Corporate Wellness BlogCorporate wellness and employee wellness blog

When staffing your wellness program you need to consider whether to hire a wellness staff or contract with wellness specialists from outside your corporation.

Small and medium size worksites do not typically have a wellness expert on staff. When your worksite is in this category, you’ll need to contract with providers outside your corporation.

Large corporations have several options. They can hire a staff solely for the health promotion program, they can contract with outside wellness providers, or they are able to use a combination of internal staff and outside providers.

When choosing  a provider some key questions in the areas of staff, wellness program structure, process, and effectiveness need to be addressed. Each of these key questions is discussed in the following sections.

Health Promotion Company Staff

Health experts become wellness experts when they’re trained in the full range of wellness activities. Health Promotion experts are generalists who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and schooling.

They could be nurses, dietitians, health educators, counselors, exercise physiologists, or have other backgrounds. But as well to their main training, they know something about all wellness topics, including smoking, stress, exercise, and nutrition.

They also know how to engage and support people  in making and sustaining health improvements and have good people  skills.

Ordinarily, wellness experts at workplaces fall into three wide categories, wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and wellness instructors.

o  Wellness screeners introduce personnel to the wellness program, take health measurements, collect health-related information, provide initial counseling, and help personnel define for themselves what they need and want in a wellness program.

o  Health Promotion counselors work with staff members after the screening to help them develop and carry out a plan to reduce their risks and improve their health.

o  Wellness instructors teach classes and minigroups on different health topics.

A health promotion program in a small business can be staffed by a single staff individuals who fills all three roles. Larger worksites will use different individuals  to fill these roles.

When picking  staff or picking  among wellness companies, ask the following questions -

o  Do prospective workers have a range of health backgrounds that’ll provide appropriate expertise in the topics to be addressed?

o  Have prospective staff members functioned well as wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and/or wellness instructors?

o  Will this staff include people  from the ethnic and racial backgrounds found in your employee population?

o  Is each worker comfortable with the range of backgrounds found in your worker population, and able to communicate effectively with the various social and educational levels of your employees?

o  Do employees have a warm, but expert, counseling style when interacting with employees?

An annual plan for the major health promotion programs and activities is a useful management tool. This is an great wellness committee task. Often an activity and wellness theme per month is offered to staff members.

Some organizations pick to follow a National Health Observances calendar which offers advantages.  The materials created by these various national health organizations are very credible.  The materials are ordinarily high quality and available free or at a nominal cost.

The organization benefits from additional publicity that occurs in various media throughout the community related to the national observance. for planning suggestions you could want to utilize the HOPE Publications Wellness Resource Developing Guide available for free at this Web site.

A HRA  is sometimes used paired with a health screening.  An HRA is a computerized assessment tool which looks at an individual’s family history, health status, and lifestyle.

An HRA seeks to identify precursors associated with premature death or serious disease and quantifies the probable impact for each individual.

An HRA instrument is derived from an understanding of the while a disease. Based on this understanding, useful prediction instruments may be constructed to assess the health risks of an individual. Person with a higher number of health risks tend to have more serious medical problems over time.

Drawing attention to their health risks can help patrons reduce risk factors which lead to the onset of unnecessary disease and subsequent premature death.

The questionnaire covers lifestyle habits (such as tobacco use, seat belt use, and exercise) and physical measures (such as cholesterol, blood pressure levels, height, and weight).

For accuracy, it’s crucial to obtain direct measures of blood pressure, cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol.  The HRA also provides recommendations and indicates what risks are modifiable. Types of measures to assess health risks are discussed under Screening Programs.

The impact of a health risk appraisal is much greater when it is given in-person, with immediate feedback to the customer. This also provides an opportunity to invite the customer’s participation in continuing health counseling and to gain their written consent to do pro-active outreach to them.

A health age may be computed based on the individual answers to the questionnaire and physiologic factors.  The health age may indicate the individual to be younger or older than their chronological age.

Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) programs are one the most prolific kinds of wellness activities utilized by businesses. Continuing research on HRAs is examining the efficacy of this tool.

