Health and wellness leads and health and wellness marketing

Armed with data, Worksite Health Promotion Program topic preferences and objectives – and a Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee eager to get things done – it is now time to decide how best to take action.  This website supports tools to help you!  You can read about the different types of wellness programs offered by other organizations to get an idea of what could possibly prove effective for your company.  There are Statewide Resources listed as well as national non-profit groups offering resources, and specific examples of resources available on various wellness subject matters.  In addition, keep looking under Steps to an Effective Program for ideas to get you started!

If your planning phase was well executed, you ought to simply have to follow through with the plans you have already made.  

Important Corporate Health Promotion Program considerations include:

1. Formally Introduce the Corporate Wellness Program and consider policy statements that state the importance of the wellness program.  Examples include a general policy concerning the commitment to employee health and safety as well as specific policies such as No Smoking, Healthy Eating and Physical Activity.
2. Communicate Your Program: The best planned program with great wellness programs will not be productive if your staff members don’t know about it or do not understand the options or how to take part.  Communicate your wellness program using a variety of methods to make sure the message and “how-to’s” are heard!

   Worksite Health Promotion Program Communication Strategies might include:

   • Newsletter articles
   • Postings on the company’s intranet or internet
   • A designated Champion of the program
   • Formal or informal meeting to announce program, “the kick-off”
   • Flyers / pamphlets / brochures / table tents,
   • Bulletin boards / kiosk where all material is promoted or found,
   • Email / phone messages,
   • Mailings or distributions  

3. Use Employee Wellness Program Incentives:  You will be amazed to discover what people will do for a free T-shirt.  Incentives have the potential to both support and innervate participation among employees.  Consider both formal or corporation incentives and rewards and informal or program rewards/prizes from local resources to reinforce participation in Employee Wellness Programs. Either way, it’s important to offer incentives and rewards that are attractive and meaningful to your employees.

   Formal Worksite Health Promotion Program Incentives:

   • Savings on employee health care insurance premiums or co-pays, or contributions to 401K programs, employee stock options, or other mechanisms.  
   
   Click here for more information on health plan incentive ideas
   
   • gym/Fitness Center discounts or enrollment fee coverage
   • Public transportation vouchers
   • Flexible work time options
   • “Wellness Days” off work  

   Prizes or Informal Workplace Health Promotion Program Incentives:

   • Cash – a most effective incentive!
   • Prize rewards and incentives such as gift certificates to healthy restaurants; media player to use while working out, emergency kits, or any other prizes that would excite your workers.
   • T-Shirts, water bottles, or other inexpensive rewards

4. Evaluate area resources available to offer some of the wellness services.  The local health department or your business medical care provider may be able to support  you with this information.  There are also vendors throughout the State offering great wellness services for businesses.  They are available to help you strategize and find the best options available.

5. Launch your program as planned documenting information and outcomes as you go such as numbers of participants, dates of activities, and any other special details you are tracking.

The Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee ought to set out a plan for the entire year that outlines accomplishing goals/objectives, as well as supports details for marketing and evaluating the program. The plan is the detailed map of what types of programs will be offered, when and where they will be scheduled, how they will be marketed and evaluated, and what the budget is.  It is significant to plan your wellness activities based on your goals/objectives, as well as the budget since different strategies will yield different outcomes.  By way of example, if your mission is to increase awareness on a topic, then distributing pamphlets or scheduling a one-time class may be appropriate.  Nonetheless, if your intention is to change behavior, then different strategies may be necessary, such as ongoing weekly meetings and support groups.  Click here to link to Program Design Options for additional ideas.

Company Wellness Program Marketing

This is the time to plan your marketing strategies!  How can you market the wellness program and ongoing activities?  No matter how you decide to, market often, keep it fresh, and remind employees repeatedly!  Consider having an overall kickoff activity to let everyone know about the wellness program.  Senior Leadership ought to support the introduction or invitation so that all employees are knowledgeable about their support and leadership in the program.

Possible marketing methods:

• Distributing email messages, including reminders
• Organize flyers,
• Hanging bulletin board postings,
• Writing articles,
• Mailing letters or
• Sending special invitations.  

