Company Wellness Programs

Health education is easily integrated into all the areas of comprehensive Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives and it is unlikely that any of the areas could survive without an educational component. It is a key element of every primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention program and a way of promoting wellness and optimal health. A broad-based health education program must be based on theoretically and scientifically sound principles to ensure effectiveness.

Successful health education initiatives will incorporate adult learning theories and encourage active member involvement in all phases of program planning and implementation. Health education efforts should emphasize skill development and the adoption of health enhancing behaviors while being accessible to all workers, their families and retirees. Methods of delivery may include; one on one instruction, group presentations, seminars, workshops, educational media lending library and health literature distribution. Program examples may include:

• Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals
• Personalized health prescriptions and behavior change assistance
• CPR and first aid training
• Nutrition education initiatives
• Stress Management Programs
• smoking cessation  initiatives
• Cancer and heart disease education
• Blood borne pathogens education initiatives
• Sexual assault prevention initiatives
• Prenatal care
• Safety education initiatives
• Self care initiatives
• Healthy back initiatives
• Family centered initiatives
• Supplies of literature and educational media available for staff member loan

As the field of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives continues to evolve, the need to define succinctly the components of this broad-based approach increases. In 1987 Allensworth and Kolbe (1987) expanded the prevailing definition of broad-based school health to include the domains of Health Instruction, Healthy Environment, Health Services, Physical Fitness Education, Counseling and Psychological Services, School Food Service, Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives for Faculty and Staff, and the Integration of School and Community Resources.

To promote the health of school children, prevention specialists have realized that an integrated broad-based approach is the most effective strategy. Relying only on health education or Physical Fitness Education initiatives to foster children’s health has demonstrated limited effectiveness. Consistent health messages delivered by numerous agents increases the possibility of attaining health goals and objectives. A similar model is essential if Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives are to impact positively on the health and performance of all workers.

A broad-based model of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives includes the following components; Health Education Initiatives, staff member Health Services and Benefits, physical fitness and nutrition Initiatives, Company Health and Wellness Program Policies and Procedures, Counseling and Employee Assistance Programs, a Safe and Healthy Work Environment, and the Integration of Company and Community Resources. This model can be used to evaluate and plan for Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives that are truly broad-based in nature, focusing on primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies for workers.

One value of a truly broad-based model is that it is possible to promote a holistic philosophy of staff member health. A healthy, productive staff member is one who is given the opportunity to develop emotionally, physically, socially, intellectually and spiritually. In addition, this model supports the ideals of wellness and optimal health by encouraging worksites to go beyond initiatives designed to only reduce health care costs, prevent disease, or maintain health.

A key factor in the utility of this model is the integration and overlap of responsibilities. Design and implementation are dependent upon the cooperation and motivation of qualified – and ideally – credentialed experts throughout the administrative structure of a business. Such a model requires consistent communication between health educators, medical staff, human resource managers, physical therapists, industrial hygienists, exercise physiologists, ergonomic engineers, dietitians, occupational therapists, psychologists and independent consultants. Planning must also incorporate active involvement of workers, administrators, family members, and business retirees at all stages of the development, implementation and evaluation stages. All must be committed to the development of a healthy organization where workers are happy and proud to work.

Various organizations are working to advance the science of Corporate Health Promotion Programs. Health educators have the expertise and training to be leaders in this area. On the basis of theoretical foundations of behavior and the results of empirical research, we must start to articulate a clear vision of what optimal initiatives should consist of. The Components of this model are included below for reference and will be discussed individually in coming posts.

• Health Education
• physical fitness and nutrition Initiatives
• staff member Health Services and staff member Benefits
• Employee Assistance Programs and Counseling Programs
• Safe Work Environment
• Health Related business Policies and Procedures
• Integration of business and Community Resources

As the field of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives continues to evolve, so will the need to clearly define the dimensions of a broad-based model of Corporate Health Promotion Programs. A representative model includes the following Corporate Health and Wellness Program components; health education initiatives, staff member health services and benefits, physical fitness and nutrition initiatives, Company Health and Wellness Program policies and procedures, counseling and employee assistance programs, a safe and healthy work environment, and the integration of company and community resources.

A broad-based approach to Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives will maximize the impact of all interventions by increasing communication between administrators, workers, and staff member families, while encouraging the adoption of a healthy worksite culture and climate. Philosophically, this model supports the ideals of staff member wellness and optimal health by encouraging worksites to go beyond initiatives designed to only reduce health care costs, prevent disease, or maintain health.

