• Make sure that your building’s stairwells are clean, attractive and safe, and post signs encouraging staff members to use the stairs.
• Create a wellness newsletter or intranet.
• Encourage the Activity Tracker and bolster staff members to track their physical exercise every week.
• Be creative, and make the most of the workspace you have. By way of example, mark off a safe walking path inside or around the building. You might also set up a training circuit, highlighting features of the workplace such as stairs.
• Offer physical activity opportunities at different times to accommodate night-, shift-, and part-time staff members.
• For staff members 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 workers with special needs. Adapt information and activities for any employee who are visually impaired or physically disabled as well as for people who speak English as a second language.
• Educate workers about physical activity using information from reputable sources such as the Alberta Centre for Active Living.
• Offer facilities that invite worksite physical exercise. Possibilities include bike racks, physical activity room, change rooms with lockers and showers, and safe and attractive grounds for walking.
• Have walking gatherings.
• Encourage staff members to walk to co-workers’ offices rather than 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.
• Offer incentives and rewards such as shoe bags, ball caps, T-shirts or water bottles to reward employee participation.
• Loan out pedometers for three months, so that workers are able to learn how many steps they usually take and how much activity they need to add to get basic health benefits.
• Make space for employees to plant and maintain a flowerbed or garden at the workplace. Use any resulting produce for meetings and potluck lunches or donate it to charity.
• Establish a workplace wellness and health fair.
• Hire a qualified fitness specialist to design and manage an onsite fitness facility.
• Supply employees with active wear that shows off the corporation logo.

• Develop a launch event to establish excitement about upcoming activities and to set up a social climate that establishes being active as the norm.
• Design and encourage monthly or bi-monthly corporation 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 employees to swim the distance of a nearby lake. Convert kilometres to lengths and reward employees who complete the swim. Set up a challenge between employees 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 take part in activities of interest.
• Organize a organization badminton tournament that lasts several months, with each employee playing once a week. Post the results as the tournament progresses.
• Design an office Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon or Masters Games. Invite teams to compete in several activities over a month. Reward everyone who participates.
• Create a point system in which one minute of activity equals one point. Set a target, and post a chart where all staff members are able to track their points. Reward the first group to reach that target.
• Create a stair climb challenge. Post a chart at the top of the stairwell, and advocate staff members 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.
• Design a walk “across this country” Select a route, figure out 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 has the potential to walk across this country first.
• Establish 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.
• Develop 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 could compete with each other and with management.
• Encourage 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 correct way to approach wellness programs but winning programs share common success factors. These include commitment from management, employee participation, adequate resources, and a policy on health that goes hand in hand with the organization’s mission, vision and values.

Worksite Health Promotion Program: A Range of Approaches

Although the intention is to eventually have a long-term, accross the board wellness program, some businesses prefer to begin 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 learn how interested workers are to ensure workers needs are being met before taking on anything more ambitious. This approach supplies a chance to show the effect on workers and the workplace so senior staff will be more willing to consider a larger and more far-reaching plan.

Other corporations plan a variety of drives to meet the needs of the different types of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to foster a sound corporation case, complete with a health strategy, before beginning any type of program. Organizations want to make sure that a new program is fully integrated with their overall corporation vision and mission.

Workplace Wellness Program: Success Factors

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

• backing and participation from upper management;
• employee involvement 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 team must follow to accomplish its objective of winning. Most winning teams plan to win. Companies also need game plans, even if they do not call them by that name.

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

Steps in Planning a Workplace Health Promotion Program

Obtain management backing. You may need to cultivate a business case to convince managers that the wellness program is a business strategy-that employee health and job satisfaction impacts their productivity. workers need to see evidence that management believes in and is committed to employee health.

Establish a planning committee. Members are able to include representatives from employee groups as well as from human resources, health and safety, and communications.

Accumulate information. To prove that your Corporate 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. Assess what workplace facilities are available to support workers to make healthy choices such as showers and change areas or a secure place to store a bicycle. Assess employee needs through a survey or questionnaire, suggestion box or focus group. Communicate the results.

