Wellness Programs

The Partnership for Avoidance was formed to encourage Fortune 1000 organizations to consider making workforce health a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) issue and adopt strategies to promote avoidance and wellness.

After several years of double-digit rate increases for medical insurance, businesses are realizing that among the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have personnel take more responsibility for both costs and health choices.

A majority of businesses surveyed feel that the best way for reducing costs is financial incentives to encourage staff to adopt healthier life choices.

Nearly 100 percent of employers surveyed say that health costs are going to be a crucial or significant concern over the next five years, according to a recent survey by United Benefit Advisors.

More companys are adopting higher deductible medical plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, health promotion programs, and broader disease management (DM) programs to control ever-increasing healthcare costs.

Failure to deal with these issues could be disastrous for an employer. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alegent Health lately stated, “I think that we have built a health care machinery we can’t afford. I think we are choking the economic engine of America.”

In his October 2005 newsletter, Dr. Andrew Weil stated, “I think rising health- care costs are becoming the major economic issue in our nation”. Obesity costs California businesses billions of dollars each year.

Projected costs for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect healthcare costs, staff member’s compensation, and lost productivity. California has experienced one of the fastest growing rates of obesity of any state.

As reported by California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe, “The obesity epidemic is more than a public health crisis, it is an economic crisis.” What is frightening is that most people don’t even realize that they are obese, which is defined as only 20% above normal weight.

There is a excellent need for more education on weight and resulting diseases, and the workplace is an ideal venue. Health Promotion education and programs can result in a significant return on investment and, when structured properly, can produce results in a very short period of time.

Despite the fact that many companys have attempted some form of health promotion program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing.

In many cases, the healthier workforce participated for incentives, like health and fitness center memberships, but those who needed it most didn’t take benefit of the wellness program in a meaningful way.

Companies are looking at ways to encourage more personnel to purchase into the wellness movement.

A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource Executive Magazine and presented by Carlson Marketing and Advertising Group titled, “Healthier Employees; Healthier Bottom Line –  Engaging Staff Members is the Missing Link in Managing Healthcare Costs,” drove this point home.

This session provided actionable advice on how corporations are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on worker engagement. It also highlighted how you can create an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential impact for your organization.

Corporations can simply no longer ignore the issue of their worker’s unhealthful life choices and must take action to engage them in a meaningful health promotion program to reduce medical costs, absenteeism and lost productivity.

Employees also benefit as they derive better health and greater satisfaction in both their personal and specialist lives.  The alternative is being caught in a non-competitive position and severely impacting the bottom-line of the company.

Other departments within an organization will likely focus on related areas of employee safety and injury prevention. Wellness activities are a natural partner to many other HR, employee motivation, and safety programs.

Body mechanics, ergonomics, and safe working practices are three areas which may  be coordinated together.

o  Soft Tissue Sprains and Strains –  This injury category continues to remain the number one financial loss for workers’ compensation. Many health insurance dollars are also spent on back pain, other sprains, and strains. Health Promotion and safety efforts can focus on -

o  Warm up stretches before starting work or periodic stretching during work. These can do much to prevent soft tissue injury. Give training to work groups so they may start a stretching program. These groups can then continue their own.

o  The wellness committee might consider contracting a fitness professional to come in and conduct stretching “refreshers” for worker groups throughout the year.

o  Give body mechanics training on an annual basis or more frequently if possible. These training sessions should focus on work related tasks and safety, in addition to feature a segment on home tasks and body safety.

o  Partner with your corporation’s workers’ compensation carrier to assist in providing body mechanics training, job safety analysis, and other preventive services which could help staff members work safer, smarter, and avoid injury.

o  Implement a safety concerns suggestion box. Make sure to encourage staff members to report safety and/or injury concerns. Make sure to help executive management to establish policy to recognize and reward staff members who offer safety suggestions, provide tips, and solution ideas.

