Category — Health and Wellness

Support from upper management is essential to building a successful health promotion program! Visible upper management support is one of the most vital factors in the success of a worksite Health Promotion Program.

Executive management executives are responsible for making sure that the corporation meets its goals. They can provide additional assistance by helping you to link your Wellness Program goals to corporation outcomes, thereby positioning Wellness Program as a fundamental part of the corporation.

It’s important to develop support and excitement for the wellness program from all levels of the company including upper-level management, mid-level management, and grass-root employees.

The challenge for any Wellness Program coordinator is convincing upper-level management about the potential value of Wellness Program to the company and conceptualizing how health promotion programs can impact the company in a meaningful manner.

The American Journal of Wellness is a excellent resource to assist you with obtaining convincing information on the benefits of a Wellness Program.

Health Promotion Program support from senior level management can come in many different ways -

o  Involvement in the planning process

o  Distribution of funding for the health promotion program

o  Support for time given to the health promotion program

o  Participation in wellness events

o  Leadership by management, like the distribution of a letter of support for the health promotion program.

o  Download a sample letter requesting upper-level management support. (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/business_tools/sr_mgt_support.doc)

o  Flexibility of employee schedules to accommodate wellness activities

The first step in developing your wellness/Health Promotion Program is to understand your corporation and how Health Promotion Program will fit into the current structure.

By researching your corporation’s history with similar health promotion programs and eliciting feedback from coworkers, you are able to find the best solution for your company.

Health Promotion Program –  Research Questions

o  Find out when Health Promotion Program has been done in the past. When so, what worked and what did not?

o  Was it commonly accepted?

o  Was wellness programming successful? Why or why not?

o  What does your business hope to gain from implementing a Health Promotion Program?

Answers to these questions will help you begin the process of building a culture of wellness within your company. It is crucial that you assess the environment before beginning a health promotion program.

The costs of healthcare have been rising more than 10% annually for a few years. A substantial amount of the money spent in the healthcare system treats expensive diseases and diseases.

o  Approximately 95% of the $1.4 trillion that we spend as a nation on health goes to direct medical services, while about 5% is allocated to preventing illness and promoting health.

o  Potentially, 50 percent to 70 percent of all diseases are preventable as they are associated with modifiable health risks.

o  In an effort to optimize employee health, reduce avoidable healthcare utilization and enhance work performance, and in turn lower healthcare costs and improve employee satisfaction and retention, many corporations are developing, or are interested in developing, Wellness Programs for personnel.

The benefits of corporate health promotion are well documented. Greater than 120 research repeatedly show themes like improvements in health outcomes coupled with high Return On Investment. Some major findings include the following -

o  Savings of $3.48 in reduced health care costs per dollar invested.

o  Savings of $5.82 in lower absenteeism costs per dollar invested.

o  Return On Investment (ROI)s of at least $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of health promotion program implementation.

o  Lifestyle behavior modification programs –  $3 to $6 Return On Investment within 2 to 5 years.

o  Self care, decision support health promotion programs –  $2 to $3 Return On Investment (ROI) within a year.

o  Disease management programs –  $7 to $10 ROI within a year.

By offering health promotion programs, businesss are not only providing an additional service for employees, but they are also gaining financially. Further, the impact of a health promotion program goes beyond reduced healthcare cost and Return On Investment.

A health promotion program can affect productivity, absenteeism, morale, recruitment success, turnover, and medical care costs.

* Source –  Rees, C., and Finch, R. (2004). Health Improvement –  A comprehensive guide to designing, beginning and evaluating wellness programs. National Business Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

As reported by the American Journal of Wellness, “Wellness is the science and art of helping people  change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health.

Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change may be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change behavior, and develop environments that support good health practices.

Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change.”

Wellness Program –  Action Steps

The process of building a Wellness Program involves -

o  Identifying the current health status of your workforce

o  Decidingthe appropriate wellness programs and interventions to offer

o  Advertising and beginning the health promotion programs

o  Building in motivational incentives

o  Assessing the impact

o  Revising health promotion programs based on investigation outcomes

It could even include developing policies and procedures that support staff member participation in wellness activities at your workplace (such as flextime).