Establish the plan to reflect the information gathered. Include program objectives, activities and how you are intend 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 upper management approval. Support for employee time and a budget are required.

Put activities in place. Offer a variety of activities that create awareness, increase knowledge, cultivate skills, and provide social interaction. (Activities might include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Corporate Wellness Programs Week, SummerActive, WinterActive, corporate challenge, golf days, and newsletters that provide information about community resources.) Workplaces can also make it easier for staff members to make healthy choices by offering flextime to allow staff members 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 meetings is able to ensure that healthy foods are available.

Review 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 expenditure. Just do it. Obtain backing from management, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.

How does it feel to walk into your workplace? Do people look content? 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 can leave?
The power of the worksite environment on the wellbeing and health 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 smoke around you. As time passes, 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 positive role models? Do you get regular opportunities to discover healthier behaviors?
In a supportive environment, workers feel that the company they work for supports them with encouragement, opportunity, and rewards for healthy lifestyles. And the spirit that results is highly contagious. Workers who feel cared are naturally more loyal and beneficial.
The following ideas will help you change your workplace environment into one that truly supports the wellness of your employees and corporation.

Workplace Wellness Program Ideas for Fostering Supportive Environments

Wellness Friendly Facilities

When you enter a workplace, do you feel comfortable? Could you be happy working there? Is there proper light and clean air? Are there pleasant work areas, places to eat decent food, take a walk before lunch? Close your eyes. How does it smell? Sound? Do the staff members have proper space?
• Vending machines with healthy meal choices like low-fat milk, fruits, sugar-free and caffeine-free beverages and low-calorie snacks
• Workout area, walking paths, playing fields, basketball hoop, or other physical activity opportunities onsite 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 workplace
• Noise levels are safe and supportive of concentration
• Work station furniture conforms to ergometric standards
• Safety hazards 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 worksite. People get used to stressful conditions and forget that conditions ever bothered them. It might provce useful to ask people who are 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 allowed to work more than twelve hours consecutively, there will be fewer medication errors. If parents are given flextime to address their children’s needs, they’ll be less stressed. If employees can apply unused sick days to planned vacation time, they’ll save them up instead of calling in sick to use them all.

Supportive corporate policies may include:

• Seatbelt use necessitated in organization vehicles
• Drug and alcohol policies are appropriate to the industry
• Emergency procedures are developed, known, and practiced
• Flexible work schedules allow workers to exercise, go to children’s school conferences, etc.
• Tobacco-free policy is enforced
• Excessive overtime is discouraged
• Membership at fitness facility is partially reimbursed
• Shift staff members are scheduled to allow adequate rest
• Health Care Costs coverage rewards great health
• Absenteeism policy rewards employees who don’t use sick days
• EAP available to help staff members with chemical dependencies, depression, family issues
• Meaningful consequences are carried out 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 lunchtime-and one in which written policies can be safely ignored. Prohibited behaviors must be confronted promptly. Otherwise your policies become mere lip service rather than springboards to health.

Consistent Recognition And Incentives For Success

Attention, praise, and rewards are given for wellness achievements.
You can show you value the Worksite Wellness 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. Employees who support others’ efforts to improve their health are noticed and appreciated. Peer modeling and mentoring classes have the potential to promote those who enjoy assisting others to step forward into a new role.

Managers Model And Support Healthy Behavior

Nothing might say “We bolster 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 have the potential to also provide support for workers who are working on working on their health. It doesn’t take anything fancy-just a “good job” or “nice to see you at the health club” is able to put a glow on the cheeks of most of us.
Managers have the potential to also help by allowing workers the flexibility to attend wellness events.