A key factor in the utility of this model is the integration and overlap of responsibilities for Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives by various departments and individuals outside and inside the company. As the structure of the worksite continues to change, in the future this dynamic model can be used to evaluate and plan for Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives that are truly broad-based in nature.

A Comprehensive Model For Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives

According to the National Survey of Worksite Health Promotion Activities (1992) 81% of companies in the United States with 50 or more workers have some form of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives activity. This result puts us in proximity of the Healthy People 2000 (1990) objective of 85% by the year 2000. Why are companies getting into the business of Corporate Health Promotion Programs? The three most common reasons cited for employer interest in Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives are the desire to control spiraling health care costs, to encourage a healthy productive work force, and as a way of boosting the morale of workers and the image of the company (O’Donnell, 1994).

As the motivations behind Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives differ, so do the extent of a Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives efforts. A program may consist of distributing the occasional health pamphlet on the warning signs of cancer to workers, or it may comprise an elaborate and strategically planned Company Health and Wellness Program targeted to the specific needs of a company and its workers. Research indicates (O’Donnel & Harris, 1994) that some Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives have been more effective than others in improving health status, but what would a truly broad-based model of Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives consist of?

Close your eyes and imagine yourself working for the healthiest business possible. What characteristics or Company Health and Wellness Program strategies would make that organization so healthy? Examine it from a holistic perspective. What does that business do to enhance the physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual aspects of staff member health? How does that business develop effective health policies and relevant programs that impact all workers? Finally, how does that business demonstrate its belief that workers are the business’s most valued asset?

It is unlikely that any one single of a Company Health and Wellness Program will be accountable for the positive health outcomes of all workers. Company Health and Wellness Program have evolved from the occasional fitness center for the exclusive use of business executives, or the sporadic staff member safety program, to a wide range of health enhancing services and initiatives. Company Health and Wellness Program experts often speak of the importance of cultural change and the need to institutionalize Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives in today’s worksite. This goal can only occur through a broad-based and integrated approach that impacts on workers through numerous channels.

Walking Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives are some of the most popular Corporate Health Promotion Programs. They set the bar for entry fairly low – most anyone can walk around the block or their building – and walking Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives also offers staff members with a good way to break up the afternoon doldrums and interact in a casual, more social environment with other staff members. Just leaving your desk for a few minutes every day for a some fress air can be a big stress reliever – and stress is the #2 leading cause of absenteeism, according to Company Health and Wellness Program statistics.

As a first step to beginning your Corporate Health Promotion Program, we recommend that you have a designer draw up an attractive map of your business campus or vicinity. Plan out and test a few short walks of varying distances, and using a pedometer and watch, figure out how long each walk is in time and distance. Have a little fun with your walking Company Health and Wellness Program by equating each walk with a common office activity of the same duration, like a writing a one-page status report or filling out a common form. Post the map in the workplace and make sure people know about walking Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives by using your office communication channels – newsletters, announcements, company meetings. Keep it fun by building weight-loss teams, setting up races or organizing healthy picnics and athletic activities around the walking Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives route.

Following are some other walking Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives tips from Tom Weede, author of The Entrepreneur Diet: The On-the-Go Plan for Fitness, Weight Loss, and Healthy Living:
   
 Make sure to link the walking Company Health and Wellness Program to work objectives. Employees need to be reassured that these walks are part of their responsibility to be healthy and productive. They’re not personal errands that need to be compensated for by longer days at the office.
    Keep healthy snacks in the workplace.
    Reinforce the walking Company Health and Wellness Program message by regularly mentioning it during employee meetings
    Set up a health-related benefit that walking Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives participants can use for health-related expenses.

Company Health and Wellness Program Statistics tell a clear story – Company Health and Wellness Program Programs are effective , and they save corporations money.

You should take note of these interesting Company Health and Wellness Program Statistics:

 Some 25 percent of U.S. corporations were running Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives in 1996.
 Company Health and Wellness Program Statistics depict a savings of $2.30 to $10.10 for every $1 spent on Corporate Health Promotion Programs.
 Coca-Cola’s fitness program recouped $500 per year per employee, despite the fact that only 60% of their staff was enrolled.
 A Ipsos-Reid Company Health and Wellness Program statisics paper in 2004 found the three major preventable causes of staff absenteeism to be mental health (anxiety and/or depression), stress and a bad relationship with a supervisor.
 Company Health and Wellness Program Statistics from Prudential Insurance reveal a benefit expense of $312 per individual enrolled in their wellness system, but $574 per non-enrolled employee.
 At the Coors Brewing Co., Company Health and Wellness Program Statistics illuminate a savings of $5.50 per $1 spent on fitness, with a positive side-effect of member absenteeism dropping by 18%.

