Wellness Library : What is a Corporate Health Promotion Program?

According to the American Journal of Health Promotion, “Health promotion is the science and art of helping people shift their lifestyle to move toward a state of ideal health. Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, shift behavior, and set up environments that support great health practices. Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change.”

Company Health Promotion Program: Action Steps

The process of assembling a Employee Health Promotion Program involves:

• Identifying the current health status of your workers
• Determining the appropriate programs and interventions to offer
• Promoting and implementing the programs
• Building in motivational incentives and rewards
• Measuring the effect
• Revising programs based on assessment outcomes

It may even include beginning policies and procedures that support employee participation in wellness activities at your workplace (such as flextime).

Steps to Starting a Corporate Wellness Program

• Conduct an employer assessment
• Obtain senior staff reinforcement
• Establish a Workplace Wellness Program Committee
• Get employee input
• Establish goals
• Design and implement program activities
• Identify incentives/rewards
• Assess outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to improve the nation’s health is through accross the board Corporate Health Promotion Programs. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, these programs may help workers live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior modification programs. In fact, one of the objectives of Healthy People 2010, a set of health objectives for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to increase the proportion of workers that participate in a accross the board Corporate Health Promotion Program at their worksite to 75 percent.

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