Other Worksite Health Promotion Program Considerations:

• Is the Workplace Health Promotion Program promoted to all employees or to a specific group?
• Do you have a Worksite Wellness Program champion (someone who is joined with different groups in the organization, and well respected) who can help in your promotion efforts?
• If your marketing efforts do not seem to be working, do you have a way to revisit and adjust your strategy?
• How will you determine performance and evaluate your program?  And how will you collect the information required to evaluate your program?  

Topics most frequently included in Company Health Promotion Programs:

• Nutrition
• Physical Activity/Exercise
• Tobacco Use Cessation
• Bone Health
• Heart Health
• Healthy Back
• Stress Reduction
• Chronic Disease Awareness & Prevention
• Self-care; Wise Medical Care Consumer
• Screening Services (BMI, Blood Pressure (BP), bone density, cholesterol, glucose, posture, vision, and other…)
• Ergonomic Assessments
• Health Fairs
• Kids/family Events
• Others issues that staff members have interest in  

The issues and type of Worksite Health Promotion Program planned hinge upon the needs and interest, central intention and resources available.  Program Design Options   include awareness programs such as brochures and/or education sessions, behavior modification programs such as smoking cessation and weight loss classes, and environmental or employer support such as no smoking policies or healthy selections in snack machines.  

The programs planned also hinge upon the demographics of your workforce.  If you have a young, healthy workforce, you may want to focus the wellness attention on keeping workers healthy and not need to screen for disease.  Instead you might want to focus on healthy lifestyle behavior such as exercise and great nourishment to prevent the start of disease.  Click here for more information on strategies for keeping workers well, identifying disease early, or returning workers to work who already have a chronic conditions.

It is also important to consider, and plan how you will evaluate the performance of your wellness program.  The system needs to be demonstrated for tracking certain data and recording activities depending on the program goals/objectives.  Step 7 discusses program assessment in more detail.   And Step 6 will launch your program!

A Employee Health Promotion Program without goals/objectives is somewhat akin to taking a family trip without any planning; you won’t know where you’re going, how to get there, what you want to do once you have arrived, or even whether or not you have arrived!  The trip may end up ok, or it may end up disastrously.  Yet, with a bit of thoughtful planning, you broaden your chances for a efficacious experience.  Clear goals/objectives are needed to plan your wellness program in order to ensure success!

Wellness program goals/objectives are different from one employer to another depending on the population, needs, interests and resources.  Still, well thought out objectives based on your company’s needs assessment will form the foundation of a efficacious wellness program!

Company Health Promotion Program Mission Statement

The first consideration is a mission statement for your Employee Health Promotion Program. The mission statement is the overall expression of what the Employee Health Promotion Program Committee wants to accomplish by implementing a wellness program.  It is valuable to consider how your Employee Health Promotion Program fits in with the organization mission statement, contributes to the overall mission and supports the organization bottom line.  This will integrate your efforts throughout the organization operations.  

Below are some examples of Worksite Wellness Program mission statements:

“At XYZ Employer, maintaining an environment that supports employee health and safety is our underlying value.  It is the mission of the Worksite Wellness Program to support  in beginning Worksite Wellness Program services that fosters and upholds that value.”

“It is the mission of the XYZ Workplace Wellness Program Committee to cultivate healthier lifestyle choices to reduce health risk factors, improve central wellbeing, and maintain a productive, active work force.”

Corporate Wellness Program Goals

The objectives further define your mission and are based on your needs assessment.  Depending on the needs assessment, upper management expectations and employee interests, examples of objectives can include:

The objective(s) of XYZ Corporate Wellness Program in year XXXX is to:  (one or more of the following examples)

• Decrease absenteeism by one day per employee
• Cut down on musculoskeletal injuries by ten%
• Lower unnecessary emergency room visits
• Lower or contain healthcare costs
• Improve dietary habits of employees
• Decrease health risk factors  

Workplace Wellness Program Objectives

Specific Employee Health Promotion Program objectives help meet your long-term goals and objectives.  Both short term and long term objectives ought to be developed as the stepping stones to accomplish the goals and objectives.  In addition to objectives for the expected colleague outcomes, process objectives ought to also be developed for the program process itself.  For example, process objectives may include the number of staff members you want to take part in the programs, the number of sessions on a topic will be provided, the type of wellness sessions that will be implemented, etc.

