Company Wellness Programs

Worksite biometric screenings can take a variety of forms. Common screening components may include –

• Blood pressure and heart rate.

• Cholesterol (typically a finger-stick total cholesterol test, either fasting or non-fasting).

• Blood glucose (diabetes screening).

• Height and weight.

• Percent body fat and/or BMI (BMI).

• Fitness level.

• Bone density.

• Posture assessment.

Considerations when offering worksite screenings –

• Health screenings must be conducted by qualified, and at times, qualified person.

• Health testings should be conducted in a location that allows for privacy and confidentiality.

• Time for discussion and explanation screening results should be allowed as part of the screening process.

• A process should be in place for referral for participants whose results are indicative of a need for further medical analysis.

• Screenings can be very costly to the overall wellness budget OR there may  be no cost to the program when participants are willing to cover the cost of the assessment themselves.

For  instance, cholesterol and glucose testing usually costs twenty to twenty-five dollars per person, per exam. Staff Members may  be willing to pay for screening in exchange for the convenience of having the screening at work.

• It usually works best to have scheduled appointments at intervals sufficient to allow time for the assessment and a brief discussion of results. Therefore, a registration and scheduling process ought to be devised.

• Some kinds of screening, such as fitness testing, require participants to bring casual clothes in which to do the testing. Workers ought to be notified of the need to dress in a specific manner for the screening.

• to ensure high attendance at screening events, it is advisable to coordinate promotion of the event with reminders to personnel.

• Supply workforce with “screening preparation” guidelines to remind them how to prepare for the most accurate screening results.

Resources for worksite screenings –

1. Speak with a wellness advisor or biometric testing company.

2. If worker participation is low for onsite Healthy Benefits screenings, or when offering additional worksite screening is an choice, check with the community health or outreach department of your local hospital, health education department, occupational health department or workplace health department as to screenings they could offer.

3. Local health clubs may also have licensed staff for some kinds of screenings, such as fitness testing or body fat assessment.

Make safety a key concern when planning physical activity in your workplace.  An accident or injury won’t “sell” the program and might end up costing the company. This section will help you take the necessary steps to avoid an accident or injury.

Points to Consider

Using Certified Professionals

Hire specialistly certified instructors to lead fitness courses (whether on or offsite) or to run workplace lunch and learn sessions.  It’s also a good idea to ask the instructor for references.

When you hire instructors, make sure that your insurance protects both the instructor and your organization.

Risk Management

Regardless of whether we like it or not, liability is an issue these days.

Risk management plans don’t have to be complicated or expensive. for  instance, part of the plan might require that staff complete fitness appraisals and sign statements accepting the possible risks involved in exercise.

It pays to be prepared. Safety and emergency policies and procedures reduce the risk of loss both to person and to your organization.

Ask employees to sign a waiver when participating in both on-site and offsite activities. for liability reasons, employees must understand the risks involved in participating in the activity and understand that they’re waiving their right to sue.

The staff member should not be asked to sign the waiver just before the activity. the waiver might  be invalid if staff claim that they did not fully understand the risks.

Other Safety Tips

Here’s a list of some other safety tips to keep in mindwhen planning exercise.

Look at the environment where personnel are active –

• Sidewalks must be clear of ice and snow, away from falling debris or snow, and have obviously marked curbs and safe crosswalks.

• Stairwells must be well-lit and in good condition and have handrails and safety features, so that staff members are not locked out of floors.

• Fitness facilities should’ve proper flooring, good ventilation, and access to water and an emergency telephone.

Offer medical testing for workers participating in activities –

• PAR-Q

• PAR-MEDX for Pregnancy

Below are some other important safety factors –

• First-aid kit and automated external defibrillator on site.

• Emergency Action Plan (EAP) in place and practised.

• Commercial grade fitness equipment (not donated, “hand me down” equipment).

• Documented equipment inspection and maintenance schedule.

• Orientation of equipment and programs done by qualified specialist with a physical activity background.

To make a difference in the lives of your fellow personnel, you first need to understand that getting active isn’t simply a matter of choice. Some things are within our individual control, but others are shaped by the people  and circumstances in which we live and work.

It’s Easier to be Active When…

• We know what to do and have the confidence, skills and opportunity to do it.

• It’s fun. “Working out” at the health and fitness center does not appeal to everyone. Activities need to reflect what individuals  enjoy.

• Our friends, family or colleagues are active with us (or at least support us).

• We feel safe, thanks to well-lit streets or stairwells.

• Sidewalks, walking/biking trails, parks and health clubs are nearby.

• We have money to pay for equipment, instruction or memberships.

• We can walk, bicycle or take public transit to work.

• Active choices such as taking the stairs, having stretch breaks at meetings and going outside at lunchtime are “normal” in the workplace.

• Managers support and recognize worker efforts. Better yet, they participate.

• We can juggle our work hours to fit in exercise.

Think about how you could develop some of these conditions in your workplace. By taking these steps, you’ll make it more likely that personnel both want and can easily be active during the workday.