Steps to Beginning a Health Promotion Program

o  Conduct an organizational assessment

o  Obtain upper-level management support

o  Establish a wellness committee

o  Obtain worker input

o  Develop objectives and objectives

o  Create and implement wellness program activities

o  Choose incentives

o  Evaluate outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to enhance the nation’s health is through comprehensive Wellness Programs.

As reported by the USA Department of Health and Human Services, these wellness programs may help workforce live healthier lifestyles by building supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior modification programs.

Indeed, one of the objectives of Healthful Individuals  2010, a set of health objectives for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to raise the proportion of staff that participate in a extensive Health Promotion Program at their workplace to 75%.

5 Ways to Assess and Improve Your Employees’ Health

Emotional health is a state of wellness that comes from understanding and acknowledging our emotions and locating appropriate ways to express them.

As staff, we often bring emotional problems from our childhood or current family life into the worksite because we haven’t dealt with them effectively outside of work.

This can seriously damage worksite relationships and lead to poor performance and negative feelings all around.

Many tools and techniques exist for helping us improve our emotional health. Some of the most common are given below, with real-life case histories illustrating their use.

If an unpleasant mood or feeling persists over a length of time, don’t hesitate to seek out a qualified professional. Wellness programs usually have professional support already in place as part of their services.

1. Wellness Coaching -

Among the hallmarks of emotional health is the willingness to ask for help when we need it.

Confidential specialist help, the coaching and counseling provided by worker assistance or health promotion programs, can provide an external source of strength and insight for “working out” emotionally-based problems in lieu of “working them in” to your job.

2. Self-help Groups -

Self-help groups are designed to aid people  in emotional situations in which they feel alone.  The purpose of these groups is twofold –  to allow people  to safely feel and express their emotions, and to help break their isolation at work and/or in society at big and reintegrate them into society with the support of a colleague group.

The classic self-help group is Alcoholics Anonymous, but thanks to technology, it’s possible to connect with others that have common health challenges, no matter how unique the situation.

People  are taking advantage of tele-conference groups and social websites, such as sparkindividuals .com and revolutionhealth.com. Wellness programs often have such groups available through online or telephone support. Progressive company health promotion provider

Exan Wellness, for instance, offers teleconference cell groups and moderated wellness forums for interacting with others in a supportive, confidential and anonymous environment.

Individuals  with shared challenges get together and discuss the emotional challenges they’re facing at work or in other areas of their lives and work through change together.

3. Journaling –  Journaling is usually recommended by counsellors as a way to help identify and process emotions. Individuals  record their emotions in writing as they experience them, in whatever form they wish.

By helping the writer gain greater emotional clarity, journaling can help in making more emotionally informed decisions. In much the same way, letter writing enables people  to identify and process the emotions they feel in relation to others.

The letter does not have to be sent or its contents shared –  it simply provides a place for the expression of feelings.

An 18-year-old “army brat,” Brent has always done well at school, academically and athletically. But in his last year of high school, something seems to have happened to him. He’s lost all interest in school, becoming moody and withdrawn.

Brent describes to his guidance counselor all the times he had to move when he was growing up. Each move wrenched him from his friends and forced him to play the role of the “new kid on the block.”

The counselor suggests that Brent write letters to the friends he’s missed over the years telling them how he felt. In conclusion, he’s a chance to say a proper goodbye.

4. Assess Your Emotional Health – Organizations that seek to boost employees’ interpersonal skills, or emotional intelligence in the worksite are more successful, according to ground-breaking journalist Daniel Goleman.

And emotional intelligence is the buzzword in workplaces these days. Some health promotion programs have information about emotional intelligence, or emotional health assessments. Seek out more information about emotional intelligence for better company health promotion.

5. Friendships/Support Systems –  Friendships allow individuals  to feel supported in their emotional journeys.  At the same time, they give individuals  an opportunity to develop their empathetic skills.

