be comfortable attending Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives entitled “Substance Abuse and You” or “Dealing With Depression,” fearing they have “self-identified” just by their presence. However, when much of that same information is billed as “Teens and Substance Abuse” or “Recognizing the Signs of Depression in Teens,” there may be a full house for the seminar.

Once this happens, the levels of awareness are raised. An employee who is concerned that he or she is actually depressed can attend and gain life-saving information. Using this type of approach in Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives goes beyond raising awareness among parents whose children are struggling with personal problems.

Mental health topics are often difficult to introduce. There is still some stigma attached to being “mentally ill” or having alcohol problems. A benign way to bring information into the worksite is to use Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives and the National Screening Day programs. These are dates that have been set aside each year to raise awareness about various problems. They include:

 Alcohol Abuse and Addiction (April)
 Anxiety Disorders (during Mental Health Month in May)
 Depression (October)
 Eating Disorders (February)

There is a wealth of information available online that can be made available to your employees at no cost as a component of your Corporate Health Promotion Programs. All it takes implement this into Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives is some type of notification in the form of an e-mail with an introductory statement and some links.

Local mental health clinics, medical schools, and hospitals usually provide free employee health screenings on designated days so that anyone can come in, take a test, and get information and a referral for care if appropriate. You could arrange with a local provider for a block of time for your employees to participate in the screenings, or talk to them about coming into the worksite to provide them.

What Are Corporate Health Promotion Programs?

Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives are designed to promote and support worker health and wellness through education and awareness programs primarily based at the worksite. The program is a win-win in that employees benefit from learning and staying well, and the employer has increased loyalty and less rates of absenteeism.

As businesses become more aware of the importance of worker health on productivity, there is increased interest in encouraging and supporting healthy lifestyle choices. Employer costs for Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives may rapidly be offset with fewer work-related injuries, improved attendance, less turnover, and increased morale.

Types of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives

Corporate Health Promotion Programs: Lunch and Learn Wellness Presentations

The easiest Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives are one’s where the employer arranges to have quarterly seminars during lunchtime on topics such as stress management, nutrition, and exercise. A local mental health clinic, hospital, or the Employee Assistance Program (Employee Assistance Program) may provide these. This type of corporate health and Company Health and Wellness Program is usually arranged through Human Resources, the health department, or the safety manager. Participation is generally voluntary.

Before selecting topics for wellness presentations, it is a good idea to do some type of employee polling to see what topics people are interested in. This may be as simple as an e-mail to all staff asking for suggestions or as formal as having an outside group come in to conduct interviews and design a complete corporate health and Corporate Health Promotion Program.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs: Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals

An employer can provide comprehensive Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals for employees. Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals are detailed questionnaires that covers all areas of behavior (seatbelt use, smoking, alcohol use, frequency of exercise, family history of disease and illness, etc.). This is usually done in conjunction with employee health screening for things like cholesterol and blood sugar screening.

Once the Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals are scored, the results are shared with employees along with suggestions for changes. The employer is able to get aggregate statistics that will show trends that he or she may want to address. For example, if a lot of people have high blood pressure, the employer may consider an educational seminar, biweekly workplace blood pressure readings, and low-salt, low-fat selections in the cafeteria or snack machines as interventions to include in the corporate health and Corporate Health Promotion Program.

If the Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals show that there is a “trend” toward not wearing seatbelts, perhaps having the State police come in and give a seminar about what happens in an accident when you don’t have a seatbelt on would change some behavior.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs: tobacco Cessation

tobacco cessation programs are very popular elements of Corporate Health Promotion Programs. Often, the local chapter of the American Cancer Society or American Lung Association will come in to run a group. Another option is for employees to attend a tobacco cessation group in the community. Costs for the tobacco cessation group can be offset by the employer after employees complete the program.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs: Stress Management

Stress is a major area of concern for businesses. Stressed out employees get sick more often, make more errors, and generally do not perform up to capacity. As a result, Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives often take steps to address worker stress. There are many ways to address stress within your Corporate Health Promotion Programs, and the beauty of these ideas is that everyone can benefit from them.

Certainly, stress management seminars are educational and informative and should be included in any corporate health and Corporate Health Promotion Program.

Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives and Work/Life Programs

Many businesses offer a work/life program that offers assistance with things from finding day care for a child or elderly parent and information on obscure college scholarship funds to information on which PC to buy and where to find someone to walk your dog. These programs fit into Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives because they help your employees handle many of the things that are taking up work time and increasing stress.

Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives and Employee Assistance Programs

An Employee Assistance Programs are integral parts of effective Corporate Health Promotion Programs. By helping employees address personal/mental health problems and concerns, an Employee Assistance Program can go a long way toward improving overall health and productivity. Representatives from your Employee Assistance Program can also work closely with you to design Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives that are integrated and effective.

Time Management and Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives

Time is one of our most precious commodities, and anything you can do as an employer to help your employees manage their time is going to be welcome. Although not traditionally thought to be a component of Corporate Health Promotion Programs, providing flextime and telecommuting are two ways to decrease stress and raise productivity.

These programs take thought and planning and are not appropriate for all employees or all positions; however, in many worksites, they are underused. Either your Human Resources manager or an outside consultant can help you design a program. If you belong to a business group or Chamber of Commerce, you may find assistance there. Also, talk to colleagues who are doing this in their corporations to see how it is working.

The Culture of Wellness

Employee wellness has to be a component of your company culture, not just something you throw in as an afterthought. It isn’t a Band-Aid, but rather a thoughtful piece of your business strategy. For example, if productivity is down due to tobacco breaks, providing tobacco cessation classes can help. But it’s also important to develop a no tobacco policy.

When employees feel valued, they are more loyal and tend to work harder. They take pride in their work and talk about what a great company they work for. A healthy workforce is a productive workforce.

Even the best and most innovative businesses are experiencing the impact worker well-being on their organizations’ performance.  The bad news is that many of these businesses are unaware of the extent to which less-than-optimal employee health and well-being is impacting workforce capacity and performance.  The goods news is that there is an increasing body of research and practice than may help businesses mitigate this often unseen issue and develop significant opportunities for improved workforce attraction, retention and performance!  This article focuses on how organizational leaders may improve physical and financial employee wellness in the worksite.

The Problems of Chronic Disease

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 60% of deaths in 2005 could be attributed to chronic disease (cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes).1  The largest attributing factors to the chronic diseases include smoking, physical activity, and diet.2  The costs of these diseases are staggering.  For example, if there were a 10% reduction in mortality from heart disease and cancer, it could save the US $10.4 trillion each year.3  Further the WHO projects that over 80% of the US population will be either considered overweight or obese by the year 2015.

The Problems of Financial Distress and Dissatisfaction

As hard as it may be to fathom, a 2004 research study found that 67% of U.S. Workers are dealing with Personal Financial Issues.4 In another research study, it was found that these issues may exist in all segments of any workforce, regardless of income, education, or position level.5 Couple these facts with our workforce reality:

    * The workforce is aging and demand for professionals in many industries continues to exceed the supply – and will for the foreseeable future.
    * Due to the shortages of quality personnel the stress on our current workforce is increasing.
    * With these workforce shortages, the majority of businesses cannot continue to pay spiraling market prices for professionals.
    * Lastly, those personality attributes that make many professionals great caregivers or service-providers also tend to make them less apt to focus on matters of personal financial management.

The Return On Investment (ROI)

There are significant reasons why businesses should employ Procedures to implement Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives for their employees:

    * Improve Productivity including reductions in health care and workers compensation claims, rates of absenteeism, and presenteesism;
    * Lower employer paid health care and re-insurance premiums; and
    * Improve employee, physicians and patient satisfaction; and
    * Improve employee retention and productivity.

A recently published Towers Perrin case study6 found that a ten percentage point improvement on employee engagement was linked to a 4.6 percentage point improvement on customer satisfaction and revenue growth and labor cost improvements equal to a 2.8% impact on controllable margin.  

What all this shows is that providing Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives and rewards is more than just “the right thing to do.”  Rather, there is a profound business case.  As workforce capacity and engagement increase, a bottom-up cultural change takes place in your organization.  These changes drive improvements in customer satisfaction, productivity, rates of absenteeism, and presenteesism – all of which drive improvements in profitability.