Objectives must be easily measurable within a set time frame.  Try using the SMART formula to establish both your long and short-term goals and objectives:

• Specific (one behavior or outcome)
• Measurable (one result that can be monitored or evaluated),
• Attainable (but also challenging),
• Realistic (do you have the resources to achieve?), and
• Time specific (within 3 months – up to 5 years)  

This is the who, what, when, where, why, and by how much method.  For example, a goal for a weight loss program that has an overriding goal of improving healthy eating and promoting a healthy weight is that:

Members (who) will lose an average of .5 – 1 lbs per week (specific what that is measurable) at the end of the 12 week lunchtime program (time specific what, when and where) for a minimum of 6 lbs weight loss per colleague (attainable and realistic).

Or:

Participants (who) will go to 11 of the 12 sessions (specific what that is measurable) and name at least one healthier eating change at the end of the program (specific what, when, where)

An example of an intention for coaching staff members with high cholesterol might be:

To reduce the total cholesterol (specific what) of high risk workers with cholesterol over 240 mg/dl (specific who) to 200 mg/dl (measurable how much) through one-on-one counseling sessions provided at the worksite (where) by X date (ex, after 6 months) (attainable, realistic & time specific when) to reduce the risk factor for heart disease (why).  

And one last example of a process goal for a tobacco cessation program with an overall objective to assist  participants in committing to quit for life:

By the end of the 4-week smoking cessation program, 10% of the participants will have quit smoking.  Each participant will be contacted at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months from the program’s end to determine quit status (process mission) and 10% of those who quit will still be smoke-free after one year.

You have now completed Steps 1 through 4, including adopting your Employee Wellness Program Committee.  It is now time to plan your wellness activities!

Before you start planning your Workplace Wellness Program you need to know where you are now and then decide where you want to go.  Completing a thorough needs assessment is vital to the effectiveness of your wellness program for two reasons:  First it ensures that your Workplace Wellness Program activities will be targeted to meet your company’s specific needs so that outcomes can be achieved.  Secondly the needs assessment provides the information you will need to evaluate the effectiveness of your wellness program.

It is often tempting to hurry through the assessment – especially when time is limited or those with experience already have an idea of needs.  Do not give in to this temptation!  It is vital to be aware of what your business needs are, what senior staff expects, and what employees want as well as expect, before you establish a Worksite Wellness Program.  

Consider and accumulate data on:

• Employee Demographic Information
• Employee Health Risk Factors
• Health Claims
• Injury Rates & Causes
• Workers’ Compensation Claims
• Short and Long Term Disability Claims
• Absenteeism
• Employer Culture Audits
• Employee perceived needs and health risks
• Senior Leadership’s expectations or desired outcomes

There are many ways to assess this information.  Although some of data gathering process may be time consuming, remember that it is nonetheless important to plan programs that target specific concerns.  This information will be vital to set goals and objectives and for evaluating program success.  How else can you know if outcomes have been achieved?

Options to help gather the information:

• Confidential Health Risk Appraisals (HRAs) with a Business Group Summary Report
• Health Screenings such as cholesterol, Blood Pressure and blood sugar click here for additional information on wellness screenings.
• Employee Needs and Interest Surveys
• Suggestion boxes placed around the organization
• Focus Groups or hosting a luncheon meeting as a focus group
• Sending out a confidential email questionnaire
• Review records and databases including OSHA logs, first aid reports, insurance costs  

Once your needs assessment is complete, the Employee Wellness Program Committee can review the results and start creating and prioritizing program options.  Creating should be based upon objectives and identified outcomes, Step 4 of the seven step process!

Creating an active Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee supports opportunities for both upper management and employee participation in the program.  The Committee must be a team of staff members and managers who formally meet to plan activities to reward healthier employee lifestyles.

Typical Functions of a Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee:

• Analyzing needs & interests
• Brainstorming program ideas
• Beginning activities
• Developing communication plans
• Promoting programs to co-staff members
• Serving as champions of the Company Health Promotion Programs
• Assisting with evaluation  

Your Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee ought to be representative of all levels of the organization.  Consider all areas of the workforce – multiple sites, shift employees, diversity (race, gender, ethnicity), and departments.   It’s also important to consider who will chair or co-chair the Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee and whether or not there are the finances to support a Corporate Health Promotion Program manager or occupational health professional, even on a part-time or contractual basis.  Click here for more information on the advantages of a health professional.  

Depending on your company size and resources, if you already have a company Safety Committee you may want to consider making it the Safety & Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee.  You are able to request volunteers or invite workers to take part.  