Company Health and Wellness Program Advantages still aren’t self-evident to some executives, even though the research, real-world evidence and cost-benefit analyses are demonstrative. With careful planning, almost every company can reap Company Health and Wellness Program Advantages.

Part of the problem is that some executives erroneously believe that the Company Health and Wellness Program Advantages are mostly on the employee side. The truth is that Company Health and Wellness Program Advantages both the business and employee – and according to Company Health and Wellness Program statistics , the employer stands to gain $2.30 to $10.10 in savings per dollar spent. Employee fitness saves corporations money.

At the same time, health care and insurance costs continue to skyrocket. Company Health and Wellness Program Advantages are one of the only ways to cut those costs while helping staff members at the same time. As Karen Roberts, senior vice president with Aon Consulting, said about Company Health and Wellness Program Advantages in her address at the 2006 WorldAtWork Total Rewards Conference & Exhibition, “If you can’t afford to invest in wellness this year, you’re never going to afford it.”

Company Health and Wellness Program Advantages include helping to prevent cancer, obesity, heart disease and hypertension. It’s rare that corporations can cut costs and assist struggling staff members, support families and even arguably save lives. Isn’t that a good thing?

Onsite Employee Health Screening means better heath risk assessment baselines and better security

“Onsite Employee Health Screening” is a hot phrase these days, but it can help your staff members with health management, too. When the pundits talk about Onsite Employee Health Screening, they’re usually referring to retinal scanners, fingerprint readers, and other high-tech security measures. However, if you trace the phrase “Onsite Employee Health Screening” back to its roots, it refers to the measurement of unique human physical and behavioral characteristics.

Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives are of imperative importance to the modern business. As a result, Onsite Employee Health Screening should be one of the tools in the arsenal of a forward-thinking organization.

Worksite Health Screenings aren’t just a “feel-good” measure for your staff members. Assessments of employee health help your workers to prioritize their well-being, which results in happier, more productive staff members. Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals also build your database of employee biometric data. Onsite Employee Health Screening, when handled worksite by our experienced professionals, is hassle-free and smoothly organized. The biometric data we collect then can be stored digitally for years or even decades, helping you and your staff members build better health risk assessment baselines that you can use to assess staff members fitness and the efficacy of your corporation’s Health and Productivity Programs. Collected biometric data can even allow an employee’s doctor to assess that individual’s health over many years, helping him or her spot trends and diagnose disease.

Onsite Employee Health Screening extends to a wide variety of health risk tests, including measurements of blood pressure, blood type, body fat, substance abuse, and susceptibility to cardiovascular disease. Collecting biometric data for security purposes – like fingerprints, facial recognition imprints, or hand geometry – can be dovetailed with our health tests to minimize workflow disruption.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs: A Long-Term Committment

“Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives” – what does that phrase mean to you? To many of us, it evokes an array of ambivalent thoughts — the fitness center membership we barely used, the nagging ankle injury from last year’s company picnic, the backaches, the bratwurst we had for lunch, the love handles and of course, the fad diets that failed us or that we failed. Usually, Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives is a guilt trigger that causes us to feel remorse about our bodies and the health management we know we should be doing for them.

Unfortunately we live in a society where our survival is dependent on sitting at a desk, not hunting game, picking berries and sprinting away from wolves. We also live in such luxury, nutritionally, that we can gain weight steadily without being wealthy. Cardiovascular disease, obesity and bad nutrition cause the majority of of the heath issues that weigh down employee attendance and erode a corporation’s productivity.

It’s ironic that the poorest societies in the world – the ones furthest from the conveniences of modern life – often boast the fittest, most physically hardy members. And as for the animal kingdom — don’t look there for commiseration. In the wild, it is extremely rare to find an animal that suffers from our kind of wellness issues.

Prescription Drug dependency degrades Health and Wellness

It doesn’t help that United States citizens are descending into a deadly love affair with drugs — and drug testing won’t help you with these drugs.