The Course of Change

As an employer, you may have a tremendous impact on the health of the community.  Here are a few suggestions on how you may engage your employees (possibly include flowchart):

 1. Define the Plan – Determine if you have the internal resource availability and knowledge to develop a formal Corporate Health Promotion Program.  Many organizations, due to confidentiality legal and other reasons, choose to engage outside people to manage these processes.
 2. Communication – Once you have developed the plan, communicate the plan to all employees – using multiple media and approaches.
 3. Lead by Example –Begin Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives at the top (walk the walk).  Allow yourselves the opportunity to go through a health risk assessment and a financial assessment.  If you can, communicate your results and your action steps to staff.
 4. Develop rewards for Staff Participation – Here are a couple of financial rewards you may provide staff that are low cost and optimally have a return on investment:

  1. Pay employees to take a risk assessment
  2. Lower employee contributions to health plan for those with decreased risk of chronic disease and correspondingly raise employee contribution to health plan for those with increased risk of chronic disease

 5. Offer Personal Risk Assessment Counseling – Offer resources that can meet one on one with each employee to understand their health risks and opportunities
 6. Eliminate Trans-Fat from Your Dietary Offerings – If you have workplace food facilities, and haven’t been mandated by legislative statute, you should eliminate trans-fatty oils from the employee and customer meals
 7. Eliminate all Smoking Areas for Workers – More and more organizations, including large cities, are now banning smoking on their facilities.
 8. Offer Proper Monitoring Programs – Probably the hardest component of the plan, the ongoing monitoring is critical.  Some organizations are large enough to own or build wellness centers – but even then, many employees feel uncomfortable in using them.  Typically the users of wellness centers are those least in need.  The good news is that there are many external and online tools and options that are available today.
 9. Encourage Other Local Businesses to Offer Corporate Health Promotion Programs.  In some cases (e.g. hospitals), there are options where this may even generate revenue and/or deepen relationships with the communities you support.

Legal Concerns

When thinking about a Corporate Health Promotion Program, one must take into account certain requirements under ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code (Code) and the Public Health Service Act (PHSA). All three laws were amended by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to provide for improved portability and continuity of health coverage. HIPAA also added Code section 9802, ERISA section 702 and PHSA section 2702, each of which prohibits discrimination in health coverage based on health status.

To be a bona fide Corporate Health Promotion Program, the plan must satisfy the following requirements:

    * An individual’s total incentive must be limited. A limit of 10 percent to 20 percent of the total cost of employee-only coverage may be appropriate, according to the DOL.
    * The program must be reasonably designed to promote good health or prevent disease.
    * The incentive must be available to all similarly situated individuals. The program must allow any individual for whom it is unreasonably difficult because of a health condition to meet the Company Health and Wellness Program standard (or for whom it is medically inadvisable to attempt to meet the Company Health and Wellness Program standard) an opportunity to satisfy a reasonable alternative standard.

1 2005 Preventing chronic disease:  A important investment. World Health Organization
2 2007 Working Towards Wellness:  Accelerating the prevention of chronic disease.  World Economic Forum
3 2007 The Value of Health and Longevity.  Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topal, University of Chicago
4 2004 Employer/Employee Equation Research on Worker Types, Preferences and Engagement Issues – Concours Group, Age Wave and Harris Poll
5 1997 Neal E. Cutler, Ph.D
6 2003 Talent Report: New Realities in Today’s Workforce – Towers Perrin

Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives that support employees and the environment that they work in have been shown to be a good return on investment. Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives may be extensive and sometimes expensive. However, there are ways for small businesses to make positive changes at little or no cost.

