Workplace Health and Safety

The first step in developing your wellness/Health Promotion Program is to understand your business and how Health Promotion Program will fit into the current structure.

By researching your corporation’s history with similar wellness programs and eliciting feedback from coworkers, you are able to find the best solution for your organization.

Wellness Program –  Research Questions

• Find out when Health Promotion Program has been done in the past. When so, what worked and what did not?

• Was it commonly accepted?

• Was health promotion programming successful? Why or why not?

• What does your organization hope to gain from implementing a Wellness Program?

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

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

• Approximately 95 percent of the $1.4 trillion that we spend as a nation on health goes to direct medical services, while about 5 percent is allocated to preventing illness and promoting health.

• Potentially, 50 percent to 70 percent of all diseases are avoidable as they are associated with modifiable health risks.

• In an effort to optimize employee health, reduce avoidable health care utilization and enhance work performance, and in turn lower health care costs and improve employee satisfaction and retention, many organizations are developing, or are interested in developing, Wellness Programs for personnel.

The advantages of corporate health promotion are well documented. Greater than 120 scientific research studies repeatedly show themes such as improvements in health outcomes coupled with high ROI. Some major findings include the following –

• Savings of $3.48 in lowered healthcare costs per dollar invested.

• Savings of $5.82 in decrease rates of absenteeism costs per dollar invested.

• Return On Investment (ROI)s of at least $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of wellness program implementation.

• Lifestyle behavior modification programs –  $3 to $6 Return On Investment within 2 to 5 years.

• Self care, decision support health promotion programs –  $2 to $3 Return On Investment (ROI) within a year.

• Disease management programs –  $7 to $10 ROI within a year.

By offering wellness programs, companys aren’t only providing an additional service for personnel, but they are also gaining financially. Further, the impact of a wellness 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 reviewing wellness programs. National Company Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

According to the American Journal of Wellness, “Wellness 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 can 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 –

• Identifying the current health status of your staff

• Decidingthe appropriate health promotion programs and interventions to offer

• Advertising and beginning the health promotion programs

• Building in motivational incentives

• Assessing the impact

• Revising wellness programs based on examination outcomes

It could even include developing policies and procedures that support staff member participation in wellness activities at your worksite (such as flextime).

Steps to Starting a Health Promotion Program

• Conduct an organizational assessment

• Get upper-level management support

• Launch a wellness committee

• Get employee input

• Create goals and goals

• Create and implement wellness program activities

• Pick incentives

• Evaluate outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to enhance the nation’s health is through robust Health Promotion Programs.

As reported by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, these wellness programs might help workforce live healthier lifestyles by building supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior change programs.

In truth, one of the objectives of Healthy Individuals  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 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 workers, we often bring emotional problems from our childhood or current family life into the worksite because we have not dealt with them effectively outside of work.

This can seriously damage worksite 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, do not hesitate to seek out a certified professional. Health promotion programs normally have professional support already in place as part of their services.

1. Wellness Coaching –

One of the hallmarks of emotional health is the willingness to ask for help when we need it.

Confidential expert help, the coaching and counseling provided by worker assistance or wellness 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 individuals  in emotional situations in which they feel alone.  The purpose of these groups is twofold –  to allow individuals  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 colleague 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 benefit of tele-conference groups and social websites, like sparkindividuals .com and revolutionhealth.com. Health promotion programs often have such groups available through web-based or telephone support. Progressive corporate wellness provider

Exan Wellness, for example, 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 are facing at work or in other areas of their lives and work through change together.

3. Journaling –  Journaling is usually 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 assisting the writer gain greater emotional clarity, journaling can help in making more emotionally informed decisions. In much the same way, letter writing empowers people  to identify and process the emotions they feel in relation to 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 increase employees’ interpersonal skills, or emotional intelligence in the worksite are more successful, as reported by ground-breaking journalist Daniel Goleman.

And emotional intelligence is the buzzword in worksites these days. Some wellness programs have information about emotional intelligence, or emotional health assessments. Seek out more information about emotional intelligence for better corporate wellness.

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

These skills are also important for worksite health. When we’re empathic with fellow staff, we help them resolve negative or unhealthy emotions. New friendships are made through hobbies, classes, clubs, or even through internet based groups.

Many individuals  are finding 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 healthy manner may 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 quickly 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 doesn’t 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 had not considered before.

25% Jump in Business Interest in Employee Wellness

Employee wellness for their personnel, corporations are discovering, is good for the health of their organizations as well. Health promotion programs help to cut the costs associated with poor worker health, which include absenteeism, loss of productivity and poor work quality.

A recent Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 United States businesses indicated a significant paradigm shift in how businesses view health benefits for their employees.