The number of Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee members is dependent upon the size of your corporation; however, you need sufficient members to get the work done and yet not too many to keep it manageable, usually a minimum of 4 members and maximum of 12 to 15 members.  It’s valuable to include skeptics of wellness as well and not just those staff members already living healthy lifestyles.  

Depending on your workplace, consider representatives from the following areas:

• Employee representatives from a cross section of different departments,
• Senior Management
• Health and safety professional(s),
• Human resources professional(s),
• Employee benefits representative or someone from finance,
• Your EAP provider (if applicable), Click here for more information on EAPs
• Occupational health employee (if applicable).

Establish a strong Employee Health Promotion Program Committee!  The Employee Health Promotion Program Committee should meet on a regular basis with a planned agenda and action items.  Effective Wellness Committees have a shared mission, vision and objectives.  Participants need to believe that their participation is worthwhile and appreciated, that their work is significant, benefits the organization and co-workers, and they are recognized for their contributions. Refer to the NC Workplace Programs section for examples of what other corporations have implemented.

As with any program, the two most important components for the performance of your wellness program are management reinforcement & employee participation.  Senior Management sets the vision and arranges the resources from which action plans flow.  Genuine reinforcement from senior personnel also lends credibility to the wellness plan.  It is critical that management be visible supporters and role models for your Employee Wellness Program.

staff members need to be involved on several levels so that they feel ownership of the wellness program.  Staff Members are the program stakeholders!  All staff members must have an opportunity to offer input and feedback through needs & interest surveys and program assessment tools.  The information gathered must be used to plan programs that target those needs and interests to ensure participation, buy-in, and support.

There are several methods to identify employee needs and interests such as:

• Holding Employee Focus Groups
• Discovering Wellness Interests During Department meetings
• Distributing and Summarizing a Needs & Interest Survey
• (Including|Allowing for|Making sure to include} an Opportunity to Give Suggestions on Each Evaluation Tool  

Any one or combination of several techniques will be sure that the wellness program meets what staff members want.

Step 3 supports additional information on determining wellness program needs.  But first, instituting a Worksite Wellness Program Committee can help you involve senior staff & workers, determine need, and plan your wellness program.

A key to a successful Company Wellness Program requires management responsibility and employee participation.

Company Wellness Program Step 2: Create a Company Wellness Program Committee

An active Corporate Wellness Program Committee ensures employee participation, supports buy-in, management reinforcement, and maintains a crew that is ready to take action to launch wellness programs.

Company Health Promotion Program Step 3: Gather Data to Identify Key Needs and Expectations

The next critical step is to base the Corporate Wellness Program on the needs and interests of your business and its staff members.

Corporate Wellness Program Step 4: Create Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives are the maps to guide you where your program needs to go.   These are the foundation for planning and evaluating activities to ensure that your wellness program is going to meet your unique needs.

Company Health Promotion Program Step 5: Organize a Detailed Action Plan

There is no such thing as over-planning!  The best of intentions can get lost, overstepped, or forgotten in the absence ofadequate planning, and then it would be all for naught.

Workplace Wellness Program Step 6: Choose and Implement a Plan

Now that you have the needs assessment results, a Corporate Wellness Program Committee, objectives it’s now time to enable your plan!

Worksite Health Promotion Program Step 7: Monitor and Evaluate Your Worksite Health Promotion Program

Evaluation is a critical step to keep a program on target, as well as to see that the program is reaching its objectives or achieving the desired outcome.

Summary

These Seven Steps outline considerations for a all-inclusive approach to implementing an effective wellness program.  Are you able to implement components of wellness activities without following these steps?  Absolutely, but you may lack the sustainability or ability to bring about desired outcomes.  Following the Seven Steps does not have to be complicated or burdensome.  A very simple approach can achieve a efficacious wellness program!

Therefore, to ensure a efficacious wellness program refer to the key components as you plan your program or better your current program:

• Senior Management Support & Employee Involvement
• Active Workplace Wellness Program Committee
• Company Wellness Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Corporate Wellness Program Goals and Objectives are Determined
• Detailed Employee Wellness Program Action Plan Based upon Resources & Budget
• Company Health Promotion Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Evaluation of Company Wellness Program Outcomes

The program design options depend on the goals and objectives and desired outcomes of your program.  If your goal is to help employees make a change behavior, reduce risk factors, or save healthcare money then your wellness program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be essential to support that design.  

