Wellness Program A to Z

The first step in developing your wellness/Health Promotion Program is to understand your company 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.

Wellness Program -  Research Questions

o  Find out if Wellness Program has been done in the past. If so, what worked and what did not?

o  Was it widely accepted?

o  Was wellness programming successful? Why or why not?

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

Answers to these questions will help you start the process of creating a culture of wellness within your corporation. It is imperative that you assess the environment before starting a health promotion program.

The costs of healthcare have been rising more than 10 percent yearly for several years. A substantial amount of the money spent in the healthcare system treats costly illnesses and illnesses.

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 disease and promoting health.

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

o  In an effort to optimize staff member health, reduce preventable health care utilization and enhance work performance, and in turn lower health care costs and improve staff member satisfaction and retention, many organizations are developing, or are interested in developing, Health Promotion Programs for personnel.

The advantages of employee wellness are well documented. Greater than 120 research repeatedly show themes like improvements in health outcomes coupled with high ROI. 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 decrease absenteeism costs per dollar invested.

o  Return On Investments of at least $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of health promotion program implementation.

o  Lifestyle behavior change programs -  $3 to $6 Return On Investment (ROI) within 2 to 5 years.

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

o  Illness management programs -  $7 to $10 Return On Investment (ROI) within a year.

By offering health promotion programs, businesss are not only providing an additional service for workforce, but they are also gaining financially. Further, the impact of a health promotion program goes beyond decreased health care 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 extensive guide to designing, beginning and assessing health promotion programs. National Corporation Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

According to the American Journal of Wellness, “Health Promotion 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 could be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change behavior, and create environments that support good health practices.

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

Health Promotion Program -  Action Steps

The process of building a Health Promotion Program involves -

o  Identifying the current health status of your employees

o  Determiningthe appropriate wellness programs and interventions to offer

o  Promoting and starting the health promotion programs

o  Building in motivational incentives

o  Assessing the impact

o  Revising health promotion programs based on examination outcomes

It could even include developing policies and procedures that support worker participation in wellness activities at your worksite (like flextime).

Steps to Beginning a Health Promotion Program

o  Conduct an organizational assessment

o  Get upper management support

o  Launch a wellness committee

o  Get staff member input

o  Develop objectives and objectives

o  Create and implement wellness program activities

o  Choose incentives

o  Evaluate outcomes

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

According to the USA Department of Health and Human Services, these health promotion programs may help staff members live healthier lifestyles by building supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior modification programs.

Truly, one of the goals of Healthy People  2010, a set of health goals for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to elevate the proportion of staff that participate in a comprehensive Wellness Program at their workplace to 75 percent.

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 finding appropriate ways to express them.

As personnel, we often bring emotional problems from our childhood or current family life into the workplace because we have not dealt with them effectively outside of work.

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

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

When an unpleasant mood or feeling persists over a length of time, don’t hesitate to seek out a certified specialist. Wellness programs normally have specialist support already in place as part of their services.

1. Health Coaching -

One of 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 staff member 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 coworker 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 web sites, such as sparkpeople .com and revolutionhealth.com. Wellness programs often have such groups available through web-based or telephone support. Progressive corporate wellness 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 often advised by counsellors as a way to help identify and process emotions. People  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 about others.

The letter doesn’t 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 has lost all interest in school, becoming moody and withdrawn.

Brent describes to his guidance counselor all the times he’d 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 has missed over the years telling them how he felt. In conclusion, he has a chance to say a proper goodbye.

4. Assess Your Emotional Health - Corporations 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 wellness programs have information about emotional intelligence, or emotional health assessments. Seek out more information about emotional intelligence for better company wellness.

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

These skills are also important for worksite health. When we are empathic with fellow staff members, 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 locating 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 healthful manner can 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 children and threatened to hit her youngest son. Her behavior horrified her.  To make matters worse, she believes she’s a failure at her job as well as at motherhood. She watches with jealousy as younger colleagues advance much more rapidly up the corporate ladder despite having less experience than she has.

On the advice of a counselor, she decides to take time out for herself and take a course for amateur painters. It does not 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 Company Interest in Worker Wellness

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

A recent Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 USA companies indicated a significant paradigm shift in how companies view health benefits for their staff.

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

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

Programs look to predict chronic condition in their staff members and give them the tools and the information to prevent it. Businesses also demand a way to measure the effectiveness of their healthcare spending.