These skills are also important for worksite health. When we’re empathic with fellow staff, we help them resolve negative or unhealthful emotions. New friendships are made through hobbies, classes, clubs, or even through internet based groups.

A lot of people  are finding emotional satisfaction by connecting or re-connecting with friends through Facebook and other social websites.

Sometimes worksite stress that is not dealt with in a healthy manner could be brought home. A 36-year-old mother of three, Sarah, wants to be a good wife, a good mother, and a success at her job.

One day, drained after a long day at work, she shouted at her rambunctious kids and threatened to hit her youngest son. Her behavior horrified her.  To make matters worse, she believes she is a failure at her job in addition to at motherhood. She watches with jealousy as younger peers advance much more quickly up the corporate ladder despite having less experience than she has.

On the advice of a counselor, she determines to take time out for herself and take a course for amateur painters. It doesn’t take long before she strikes up a friendship with a single mom in the class.

She once led a life very similar to Sarah’s before managing to achieve a better balance between work and family. Her new friend becomes a much-needed sounding board for Sarah and offers her perspectives on her life that she hadn’t considered before.

25% Jump in Employer Interest in Staff Member Wellness

Corporate wellness for their staff, corporations are discovering, is good for the health of their corporations as well. Wellness programs help to cut the costs associated with poor employee health, which include absenteeism, loss of productivity and poor work quality.

A recent Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 United States companies indicated a meaningful paradigm shift in how companies view health benefits for their employees.

Of those surveyed this year, 88 percent are committed to instituting long-term healthcare assistance programs (over the next 3-5 years) for their staff, with the goal of increaseing the health and productivity of their workforce. This represents a 25 percent increase in interest in wellness programs over 2007.

A strong offering of health promotion programs to meet the demand has resulted. Health assistance providers have broadened their health promotion programs with tools that address general lifestyle factors, physical, social and psychological health factors.

Programs look to predict chronic disease in their staff members and give them the tools and the information to prevent it. Companies also demand a way to measure the effectiveness of their health care spending.

Self-care is our motive, says Vic Lebouthillier, president of progressive wellness provider Exan Wellness.”We really believe giving staff members tools to help them manage their own health, and promoting the benefits, while giving people  resources to reach out for help is the key to successful lifestyle change.

Businesses are also telling us they need a cost-effective way to deliver wellness programs.  The kind of wellness program we have created over years delivers the highest health care return on investment.”

Combining employee health promotion promotions, internet based assessments and health trackers, internet based medical information, telephone conferences and self-help groups, and access to a broad variety of health professionals, is behind the success of the Exan health promotion program. “Having internet based statistics about employees’ health also makes it easier to track the bottom line – ROI” says Vic Lebouthillier.

Organizations are moving beyond their traditional role as a provider of health care benefits to develop holistic health promotion programs that pinpoint the specific health needs of their staff member populations, drive staff member behavior modification and eliminate barriers to health care, says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.

Nonetheless, in a separate survey of 30,000 employees, 74% said that, although they felt their corporation had an obligation to help them understand how to use their health benefits program, only 12% felt the corporation had any right to tell them how to be healthful.

Based on these results, businesss need to drive home the fact that improved health is better for their workforce as well as the corporation. It’s a win-win situation.

Companys and workforce did find common ground when it came to future healthcare. Both surveys indicate that 95 percent of workforce understand that their taking care of their health today will impact future healthcare payments.

A similar percentage also understand the important of early detection and prevention when it comes to saving on healthcare costs.

Cost is important for most organizations as well. Over 80% of those surveyed made cost mitigation a priority for 2008, but those cuts didn’t involve shifting responsibility for healthcare onto workers.

While 64% of companies have shifted costs to their staff, only 17% plan to do so in the next 3-5 years. Similarly with health reimbursement accounts, 20% now offer these, but only about 5% plan to use them in 2008.

