Wellness Library

• Make sure that your building’s stairwells are clean, attractive and safe, and post signs encouraging staff members to use the stairs.
• Organize a wellness newsletter or intranet.
• Encourage the Activity Tracker and encourage staff members to track their physical activity every week.
• Be creative, and make the most of the workspace you have. For example, mark off a safe walking path inside or around the building. You might also set up a training circuit, highlighting features of the worksite such as stairs.
• Provide physical activity opportunities at different times to accommodate night-, shift-, and part-time workers.
• For workers in remote or satellite offices, offer equal access to key pushes via the intranet. Adapt challenges to suit their environment and take advantage of local facilities and resources.
• Make physical exercise available to employees with special needs. Adapt information and activities for any employee who are visually impaired or physically disabled as well as for individuals who speak English as a second language.
• Educate staff members about physical activity using information from reputable sources such as the Alberta Centre for Active Living.
• Offer facilities that invite onsite physical exercise. Possibilities include bike racks, physical activity room, change rooms with lockers and showers, and safe and attractive grounds for walking.
• Hold walking gatherings.
• Encourage staff members to walk to co-workers’ offices instead of e-mailing or phoning.
• Set up a stretching room. This low-cost initiative requires only a room, stretching mats, stability balls and medicine balls. Put up posters that show stretches and exercises.
• Provide rewards and incentives such as shoe bags, ball caps, T-shirts or water bottles to reward employee participation.
• Loan out pedometers for three months, so that workers can discover how many steps they usually take and how much exercise they need to add to get basic health benefits.
• Allocate space for workers to plant and maintain a flowerbed or garden at the workplace. Use any resulting produce for gatherings and potluck lunches or donate it to charity.
• Create a workplace health and wellness fair.
• Hire a qualified fitness specialist to design and manage an worksite fitness facility.
• Supply employees with active wear that shows off the organization logo.

• Organize a launch event to create excitement about upcoming activities and to establish a social climate that establishes being active as the norm.
• Develop and reward monthly or bi-monthly company programs that are fun and active, e.g., picnics with physical games, employee tournaments and dragon boat racing. Urge families to join in by including all-ages programs such as relay races, soccer matches, bocce ball and baseball games.
• Begin a swim club at a local pool. Invite groups of workers to swim the distance of a nearby lake. Convert kilometres to lengths and reward workers who complete the swim. Set up a challenge between workers and managers to see who covers the greatest distance.
• Post a sign-up board where employee can join a group or find a buddy to participate in activities of interest.
• Develop a organization badminton tournament that lasts several months, with each employee playing once a week. Post the results as the tournament progresses.
• Develop an office Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon or Masters Games. Invite teams to compete in several activities over a month. Reward everyone who participates.
• Establish a point system in which one minute of exercise equals one point. Set a target, and post a chart where all workers have the potential to track their points. Reward the first group to reach that target.
• Develop a stair climb challenge. Post a chart at the top of the stairwell, and promote employees to track the number of flights of stairs they climb each workday. Set up teams, and award a prize to the first group to climb the equivalent of Mount Everest.
• Display and encourage a sign-up board for lunchtime walking groups.
• Create a walk “across the U.S.” Select a route, learn how many steps it would take to walk that distance and challenge staff members to do it. Give or loan pedometers to staff members, and ask them to record the number of steps they take. Or, if you can’t afford pedometers, track the minutes walked. Set up a challenge between staff members and managers to see who is able to walk across the U.S. first.
• Design a walk to work club. Acknowledge workers who either walk to work or walk to public transit.
• Have a volunteer group leader guide weekly lunchtime power walks.
• Design a million-step challenge. Form groups, challenge each group to walk a combined total of a million steps and reward the winner. Departments or sites might compete with each other and with upper management.
• Challenge staff members to walk 10,000 steps a day. Buy pedometers for all participating staff members or, if you can’t afford that, make pedometers available at a reduced rate. Provide tips for increasing daily steps, and reward staff members who succeed.

