Company Health And Wellness

Successful wellness programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the staff members. Ask staff members what they are interested in, and what needs they have.

Individuals  are more willing to participate and support wellness efforts when they are involved in the decision-making process. Review the sample worker survey provided below.

Worker Interest Survey – can be edited (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/company_tools/employee_interest_survey.doc)

When developing a recent survey, keep the following hints in mind –

• Ask mostly closed form questions, especially if you will be sending the survey to a big number of workers. Closed form questions provide specific options and are easy to tabulate.

• Invite comments, suggestions and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions after the survey. Open-ended items are more challenging to summarize.

• Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the corporation president. Be certain to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.

• Ask a group of representative workers to review the survey before it’s distributed. Find out if the questions will be understood by workers and will not be objected to.

• Include demographic information at the beginning, or end of the survey (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).

• Conduct a random drawing for a valued incentive item for all those who returned the survey. This could increase the response rate.

One rule to consider concerning surveys is when you’ve fewer than 500 employees, everyone should receive one. the advantage of everyone receiving a recent survey can be significant. If you’ve over 500 employees, a sample of the work population from each department will suffice.

The higher the response, the more valid and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40 percent to 50 percent is considered valuable.

A critical first step in organizing your corporation’s wellness program is the formation of a wellness committee. the focus of the wellness committee is to plan, promote, and implement the program.

The committee establishes continuity, motivation, and broad ownership of the program as well as provides an great automobile for communication.

So who must be on the committee? Consider appointing the following people /departments to your committee –

• Top management within your company

• Union representatives

• Human resources (HR)  department

• Worker assistance program

• Information technology

• Communications

• Health and safety department

• Workers interested in wellness

Building a successful wellness program requires staff time in addition to money. Some bigger organizations may spend 20 hours per week for three to six months preparing all the steps prior to launching a wellness program.

Anywhere from 4 to 10 people  meeting monthly equals a wellness committee. A mission statement for the committee should be developed by the second meeting. This way, everyone knows what the committee is working toward.

Download sample minutes from a local worksite. (WORD DOC –  http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/corporation_tools/walking_works_minutes.doc)

Once a wellness program has been established, the committee’s size and meeting schedule may change. Still, no fewer than 4 members ought to meet at least quarterly so the group – and the wellness program – does not fade away.

Support from management is essential to building a successful wellness program! Visible  senior level management support is among the most critical factors in the success of a worksite Wellness Program.

Executive management executives are responsible for making sure that the organization meets its objectives. They can provide additional assistance by helping you to link your Wellness Program objectives to business outcomes, thereby positioning Wellness Program as a fundamental part of the organization.

It is important to create support and excitement for the program from all levels of the company including  senior level management, mid-level management, and grass-root workers.

The challenge for any Wellness Program coordinator is convincing  senior management about the potential value of Wellness Program to the organization and conceptualizing how Wellness Program programs can impact the organization in a meaningful manner.

The American Journal of Wellness is a great resource to assist you with obtaining convincing information on the benefits of a Wellness Program.

Wellness Program support from management can come in many different ways –

• Involvement in the planning process

• Distribution of funding for the wellness program

• Support for time given to the wellness program

• Participation in wellness events

• Leadership by management, like the distribution of a letter of support for the program.

• Download a sample letter requesting  senior level management support. (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/business_tools/sr_mgt_support.doc)

• Flexibility of staff member schedules to accommodate wellness activities

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

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

Wellness Program –  Research Questions

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

• Was it widely accepted?

• Was programming successful? Why or why not?

• What does your business hope to gain from starting a Wellness Program?

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

Wellness Program –  Worker Feedback

In addition, you can begin the process of understanding your organization by analyzing  the survey below –

WORD DOC –  http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/company_tools/work_climate_survey.doc

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

• 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.

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

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

The benefits of corporate wellness are well documented. More than 120 scientific research studies repeatedly show themes such as improvements in health outcomes coupled with high returns on investment (ROI). Some major findings include the following –

• Savings of $3.48 in reduced health care costs per dollar invested.

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

• ROIs of at least $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of program implementation.

• Lifestyle behavior change programs –  $3 to $6 ROI within 2 to 5 years.

• Self care, decision support programs –  $2 to $3 ROI within a year.

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

By offering health improvement programs, corporations aren’t only providing an additional service for employees, but they are also gaining financially. Furthermore, the impact of a health improvement program goes beyond decreased healthcare cost and ROI.

A health improvement 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, starting and evaluating  worksite programs. National Business Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

According to the American Journal of Wellness, “Wellness is the science and art of helping individuals  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.”

Wellness Program –  Action Steps

The process of building a Wellness Program involves –

• Identifying the current health status of your employees

• Determiningthe appropriate programs and interventions to offer

• Promoting and beginning the programs

• Building in motivational incentives

• Measuring the impact

• Revising programs based on evaluation outcomes

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

Steps to Starting a Wellness Program

• Conduct an organizational assessment

• Obtain management support

• Establish a wellness committee

• Obtain employee input

• Develop goals and goals

• Design and implement program activities

• Choose incentives

• Evaluate outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to improve the nation’s health is through comprehensive Wellness Programs.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, these programs might help employees live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior change programs.

Indeed, 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 members that participate in a extensive Wellness Program at their worksite 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 staff members, 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.

Many 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 ordinarily have specialist support already in place as part of their services.