Corporate Health Promotion Program: Physical Fitness/Weight Management Programs

   1. Allow access to on- and off- worksite gyms and recreational programs before, during, and after work hours.
   2. Offer and encourage participation in after work recreation or leagues.
   3. Offer cash incentives or decreased insurance costs for participation in physical activity and/or weight management or maintenance programs.
   4. Offer shower and/or changing facilities onsite.
   5. Offer outdoor exercise areas such as fields and trails for employee use.
   6. Offer bicycle racks in safe, convenient, and accessible locations.
   7. Offer workplace fitness opportunities, such as group classes or personal training.
   8. Offer an onsite exercise facility.
   9. Set up programs that have strong social support systems and rewards, such as:
      o Buddy or team physical activity objectives
      o Programs that involve employees and family
      o Programs to encourage physical activity, such as pedometer walking challenges
      o Explore discounted or subsidized memberships at local health clubs, recreation centers, or YMCAs
  10. Offer flexible work hours to allow for physical activity during the day.
  11. Support physical activity breaks during the workday, such as stretching or walking.
  12. Host walk-and-talk meetings.
  13. Map out workplace trails or nearby walking routes and destinations.
  14. Have employees map out their own biking or walking route to and from work.
  15. Post motivational signs at elevators and escalators to encourage stair usage.
  16. Offer exercise/physical fitness messages and information to employees.
  17. Offer or support recreation leagues and other physical activity events onsite or in the community.
  18. Create employee activity clubs such as walking or bicycling clubs.
  19. Offer workplace child care facilities to facilitate physical activity.
  20. Sponsor a bike to work day and reward employees who participate.
  21. Set up a box and solicit fitness and health tips.

Corporate Health Promotion Program: General Health Education Programs

   1. Have a current policy outlining the requirements and functions of a broad-based worksite Corporate Health Promotion Program.
   2. Have a wellness plan in place that addresses the purpose, nature, duration, resources needed, participants in, and expected results of a worksite Corporate Health Promotion Program.
   3. Orient employees to the Company Health and Wellness Program and give them copies of the physical activity, nutrition, and tobacco use policies.
   4. Promote and encourage employee participation in the physical activity/fitness and nutrition education/weight management program.
   5. Offer health education information to employees.
   6. Have a committee that meets at least once a month to oversee the Corporate Health Promotion Program.
   7. Offer regular health education seminars on various physical activity, nutrition, and wellness-related topics. Ask voluntary health associations, health care providers, and/or public health agencies to offer workplace education classes.
   8. Host a health fair as a kick-off event or as a celebration for completion of a wellness campaign.
   9. Designate specific areas to support employees such as diabetics and nursing mothers.
  10. Conduct preventive wellness screenings for blood pressure, body composition, blood cholesterol, and diabetes.
  11. Offer confidential health rist assessments.
  12. Offer workplace weight management/maintenance programs for employees.
  13. Add weight management/maintenance, nutrition, and physical activity counseling as a member benefit in health insurance contracts.

Corporate Health Promotion Program: Tobacco Cessation

   1. Establish a company policy prohibiting tobacco use anywhere on the property.
   2. Offer prompts/posters to support no tobacco use policy.
   3. Policy supporting participation in tobacco cessation programs during duty time (flex-time).
   4. Offer counseling through an individual, group, or telephone counseling program onsite.
   5. Offer counseling through a healthcare plan sponsored individual, group, or telephone counseling program.
   6. Offer cessation medications through health insurance.

Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives that support employees and the environment that they work in have been shown to be a good return on investment. Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives may be extensive and sometimes expensive. However, there are ways for small businesses to make positive changes at little or no cost.

Corporate Health Promotion Program: Nutrition Programs

Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

   1. Offer healthy eating reminders and prompts to employees via multiple means (i.e. e-mail, posters, payroll stuffers, etc.).
   2. Offer appealing, low-cost fruits and vegetables in vending machines and in the cafeteria.
   3. Offer cookbooks, food preparation, and cooking classes for employees’ families.
   4. Ensure workplace cafeterias follow healthy cooking practices and set nutritional standards for foods served that align with the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
   5. Offer healthy foods at meetings, conferences, and catered events.
   6. Use point-of-decision prompts as a marketing technique to promote healthier choices.
   7. Offer healthy cooking demonstrations that teach skills (i.e. fruit and vegetable selection and preparation).
   8. Offer taste-testing opportunities at the worksite.
   9. Offer employee-led campaigns, demonstrations or programs.
  10. Offer local fruits and vegetables at the worksite (i.e. worksite farmer’s market or community-supported agriculture drop-off point).
  11. Use competitive pricing (price non-nutritious foods in vending machines and cafeterias at higher prices).
  12. Offer protected time and dedicated space away from the work area for breaks and lunch.
  13. Make kitchen equipment available to employees.
  14. Offer an opportunity for workplace gardening if possible.

Sweetened Beverage Consumption

   1. Make water available throughout the day.
   2. Offer appealing, low-cost healthful drink options in vending machines and the cafeteria.
   3. Modify worksite vending contracts to raise the number of healthy options.
   4. Price non-nutritious beverages at a higher cost.
   5. Use point-of-decision prompts to promote healthier choices.