There is no one right way to approach wellness programs but winning programs share common success factors. These include management support and commitment, employee involvement, adequate resources, and a policy on health that goes hand in hand with the organization’s mission, vision and values.

Employee Health Promotion Program: A Range of Approaches

Although the objective is to eventually have a long-term, inclusive wellness program, some organizations prefer to start with a single program at a basic level. By way of example, the first steps might be as simple as offering lunch-hour sessions on first aid or healthy eating; or they might launch a pilot project to find out how interested employees are to ensure employees needs are being met before taking on anything more ambitious. This approach supports a chance to show the effect on employees and the workplace so management will be more willing to consider a larger and more far-reaching plan.

Other businesses plan a variety of drives to meet the needs of the different sorts of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to advance a sound corporation case, complete with a health plan, before setting out on any sort of program. Organizations want to ensure that a new program is completely integrated with their overall corporation vision and mission.

Worksite Health Promotion Program: Success Factors

Whether your business chooses to think big from the outset or to activate with something smaller, always keep in mind the following key success factors:

• support and participation from upper management;
• employee participation in organizing;
• programs that meet employee needs;
• a realistic budget; and
• continuous review.

In sports, a game plan is a series of steps that a group must follow to accomplish its intention of winning. Most winning teams plan to win. Employers also need game plans, even if they do not call them by that name.

Good planning will help to ensure that your wellness program happens the way you want it to, and that expenditures have the potential to be identified in advance and kept within budget. Good planning prevents small problems from becoming bigger.

Steps in Planning a Workplace Health Promotion Program

Get upper management backing. You may need to foster a organization case to convince managers that the wellness program is a organization strategy-that employee health and job satisfaction impacts their productiveness. employees need to see evidence that upper management believes in and is committed to employee health.

Establish a planning committee. Members can include representatives from employee groups as well as from human resources(HR), health and safety, and communications.

Gather information. To prove that your Worksite Health Promotion Program is beneficial, establish a benchmark before the program begins. You may wish to look at employee satisfaction, absenteeism rates, stress levels, drug costs or WCB expenditures. Review what workplace facilities are available to support employees to make healthy choices such as showers and change areas or a secure place to store a bicycle. Review employee needs through a survey or questionnaire, suggestion box or focus group. Communicate the results.

Design the plan to reflect the information gathered. Include program objectives, activities and how you are going to measure whether your objectives were met. Keep the plan flexible. You may have to change direction in response to employee feedback or changes in the company’s structure.

Obtain senior staff approval. Support for employee time and a budget are required.

Put activities in place. Offer a variety of activities that create awareness, increase knowledge, develop skills, and support social interaction. (Activities might include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Worksite Wellness Programs Week, SummerActive, WinterActive, corporate challenge, golf days, and newsletters that support information about community resources.) Workplaces are able to also make it easier for employees to make healthy choices by providing flextime to allow employees to fit exercise in when it is convenient or by subsidizing programs in cooperation with community or private fitness facilities. A policy on catering for gatherings has the potential to make sure that healthy foods are provided.

Evaluate the plan. Share your successes with others, learn from your mistakes and modify activities.

A wellness program doesn’t have to be complicated or a huge cost. Just do it. Get support from upper management, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.

How does it feel to walk into your worksite? Do people look happy? Is the place illuminated and cheerful? Do you feel welcome, wanted and energized? Or do you feel a dark cloud come over you, and count the hours until you are able to leave?
The impact of the worksite environment on the health & wellness of workers is huge. First there is the physical look, feel, smell, and sounds of the place. Then you’re affected by the policies, like whether others are allowed to light up around you. After a while, more subtle factors begin to affect you. Do your attempts to adopt a healthier lifestyle get recognized at work, or are they sabotaged? Are your managers inspiring you by being healthy role models? Do you get regular opportunities to discover healthier behaviors?
In a supportive environment, staff members feel that the business they work for provides them with encouragement, opportunity, and rewards for healthy lifestyles. And the spirit that results is highly contagious. Staff Members who feel cared are naturally more loyal and productive.
The following ideas will help you change your workplace environment into one that actually supports the wellness of your employees and organization.