These survey results indicate businesses are getting more proactive in assisting their workforce to change behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is clearly good for the wellness of workforce, but also for the wellness of the businesses they work for.

Nearly half the organizations surveyed were convinced that changing health behaviors was key to increased productivity and lower absentee rates. Over 60% plan to institute health promotion programs that help staff members change and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle.

Nearly of these businesses will also use data and measurements to ensure their healthcare strategies meet their healthcare objectives?

It is clear to virtually every American (specifically those of us in business) that health care costs are skyrocketing out of control.

No one doubts that either the market will solve the problem OR the government will impose one on us. Managed care has failed from either a cost containment or quality of care perspective.

Organizations have reached the point where the cost of providing health insurance is nearly as burdensome as government regulation. It is time for some new thinking on healthcare and its impact on business and vice versa.

Company wellness as an operational perspective in lieu of merely window dressing is one way to deal effectively with rising healthcare costs.

The Insurance Problem

The first step in correcting the problem is to realize that an staff member’s health is their own responsibility. Expecting companys to provide unlimited medical insurance coverage is simply unrealistic and unreasonable.

It is time for businesss (on a wide scale) to reconsider their role in providing medical insurance coverage. Instead of providing complete coverage for all workers through group plans, businesses should begin to shift the burden of health coverage to those covered.

Here is the approach. Give catastrophic health insurance as a group benefit to all workers with a large enough deductible (say $5000 per employee) to make the cost affordable for the business.

Then, allow personnel to buy their own medical insurance policies (based on their own needs) and pay for them through payroll deduction with pre-tax earnings.

There are numerous insurance companies that sell individual plans on this basis. Everybody wins. Employees can tailor their coverage to their own needs and circumstances using their own physicians. Corporations win by stopping the endless cycle of rising costs and ever-changing plans.

And when person become responsible for the cost of their own insurance, they become more attentive to their own health.

Besides, when an staff member is interested in working for you ONLY because your company offers excellent insurance benefits aren’t they telling you they are going to cost you more money in the future?

Develop a “Wellness Culture”

Our current “sickness culture” perpetuates the healthcare crisis and hastens the demise of market-based solutions. By ailment culture, I mean our focus on medical problems in lieu of on having a healthy worksite and performance culture.

Additionally, what’d a “wellness culture” look like? First, instead of paid sick days, employees could  be rewarded at year’s end with an attendance bonus.

Employees would be reimbursed for successful completion of smoking cessation and weight-loss programs. Organizations would invest in corporate memberships at local gyms so every worker can participate.

Staff Members would be offered in-house health promotion programs on a variety of issues ranging from ergonomics to stress management. Finally, organizations would commit to hiring and retaining healthy workforce.

Simply put, healthful employees cost less and are more productive than unhealthful ones. Applicants ought to be screened for health habits and practices that limit their productivity and increase the likelihood of future expense.

While this may seem harsh, it rewards those employees whose personal lifestyle and habits ensure the best Return on Investment by the corporation committing to hire, train and pay them.

Be open to “alternative and complementary” approaches

Studies published in major medical journals reveal that individuals who use “alternative and complementary” health modalities (including chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga and massage) are usually healthier, better educated, take fewer medications and miss fewer days from work than the average American.

Since these individuals look for ways to stay healthful without drugs and surgery, they end up being a net benefit in terms of attendance and productivity. Old prejudices in this area should be discarded in order for corporations to improve productivity and increase profitability

Conclusion

Health Care costs are increasing at a staggering pace. Managed care is an dreadful failure. Corporations are buckling below the pressure of providing health coverage to their workers.

American competitiveness in the market is sagging. These times call for extraordinary solutions. It is time for American companies to consider some out-of-the-box solutions to the healthcare crisis.

Employee wellness is an approach that is timely, achievable and reasonable given the alternatives. All choices must be considered while we still have a chance.

Research spanning more than a decade has consistently shown health promotion programs to be financially effective and that every dollar invested on a health promotion program can return $2.30 and $10.10 by lowering absenteeism, sick day usage and by lowering insurance costs.