1. Coaching/Counseling –

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 employee assistance or wellness programs, can provide an external source of strength and insight for “working out” emotionally-based problems instead 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 large and reintegrate them into society with the support of a peer 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 web sites, like sparkpeople .com and revolutionhealth.com. Wellness programs often have such groups available through internet 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 unknown 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 often advised by counsellors as a way to help identify and process emotions. Individuals  record their emotions in writing as they experience them, in no matter what 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 does not 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’s 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’s missed over the years telling them how he felt. Finally, he’s a chance to say a proper goodbye.

4. Assess Your Emotional Health –  Businesses that seek to increase employees’ interpersonal skills, or emotional intelligence in the workplace are more successful, as reported by 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 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 create their empathetic skills.

These skills are also important for workplace health. When we’re empathic with fellow workers, we help them resolve negative or unhealthful emotions. New friendships are made through hobbies, classes, clubs, or even through web-based groups.

Many individuals  are locating emotional satisfaction by connecting or re-connecting with friends through Facebook and other social websites.

Sometimes workplace 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 kids and threatened to hit her youngest son. Her behavior horrified her. to make matters worse, she believes she is a failure at her job as well as at motherhood. She watches with jealousy as younger peers 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 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 Corporation Interest in Staff Member Wellness

Corporate 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 worker health, which include absenteeism, loss of productivity and poor work quality.

A recent Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 USA corporations indicated a meaningful paradigm shift in how corporations view health benefits for their employees.

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

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

Programs look to predict chronic illness 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 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.

Corporations are also telling us they need a cost-effective way to deliver wellness programs. the type of program we have created over years delivers the highest health care return on investment.”

Combining corporate wellness promotions, web-based assessments and health trackers, web-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 program. “Having web-based statistics about employees’ health also makes it easier to track the bottom line – ROI” says Vic Lebouthillier.

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

Nonetheless, in a separate survey of 30,000 workers, 74% said that, although they felt their business had an obligation to help them understand how to use their health benefits program, only 12% felt the business 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 workers as well as the corporation. It’s a win-win situation.

Companys and employees did find common ground when it came to future health care. Both surveys indicate that 95% 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 avoidance when it comes to saving on health care costs.

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

Although 64 percent of businesses have shifted costs to their employees, only 17 percent plan to do so in the next 3-5 years. In like manner with health reimbursement accounts, 20 percent now offer these, but only about 5 percent plan to use them in 2008.

These survey leads todicate businesses are getting more proactive in assisting their workers to change behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is clearly good for the well-being of workers, but also for the well-being of the businesses they work for.

Almost half the businesses surveyed were convinced that changing health behaviors was key to increased productivity and lower absentee rates. Over 60% plan to institute programs that help employees change and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle.

Almost of these companies will also use data and measurements to ensure their healthcare strategies meet their healthcare 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.

Companies have reached the point where the cost of providing health insurance is almost as burdensome as government regulation. It’s time for some new thinking on healthcare and its impact on company and vice versa.

Corporate wellness 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 employee’s health is their own responsibility. Expecting employers to provide unlimited medical insurance coverage is simply unrealistic and unreasonable.

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

Here’s the approach. Give catastrophic medical insurance as a group benefit to all workers with a big enough deductible (say $5000 per employee) to make the cost low cost for the company.

Then, allow employees to buy 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 companies that sell individual plans on this basis. Everybody wins. Staff Members 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 individuals become responsible for the cost of their own insurance, they become more attentive to their own health.

Besides, when an staff member is interested in working for you ONLY because your business offers great insurance benefits aren’t they telling you they are going to cost you more money in the future?

Develop a “Wellness Culture”

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

So, what would a “wellness culture” look like? First, instead of paid sick days, staff members may  be rewarded at year’s end with an attendance bonus.

Employees would be reimbursed for successful completion of use of tobacco cessation and weight-loss programs. Businesses would invest in corporate memberships at local fitness centers so every worker can participate.

Employees 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 employees.

Simply put, healthful staff members cost less and are more productive than unhealthful ones. Applicants must 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 workers whose personal lifestyle and habits ensure the best Return on Investment by the company 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 typically healthier, better educated, take fewer medications and miss fewer days from work than the typical American.

Since these individuals look for ways to stay healthful without drugs and surgery, they end up being a net benefit for attendance and productivity. Old prejudices in this area must 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 terrible failure. Businesses are buckling underneath the pressure of providing health coverage to their employees.

American competitiveness in the market is sagging. These times call for incredible solutions. It’s time for American corporations to consider some out-of-the-box solutions to the health care crisis.

Corporate wellness is an approach that is timely, achievable and reasonable given the alternatives. All options 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 reducing absenteeism, sick day usage and by decreasing insurance costs.

Also it is noted that there are marked improvements in staff member performance and productivity in organizations that start a wellness program.

Healthy organizations enjoy increased employee morale and an improved ability to attract and retain key individuals . Also, employees are more alert and productive.

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

Coors Brewing Corporation reported that staff members who participated in their wellness programs decreased their absentee rate by 18 percent.

Workers enjoy their share of benefits from wellness programs too. A healthful lifestyle affects every part of a person’s life, including their work environment.

Wellness programs lead to fewer injuries, less human error and a work environment that is more harmonious and relaxed. Also, staff members who work at a corporation that implements a wellness program know that their organization is concerned about their wellness.

Employees often report a reduction in their stress levels due to wellness programs.

As staff members 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 corporation, is also essential to the employee as it increases their own sense of self worth and confidence levels.

Employees 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 is a wise move for a company to begin a wellness program, namely 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 nearly not afford to have some sort of wellness program to offer to their workers.