Worksite Health Promotion Program Ideas for Creating Supportive Environments

Wellness Friendly Facilities

When you enter a workplace, do you feel comfortable? Could you be happy working there? Is there sufficient light and clean air? Are there pleasant work areas, places to eat decent meals, take a walk before lunch? Close your eyes. How does it smell? Sound? Do the staff members have sufficient space?
• Vending machines with healthy meal choices like non-fat milk, fruits, sugar-free and caffeine-free beverages and low-calorie snacks
• Workout area, walking paths, playing fields, basketball hoop, or other exercise opportunities worksite or nearby
• Cafeteria offers healthy foods that may include a salad bar with low-fat dressing
• Natural light is used whenever possible; all lighting is appropriate and adequate
• Heating and ventilation is adjustable, comfortable and healthful
• No cigarette machines, ashtrays, or smoking areas onsite
• Noise levels are safe and supportive of concentration
• Work station furniture conforms to ergometric standards
• Safety risks have been eliminated
• Lockers and showers are available for employees who exercise before work or during breaks
• Stairs are clean and well lit, convenient and pleasant to use
Familiarity can make it tough to evaluate a workplace. People get used to stressful conditions and forget that conditions ever bothered them. It might provce useful to ask someone who is unfamiliar with your workplace to walk through with you. Professional consultants can also help.

Proactive Wellness Policies

One clear way to influence behavior is through policies and procedures. If nurses aren’t permitted to work more than twelve hours in a row, there will be fewer medication errors. If parents are afforded flextime to address their children’s needs, they’ll be less stressed. If staff members have the potential to apply unused sick days to planned vacation time, they’ll save them up instead of calling in sick to utilize them all.

Supportive corporate policies may include:

• Safety Belt use required in organization vehicles
• Alcohol and drug policies are appropriate to the industry
• Emergency procedures are developed, known, and practiced
• Flexible work schedules allow staff members to exercise, attend children’s school conferences, etc.
• Nonsmoking policy is enforced
• Excessive overtime is discouraged
• Membership at fitness facility is partially reimbursed
• Shift employees are scheduled to allow adequate rest
• Medical Costs coverage rewards great health
• Absenteeism policy rewards staff members who don’t use sick days
• EAP ready to help staff members with chemical dependencies, depression, family issues
• Meaningful consequences are used for unsafe, unhealthy, prohibited behavior.  Your employer may have a policy concerning alcohol use during work hours, but if everyone looks the other way when someone comes back from lunch reeking of beer, the culture is one that permits drinking at lunch-and one in which written policies have the potential to be safely ignored. Prohibited behaviors must be confronted promptly. Otherwise your policies become mere lip service rather than springboards to health.

Consistent Recognition And Rewards For Success

Attention, praise, and rewards are given for wellness achievements.
You are able to show you value the Corporate Health Promotion Programs by celebrating your programs and those who’ve made lifestyle improvements in business newsletters, on bulletin boards, and at yearly banquets, gatherings, and celebrations. Incentives are a direct way to show appreciation, too.
Wellness mentors are sought and applauded, too. Staff Members who support others’ efforts to improve their health are noticed and appreciated. Peer modeling and mentoring classes can encourage those who enjoy assisting others to step forward into a new role.

Managers Model And Support Healthy Behavior

Nothing might say “We promote you to exercise frequently” better than a manager going on a bike ride during the lunch hour–or your supervisor sitting next to you in a weight management class. Wellness activities reward relaxed interaction between people from different departments and at different levels in the chain of command. That promotes relaxed communication and a feeling of solidarity that is pure gold.
Managers might also provide support for workers who are working on improving their health. It doesn’t take anything fancy-just a “good job” or “nice to see you at the gym” can put a glow on the cheeks of most of us.
Managers might also help by allowing employees the flexibility to go to wellness activities.