Portion Control

   1. Label foods to show serving size and/or nutritional content.
   2. Offer food models, food scales for weighing and pictures to help employees determine portion size.
   3. Offer appropriate portion sizes at meetings, worksite events and in the cafeteria.

Breastfeeding

   1. Support nursing mothers by providing them rooms for expressing milk in a secure and relaxed environment, a refrigerator for storage of breast milk, policies that support breast feeding, and lactation education programs.
   2. Offer flexible scheduling and/or workplace or near-site child care to allow for milk expression during the workday.
   3. Adopt alternative work options (i.e. teleworking, part-time, extended maternity) for breastfeeding mothers returning to work.
   4. Educate personnel on the importance of supporting breastfeeding co-workers.

T.V. & Food Advertising

   1. Place TVss in non-eating areas of the worksite.
   2. Limit food advertising in the cafeteria (i.e. print and other media).

(Adapted from The Health Promotion First Act prepared by David Anderson, Ph.D., StayWell Health Management)

Employee Lifestyles Impact Employee Health
• Approximately 40% of all deaths in the United States are premature (at least 900,000 deaths each year) and are due to unhealthy lifestyle choices such as tobacco use, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, misuse of alcohol and drugs, and accidents. Other contributors to early death include genetic predisposition (30%), social circumstances (15%), poor access to quality health care (10%), and environmental  exposures (5%).
• Unhealthy lifestyle is the primary factor to the six leading causes of death in the U.S. – heart disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory diseases, accidents, and diabetes – which collectively account for over 70% of all deaths.
• People with healthier lifestyles live an average of 6 to 9 years longer,  postpone disability by 9 years and compress disability into fewer years at the end of life.
• The prevalence of obesity among American adults rose to 30% in 1999-2000, a 33% increase from a decade earlier,  and the prevalence of diabetes also rose by 33% during approximately the same period (1990 to 1998).
• About two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, 55% do not get enough physical activity,  26% are completely inactive,10 and only 25% eat recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables  If diet/physical activity patterns continue worsening at their current rate, these behaviors will soon surpass tobacco use as contributors to mortality.
• Among young people, the prevalence of overweight has more than quadrupled in the past 20 years to 16%,  daily participation in high school physical education classes has dropped from 42% in 1991 to 28% in 2003,  more than 60% eat too much saturated fat, and almost 80% do not eat recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables. 
• Lifestyle diseases disproportionately affect women, racial and ethnic minorities, the poor and seniors:
 • The prevalence of diabetes among African Americans is about 70% higher than among white Americans, and the prevalence among Hispanics is nearly double that for white Americans.
 • Women comprise more than half of the people who die each year of cardiovascular disease.
 • Chronic conditions significantly limit daily activity for 35% of persons over 65 years of age. 

Financial Impact of Lifestyle
• It is estimated that lifestyle-related chronic diseases account for 70% of the nation’s health care costs, which translates to over 11% of the entire U.S. gross domestic product.
• Two broad-based scientific reviews identified 83 peer-reviewed studies reporting that people with unhealthy habits have higher health costs.
• Research conservatively estimates that high health risks (high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc) account for at least 25% of total health costs. 
• Recently published research indicates a direct relationship between modifiable lifestyle risks and lower worker productivity, and relevant data suggest that the costs to businesses in lost productivity due to poor employee health may be substantially more than the direct health and disability costs.
• Unhealthy lifestyles often lead to chronic disease, many of which cannot be cured and require years or decades of expensive treatments. Below are estimated annual costs of selected unhealthy lifestyles and chronic diseases including obesity,  smoking,  hypertension,  diabetes,  stress,  and inactivity.
 
Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives Improve Health and Yield Major Savings
• Comprehensive scientific reviews identified 378 peer-reviewed studies showing that Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives improve health knowledge, health behaviors, and underlying health conditions.
• Research studies have demonstrated that lifestyle modification may often be more effective and cost-effective than health intervention in decreasing morbidity  and mortality.
• Several scientific reviews indicate that Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives reduce health costs and rates of absenteeism and produce a positive return on investment.  The most definitive review of financial impact reported that:
 • 18 studies indicated that these Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives reduce health costs, and 14 studies indicated that they decrease rates of absenteeism costs.
 • 13 studies that calculated benefit/cost ratios all showed the savings from these Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives are much greater than their cost, with health cost savings averaging $3.48 and the rates of absenteeism savings averaging $5.82 per dollar invested in the Corporate Health Promotion Programs.
• Medical costs are expected to exceed 16 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005 and to grow at 7.2 percent each year through 2015, when health expenditures will account for 20 percent of GDP:
 • Per capita health costs in the U.S. are the highest in the world and more than double the median for OECD nations,  yet the United States ranks 26th in terms of healthy life expectancy.  
 • Medicaid is the second largest item in the majority of state budgets, and its portion of the total budgets is increasing each year.
 • Increasing health costs for U.S. businesses continue to outpace general inflation, averaging 12 percent per year for the past 10 years.   This trend is causing a tremendous financial hardship on U.S. businesses.

1. Senior management involvement in the Corporate Health Promotion Program- Evidence of enthusiastic commitment and involvement of senior management helps employees understand their businesses’ serious commitment to health.  Workers need to perceive that their senior management, supervisors, and coworkers have positive attitudes toward health since these factors have all been associated with improved employee health status.   Management-related factors have been shown to contribute more to success than the content of the intervention. 

2. Participatory planning – A Company Health and Wellness Program should be undertaken in partnership with the workforce.  Workers from all levels of staff should be actively engaged in the health and management aspects of the project as well as all on-going processes of any Corporate Health Promotion Program.  Planning must also include processes for maintaining communication with all staff and building their commitment to the process.   Creating Company Health and Wellness Program steering committees to lead interventions during the planning and delivery of worksite health promotion programming improves worker awareness, participation, and satisfaction. Employee committees may identify perceived employee interests regarding educational programming, determine work site-specific characteristics that may affect the intervention or influence participation, and suggest the best methods for promotion and delivery of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives and activities.  Ways to maximize employee input and involvement might include interest surveys, focus groups, and peer counsellors. 

3. Primary focus on employees’ needs – A Company Health and Wellness Program should meet the needs of all employees, regardless of their current level of health and recognize the needs, preferences, and attitudes of different groups of participants. Program designers should consider the major health risks in the target population, the specific risks within the particular group of employees, and the organization’s needs.   In other words, interventions should be tailor-made to the characteristics and needs of the recipients.   This means that varied programs must be offered at different levels.   Participation and commitment may be increased if a group of employees has the opportunity to address a specific modifiable risk factor of their choice.  

4. Optimal use of on-site resources – Planning and implementation of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives should optimize use of on-site personnel, physical resources, and organizational capabilities.   For example, whenever possible, initiatives should use on-site health and safety, management, work organization, communication, Human Resources, and other specialists.   Well-qualified external leadership may be introduced when in-house expertise is lacking. 

5. Integration – An overall worksite health policy should be developed.  The policies governing employee health must align with the business mission, vision, and values, supporting both short- and long-term objectives. These consistent policies must affirm the value of employee health and a commitment to engage employees in health enhancement.  Company Health and Wellness Program Procedures should be integrated into a company’s regular management practices and eventually should be formally incorporated into the company’s corporate plan  with adequate resources attached to them.

6. Recognition that a person’s health is determined by an interdependent set of factors – Any Company Health and Wellness Program must address multiple components of an individual’s life:
 • the worksite physical and psychosocial environment;
 • their personal resources such as social support, sense of empowerment, etc.; and
 • their lifestyle practices influencing health.  
 
7. Tailoring to the special features of each worksite environment  – Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives must be responsive to the unique needs of each worksite’s procedures, organization and culture.   Integrating health behaviors and program participation into the existing business culture will normalize program participation.

8. Company Health and Wellness Program Assessment – Project management should flow through needs assessment, setting priorities, planning, implementation, continuous monitoring, and assessment.   Assessment must include a clearly-defined range of process measures and outcomes  as well as mechanisms for monitoring the impact of non-intervention worksite changes such as plant closure, major worksite re-organization, and new technology on staff health. 

9. Long-term commitment – To sustain the benefits of the Corporate Health Promotion Program, the worksite must continue the initiative over time, reinforcing risk-reduction behaviours and adapting the programs to ongoing personal, social, economic, and worksite changes.