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

A strong offering of health promotion programs to meet the demand has resulted. Health assistance providers have broadened their health promotion 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. Corporations also demand a way to measure the effectiveness of their health care spending.

Self-care is our motive, says Vic Lebouthillier, president of progressive wellness provider Exan Wellness.”We really believe giving employees 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.

Organizations are also telling us they need a cost-effective way to deliver wellness programs.  The kind of wellness program we’ve created over years delivers the highest health care return on investment.”

Combining employee health promotion promotions, internet based assessments and health trackers, internet based medical information, telephone conferences and self-help groups, and access to a wide 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 healthcare benefits to create holistic wellness programs that pinpoint the specific health needs of their staff member populations, drive staff member behavior change and eliminate barriers to healthcare, says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.

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

Based on these results, companys need to drive home the fact that improved health is better for their employees as well as the company. It’s a win-win situation.

Employers and employees did find common ground when it came to future health care. Both surveys indicate that 95 percent of employees understand that their taking care of their health today will impact future health care payments.

A similar percentage also understand the important of early detection and prevention when it comes to saving on health care costs.

Cost is important for most organizations as well. Over 80 percent of those surveyed made cost mitigation a priority for 2008, but those cuts didn’t involve shifting responsibility for health care onto personnel.

Although 64% of organizations have shifted costs to their staff, only 17% plan to do so in the next 3-5 years. Similarly with health reimbursement accounts, 20% now offer these, but only about 5% plan to use them in 2008.

These survey causesdicate companies are getting more proactive in helping their personnel to change behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is obviously good for the wellness of personnel, but also for the wellness of the companies they work for.

Nearly half the corporations surveyed were convinced that changing health behaviors was key to increased productivity and lower absentee rates. Over 60 percent plan to institute health promotion programs that help personnel change and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle.

Nearly 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 (especially those of us in business) that healthcare 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 health insurance is almost as burdensome as government regulation. It is time for some new thinking on healthcare and its impact on business and vice versa.

Employee health promotion as an operational perspective instead of merely window dressing is one way to deal effectively with rising healthcare costs.

The Insurance Problem

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

It is time for corporations (on a broad scale) to reconsider their role in providing medical insurance coverage. Instead of providing complete coverage for all staff through group plans, businesses should begin to shift the burden of health coverage to those covered.

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

Then, allow workforce 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 organizations that sell individual plans on this basis. Everybody wins. Workers can tailor their coverage to their own needs and circumstances using their own doctors. Companies 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, if an employee is interested in working for you ONLY because your company offers excellent insurance benefits are not they telling you they are going to cost you more money in the future?

Develop a “Health Promotion Culture”

Our current “sickness culture” perpetuates the health care crisis and hastens the demise of market-based solutions. By sickness culture, I mean our focus on health problems in lieu of on having a healthful workplace and performance culture.

Additionally, what would a “wellness culture” look like? First, in lieu of paid sick days, personnel might  be rewarded at year’s end with an attendance bonus.

Employees would be reimbursed for successful completion of smoking cessation and weight-loss programs. Companies would invest in corporate memberships at local fitness centers so every staff member can participate.

Employees would be offered in-house health promotion programs on a selection of issues ranging from ergonomics to stress management. Finally, companies would commit to hiring and retaining healthy staff members.

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

While this may seem harsh, it rewards those staff whose personal lifestyle and habits ensure the best Return on Investment by the organization committing to hire, train and pay them.

Be open to “alternative and complementary” approaches

Studies published in major medical journals reveal that person who use “alternative and complementary” health modalities (including chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga and massage) are generally healthier, better educated, take fewer medications and miss fewer days from work than the average 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 organizations to improve productivity and increase profitability

Conclusion

Health Care costs are increasing at a staggering pace. Managed care is an awful failure. Businesses are buckling beneath 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 businesses to consider some out-of-the-box solutions to the health care crisis.

Employee health promotion is an approach that is timely, achievable and reasonable given the alternatives. All choices should 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 lowering absenteeism, sick day usage and by lowering insurance costs.

Also it’s noted that there are marked improvements in staff member performance and productivity in businesses that implement a health promotion program.

Healthy organizations enjoy increased staff member morale and an improved ability to attract and retain key people . Furthermore, employees are more alert and productive.

For  instance, Coca Cola reports that they save nearly $500 a year per worker once they implemented a fitness plan in which 60 percent of their staff members participate.

Coors Brewing Corporation reported that workers who participated in their health promotion programs lowered their absentee rate by 18 percent.

Employees enjoy their share of benefits from health promotion programs too. A healthy 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. Additionally, personnel who work at a company that starts a health promotion program know that their company is concerned about their wellness.