Ongoing Employee Wellness Programs

It’s valuable to give staff members the sense that the wellness program is a permanent and valuable part of the employer, not a employer fad. That can begin as soon as a new employee is hired.
New employees are oriented to the wellness program as one of the employee benefits. Information about the program must be presented by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable person who encourages the new employee to participate.
The workers are familiar with the ongoing wellness programs.
The wellness programs and wellness coordinator are well known in the business. Opportunities to participate are abundant and it’s easy to sign up.
A wide variety of awareness classes are available. There are subject matters of interest for everyone.

These are fun and simple programs that are able to be done within your business to arouse healthy lifestyles during a contest or during other times. The goal is to bolster employee participation. Some examples:
• Organize a sub-committee of enthusiastic staff members who will help promote the exercise program by offering ideas, ideas and encouragement to fellow staff members.
• Establish monthly mailbox flyers to encourage a contest or offer fitness-related education/encouragement information.
• Send a weekly voicemail on each participant’s telephone with encouraging wellness messages.
• Make available regular cumulative health progress reports.
• Offer reduced fat or heart-healthy lunch selections once a week in your cafeteria or have staff members bring a healthy snack to share, with a recipe book compiled at the end of the contest or specified time period (such as a National Nutrition Month in March).
• Distribute employee gifts (pedometers or other novelty item related to some aspect of your contest theme) as registration begins.
• Allocate for workers “Fitness 15-Minute Walk Breaks;” corporation time to walk, exercise, etc. If appropriate, you might use a space not currently used to set up a treadmill, elliptical, bicycle, some no cost weights and meditation music.
• Hold a T-shirt design contest.
• Establish posters to map contest (or fitness) progress and to serve as reminder of your objectives and goals:
   • Use push pins or other identifiers for each individual to display in the office showing how they have progressed – employees have the potential to get very creative with this and design pins that reflect their personalities.
   • Use a bar graph to compare progress.
   • Use a “thermometer” type graphic and color in progress – consider a different, health-related graphic all together and color it in as you progress.
• Offer aerobic dance or physical activity videos in your conference or break rooms.
• Compile a list of organized events in the community that offer opportunities to get employees working out by participating as a group (below are just a few):
   • Race For The Cure
   • March of Dimes Walk America event
   • Juvenile Diabetes Research
   • Foundation Walk to Cure
   • American Heart Association’s Heart Walk
   • American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life
   • American Lung Association’s Lung Run
   • Local marathons or special general area walks or runs
• Establish or catch a health-and-fitness workshop or retreat.
• Hold a soup-and-salad luncheon followed by a hula-hoop contest!
• Use the mall as an alternate walking location during inclement weather.
• Establish “Move it Mondays” – allow workers to take an extra ten minutes at lunchtime for physical activity.
• Create “Tasty Tuesdays” – provide staff members with low-calorie treats/snacks.
• Create “Walking Wednesdays”- allow employees to take an extra 10 minutes at lunchtime to walk, or “Wacky Wednesdays” that allow employees to explore new exercises.
• Create “Thirsty Thursdays” – make healthy smoothies or juice drinks for employees.
• Designate “Fresh Fruit Fridays” for employee – offer seasonal produce treats.
• Send weekly exercise tips to employees via the most effective communications vehicle in your workplace.
• Partner with another organization representative for local media events coordinated through your advertising or communication department.
• Encourage departmental teams to challenge each other (examples: Customer Service, Marketing, Health Support).
• Create walking clubs with executive/supervisory leadership.
• Seek out local aerobic opportunities or classes through churches, community groups, college, YMCA, etc.
• Contact several local area health clubs and ask if they can or will offer group discounts for physical activity programs, waive enrollment fees, or set up a 12-week program as opposed to signing an extended contract.
• Have a Frozen Yogurt Social – “Reap the Benefits of Fitness.”
• Map out a walking track around the building including the number of laps necessitated for one mile.