Furthermore it is noted that there are marked improvements in employee performance and productivity in corporations that implement a wellness program.

Healthy corporations enjoy increased employee morale and an improved ability to attract and retain key people . Additionally, staff are more alert and productive.

For example, Coca Cola reports that they save nearly $500 a year per employee once they implemented a fitness program in which 60% of their staff participate.

Coors Brewing Company announced that workers who participated in their health promotion programs lowered their absentee rate by 18%.

Staff Members enjoy their share of benefits from health promotion programs too. A healthful lifestyle affects every part of a person’s life, including their work environment.

Health promotion programs result in fewer injuries, less human error and a work environment that is more harmonious and relaxed. Moreover, staff who work at a corporation that starts a health promotion program know that their corporation is concerned about their wellness.

Workers often report a reduction in their stress levels because of wellness programs.

As workforce feel better, more relaxed, more valued and more human to their company; they enjoy an increase in productivity. This increase in productivity, while beneficial to the organization, is also essential to the worker as it increases their own sense of self worth and confidence levels.

Workers who feel successful and who feel that they accomplish objectives are overall happier and in a better frame of mind.

The advantages of wellness programs, both tangible and intangible, are evident. It is a wise move for a business to begin a wellness program, namely when they incorporate some form of psychological health aspect into it.

This also has social benefits as domestic violence and child abuse is shown to be reduced in areas where wellness programs are implemented. These days, an organization can almost not afford to have some sort of wellness program to offer to their workers.

Some of the top wellness programs currently in use today include -

HRAs

Health Risk Assessment (HRA) is a top wellness program currently in use globally. Organizations that implement it determine the safety and health concerns of workers by the assessment of appropriateness of the facilities and equipment against the needs of the workers.

It can, for example, guide the organization into determining how the air quality within an office room affects the users and then help the assessment team to come up with the measures necessary to correct the problem.  An Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) can also evaluate the level of exposure workers have to certain dangerous or dangerous materials and practices.

Immunizations

This isn’t always practiced in every country since there are regions where government sponsored immunization shots are available. Nevertheless, it’s also become an important component of the top staff member health promotion programs in many companies in North America.

Immunization shots, such as those used to combat flu, for example, are offered to workers for free.

Employee Assistance Programs

Employee Assistance Programs consist of a wide variety of services. It can range from providing educational resources to personnel regarding health issues to sponsoring health services and medical care. In many businesses, medical and insurance have also become a staple part of their benefits system.

In-house diet and nutrition drives

This is another wellness program that businesses use, particularly those that offer in-house commissary or cafeteria services. Instead of serving richer, high-calorie fare, cafeterias offer choices for a healthier diet, normally in the form of low-calorie foods and sugar substitutes.

In-house wellness newsletter and campaign drives

Among the top wellness programs that corporations can implement is a self-powered tool using a newsletter to promote wellness, coupled with a visible campaign.

The campaign might  be done periodically and focus on a specific topic, like tobacco use hazards, cancer, stress, carpal tunnel syndrome, safety in the worksite, etc.

The newsletter in itself can be an effective means to deliver information to personnel or members of an organization but it’s far from perfect.

Some workers, for example, may not peruse the newsletter entirely or even pay attention to it. When the issues outlined in the newsletter are promoted through an active and highly visible campaign, it’ll be easier to maximize positive results.

Exercise and Physical Fitness

Another top wellness program for organizations is one that involves physical activities. Companies often sponsor exercise-related events such as marathons and business sports programs to encourage workforce to remain fit or lose excess weight.

In mid- to large-sized organizations, organizations might even pay for health club memberships or in-house exercise facilities.

Wellness Incentives

Some of the top health promotion programs implemented by corporations involve incentive rewards. This involves company-sponsored health promotion programs that reward staff members for achieving specific wellness-related objectives.

Participation in health campaigns and signing up for health promotion programs are two of the most commonly rewarded schemes. Rewards can range from special recognitions to over time obtained points (for bigger rewards) to specific gifts. In several cases, cash might also be used.