Self-care is our motive, says Vic Lebouthillier, president of progressive wellness provider Exan Wellness.”We really believe giving workers 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 type of wellness program we have created over years delivers the highest healthcare return on investment.”

Combining company health promotion promotions, internet based assessments and health trackers, internet based health 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.

Businesses are moving beyond their traditional role as a provider of health care benefits to create holistic wellness programs that pinpoint the specific health needs of their worker populations, drive worker behavior change and eliminate barriers to health care, says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.

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

Based on these results, companys need to drive home the fact that improved health is better for their staff in addition to the corporation. It’s a win-win situation.

Employers and employees did find common ground when it came to future healthcare. Both surveys indicate that 95 percent of employees 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 avoidance 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 staff members.

Despite the fact that 64% of organizations have shifted costs to their workers, only 17% plan to do so in the next 3-5 years. In like manner with health reimbursement accounts, 20% now offer these, but only about 5% plan to use them in 2008.

These survey leads todicate organizations are getting more proactive in helping their staff to change behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is obviously good for the wellness of staff, but also for the wellness of the organizations 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 workforce change and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle.

Almost of these organizations will also use data and measurements to ensure their health care strategies meet their health care objectives?

It’s clear to virtually every American (particularly 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.

Businesses have reached the point where the cost of providing medical insurance is almost as burdensome as government regulation. It’s 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 health care costs.

The Insurance Problem

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

It’s time for corporations (on a wide scale) to reconsider their role in providing medical insurance coverage. Instead of providing complete coverage for all workforce through group plans, businesses should start to shift the burden of health coverage to those covered.

Here is the approach. Give catastrophic health insurance as a group benefit to all staff members with a big enough deductible (say $5000 per employee) to make the cost low cost for the organization.

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

There are numerous insurance corporations that sell individual plans on this basis. Everybody wins. Workers can tailor their coverage to their own needs and circumstances using their own doctors. Businesses 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 employee is interested in working for you ONLY because your business offers great insurance benefits are not they telling you they are going to cost you more money in the future?

Create a “Wellness Culture”

Our current “sickness culture” perpetuates the health care 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 healthful workplace and performance culture.

Now, what’d a “wellness culture” look like? First, instead of compensated sick days, personnel might  be rewarded at year’s end with an attendance bonus.

Staff Members would be reimbursed for successful completion of tobacco use cessation and weight-loss programs. Businesses would invest in corporate memberships at local health clubs so every staff member can participate.

Staff Members would be offered in-house wellness programs on a variety of issues ranging from ergonomics to stress management. In conclusion, corporations would commit to hiring and retaining healthy workers.

Simply put, healthy personnel cost less and are more productive than unhealthy ones. Applicants must be screened for health habits and practices that limit their productivity and increase the likelihood of future expense.

While this might seem harsh, it rewards those employees whose personal lifestyle and habits ensure the best Return on Investment by the business 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 typical American.

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

Conclusion

Healthcare costs are increasing at a staggering pace. Managed care is an appalling failure. Corporations are buckling underneath the pressure of providing health coverage to their employees.

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

Company health promotion is an approach that is timely, achievable and reasonable given the alternatives. All options ought to be considered while we still have a chance.

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

In addition it’s noted that there are marked improvements in employee performance and productivity in businesses that start a health promotion program.

Healthful corporations enjoy increased employee morale and an improved ability to attract and retain key individuals . In addition, workforce are more alert and productive.

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

Coors Brewing Business announced that employees who participated in their wellness programs lowered their absentee rate by 18 percent.

Employees 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.

Wellness programs result in fewer injuries, less human error and a work environment that is more harmonious and relaxed. Also, employees who work at a corporation that implements a wellness program know that their corporation is concerned about their wellness.

Employees often report a reduction in their stress levels as a result of health promotion programs.

As workers 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 staff member 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 health promotion programs, both tangible and intangible, are evident. It’s a wise move for a organization to begin a health promotion program, in particular when they incorporate some form of mental health aspect into it.

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

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

HRAs

Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) is a top health promotion 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 HRA can also evaluate the level of exposure employees have to certain perilous or perilous materials and practices.

Immunizations

This is not always practiced in every country since there are regions where government sponsored immunization shots are available. Notwithstanding, it has also become an important component of the top worker health promotion programs in many organizations in North America.

Immunization shots, like those used to combat flu, for instance, are offered to employees for free.

Employee Assistance Programs

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

In-house diet and nutrition drives

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

In-house wellness newsletter and campaign drives

One of the top health promotion programs that businesses can begin 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 workplace, etc.