One of the big advantages of this tool is that it can provide an aggregate group report of a organization and can be utilized as an investigation tool.

Detailed information is available from the Society of Prospective Medicine (www.spm.org/desc.html) who publishes a handbook on HRAs.

The most common screening performed in wellness programs is heart health assessment.

The screening can include a written heart health test, blood pressure measurement, cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol test, glucose (blood sugar), weight, educational materials specific to diet, nutrition, exercise, cholesterol, tobacco use, and weight.

The health specialist conducting the screening then provides a consultation and helps set objectives with the participant.

The backbone of health promotion programming at the worksite is health testing. It is the first major activity a organization ought to do when first starting a health promotion program.

Health testing is often used along with the administration of a HRA .

The most effective way to screen is to utilize a health expert trained in wellness screening techniques and counseling to privately and individually assess participants.

This wellness specialist takes a brief health history and measures blood pressure (BP) and cholesterol. With computerized cholesterol desktop analyzers, results are acquired in about four minutes.

Immediate feedback, consultation, and educational materials are provided. for those identified at-risk, follow-up appointments can be scheduled at this time.  The whole process takes about twenty minutes per individual.

The screening also provides an immediate opportunity to register participants in various wellness programs based on their interests and identified health risks.

Health screening can be done annually and used as a means of monitoring health risks within the workplace.

A medical testing program needs to provide multiple opportunities for participation.  The service should be provided for all the various shifts of a organization.  The screening program should be conducted in highly visible areas so the process can be observed.

Reluctant staff members often like to be able to see what the health promotion program is about before they participate. When wellness screeners are not busy, they should perform outreach going to areas where staff members gather and try to recruit staff members.

When well-planned and promoted, health screening can attract participation rates of 60% to 100%. These high participation rates have a positive impact on upper management producing support for further health promotion programming.

Health Screening:

• Blood checks
• Breast cancer Screening
• Skin cancer Screening
• Diabetes Screening
• Cholesterol Screening
• Eye exams
• Body-fat Screening
• Flu shots
• Posture screening, spinal analysis
• On-site child immunizations
• Prostate cancer screenings
• Fitness Screening
• Depression Screening

Fitness Activities:

• On-site fitness center or exercise room
• Walking and/or running club (during lunch hour or breaks)
• Bike rack on premises (so employees can ride to work or during lunch)
• Mind/body classes (yoga, tai chi) initiatives
• Team sports (volleyball, basketball, softball)
• Host an exercise equipment swap

Lifestyle Change or Behavior Change Programs:

• Tobacco cessation
• Weight management initiatives
• Substance abuse initiatives
• Fitness activity
• Stress management initiatives

Prevention and Safety Programs:

• Back-injury prevention and training
• Ergonomic education
• Hand-tool safety initiatives
• Fire safety initiatives

Awareness, Health Education, and Support Programs:

• Lunch-and-learn or brown-bag wellness seminars (see your EAP for a list)
• Nutrition and diet information, plus provide healthy food alternatives in your vending machines and cafeteria, and provide food storage and preparation facilities to encourage healthier eating
• Prenatal care initiatives
• Work / Life Balance initiatives
• Elder care initiatives
• Cancer survivor support groups
• Financial education

Stress-Reliever Programs:

• Laughter bulletin board where employees can post jokes and cartoons (in good taste)
• Visiting massage therapist
• Stretch breaks
• Group lunches or celebrations

Disease Management Programs:

• Back pain
• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Depression
• Cancer
• Obesity
• Hypertension

Employee Health Services

• access to an EAP
• onsite medical services
• worksite medical examinations
• health risk screening and counselling:
• blood pressure,
• blood cholesterol ,
• blood glucose clinics,
• thyroid.
• bone density screening,
• prostrate
• encourage self-exams – breasts, testicles
• medical surveillance Programs
• immunizations and flu vaccinations
• disability case management
• active rehabilitation
• return to work Programs
• self-care education (see health living Programs)
• disease management information and presentations:
• diabetes,
• stomach disorder,
• arthritis,
• asthma,
• allergy,
• pain control,
• foot and back care Programs,
• chronic tiredness,
• migraines
• health on-line with continuous learning/reminders/tips
• daily/weekly/monthly email tips or news bulletins
• excercise appraisals
• safety and health fairs
• hand-washing tips and reminders
• visiting your doctor guide – tips to efficiency
• links and information on help lines

