Wellness Library

Ideally, you will foster an overall plan for a Company Wellness Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. By way of example, you can begin by getting the following components in place:

• support from management
• a Workplace Wellness Program Committee or team
• information about the wellness needs and interests of employees
• a budget
• program objectives
• an assessment plan

Even if you have few financial and/or human resources(HR), you can still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you could focus on only one specific issue. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning can help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for establishing Company Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps have the potential to have an impact.

Whether you choose to begin with a single program or foster something larger, planning is critical. First think about the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Determine an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the employees and company?
• Promote. How can you most effectively get the word out to workers? What opportunities exist for promotion? Consider everything, because workers have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, workers get information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow workers.
• Deliver. Who is the best individual or group to put the program into action? Ask other corporations about approaches they have used. Decide on your budget prior to making a decision.
• Review. What should you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when organizing your plan:

• organizing and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the sort of program or campaign

The Elements of a Worksite Wellness Program

Initiatives to reward wellness in the workplace do not need to be restricted to a single area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting beneficial personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure (BP) clinics, pamphlets on heart disease, “lunch and learn” classes on eating habits and short-term physical exercise programs.

These activities are valuable, but workplace wellness ought to also be part of business’s business plan and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently detailed three key components of a healthy workplace:

• physical environment
• social environment and personal resources
• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider providing the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for staff members to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in snack machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist workers join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairwells that invite employees to use them.
• Assessing the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.
• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, as well as ways of doing business, are able to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Businesses should consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that provide safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• Employee Assistance Program(EAP)s

To cultivate a positive social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include:

• being respected
• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission
• freedom of expression
• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” may not address current employee needs. Seeing to it that individuals enjoy being at work is not an easy task, but making the right changes has the potential to have a huge impact.

Health Practices

Provide programs and set policies that help staff members remain healthy or better their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading diet labels.
• Tobacco cessation clinics or subsidies to help workers quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the concerns raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthy snacks offered at gatherings and conferences.

Personal Corporate Health Promotion Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your worksite, do not let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to consider:

• Be active at work. There are a myriad of ways to bring exercise into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Have walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office instead of sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy meal. Have a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for gatherings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you are able to leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and don’t take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Arrange your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Create and prioritize to ensure that the most valuable things get done first.

There’s no limit to the number or variety of Worksite Wellness Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the outcome so that you can sustain momentum.

Talk to other wellness practitioners to find out what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And do not forget to promote, promote, promote.

Tags: Corporate Wellness, health, medical, Wellness Library

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 3:19 am and is filed under Corporate Wellness, Wellness Library. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.