For example, Greg Critser’s book Generation RX details how United States citizens spend about $180 billion dollars on Prescription Drugs each year, with the estimated 2011 tally at a whopping $414 billion. The average number of Prescription Drugs per United State citizens in 2004 stood at twelve.

Twelve! That means that your average employee is taking 14, 18, or even more than 20 medications in an attempt to improve their Health and Wellness.

Is this effective, though? Critser is not convinced that the drugs help U.S. health. In fact, he points out a bevy of negative consequences for America’s legal drug addition, which include drug interactions, liver damage, and the legions of people who now depend on drugs to deal with ordinary trials and stresses.

An business has the potential to improve Health

It’s not all bad news, though. Occupational Health Screenings and well-designed Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives can help you fight the downward spiral for you and your staff members. In fact, good Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives – like a strong walking Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives initiative – can literally save lives and reduce the symptoms that cause staff members to turn to drugs in the first place.

Health Risk Assessment: Helping Quantify Employee Health help you quantify employee health

An Health Risk Assessment Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals is an important tool to help you isolate the value of strong Company Health and Wellness Program Programs.

Health Risk Assessment: What is it?

Does the term “Health Risk Assessment” have you puzzled? If so, then you are not alone.  Unfortunately there is no universal standard definition or format for a Health Risk Assessment. A health risk assessment is both a procedure and a document, too, depending on the context — you must answer questions and ideally undergo some simple Employee Health Screening to develop a document that describes what’s good and bad about your current state of health.

To add confusion to the situation, there’s a field called health risk management. Talk to an OSHA inspector about health risk assessment and they will likely assume you’re referring to an assessment of contaminants and industrial chemicals in a factory or manufacturing facility.

Health Risk Assessment: The Typical Health Risk Assessment

A comprehensive health risk assessment is aimed at producing a concrete baseline of a individual’s health, and includes the majority of of these features:

 a blood pressure check,
 testing for cancer,
 blood glucose test, and
 a thorough analysis of the employee’s health status.

Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals would assess the employee’s:

 lifestyle factors,
 health conditions,
 prescriptions,
 functional concerns and abilities,
 quality of life,
 self-efficacy,
 fitness level.

Health and Wellness Fair activities put the spotlight on Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives

A Health and Wellness Fair is a excellent way to shake your staff members out of the doldrums and into better awareness of their health and wellness. A Health and Wellness Fair brings your organization together to discuss Corporate Health Promotion Programs, examine Medical Insurance and “cafeteria” plans, explore health savings accounts, publicize Company Health and Wellness Program Programs and share success stories and challenges.

Some common Health and Wellness Fair desired outcomes include:

 better awareness of the health services and resources available to staff members, both from their business and from local, state, regional and national health services;
 increased motivation for improving health behavior
 increased participation in Corporate Health Promotion Programs, commuter and carshare programs and health savings accounts
 better awareness of individual health status through Health Screenings, Health and Wellness Fair activities, displays, handouts, and demonstrations, and
 better information on what staff members are seeking from their business’s health management initiatives, and which staff members are interested in participating.

Planning a Health and Wellness Fair

Planning a Health and Wellness Fair is a lot like beginning an Company Health and Wellness Program on a smaller scale. Just like an Corporate Health Promotion Program, your Health and Wellness Fair will need publicity, logistical planning, programming, targeted goals, in-house marketing and of course, executive approval. Festive touches like free food, kid-friendly activities, live music, art displays, talent shows and other community-minded fun will help cement the appeal of your Health and Wellness Fair and ensure that the Health and Wellness Fair becomes a welcomed, annual event.

You can find some Health and Wellness Fair planning tips at the Family and Consumer Sciences site of Texas A&M University. These Health and Wellness Fair tips are aimed more at community and non-profit organizers, but you can discover many useful Health and Wellness Fair ideas at the site.

Health and Wellness Fairs and Company Health and Wellness Program Recruitment

Many Company Health and Wellness Program planners find that Health and Wellness Fairs are the primary reason why staff members sign up for walking Corporate Health Promotion Programs, health savings accounts and other pro-Corporate Health Promotion Programs.

Don’t forget – not only do staff members value these programs highly, but the increased energy and decreased sick leave associated with Corporate Health Promotion Initiatives also saves your company money. The Company Health and Wellness Program Statistics are clear – healthier corporations work harder and pay less in Medical Insurance premiums.