Wellness program design options vary, depending on desired outcomes and budgets.  Each level has advantages and disadvantages.  The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining similar results, and therefore should not be confused.  For example, planning activities such as an employee wellness and health fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having brochures available do not usually result in behavior change, but may increase awareness on a topic.  If the goal is behavior change then a different design is required, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Company Support.  The outline below outlines the wellness design levels with a short explanation.

Awareness Programs:  At this level a organization makes health information available and accessible to staff members.  This type of program often includes brochures on a variety of subject matters, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc.   Also, most wellness fairs are designed as awareness programs with vendors offering information and offering health screenings to staff members.  

Awareness programs are cheap and do not require extensive employee or employer time commitments.  Nevertheless, these programs do not usually yield behavior modification.  Increasing awareness isn’t usually sufficient to generate lifestyle changes for most people, unless used to arouse staff members to register for a program being available at the employer or area on the topic.  An example of this would be providing information on the deleterious effects of smoking and inviting staff members who use tobacco to register for a tobacco cessation class.

Education Programs:  Educational programs frequently provide more information on a topic and usually also provide time for Q & A, but are similar to awareness programs.  An example is lunch-n-learn sessions on a health related topic.  These cost the company a little more than awareness programs; however, they remain inexpensive and do not require a whole lot of time for planning or attending a session.  Again, increasing awareness and providing information may not lead to the desired behavior change unless ongoing reinforcement or rewards and incentives are also planned.

Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs:  These programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or sessions to offer health and wellness education, address barriers and offer opportunities to practice the desired skills.  Behavior change programs therefore require more organization resources, cost more, and also require more employee responsibility, time and effort.  The results are frequently the desired beneficial lifestyle change, which if sustained may lead to potential cost savings.  

Examples are tobacco cessation classes, weight loss and weight management meetings, or an ongoing fitness program.

Environmental and Corporation Support:  Environmental backing is often considered the highest and most valuable level to include when beginning your wellness program in order to support and maintain healthy behaviors.  These types of design options include policy changes such as:

• Creating a tobacco-free workplace
• Designating a walking path,
• Securing worksite fitness centers,
• Ensuring healthy snack machines selections,
• Offering healthy diet choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Creating flex-time policies.  

Other examples include subsidizing healthy vending machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing health club or weight loss and weight management program memberships; or providing insurance incentives for healthy lifestyles.

Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of all of these options.  The more integrated the approach, the more efficacious the outcome will be.  For example, a business can have tobacco cessation information available; can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking and how to quit; can enable an worksite tobacco cessation program, supply self quit smoking kits, or support staff members to attend a area program; and/or on an environmental reinforcement level can establish a tobacco-free workplace and grounds, offer reduced healthcare insurance for non-smokers, or provide pharmacological quit smoking aids for free.

Worksite Wellness Program: Components for Success

There are several key parts that must be considered to ensure the success of your Corporate Health Promotion Program or Corporate Health Promotion Program.  These include:  

• Upper Management Reinforcement & Employee Involvement
• Active Corporate Wellness Program Committee
• Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Goals and Objectives are Established
• Detailed Action Plan Based upon Resources & Budget
• Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Assessment of Outcomes and Program

Major advantages of healthy workers include:

• Reduced Health Care expenditures
• Reduced Injuries
• Lowered Absenteeism
• Increased Morale and Loyalty
• Increased Productivity
• Diminished Use of Healthcare Benefits
• Reduced Workers’ Comp/Disability
• Positive Image in Community
• Reduced Turnover
• Improved recruitment for able staff members

What is NOT Having a Workplace Health Promotion Program Costing Your Organization?  

Let us look at the health risk factors that are contributing to chronic diseases for adults:

• 59 percent of American adults are overweight or obese
• Greater than 60 percent of American adults do not get regular exercise
• Greater than 75% of American citizens do not consume the minimum recommendations for fruits and vegetables
• Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death and the # 1 cause of death in smokers
• 26% of staff members reported they were often or very often burned out or stressed by their work  

Medical Care expenditures are On the Rise:  Medical Care costs are at a record high of $1.7 trillion with no signs of holding steady, let alone going down.  The average cost of yearly medical care spending is over $5,000 per person and with dependents almost $10,000.  Recent data shows that medical care related expenditures now cost North Carolina organizations thousands of dollars per employee, per year.