o  A periodic presentation featuring a local medical provider addressing such topics as safe body mechanics, recovering from a back injury, appropriate spine care, etc.

o  Partner with senior management and supervisor teams to recognize and reward work groups who are successful with safety and injury prevention.

o  The ergonomics of an employees’ workstation/work place design is important and applicable to every group.

o  Make available ergonomic training opportunities to interested staff members volunteers. These individuals can then assist other staff members to assess their work areas for safety, comfort, and injury prevention.

o  It is often more effective to have an observer evaluate workers for helpful and friendly comfort suggestions rather than it’s for individuals to assess themselves.

o  One suggestion is to have employees remind one another about correct posture, to take breaks, to stop and do quick mini stretches, etc.

o  Take before and after photos of work areas as changes are made. This will help to demonstrate how small adjustment changes can often make large comfort changes.

o  Partner with the business’s workers’ compensation carrier to help create ergonomic policies and practices and to provide staff member training.

National health observance campaigns can lighten workload and effort. A lot of of these well-developed observances have kits and materials which could either be downloaded for free or purchased inexpensively.

Monthly health themes, week Iong events, and nationally recognized days of the year are also good ways to have fun while participating in larger events. Health observances are tied to nearly every aspect of wellness and health. Things to consider -

o  National observances present opportunities to work with other community agencies and businesses to coordinate larger events and celebrations.

o  A wellness message is more likely to stick with people if the information is presented at work, in local supermarkets, and on TV.

o  National Worker Fitness Day/Week (April) is a good place to start.

o  A word of advice – don’t go overboard in attempting to tie a wellness program into these national observances, as there are so many. Select one to three events annually and stick with these.

Develop and promote events well ensuring that personnel will come to expect and anticipate these health promotion programs each year. It is best to do several wellnesss well than many promotions poorly.

Stress Management

Many simple wellness activities and practices can help staff understand the role stress plays in effecting health, safety, and productivity. It is necessary to help staff understand simple stress management strategies for reducing stress levels.

o  Stress kit check out. Have stress management tools available for employee use during a scheduled break time. Consider providing relaxation music or programs including player and headphones; mat or blanket to lie on; neck pillow; eye mask; and stress massage rollers.

o  Provide a stress management brown bag event at which staff members can try different kinds stress management tools.

o  Make sure to encourage workforce to take 10-minute relaxation/exercise breaks. Post reminders.

o  Give a comfortable worker break area.

o  Designate a “quiet room” for meditation and relaxation, when possible.

o  Make certain to work with Management to keep supervisors informed about the effects of stress in the workplace. Supervisors are often the first step in helping workers find different ways of managing work related stressors.

o  Contact the Employee Assistance Provider (EAP) for a variety of stress management information and self-assessments.

o  Give stress management self-assessments to interested personnel. Follow these up with a stress management videotape, a brown bag presentation, or a community guest speaker.

Mental Wellness

Emotions and psychological health greatly affect overall health and well-being. Every health promotion program should incorporate some services, programs, resources or activities to address psychological health issues.

Mental health topics can be sensitive areas for personnel. Thus, it’s vital that you provide information in a selection of ways, workplace presentations being just one possibility.

For example, put domestic violence resource cards in the restrooms to provide useful information in a private setting that does not embarrass anyone. Other considerations include -

o  When planning to offer an oratory event or presentation a neutral class title will ensure potential participants won’t be put off by the name.

For  instance, “Parenting in 2004″, “Positive Parenting”, or “Parent University” is much more appealing than “Stress and Parenting”.

o  Make certain to allot enough time when hosting EAP/psychological health seminars for a question and answer session so participants may ask specific questions.

Always remind participants that individual help is available through the employee assistance program and also through their health benefits. Provide written contact information for your EAP, but do so discretely.

o  The Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP) is an excellent partner and resource for wellness programming in these areas.  The employee assistance program can help find ways to address mental health, stress, coping, and other related issues.