The newsletter in itself could be an effective means to deliver information to workers or members of an organization but it is far from perfect.

Some staff, 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 Activity

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

In mid- to large-sized businesses, businesses may even pay for gym memberships or in-house exercise facilities.

Health Promotion Incentives

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

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

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

Coworker Pressure

In many businesses, businesses take advantage of coworker pressure in order to encourage workers to take part in wellness programs. This is currently one of the favorite employee wellness programs currently in use today and growing in popularity.

Colleague pressure is usually leveraged to help promote competitions referring to employee wellness and to persuade staff to be active in company-sponsored health fairs.

Health Promotion is a great concept. It brings happiness into health and encourages a in fact holistic approach to life. Wikipedia defines wellness as a healthful 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 begin to talk about corporate health promotion, or corporate health promotion, all life goes out of the concept. Total solutions, disease management and health screening do not inspire visions of enjoying life and living it to the full.

They begin from the assumption that illness 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 kinds of wellness products and services at a speed of growth that is escalating rapidly.

On the other hand employee health promotion is also exploding but in a very different direction.

The baby boomers who are driving the well-liked 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 healthful 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 corporations have been largely forced to take on wellness. This is partly through legislative pressure, with many countries introducing laws to make corporations liable for stress-related ailment in their workers.

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

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

The problem is that the traditional health system doesn’t have solutions for the problems that people  are handling.

Nobody ever went to see a doctor to get happy, because a doctor does not have any clue how to make people  happy.  And many stress-related medical problems are described as chronic conditions, which means that they last for a very long time - or maybe for the rest of your life - because there’s 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 company where the staff members are happy, healthy, 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 develop a system of true wellness that will serve the development of the businesses and their staff and will pay for itself because of the benefits that both sides will gain?

First of all we’ve to face the fact that we can’t 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.

If they’d 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 people  unaffected. They are easy to organize but have little or no real effect on worker health promotion.

Corporate needs are different than individual needs and many of the new small wellness corporations that are springing up simply do not have the capacity to serve the corporate market.

However it is in the best interest of both corporations 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 after the day and enjoy their family and social life.

So far the corporate world has hijacked the theory of wellness and turned it into a modern version of occupational health. It’s time to increase the vision and figure out how to make indeed healthful, happy workplaces where individuals  thrive.

High rates of staff member turnover and the costs of sick days are increasingly taking bites into corporate profits.  The high cost of recruitment programs only adds to the challenges that these problems in total cost the average company.

A lot of companies are locating the solution to these challenges by increasing job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of wellness programs that yield a reduction in these costs.

It’s become increasingly clear to most managers that a well designed wellness program with a strong nutritional and fitness lifestyle emphasis will directly meet this need.

Management’s objectives for a productive wellness program must be viewed through the perspective of increased worker productivity, lowered absenteeism due to health related causes, improved worker morale, lowered utilisation of corporation subsidised health benefits, enhanced team cohesion and effectiveness and a decrease in turnover due to lack of job satisfaction.

It is apparent that an improvement in any of these areas will have a positive impact on the financial status of any organisation.

The benefits from an workforce point of view could be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, reduced body fat, a more youthful fit body, an increased ability to handle job related stress, greater feelings of confidence and morale and more social connections at work contributing to greater feelings of satisfaction with their work and worksite.

To be most productive a health promotion program needs to achieve both managements and workforce objectives, and this can be accomplished through a health promotion program that’ll provide the individual employee with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and well-being, and the advantages of attaining a fitter, healthier lifestyle, and a plan that’ll allow them to achieve the necessary changes to their physical condition that can be applied of their life and work.

The Bottom Line - Health Promotion Programs

Reduced Absenteeism - Dupont reduced absenteeism by 47.5% over six years for the participants of their corporate fitness program, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).

Decreased Healthcare Costs - Steel case showed a reduction in medical claim costs of 55% for corporate exercise program participants over non-participants over a six year period - an average of $478.61 for participants vs. non-participants who averaged $868.88, (The Am. Journal of Wellness, Sept/Oct, 1991).

Lowered Turnover - Turnover among fitness program participants at the Canadian Life Assurance Company was 32.4% lower over a seven year period compared with non-participants (Canadian Journal of Public Health, Jan/Feb, 1988).

Positive Return on Investment - Blue Cross / Blue Shield  of Indiana found that its staff fitness initiative had a 250% return on investment; $2.51 for every $1 invested over a five year period (American Journal of Wellness, March, April, 1991).