Workplace exercise programs that focus only on individuals have limited success. Studies show that reaching people  in various ways gives the best chance of long-term success.

A strategy directed at multiple levels is also called an “ecological approach.”

The kind of analysis you pick depends on when you do it and the kind of information you collect.

This section describes when to use three kinds –  formative, process and summative investigations.

During the Creating Stage

Use formative examinations in the planning stages to ensure that your program is based on solid information. These examinations also help you to develop effective and appropriate materials and procedures.

Examples of formative examinations include –

• records of management commitments to the program

• staff member interest surveys

• workplace environmental assessments

• pre-testing of program materials

During Your Initiative

A process evaluation is used when the initiative is underway. These evaluations help you –

• track what is going well and what is not (and how to revise your program)

• find out when you are reaching the employees you want to reach

• describe the initiative to others

• monitor who’s participating in the initiative

During or After Your Initiative

Summative examinations happen when the initiative is already in place or completed. Use this type of examination to measure what workforce like about the initiative and what may be improved.

All three kinds of evaluations are useful. the evaluation you select depends on the time and financial resources you’ve available.

What Do You Want to Achieve?

Think about why you’re reviewing  and what your evaluation is going to measure.

If you’re attempting to find out whether an initiative has been successful, see when you followed your mission statement and met your objectives and objectives.

When you don’t have a mission statement or objectives or objectives, decide with management and your worker committee how your organization will measure success.

For  instance, you can measure success by changes in –

• Physical measures (e.g., strength, flexibility, waist circumference of employees).

• Psychological measures (e.g., employee morale, satisfaction levels, stress levels).

• Productivity measures (e.g., decrease in absenteeism rates, increased worker productivity).

Thinking About Employees

When you’re considering making improvements to the initiative, think about whether the initiative is still relevant and appropriate for employees. Find out when there are any barriers to participation in the program or to participation in exercise during the workday.

As workers are the ones participating in the program, it’s important to give them a chance to provide feedback on the exercise initiative.

Picking an Analysis Method

Decide on your analysis method. Both measurable results (e.g., absenteeism rates or questionnaire responses) and descriptive results (e.g., one-on-one interviews or focus groups) may be used to evaluate.

The method you pick will depend on the time and funding available and what you want to measure.

Determining How to Do the Evaluation

Plan when and where you will do your examination (and who’ll be examined). for additional information, read the “Types of Analysiss” section on this website.

You might want to pilot test your investigation (e.g., with members of the employee committee) before sending it out to employees. the employee committee may also want to evaluate the initiative’s planning process.

Doing the Evaluation

• Compare your results to baseline information (i.e., examination results from before the launch of your initiative). When you don’t have this information, save your examination results to compare with later results.

You can also look at other information you could have, such as employee satisfaction survey results.

• Analyse and share meaningful and easy-to-understand results with management and personnel.

• Investigation results can be used to enhance the current exercise program and/or to develop new programs in future.

Before launching your Workplace Exercise Program, summarize the information you’ve gathered and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained support from management for the Workplace Exercise Program

• formed an worker committee

• examined what’s possible in your workplace

• found out what workers want and need in a Workplace Exercise Program.

Based on this information, you are now ready to create your action plan to increase exercise at your workplace.

With the staff member committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the results of the employee survey with the workplace environmental assessment, and report to management and employees.

• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, organizational, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. for  instance, suppose a large group of staff members show an interest in bicycling to work.

Since these people  may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you may give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bicycle racks could also be important for making employees’ bicycles secure during the workday.

• Consult the list of practical suggestions found this website.

• Develop a mission statement (one which aligns with your company’s overall mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Setting goals and goals will help you achieveyour mission statement.

• Put together a plan or blueprint addressing what you have learned. Make program and activity recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2 –  Forming an Worker Committee.” Seek management approval to move ahead.

• Once your initiative is in place, it’s important to promote it to workers. Organizing a launch is a good way to do this. A formal launch also demonstrates management commitment. When workers do not know about the initiative, they cannot take benefit of it!

• Decide what you need to track to show that you’ve reached your goals. Measure these factors before you start. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know if there has been a change.

To succeed in stimulating exercise during the workday, you must find out what personnel need and want. They’re the people  whose behaviour you are trying to influence, so it’s critical to understand their needs and gain their support.

The Staff Member Interest Survey

Ask staff members questions that allow you to assess such key characteristics as age, gender, social relationships, family responsibilities and current exercise participation.

It’s important to know this information so that your physical activity initiative meets employees’ needs. Staff Members aren’t going to take part in something they’re not interested in.

Ask staff what they want, and then implement changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. for example, staff may not want to do activities that make them sweat, because they don’t want to shower at work.

Ask staff what the organization could do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during the workday. When there’s a common trend throughout your organization, a single change could affect a lot of individuals .

For example, suppose a big group shows interest in bicycling to work. They might want to shower and change after their commute. You might give priority to installing workplace showers and changing facilities. Secure bicycle storage might  be important as well.