Ongoing Workplace Health Promotion Programs

It’s important to give workers the sense that the wellness program is a permanent and important part of the business, not a business fad. That can begin as soon as a new employee is hired.
New workers are oriented to the wellness program as one of the employee benefits. Information about the program ought to be presented by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable person who invites the new employee to take part.
The workers are familiar with the ongoing wellness programs.
The wellness programs and wellness coordinator are well known in the company. 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 have the potential to be done within your employer to encourage healthy lifestyles during a contest or during other times. The intention is to encourage employee participation. Some examples:
• Develop a sub-committee of enthusiastic employees who will help promote the fitness program by offering ideas, recommendations and encouragement to fellow employees.
• Create monthly mailbox brochures to encourage a contest or support fitness-related education/encouragement information.
• Send a weekly voicemail on each member’s telephone with encouraging wellness messages.
• Provide regular cumulative health progress reports.
• Offer low-fat or heart-healthy lunch selections on a weekly basis in your cafeteria or have workers bring a healthy snack to share, with a recipe book compiled at the culmination 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.
• Allow employees “Fitness 15-Minute Walk Breaks;” business 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.
• Designate 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 put up in the office showing how they have progressed – staff members can 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 illustrate 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 neighborhood that offer opportunities to get staff members exercising 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 community walks or runs
• Create or attend a health-and-fitness retreat or workshop.
• Have a soup-and-salad luncheon followed by a hula-hoop contest!
• Use the mall as an alternate walking location during inclement weather.
• Create “Move it Mondays” – allow workers to take an extra 10 minutes at lunchtime for exercise.
• Designate “Tasty Tuesdays” – offer workers with low-calorie treats/snacks.
• Create “Walking Wednesdays”- allow employees to take an extra 10 minutes during lunch to walk, or “Wacky Wednesdays” that allow employees to explore new exercises.
• Establish “Thirsty Thursdays” – make healthy smoothies or juice drinks for staff members.
• Create “Fresh Fruit Fridays” for employee – offer seasonal produce treats.
• Send weekly exercise tips to staff members via the most effective communications vehicle in your workplace.
• Partner with another corporation representative for local media events coordinated through your advertising or communication department.
• Urge departmental teams to challenge each other (examples: Customer Service, Marketing, Medical 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 exercise 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 facility 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 topics. You can appoint someone within your employer to find specific topics on the Internet from sites that are in the public domain or topics can be purchased from companies. Some qualified sources include:
• Hope Health
• Sound Ideas, Inc.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• National Institutes of Health

These e-mails have the potential to 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 Worksite Wellness E-mail Messages

From: Worksite Wellness 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% cotton in the first layer, next to your skin. Cotton holds perspiration. 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 are able 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 percent of your body heat is lost through the head. Wear a hat and cover your ears.
Lips — Don’t forget lip balm with sunscreen … even in winter!

SAMPLE #2 Job Site Wellness E-mail Messages

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

Need an energy boost? 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 is able to make a large difference in your energy level the following day.
• Eat less more frequently. Have little, 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 plenty of water. Dehydration leads to to fatigue, which you have the potential to offset by drinking water throughout the day.
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Both are able 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 objectives and goals. Decide on a topic and select 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 have the potential to brown bag the lunch or you could support the meal. Meetings have the potential to be mandatory or elective, your choice.
Experience tells us the most success will be achieved if these Wellness Seminars / Lunch and Learn Programs are elective and if the business 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
• Heart disease – cardiovascular health (individual counseling sessions with a nutritionist)
• High Blood Pressure (BP)
• Hypercholesterolemia
• Flu and pneumonia
• Breast cancer – breast health or breast self-exam sessions are able to be taught by a trained instructor

Education on health care insurance benefits:
• Diabetes – what are the covered benefits, where to purchase diabetic supplies, support groups for employees with diabetes.
• Workplace 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 Businesses – numerous companies have standard presentations developed for employers that are offered no cost of charge to use at your own direction. Some examples are:
   • Know Your Numbers (high cholesterol) – Pfizer
   • Respiratory Wellness (flu and pneumonia) – Pfizer
   • Men’s and Women’s Health – Pfizer
• Local gyms/personal trainers/YMCA – are able 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 issues
• 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 issues
• Beginning an exercise program – include the significance of seeing the doctor prior to the beginning of any new exercise program
• Self-defense
• Domestic violence
• 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 importance 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 start a healthy habit that will last a lifetime.
Still, it is important to participate in wellness all year. This section provides a comprehensive list of Worksite 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 activity/idea has the potential to be used as a stand-alone event, even if you do not conduct a fitness contest, or has the potential to be held in conjunction with your Employee Fitness Contest.
You may want to choose some of the ideas you believe will work for your employees or think of others and start your initiative to create a better state of health.