Most Illnesses Can Be Avoided:  Although it sounds unbelievable, experts insist that avoidable illness makes up 60% – 70% of the entire burden of illness in the U.S..   In North Carolina, it is estimated that more than 53% of all deaths are avoidable, and that 2/3 of all avoidable deaths are due to tobacco use, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition.

Stress Levels are Rising:  As employer resources become less and organizations adopt leaner work practices, the effects of absenteeism and productivity lost have an increased effect.  In a current nationwide poll, 78% of the population described their jobs as stressful, and most believe that stress levels have risen over The previous decade.  To make matters worse, high levels of employer stress can negatively affect a employer by growing injuries, absenteeism, and healthcare costs while decreasing productivity.  Simple solutions such as stress management education, flexible work schedules, quality social interaction, and increased participation in employer decision-making can improve stress levels in the workplace.

What is the Initial Cost and Time Investment for a Worksite Wellness Program?

The expense depends on the type of Corporate Health Promotion Program implemented.  There are several options to reward employee health with advantages and disadvantages of each.  The program design depends on the goals/objectives of the wellness program, the company resources, and the community resources available.  

Enhancing dietary practices, increasing physical exercise levels, managing stress or approaching work life balance issues, and reducing/eliminating tobacco use, are primary strategies for preventing many of the most common preventable chronic diseases. The possibilities of how your employer deals with these issues are endless and can range from increasing employee awareness, which may include purchasing a few brochures on a variety of topics, and calculating walking distances around your facility, to implementing employer support such as funding a full-time occupational health consultant or building an onsite fitness center.  

When well-planned and based on your goals/objectives, any of these programs are able to help you succeed.  Refer below to Employee Health Promotion Program Design Options for additional ideas.

A Worksite Wellness Program is a comprehensive program to help and support workers in establishing healthier lifestyles.  This could possibly include growing employee awareness on health topics, scheduling behavior modification programs, and/or establishing corporation policies that support health-related objectives.  Programs and policies that promote increased physical activity, tobacco use prevention and cessation, and healthy diet selections are a few examples.  

Dimensions of Wellness

Wellness is much more than fitness alone.  In addition to physical fitness, the scope of good health include:

   • Spiritual Dimension of Wellness,
   • Emotional Dimension of Wellness,
   • Social Dimension of Wellness,
   • Intellectual Wellness

These dimensions are often illustrated as a “life wheel” with examples of health dimensions that include fitness, nutrition, purpose in life, monetary planning, social health & reinforcement systems, stress management, mind-body health, career planning and constant learning.   The key to personal health is keeping the “life wheel” in balance.  A comprehensive workplace wellness program addresses most, if not all, of these dimensions.

Why Employee Health Promotion Programs?

employees invest a whole lot of time working, and the fact of the matter is that our traditional work-week is increasing.  In fact, the everyday American now works about 47 hours a week.  In addition, items such as modems, laptop computers, cell phones, voice and email have blurred the work-life boundary.  These realities cut down on the amount of time that the average individual is able to spend on wellness and health pursuits, and yet employees are expected to be top of their game when at work.

A current study conducted by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses found that workplace wellness or Workplace Health Promotion Programs are successful in supporting employees to make positive health changes due to several factors such as convenience, environmental backing, and co-worker or social acceptance.  

What’s the Connection between Wellness and the Workplace?

Programs and policies that encourage healthy behaviors have the potential to make a big difference on employee wellness AND have an influence on the company’s bottom line.  Studies have found that for every dollar invested by employers in Workplace Health Promotion Programs/wellness programs, there were savings ranging from $1.49 to $4.91 with a median savings of $3.14*.  In company jargon, that’s more than a 3:1 minimum return on investment – a number that is difficult to ignore, and a best practice that must warrant serious consideration from employers.  In fact, a Workplace Health Promotion Program literature review posted in Health Promotion Practitioner Journal observed:

   • 19 studies observed a 28.3 percent reduction in sick leave
   • 16 studies shown a 5.6:1 ROI
   • 23 showed a 26.1% decline in health care costs
   • 4 saw a 30 percent decrease in direct healthcare and workers’ compensation claims

There is little doubt that a comprehensive wellness program targeted to meet an enterprise’s specific needs can save money by decreasing absenteeism, lowering medical care expenditures, lowering employee turnover, and building productiveness.

• The United States Department of Health & Human Services, 2003