Workers often report a reduction in their stress levels because of health promotion programs.

As workforce feel better, more relaxed, more valued and more human to their company; they enjoy an increase in productivity. This increase in productivity, while advantageous to the organization, is also essential to the employee as it increases their own sense of self worth and confidence levels.

Workers who feel successful and who feel that they accomplish goals are overall happier and in a better frame of mind.

The benefits of wellness programs, both tangible and intangible, are evident. It’s a wise move for a organization to begin a wellness program, specifically 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 reduced in areas where wellness programs are implemented. These days, an organization can almost not afford to have some sort of wellness program to offer to their employees.

Some of the top health promotion programs currently in use today include –

Health Risk Appraisals (HRAs)

Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) is a top health promotion program currently in use globally. Organizations that start it determine the safety and health concerns of workforce by the assessment of appropriateness of the facilities and equipment against the needs of the workforce.

It can, for example, guide the corporation 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 workforce have to certain hazardous or hazardous materials and practices.

Immunizations

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

Immunization shots, like those used to combat flu, for example, 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 staff regarding health issues to sponsoring health services and medical care. In many businesses, 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, especially those that offer in-house commissary or cafeteria services. Instead of serving richer, high-calorie fare, cafeterias offer options for a healthier diet, ordinarily 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 organizations can implement 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 worksite, etc.

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

Some staff, for instance, may not peruse the newsletter entirely or even pay attention to it. If the issues outlined in the newsletter are promoted through an active and highly visible campaign, it will be easier to maximize positive results.

Exercise and Physical Activity

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

In mid- to large-sized companies, companies may even pay for health and fitness center memberships or in-house exercise facilities.

Wellness Incentives

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

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.

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

Coworker Pressure

In many businesses, businesses take benefit of coworker pressure to encourage staff to participate in health promotion programs. This is currently one of the favorite staff member health promotion programs currently in use today and growing in popularity.

Coworker pressure is usually leveraged to help promote competitions referring to corporate wellness and to persuade workforce to be active in company-sponsored wellness fairs.

Health Promotion is a great concept. It brings happiness into health and encourages a in truth 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 (DM) and medical screening do not inspire visions of enjoying life and living it to the full.

They begin from the assumption that sickness is here to stay and needs to be discovered, managed and controlled but can never be healed.

The wellness industry is growing phenomenally fast. Health Promotion 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 – individuals  working from home or in small centers selling all types of wellness products and services at a speed of growth that is escalating quickly.

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 are 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 organizations have been largely forced to take on wellness. This is partly through legislative pressure, with many countries introducing laws to make organizations liable for stress-related ailment in their personnel.

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

Whereas the baby boomers are actively looking for new solutions and new lifestyles the organizations are struggling to organize largely traditional and mainstream health systems, such as doctors, 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 doesn’t have any clue how to make people  happy.  And many stress-related health 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 is no medical cure.

Counseling is a common offering in corporations for emotional problems, but whilst it may provide a useful pressure valve it isn’t a powerful treatment for stress, unhappiness or depression.

Imagine walking into a organization where the personnel 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 type 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 create a system of true wellness that will serve the development of the corporations and their workers and will pay for itself because of the benefits that both sides will gain?

First of all we have to face the fact that we cannot place all the responsibility into the hands of the current health system. Absenteeism, stress, depression, the very roots of the wellness revolution, have not been solved by the current system.

If they had 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, like 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’re easy to organize but have little or no real effect on staff member wellness.

Corporate needs are different than individual needs and many of the new small wellness businesses that are springing up simply don’t have the capacity to serve the corporate market.

Nonetheless it’s in the best interest of both corporations and employees 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 truly healthy, happy workplaces where people  thrive.

High rates of worker 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 sum cost the average organization.

A lot of organizations are finding the solution to these challenges by increasing job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of health promotion programs that yield a reduction in these costs.

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

Management’s goals for a productive health promotion program should be viewed through the perspective of increased staff member productivity, decreased absenteeism due to health related causes, improved staff member morale, decreased utilisation of employer subsidised health benefits, enhanced team cohesion and effectiveness and a decrease in turnover due to lack of job satisfaction.

It’s obvious that an betterment 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 can be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, decreased 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 workplace.

To be most productive a wellness program needs to achieve both managements and personnel goals, and this can be accomplished through a wellness program that will provide the individual staff member with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and wellness, and the benefits of attaining a fitter, healthier lifestyle, and a plan that will allow them to achieve the necessary changes to their physical condition that can be applied about 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 initiative, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).

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

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

Positive Return on Investment – BC/BS  of Indiana found that its corporate exercise 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).