• clearly communicated vision and mission
• clear and accurate job descriptions
• supportive appraisal system
• worker empowerment through decision-making, pace of work and connection to corporate goals, (on-line tools that connect to goals such as Baxter Healthcare)
• two-way communication training
• ‘no lunch hour’ meeting rules unless it is a lunch ‘n’ learn
• absenteeism and attendance program
• career tracking, (on-line tools like Pfizer)
• continuing education
• job rotation, special project assignments
• time management and interruption management
• innovative ideas program
• change and complaint process
• email guidelines
• technology courses and assistance
• vacation useage
• shift work rotations and breaks
• conflict management skills
• handling negative attitudes workshops

Healthy Work Environment Initiatives: Management Training

• scheduling
• incentive and recognition Programs
• workload impact
• communication and feedback skills
• conflict management skills and support skills
• priority setting
• all of which are apart of the four employment relationship factors (trust, commitment, influence, and communication – from Canadian Policy Research Network)

Healthy Work Environment Initiatives: Remuneration and Benefits

• massage – try an onsite massage therapist or seated massage breaks
• orthotics
• orthodontics
• fitness subsidies
• education subsidies
• cessation and weight control partial reimbursement incentives
• safety shoe reimbursement
• out-of-country coverage
• vision care
• alternative therapy coverage

Healthy Work Environment Initiatives: Support Building

• fitness breaks and stretches
• team challenges
• corporate sport teams such as soccer, volleyball, and hockey
• use employees who are in-house experts e.g., gardening, yoga, construction
• celebrate birthdays, anniversaries – other significant dates and achievements
• 5 minute catch-up at beginning of work week
• pot lucks and food for meetings
• green room for time outs and regrouping self
• encouraging face to face communications
• learn names

**The creation of health or harm within an corporation depends on how work is managed. Workplace Culture Strategies must address high demand/low control, high effort/low reward, fairness, purpose and trust.

• childcare Programs and information
• family planning information
• parenting classes
• elder care Programs and information
• retirement planning
• personal responsibility leave
• alternative work arrangements such as telecommuting, job sharing
• work-family-life transition support
• anger management and family violence
• family counselling initiatives
• budgeting and financial counselling
• understanding credit reports
• money safety tips – ATMS, credit cards
• advertising and promotion of community support groups
• cafeteria take-out program
• tax preparation initiatives
• will, power of attorney, and estate experts
• vacation planning and safe travel
• interpersonal relationship presenters
• motivational presenters
• bereavement information
• shift work and lifestyle Programs
• limit overtime
• balance on-line suggestions such as SC Johnson
• family days – bike rodeos, BBQ, picnics
• swimming pool safety
• charity information – United Way, MADD
• other information sessions on:
• chemical free lawn and garden care,
• menopause,
• infertility,
• lice prevention,
• poisoning,
• fire safety initiatives
• seat belts and booster seats,
• playground safety,
• internet safety,
• home safety and energy efficiency

• violence in the worksite
• equity in the worksite initiatives
• harassment policy and training
• literacy/numeracy Programs
• professional development and skill enhancing training
• air quality and sick building testing
• smoke-free worksite
• fire safety initiatives
• hazard control and WHIMS Training
• injury prevention, CPR/First Aid, emergency response Programs
• improved signage
• installing guard rails
• work station design, ergonomic and repetitive strain reduction training
• stretching initiatives
• safety and health written and implemented policies
• Safety Audits
• access to bike racks, showers and change areas
• make stairs attractive and post signs to encourage their use
• proper lighting
• monitoring noise levels
• shift work strategies related to lighting, noise, air, breaks etc.