Research studies have repeatedly shown that accross the board Employee Health Promotion Programs, or Employee Health Promotion Programs, have the potential to lower health care and insurance expenditures, lower absenteeism, and improve performance and productivity. Other advantages shown in research studies include improved ability to attract and retain key personnel, greater employee allegiance, and improved public image of the employer.

Health Care and Insurance costs

A number of research studies provide evidence of decreased medical and insurance expenditures for participants in Employee Wellness Programs, especially wellness programs involving exercise.

For $30 per person, the Bank of America implemented a Company Health Promotion 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 published a decrease in health care|medical|medical care|healthcare} claims with an physical activity program alone, saving $500 per employee per year for the staff members (60%) who joined their HealthWorks fitness program. Prudential Insurance Company reports that the company’s major medical expenditures 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 exercise program.

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

Focusing Worksite Health Promotion Program efforts on elevated-risk employees can lead to better results. A national manufacturing organization reports a reduction of 12.2% in illness days for these employees.

A two-year study by The DuPont Corporation of the significance of its inclusive Employee Health Promotion Program on absences among staff members reports that blue-collar staff members at intervention sites had a 14% decline in disability days vs. 5.8% 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 success, energy level, and/or overall morale among program participants–all essential factors in enhancing work rate.

A Johnson & Johnson study saw that employee attitude changes were greater at Employee Wellness Program intervention sites with significant beneficial attitude changes noted in the categories of corporation responsibility, supervision, on the job conditions, job competence/security, and pay/benefits.

In a Canadian government study, the Canada Life Assurance Organization experimental group realized a 4 percent growth in work rate after starting a organization fitness program, compared to the control group. Further, 47 percent of program participants stated that they felt more alert, had better rapport with their co-employees, and generally enjoyed their work more.

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

The Bottom Line

The following sample of Workplace Health Promotion Programs wellness program results have been stated 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 compelling evidence that a sizable portion of the billions of dollars now being spent by employers on health-related costs is preventable by means of Workplace Health Promotion Programs. Well-planned, inclusive Workplace Health Promotion Programs (Workplace Health Promotion Programs and Workplace Health Promotion Programs) have been established to be cost-effective, especially when the Workplace Health Promotion Programs is matched to the health problems of the specific employee.

Free Worksite Wellness Programs and Low Cost Health Management Alternatives

Develop a free Company Health Promotion Program or run a efficacious health management program in the office for little or no cost to your business. The advantages of workplace wellness and learning how to enable 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 enable their own wellness workplace programs. There are a number of things to do to enable a efficacious health management program at work.

Suggestions for Starting a Free or Low Cost Corporate Wellness Program

Prior to starting an inexpensive or free wellness program for your company, learn more about what staff members want. Survey staff members to learn more about their wellness issues. Keep the survey confidential to protect employees’ identities. Typically the most popular workplace wellness subject matters are smoking cessation, weight loss issues and heart and blood lipid health.

Look for Corporate Wellness Program Freebies

Look for who will come in for free to talk to employees and explore partnerships with outside agents related to workplace wellness. For example, contact a local branch of a well-known weight loss organization and ask if someone has the potential to 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 expense to employees, in exchange for something from you.

Find Corporate Wellness Program Partnerships

Working with a weight loss business to set up a speaking engagement for staff members is an excellent opportunity to explore a potential wellness partnership. The weight loss business may say that if 10 staff members join the program, they will hold regular gatherings at business headquarters for the people who joined. The weight loss group also might offer business staff members a discount if multiple people join the program.

Nonprofits an Untapped Health Leadership Resource

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

Gathering Data and Evaluating Employee Health Promotion Program Results

Gathering data and analyzing results of a Worksite Wellness Program has the potential to be tricky because of HIPPA laws. Nonetheless, if at least 10 employees 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 has the potential to speak strongly to senior staff. And, organization successes will potentially give senior staff more incentive to provide money for additional health management and Worksite Wellness Programs in the future.