These are concise informational “Health Tips” in an e-mail format on many different health-related issues. You can appoint someone within your business to find specific issues on the Internet from sites that are in the public domain or issues can be purchased from businesses. Some qualified sources include:
• Hope Health
• Sound Ideas, Inc.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• National Institutes of Health

These e-mails can be sent daily, weekly or monthly. Our experience indicates weekly is the best frequency.

If the majority of your workers do not have e-mail, consider offering the information to them through:
• Bulletin boards
• Check stuffers
• Mailbox stuffers
• Newsletters

SAMPLE #1 Job Site Wellness E-mail Messages

From: Worksite Health Promotion Program
To: Wellness Team
Subject: Layering for Exercise

One way to help ensure enjoyment of a winter walk (or run) is to make sure you’re dressed properly for the weather. And the secret to that, for a winter workout, is to dress in layers.
Layer 1 — Avoid 100 percent cotton in the first layer, next to your skin. Cotton holds moisture. Wear underwear made from manmade fabrics to wick perspiration away from skin.
Layer 2 — A zippered sweatshirt and sweatpants will keep you warm. Just open the zipper if you get too warm.
Layer 3 — If required, over the sweatsuit, you have the potential to add a waterproof and windproof jacket. If it’s very cold, you may want to wear a jacket made with goose down.
Hands — Mittens will keep your hands warmer than gloves.
Feet — Wear socks made from wool or manmade fabrics that keep your feet dry and warm. Avoid 100 percent cotton socks. Don’t wear sneakers or boots that fit too tightly … this will restrict blood flow and your feet will end up feeling colder.
Head — About 40% of your body’s heat is lost through your head. Wear a hat and cover your ears.
Lips — Don’t forget lip balm containing sunscreen … even in winter!

SAMPLE #2 Job Site Wellness E-mail Messages

From: Company Wellness Program
To: Wellness Team
Subject: Energy Boosts

Need a boost of energy? Here are some ideas for tapping into your own energy sources — and most require little effort.
• Get an extra hour of sleep. No surprise here — it has the potential to make a tremendous difference in your energy level the next day.
• Eat less more frequently. Have small, balanced meals or snacks throughout your day for a steady supply of fuel and energy. Make note of which foods seem to boost your energy level.
• Drink enough water. Dehydration leads to to fatigue, which you are able to offset by drinking water throughout the day.
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Both have the potential to contribute to dehydration and fatigue. They also seem to disrupt sleep patterns.

Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs are learning sessions planned and organized by you to meet specific goals and objectives. Decide on a topic and choose a speaker. Choose a site for the “Lunch and Learn” session, usually a lunchroom or break room. Depending upon your budget and objectives, staff members are able to brown bag the lunch or you might provide the meal. Meetings are able to be mandatory or elective, your choice.
Experience tells us the most success will be seen if these Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs are elective and if the employer supplies lunch.
Goals for Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Sessions

Education on a specific health problem. You may want to choose one of your group’s top diagnoses. Examples are:
• Diabetes – diabetes prevention and care by a certified diabetic educator
• Cardiovascular disease – cardiovascular health (individual counseling sessions with a dietician)
• High Blood Pressure
• High cholesterol
• Flu and pneumonia
• Breast cancer – breast health or breast self-exam sessions have the potential to be taught by a trained instructor

Education on medical insurance benefits:
• Diabetes – what are the covered benefits, where to purchase diabetic supplies, support groups for employees with diabetes.
• Worksite Wellness Program Benefits
• Well baby/child care.