When you’re launching a program that requires going outside, start in the spring. By the time winter comes around, participation is already a habit.

Involving workers is key to increasing physical activity participation rates. People  are more willing to take part in and support physical activity programs when they’re involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own staff member interest survey –

• Keep it short (no longer than 10 minutes to complete).

• Let employees know why you are doing the survey.

• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which may be long and difficult to analyze, ask individuals  to select from a drop-down list of possible responses.

• Ask for comments and suggestions in one open-ended question at the end.

• Make it confidential and anonymous. Don’t request information that may identify a individuals.

• If you are including a list of potential programs or environmental changes, be sure your workplace has the facilities and resources to offer them.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs –  Forming an Worker Committee

While support from the top is crucial to a successful initiative, support from other personnel is also important.

Once you get the go-ahead from management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a committee to help determine the next steps.

Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of staff time management is willing to contribute, this committee might  be advisory or may plan and carry out the initiative.

The committee could include personnel from human resources, occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve staff from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical activity.

Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. for  instance, it’s important for the committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following –

• Investigating your workplace environment

• Carrying out an staff member interest survey.

• Developing a mission statement and goals and goals.

• Writing a exercise or wellness policy declaring the corporation’s commitment to exercise.

• Brainstorming program ideas.

• Promoting, communicating and marketing and advertising the initiative.

• Coordinating specific activities.

• Determining how the initiative will be analyzed.

• Continually evaluating  what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to encourage exercise during the workday, it’s important to find out what’s “doable” in your workplace.

You do not want to elevate staff member expectations by offering something that’s impossible as a result of funding or space limits.

For example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a exercise facility when there’s no room for it. be open, notwithstanding, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs –  Locating out What’s Possible in Your Workplace

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for maps of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Great walking trails might  be right around the block from your workplace.

Below are some questions to help you assess your workplace –

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space offer that make it easier to be physically active during the workday? for  instance, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a exercise facility, factory walking lanes?

• What nearby facilities or opportunities could personnel use to be more physically active during the workday? Are you close to sidewalks, walking trails, community centers, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?

• What resources are available?

• can the initiative access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?

• What’s the structure of your organization? for example, consider staff size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining management support is vital to the success of a exercise initiative.

Whether the changes you’d like to make involve the work environment, overall policies or specific programs, successfully starting your ideas depends on management support.

Support from management is vital for three reasons –

• You need their agreement to involve employees in a workplace initiative.

• When management compensates attention to and supports an initiative, employees also see the initiative as worthwhile.

• Management has the power to give work time and money to support the initiative.

It’s important to keep management involved throughout a exercise initiative, but at three points you’ll need support for –

• an overall concept, including a go-ahead to assess what employees want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.

• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.

• Evaluating the initiative to improve it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Management

Before approaching management to gain initial support for promoting exercise during the workday, do your homework.

• Prepare a organization case clearly outlining how the organization will benefit by promoting exercise during the workday.

• List the individual, social and corporate benefits of physical activity and the benefits of being active during the workday.

• Present some general ideas about what the program might include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions like the following from management –

• How’ll this help our company?

• How can we motivate workforce to participate?

• How much will it cost to run this program or make this change?

• How are we going to know a year from now when this was a good use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the range of activities they’d support. Often managers have ideas of their own they’d like to see acted on to increase the workplace.

Don’t forget to include middle managers when gaining support for your initiative. They could be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical activity challenges.

In today’s corporation environment, the health of staff members is usually related to the health of the corporation. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, decreased disease and injuries, and increased productivity are just some of the advantages of having healthy staff members.

Promoting health in your workplace doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any organization, big or small, can promote healthful eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some suggestions –

Healthful Eating

• For breakfast meetings, in lieu of serving donuts, large muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives like bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100% fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.

• For lunch meetings, avoid serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100  percent fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.

• Reimburse workforce for items purchased to improve their health (e.g. healthy eating cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).

• Arrange for the cafeteria or food vendors to offer healthful food choices.

• Arrange to have healthful choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in vending machines.

• Provide a means for people  to share healthy recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Plan events and group activities to encourage workers to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge events, stretch breaks, team sports or participation in local or provincial events.

• Offer onsite health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in staff member assistance programs to help employees work towards physical activity objectives.

• Give a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices easy –  bicycle racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairwells, walking or running routes close by the workplace, and health club facilities.

• Allow for flex time so that workers have more opportunities to participate in fitness programs as part of their working day.

• Reimburse staff members for full or partial club membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment buys.

• Give corporate health and fitness center memberships to reduce costs of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to –

• Organize lunch “n learn sessions to provide information and motivation for healthy consuming and active living.

• Invite demonstrators to provide cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.

• Post a rotating list in a common room of local restaurants that offer healthful food options on their menus.

• Distribute information to educate staff members on portion sizes.

• Include exercise and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.

• Plan activities that promote healthy consuming and exercise. for  instance, begin a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities