Health Fair USA

Workplace Wellness Programs: The Grand Slam

Workplace Wellness Programs are as close to a grand slam proposition as you’ll find, according to most researchers and Workplace Health Promotion Program experts.

But if you have skeptics in your corporation who are questioning the expense and time of beginning an Workplace Wellness Program, you may be wary too. Aren’t worker Workplace Wellness Programs subject to the adage “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”?

Workplace Wellness Programs Don’t Have To Be Expensive

Fortunately, worker Workplace Wellness Programs don’t require a big investment. Like any other company project, mismanagement and “death by committee” can inflate the cost of Workplace Wellness Programs, but it’s hard to spend too much time and money on them. After all, Workplace Wellness Programs are mostly informational in nature. Flyers, e-mails, maps, and Workplace Health Promotion Program Wellness Fairs can only cost so much. There’s no expensive, specialized Workplace Health Promotion Program machinery.

Workplace Health Promotion Program statistics on successful programs are particularly persuasive. Unlike many cost-saving measures, Workplace Wellness Programs actually add to worker satisfaction - but they also reduce Medical Insurance premiums and worker absenteeism.

What are some common Workplace Wellness Programs?

Workplace Wellness Programs run the gamut, depending on your workplace demographic, from exercise for health patients to nutritional initiatives that encourage workers to replace unhealthy snack foods with healthy fare like dried fruit and shelled nuts.

Following are some examples of Workplace Wellness Programs:

ergonomic safety
cardiovascular disease education and testing
worker safety
Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals
walking Workplace Wellness Programs
drug testing

Maintaining Workplace Health Promotion Program during Flu Season can be a challenge for any company. The average adult can get up to four colds in one year, and hundreds of thousands are hospitalized every year for flu complications. From December to March, there are more workers out of the office due to illness, and others who barely made it to the office and can hardly think over their constant coughing and sneezing.

Workplace Wellness Program: Prevention is the Key

Prevention is the key to maintaining good health in the workplace and increasing overall Workplace Wellness Program. Fighting infection after the cold and flu epidemics hit is a losing battle and can best be combated with early action, such as implementing a Workplace Health Promotion Program Program in the workplace for good health year-round.

Keeping the Office Germ-free During Flu Season

The typical office is the perfect breeding grounds for influenza or the cold virus. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says that there are higher chances for the spread of infection during winter because people spend more time indoors. In an office, this risk is raised by cubicles, bringing many people into a close space. Workplace Health Testings conducted regularly as part of an overall health management program will increase the chances of Workplace Health Promotion Program year round, and especially during Flu Season.

Education Can Increase Workplace Health Promotion Program During Flu Season

Educating workers about various ways to stay healthy during Flu Season may help prevent the spread of any sickness to the entire office. Hand washing is a crucial component in maximizing Workplace Wellness Program, as bacteria collects on keyboards, mouses, around the water cooler and next to the community coffee pot. As workers shake hands, infection may be passed, multiplying the chance of getting a cold or coming down with the flu. Hand washing and anti-bacterial cleaners for surfaces can help reduce the spread of sickness.

Workplace Health Promotion Program is possible during Flu Season. With Workplace Wellness Program, your office can reach one step closer to immunity from sickness during Flu Season.

Workplace Health Promotion Program Study Shows Millions Lost Due to Illness

Workplace Health Promotion Program was shown to be a huge economic boon for businesses in a recently-released joint report by  the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Nearly three million productive workers in labor markets worldwide add up to a lot of money. The Workplace Health Promotion Program study estimates that China will lose $558 billion, India $237 billion, and Russia $303 billion in national income from 2005 to 2015 due to only three chronic diseases: heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Lack of Workplace Health Promotion Program A “Huge Expense”

The United States Center for Disease Control also reports that chronic disease accounts for approximately 75 percent of yearly worker healthcare costs in the United States, which constitutes a huge expense for businesses. And the Public Health Foundation of India estimates that its country will lose 18 million potentially productive years of life by 2030, a statistic no nation can afford, let alone a developing one.

Workplace Wellness Programs the Answer

A sustainable solution to these challenges cannot be solved by medical benefits alone. Workplace commitments to Workplace Health Promotion Program are also crucial. Companies are advised to implement onsite Health Testings for their workers, as well as look into a comprehensive health management program. These and other precautions are good secret weapons against the economic pitfall of unhealthy workers.

Workplace Wellness Programs - Staff Engagement Strategies

Workplace Wellness Programs without staff engagement are useless to a company. How do you get workers to enroll in Workplace Wellness Programs - and stay engaged in the programs?

The materials for these programs discuss the benefits to workers and businesses. Workplace Health Promotion Program statistics show that there are tangible benefits to a company for offering such programs. Workplace Wellness Programs actually do save lives by getting workers to take their health seriously, increase productivity, decrease absenteeism and more.

However, St. Louis, Missouri-based Maritz Inc., the world’s largest incentive company, has applied their own invigorating twist to health management by offering gift rewards to workers who participate in Workplace Wellness Programs. The wellness incentive program is Maritz’s own Exclusively Yours® plan. Health management participants earn points, which can be then redeemed for merchandise, electronics, restaurant vouchers and travel, much like a frequent-flier program.

Enrollment incentives in Workplace Wellness Programs?

Undoubtably businesses that don’t work in the incentives industry will be tempted to cry foul about using such a rich carrot to incentivize health program enrollments. Not every company can throw that kind of money at health management resources - and not every company has the built-in cost savings as a business that specializes in offering incentive programs.

For certain rich incentives like Maritz’s will break through the glaze that appears over many workers’ eyes when they’re encouraged to do something new, different or challenging. For many workers uncomfortable with health management and exercise, “new, different and challenging” would apply to Workplace Wellness Programs. So where does that leave businesses who are unwilling or unable to offer incentives for health management program enrollment?

Successful Workplace Wellness Programs motivate workers - before and after signup

Workplace Health Promotion Program administrators should keep the long-term view in mind when trying to get workers to take that vitally important first step. Even the best incentives can fail in the face of faltering organization, badly-designed Workplace Wellness Programs and wavering support. Make sure to run good Wellness surveys before you build your Workplace Wellness Programs so worker input and needs are being met by your Workplace Wellness Programs. The goal is positive outcomes, not high enrollment numbers.

Workplace Wellness Programs cannot survive managerial apathy. If executive and managerial participation is widespread and heartfelt, workers will follow their leadership. The potential rewards and Wellness benefits are clearly worth reaping, for both your business and your co-workers.

Wellness might be the fatal flaw in your Workplace Wellness Program. Is Wellness part of your strategy? Does workplace wellness stop when your workers leave the office?

Wellness Continuity

If workers don’t have the tools to pursue health and wellness on a Personal level, then it becomes easy for them to “fall off the wagon” and slide back into a unealthy lifestyles. If you have a walking program, for example, it should encourage workers to build walking routes near their homes, perhaps with the cooperation of the neighborhood association or coworkers who live in the neighborhood.

Workplace Wellness Programs: Always on Your Mind

Your Workplace Health Promotion Program coordinator should have “vacation wellbeing” as part of their job scope. In other words, you don’t want a Workplace Health Promotion Program to stop at the boundaries of the workplace campus. Instead, integrate Personal health and wellness with your Workplace Wellness Programs.

This will benefit the Workplace Wellness Programs in a couple of ways:

it lowers the chance that the worker will come back to the office feeling unfit, overwhelmed and unable to resume their Workplace Wellness Programs; and
it shows that their business is just as invested in their Personal health and wellness as they are

Like a marathon, Personal health and wellness is a long-term commitment and it’s challenging for anyone to do in isolation. Simply put, it’s easier to maintain your health and wellbeing when you know others are depending on you and watching your Personal performance. It’s easier to stick to an exercise program when you have a jogging partner who wakes you up when you oversleep, or spots you when you’re lifting weights.

Similarly, it’s easier to stick to your Workplace Health Promotion Program when you know your business is supporting you and wishing you the best.

Don’t Dictate Personal Health

Just as Wellness surveys serve a vital function in building a Workplace Wellness Program, it’s vitally important that you involve workers in designing an off-site wellness strategy. No one enjoys being told what to do, but everyone enjoys having assistance in tacking tough problems. Make it clear that workers are in charge of their own health and wellness. Your role as their health management partner is to support, advise, counsel, offer resources and information.

Of course, don’t forget that part of Personal health and wellness responsibility is to offer good health risk assessment baselines so workers can proceed safely on the road to better fitness.

Workplace Wellness Programs: An Attainable Goal

Was Wellness on your corporation’s new year’s resolutions list? Here we are a little over midway into the third month of 2008, the time when resolutions start to falter if they haven’t lost momentum completely. Has your Worksite’s wellness resolution fallen by the wayside? If so, there are still ways to get back on track.

One Wellness tip comes to us from the YMCA of Greater Des Moines, reported from the Jersey Shore. Rod Shirk, the YMCA’s chief financial officer, participated in the organization’s first executive Workplace Wellness Program, which registered his cholesterol as higher than normal. That prompted him to get a physical, which showed high levels of a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) that often indicates prostate cancer. The outcome? His doctors caught a life-threatening illness just in time.

Thanks Workplace Wellness Program.

So of course, Shirk is a huge proponent of Workplace Wellness Programs. He says, “For us here at the YMCA, if we are telling people to be healthy, we had better set a good example for our workers.”

Wellness Decreases Health Care Costs

Though cases like Shirk’s dramatic cancer save are the most desirable effect of Workplace Wellness Programs, it isn’t the initial draw for businesses. They do it to reduce healthcare costs, and there’s no doubt that Workplace Wellness Programs do just that. Workplace Health Promotion Program Statistics show that Workplace Wellness Programs return anywhere from $2.30 to $10.10 per dollar spent on wellness. “Health care costs should go down as people think about changing their diets and getting more active,” Shirk says.

The Workplace Health Promotion Program savings aren’t just in the Medical Insurance department. Human resource departments report that Workplace Wellness Programs also reduce absenteeism and increase productivity.

Still, businesses have been loath to invest that elusive Wellness dollar despite the well-documented returns. A Principal Financial Group and Harris Interactive survey found that only 10% of small- to medium-size businesses have made onsite Health Testings - like the one that saved Shirk’s life - available to their workers.

Is It Necessary to Incent Organizations to Initiate Workplace Wellness Programs?

Wellness incentives may seem like an effective way to get workers excited about Workplace Health Promotion Program - but is it wise?

This helps and encourages businesses to understand the importance of maintaining a healthy workforce, not only for the welfare of its workers, but as well as the welfare of the company bottom line … then, yes, it could be necessary.

Tax Breaks as Wellness incentives

In 2007, two senators decided to band together to create the “Healthy Workforce Act.” This act is designed to encourage businesses to keep workers healthy and prevent disease. The senators believed that having a country focused on “well care” versus “sick care” would decrease the overall costs of healthcare for everyone. They decided to start with America’s workforce.

The legislation, introduced by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, states that businesses would receive a Wellness incentive - a fifty percent tax credit - if they offer to their workers a Workplace Health Promotion Program that meets the following criteria:

1) A health awareness and education component, which could include Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals and Health Testings.
2) A behavioral change component – such as counseling, seminars, or self-help materials to empower workers to lead healthier lifestyles.
3) A supportive environment component – including offering meaningful incentives to participating workers, such as a reduction in medical premiums or allowing workers to engage in walking Workplace Wellness Programs during the workday.
4) The creation of an worker engagement committee – which would tailor the Workplace Health Promotion Program to the needs of the workforce at a particular company.

If this law gets passed, many businesses will be scrambling to offer Workplace Wellness Programs in hopes of receiving the Wellness incentives.