Nonetheless, incentive systems have had mixed reactions and levels of success. But it continues to be among the top options among organizations who are willing to modify it to fit their unique needs.

Coworker Pressure

In many organizations, organizations take benefit of peer pressure in order to encourage staff members to take part in health promotion programs. This is currently one of the favorite worker health promotion programs currently in use today and growing in popularity.

Peer pressure is often leveraged to help promote competitions referring to employee health promotion and to persuade employees to be active in company-sponsored health fairs.

Wellness is a excellent concept. It brings happiness into health and encourages a truly holistic approach to life. Wikipedia defines wellness as a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being.

It sounds like exactly what every one is looking for. But when you start to talk about corporate wellness, or corporate wellness, all life goes out of the concept. Total solutions, disease management and health testing don’t inspire visions of enjoying life and living it to the full.

They begin from the assumption that ailment is here to stay and needs to be discovered, managed and controlled but can never be healed.

The wellness industry is growing phenomenally fast. Wellness guru, Paul Zane Pilzer, has labeled it the next trillion dollar industry. But wellness has two different faces.

On the one hand there are the small corporations – people  working from home or in small centers selling all types of wellness products and services at a speed of growth that is escalating rapidly.

On the contrary employee wellness is also exploding but in a very different direction.

The baby boomers who are driving the popular wellness revolution have been described as the first generation to refuse to accept the inevitability of death.

They’re actively looking for ways to prevent aging, stay healthy into old age and enjoy themselves more than ever before after retirement. This is a radical departure from current notions of old age, which are often dominated by pictures of sickness, frailty and suffering.

The businesses have been largely forced to take on wellness. This is partly through legislative pressure, with many countries introducing laws to make businesses liable for stress-related sickness in their personnel.

It’s also financially motivated, as research has repeatedly shown the enormous costs of absenteeism (and increasingly of presenteeism as well).

Whereas the baby boomers are actively looking for new solutions and new lifestyles the companies are struggling to organize largely traditional and mainstream health systems, such as doctors, nurses, insurance and screening systems.

The problem is that the traditional health system does not have solutions for the problems that individuals  are handling.

Nobody ever went to see a physician to get happy, because a physician doesn’t have any clue how to make individuals  happy.  And many stress-related medical problems are described as chronic diseases, which means that they last for a very long time – or maybe for the rest of your life – because there is no medical cure.

Counseling is a common offering in corporations for emotional problems, but whilst it might provide a useful pressure valve it isn’t a powerful treatment for stress, unhappiness or depression.

Imagine walking into a corporation where the staff are happy, healthful, full of inspiration, fit, love working, have meaningful family lives, active social lives, and enjoyable relationships at work and in their community.

That kind of organization would be a pleasure to work in and bound to be successful because people  would be working to their optimum capacity.

So can we create a system of true wellness that will serve the development of the corporations and their workers and will pay for itself because of the benefits that both sides will gain?

First of all we have to face the fact that we cannot place all the responsibility into the hands of the current health system. Absenteeism, stress, depression, the very roots of the wellness revolution, haven’t been solved by the current system.

When they had been we wouldn’t have this revolution, we’d all be much more well. So we need to look elsewhere for solutions.

We also can’t rely on makeshift feel-good wellness offerings, such as the onsite massage team which visits the office once a month or the wellness day that raises awareness for a little while but leaves most individuals  unaffected. They are easy to organize but have little or no real effect on staff member wellness.

Corporate needs are different than individual needs and many of the new small wellness businesses that are springing up simply don’t have the capacity to serve the corporate market.

However it’s in the best interest of both organizations and staff members to find and create systems of wellness that really work – that benefit individuals  to be happy, handle stress, love working, and to have enough energy to go home at the end of the day and enjoy their family and social life.

So far the corporate world has hijacked the concept of wellness and turned it into a modern version of occupational health. It’s time to elevate the vision and determine how to make in truth healthy, happy worksites where individuals  thrive.