Health & Wellness Challenges are definitely hot right now and they are encouraging more and more people to get healthy and live better. Whether it is a city or a school or a social group or even a whole state, competitive spirits are being ignited by the challenge to be the healthiest team. The Health & Wellness Challenges are usually about a six months to a year in length and they are made up of several teams, these teams all get points for physical activity, selecting healthy foods, and just making better life and health choices overall.

The best part about Health & Wellness Challenges is even though there really is only way “real” winner; everyone that participates in the challenge is a life winner.

Health & Wellness Challenges offers Incentive to Get Healthy

Establishing a Health & Wellness Challenges in your office is a great way to get staff members to participate in your established Company Health & Wellness Initiative. Have staff members form teams and receive points for everything from attending a Company Health & Wellness Fair to getting a health risk assessment to starting an physical activity regimen. At the end of the year, the teams will win prizes based on the number of points they have accumulated.

Health & Wellness Challenges improve Corporate Health

Not only will Health & Wellness Challenges improve the health of your staff members, it will improve the overall health of the corporation by providing benefits such as reduced injuries, reduced frequency of worker’s comp, reduced medical care costs, better worker attendance, and better corporate morale.

Like we said earlier, everyone is a winner in a Health & Wellness Challenges!

The 61st annual World Health Assembly is taking place this week in Geneva, Switzerland and at this assembly; the World Health Organization (WHO) is presenting its report titled “Preventing Non-communicable Diseases (NCD) in the Workplace through Diet and Physical Activity.”

The report calls for Company Health & Wellness Initiatives to be promoted and implemented worldwide.

Importance of Company Health & Wellness Initiatives

The report states that NCD related deaths have surpassed transferable disease related deaths and have become the leading global killers. Examples of NCD’s are heart disease, diabetes and stroke. In 2005, 60% of worldwide projected deaths were caused by non-communicable diseases. They are predicting that this health trend will continue through at least 2030.

Unhealthy diets, excessive caloric intake, lack of physical activity and tobacco use are the major risk factors in the cause of NCD’s. Now more than ever, the understanding of the importance of health and wellness is crucial.

Company Health & Wellness Initiatives are Effective Tools

The report states that Company Health & Wellness Initiatives are found to be effective in improving health-related risk factors, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The report also states that Company Health & Wellness Initiatives will improve the health of staff members, improve the corporate image, improve worker morale, reduce worker absences and sick leave, increase worker productivity, and reduce corporate medical care expenses.

Company Health & Wellness Initiatives Monitoring

Finally, the report mentions that to have a successful Company Health & Wellness Initiative, monitoring and evaluation through health risk assessments and health outcomes are essential and should be included in the Company Health & Wellness Initiative implementation. The evaluations ensure that the Company Health & Wellness Initiative developed meets the proper needs of the staff members. Staff Members should be reevaluated on an on-going basis to make sure the Company Health & Wellness Initiative is still working, or to see if there are any adjustments that need to be made.