Education on the significance of enrolling in your health plan or local health department’s health education programs or disease management programs. Example programs:
• Diabetes
• Respiratory
• Low-Back Pain
• Cardiovascular
• Tobacco use

Community Resource Speakers for Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs
• Local health plan office
• Local heart association
• Local cancer society
• Pharmacies – many pharmacists are available to speak on pharmacy-related concerns.
• Prescription Drug Organizations – many employers have standard presentations developed for employers that are provided free of charge to use at your own direction. Some examples are:
   • Know Your Numbers (elevated blood lipids) – Pfizer
   • Respiratory Wellness (flu and pneumonia) – Pfizer
   • Men’s and Women’s Health – Pfizer
• Local gyms/personal trainers/YMCA – have the potential to discuss walking safety, benefits of walking, swimming and aerobics.
• Yoga and/or Pilates instructors
• Running, cycling club representatives
• Local dieticians
• Stamp Out Smoking – Tobacco Coalition representatives

Topics for Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs

• Bicycling – benefits and opportunities for cycling
• Nutrition and health (Heart Healthy lunch for all attendees)
• Cardiovascular health
• Women’s health problems
• How to recognize the signs and symptoms of heart attack and stroke
• National Employee Fitness Day within the office setting – Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness representatives can encourage event
• Exercise tolerance and healthy heart concerns
• Initiating an exercise program – include the significance of seeing the doctor prior to the beginning of any new exercise program
• Self-defense
• Domestic abuse
• Safety in general
• Exercise safety
• Walking/running benefits and safety tips Tobacco dangers and avoidance

Conducting an Employee Fitness Challenge at your workplace is a fun and exciting way to raise awareness among staff members about the significance of beginning and sustaining an physical activity program. It is a concentrated effort in which to engage them in physical exercise for a specific time period that, hopefully, will help them begin a healthy habit that will last a lifetime.
Still, it is valuable to take part in wellness year-round. This section supports a all-inclusive list of Employee Wellness Program ideas that have been implemented within wellness programs.
All ideas presented in this section have been successful for one or both of the entities. Each exercise/idea can be used as a stand-alone event, even if you don’t conduct a fitness contest, or can be held in conjunction with your Employee Fitness Contest.
You may want to choose some of the ideas you believe will work for your workers or come up with others and begin your program to create a better state of health.

Research studies have repeatedly established that comprehensive Company Wellness Programs, or Company Wellness Programs, have the potential to reduce health care and insurance costs, cut down on absenteeism, and improve performance and productiveness. Other advantages established in studies include improved ability to attract and retain key personnel, greater employee allegiance, and improved public perception of the business.

Health Care and Insurance expenditures

A number of studies offer evidence of lower medical and insurance costs for participants in Workplace Health Promotion Programs, particularly wellness programs involving physical activity.

For $30 per person, the Bank of America implemented a Worksite Wellness Program for retirees using a risk assessment questionnaire, self-care books and other mailed materials. Insurance claims were reduced an average of $164 per year in this group while they increased $15 for the control group. Since they were able to document significant changes in risk behavior, they anticipate greater savings in future years.

Pacific Bell’s FitWorks participants claim $300 less per case for a one-year savings of $700,000. Savings for conditions related to a sedentary lifestyle are $722 per case.

Coca Cola stated a decrease in health care|medical|medical care|healthcare} claims with an physical activity program alone, saving $500 per employee per year for the workers (60%) who joined their HealthWorks exercise program. Prudential Insurance Organization reports that the organization’s major medical costs dropped from $574 to $312 for each attendant in its wellness program.

Decreased Rates of Absenteeism

Absenteeism has been demonstrated to be impacted by wellness programs. The evidence indicates a significant decline in absenteeism and resultant dollars saved as a result of employee fitness programs.

Pacific Bell’s FitWorks program diminished absent days .8 percent to save $2 million in one year. FitWorks members also spent 3.3 days less on short-term disability for an additional savings of $4.7 million.

Focusing Corporate Wellness Program efforts on high-risk employees is able to lead to better results. A national manufacturing corporation reports a reduction of 12.2 percent in illness days for these employees.

A two-year study by The DuPont Corporation of the significance of its all-inclusive Employee Wellness Program on absences among staff members reports that blue-collar staff members at intervention sites had a 14 percent decline in disability days vs. 5.8 percent decline for controls. There were a total of 11,726 fewer net disability days.

Enhanced Performance, Productivity and Morale

A number of employers with Company Wellness Programs report documented improvement in job attitude, work performance, energy level, and/or overall morale among program participants–all critical factors in enhancing productiveness.

A Johnson & Johnson study saw that employee attitude changes were greater at Workplace Health Promotion Program intervention sites with significant beneficial attitude changes noted in the categories of corporation commitment, supervision, working conditions, job competence/security, and pay/benefits.

In a Canadian government study, the Canada Life Assurance Organization experimental group realized a 4% rise in productiveness after starting a employer physical activity program, compared to the control group. Further, 47% of program participants reported that they felt more alert, had better rapport with their co-workers, and generally enjoyed their work more.

Swedish investigators saw that mental success was significantly better in physically fit staff members than in non-fit staff members. Fit staff members committed 27 percent fewer errors on tasks involving concentration and short-term memory, as compared with the success of non-fit staff members.

The Bottom Line

The following sample of Worksite Wellness Programs wellness program results have been published by individual employers:

Organization: Dollars Saved/Dollars Spent

• Bank of America (Fries): $5.96/$1
• PacBell: $3.10/$1
• Wisconsin School District Insurance Group: $4.47/$1
• Prudential Insurance: $2.90/$1
• Bank of America (Leigh): $4.73/$1
• General Mills: $3.50/$1

Summary

There is mounting evidence that a large portion of the billions of dollars now being invested by employers on health-related expenditures is preventable by means of Company Wellness Programs. Well-planned, comprehensive Company Wellness Programs (Company Wellness Programs and Company Wellness Programs) have been shown to be cost-effective, especially when the Company Wellness Programs is matched to the health concerns of the specific employee.

Free Company Health Promotion Programs and Low Cost Health Management Alternatives

Design a no cost Corporate Wellness Program or run a efficacious health management program in the office for little or no expense to your employer. The advantages of workplace wellness and learning how to start a health management program at work are many. The articles on health management have generated a variety of questions, mostly from wellness providers but also from corporations trying to start their own wellness workplace programs. There are a number of things to do to start a efficacious health management program at work.

Suggestions for Starting a Free or Low Cost Employee Health Promotion Program

Before starting an inexpensive or free wellness program for your organization, learn more about what staff members desire. Survey staff members to learn more about their wellness concerns. Keep the survey confidential to safeguard employees’ identities. Typically the most popular workplace wellness topics are tobacco cessation, weight loss concerns and heart and blood lipid health.

Look for Employee Health Promotion Program Freebies

Look for who will come in for no cost to talk to employees and look into partnerships with outside agents linked with workplace wellness. By way of example, contact a local branch of a well-known weight loss organization and ask if someone can come in and talk to employees. Look for agencies that are willing to come in and talk about subject matters related to wellness at no cost to employees, in exchange for something from you.

Find Employee Health Promotion Program Partnerships

Working with a weight loss corporation to set up a speaking engagement for staff members is an excellent opportunity to explore a potential wellness partnership. The weight loss corporation may say that if ten staff members join the program, they will have weekly gatherings at corporation headquarters for the people who joined. The weight loss group also might offer corporation staff members a discount if several people join the program.

Nonprofits an Untapped Health Leadership Resource

There are also plenty of nonprofit agencies who would be thrilled to visit a employer to discuss health management. But it’s up to you to offer them something in return. For example, if the MS Society came in and talked about the signs of MS, the employer might offer to organize an MS walk (in keeping with employer health management goals/objectives, right?), or an auction with employee and employer-donated items where the proceeds go to MS. The people at the nonprofit agencies would be glad to open a dialog with your employer and to talk about what they would want in return for a speaking engagement. In countless cases, they won’t need anything at all for a first meeting.

Collecting Data and Reviewing Company Wellness Program Results

Collecting data and analyzing results of a Worksite Wellness Program can be tricky because of HIPPA laws. Still, if at least 10 staff members joined the weight loss program, or 20 people participate daily in the all-new “Let’s Walk a Mile at Lunch” program, that sort of progress can speak strongly to management. And, employer successes will potentially give management more incentive to provide money for additional health management and Worksite Wellness Programs in the future.