Corporate Wellness BlogCorporate wellness and employee wellness blog

Walking Corporate Wellness Programs are some of the most popular Corporate Wellness Programs. They set the bar for entry fairly low – most anyone can walk around the block or their building – and walking Corporate Wellness Programs also offers workers with a good way to break up the afternoon doldrums and interact in a casual, more social environment with other workers. Just leaving your desk for a few minutes every day for a little sunshine can be a big stress reliever – and stress is the second leading cause of absenteeism, according to Corporate Wellness Program statistics.

As a first step to starting your Corporate Wellness Program, we recommend that you have a designer draw up an attractive map of your corporate campus or vicinity. Plan out and test a few short walks of varying distances, and using a pedometer and watch, figure out how long each walk is in time and distance. Have a little fun with your walking Corporate Wellness Program by equating each walk with a common office activity of the same duration, like a writing a one-page status report or filling out a common form. Post the map at the worksite and make sure people know about walking Corporate Wellness Programs by using your office communication channels – newsletters, announcements, company meetings. Keep it fun by building weight-loss teams, setting up races or organizing healthy picnics and athletic activities around the walking Corporate Wellness Programs route.

Here are some other walking Corporate Wellness Programs tips from Tom Weede, author of The Entrepreneur Diet: The On-the-Go Plan for Fitness, Weight Loss, and Healthy Living:

Make sure to link the walking Corporate Wellness Program to work objectives. Employees need to be reassured that these walks are part of their responsibility to be healthy and productive. They’re not personal errands that need to be compensated for by longer days at the office.
Keep healthy snacks at the worksite.
Reinforce the walking Corporate Wellness Program message by regularly mentioning it during employee meetings
Set up a health-related benefit that walking Corporate Wellness Programs participants can use for health-related expenses.

Corporate Wellness Program Statistics tell a clear story – Corporate Wellness Program Programs are effective , and they save businesses money.

You should take note of these interesting Corporate Wellness Program Statistics:

Some 25 percent of U.S. businesses were running Corporate Wellness Programs in 1996.
Corporate Wellness Program Statistics depict a savings of $2.30 to $10.10 for every $1 spent on Corporate Wellness Programs.
Coca-Cola’s physical fitness program recouped $500 per year per employee, despite the fact that only 60% of their staff was enrolled.
A Ipsos-Reid Corporate Wellness Program statisics paper in 2004 found the three major preventable causes of staff absenteeism to be mental health (anxiety and/or depression), stress and a bad relationship with a supervisor.
Corporate Wellness Program Statistics from Prudential Insurance reveal a benefit expense of $312 per individual enrolled in their wellness system, but $574 per non-enrolled employee.
At the Coors Brewing Co., Corporate Wellness Program Statistics illuminate a savings of $5.50 per $1 spent on physical fitness, with a positive side-effect of participant absenteeism dropping by 18%.

Corporate Wellness Program Benefits still aren’t self-evident to some executives, even though the research, real-world evidence and cost-benefit analyses are demonstrative. With careful planning, almost every company can reap Corporate Wellness Program Benefits.

Part of the problem is that some executives erroneously believe that the Corporate Wellness Program Benefits are mostly on the employee side. The truth is that Corporate Wellness Program Benefits both the corporation and employee – and according to Corporate Wellness Program statistics , the employer stands to gain $2.30 to $10.10 in cost savings per dollar spent. Employee physical fitness saves organizations money.

At the same time, health care and insurance costs continue to skyrocket. Corporate Wellness Program Benefits are one of the only ways to cut those costs while helping workers at the same time. As Karen Roberts, senior vice president with Aon Consulting, said about Corporate Wellness Program Benefits in her address at the 2006 WorldAtWork Total Rewards Conference & Exhibition, “If you can’t afford to invest in wellness this year, you’re never going to afford it.”

Corporate Wellness Program Benefits include helping to prevent cancer, obesity, heart disease and hypertension. It’s rare that businesses can cut costs and assist struggling workers, support families and even arguably save lives. Isn’t that a good thing?

Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing means better heath risk assessment baselines and better security

“Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing” is a hot phrase these days, but it can help your employees with health management, too. When the pundits talk about Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing, they’re usually referring to retinal scanners, fingerprint readers, and other high-tech security measures. However, if you trace the phrase “Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing” back to its roots, it refers to the measurement of unique human physical and behavioral characteristics.

Corporate Wellness Programs are of imperative importance to the modern business. As a result, Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing should be one of the tools in the arsenal of a forward-thinking organization.

Worksite Health Screening and Biometric Testings aren’t just a “feel-good” measure for your workers. Assessments of employee health help your workers to prioritize their well-being, which results in happier, more productive workers. Health Risk Appraisals also build your database of employee biometric data. Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing, when handled onsite by our experienced professionals, is hassle-free and smoothly organized. The biometric data we collect then can be stored digitally for years or even decades, helping you and your employees build better health risk assessment baselines that you can use to analyze employees physical fitness and the efficacy of your corporation’s Health and Productivity Programs. Collected biometric data can even allow an employee’s doctor to assess that individual’s health over many years, helping him or her spot trends and diagnose disease.

Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing extends to a wide variety of health risk tests, including measurements of blood pressure, blood type, body fat, substance abuse, and susceptibility to cardiovascular disease. Collecting biometric data for security purposes – like fingerprints, facial recognition imprints, or hand geometry – can be dovetailed with our health tests to minimize workflow disruption.

Corporate Wellness Programs: A Long-Term Committment

“Corporate Wellness Programs” – what does that phrase mean to you? To many of us, it evokes an array of ambivalent thoughts — the gym membership we barely used, the nagging ankle injury from last year’s company picnic, the backaches, the bratwurst we had for lunch, the love handles and of course, the fad diets that failed us or that we failed. Usually, Corporate Wellness Programs is a guilt trigger that causes us to feel remorse about our bodies and the health management we know we should be doing for them.

Unfortunately we live in a society where our survival is dependent on sitting at a desk, not hunting game, picking berries and sprinting away from wolves. We also live in such luxury, nutritionally, that we can gain weight steadily without being wealthy. Cardiovascular disease, obesity and poor dietary habits cause most of the heath issues that weigh down employee attendance and erode a corporation’s productivity.

Ironically the poorest societies in the world – the ones furthest from the conveniences of modern life – often have the fittest, most physically hardy members. And as for the animal kingdom — don’t look there for commiseration. In the wild, it is extremely rare to find an animal that suffers from our kind of wellness issues.

Pharmaceutical dependency degrades Health and Wellness

It doesn’t help that U.S citizens are descending into a deadly love affair with drugs — and drug testing won’t help you with these drugs.

For example, Greg Critser’s book Generation RX details how U.S citizens spend about $180 billion dollars on Pharmaceuticals each year, with the estimated 2011 tally at a whopping $414 billion. The average number of Pharmaceuticals per American in 2004 stood at twelve.

Twelve! That means that your average employee is taking 14, 18, or even more than 20 medications in an attempt to enhance their Health and Wellness.

Is this effective, though? Critser is not convinced that the prescription drugs help U.S. health. In fact, he points out a bevy of negative consequences for America’s legal prescription addition, which include prescription interactions, liver damage, and the legions of people who now depend on prescription drugs to deal with ordinary trials and stresses.

An corporation has the potential to enhance Health

It’s not all bad news, though. Occupational Health Screening and Biometric Testings and well-designed Corporate Wellness Programs can help you fight the downward spiral for you and your employees. In fact, good Corporate Wellness Programs – like a strong walking Corporate Wellness Programs initiative – can literally save lives and reduce the symptoms that cause workers to turn to prescription drugs in the first place.

Health Risk Assessment: Helping Quantify Employee Health help you quantify employee health

An Health Risk Assessment (HRA) is an important tool to help you isolate the value of strong Corporate Wellness Program Programs.

Health Risk Assessment: What is it?

Does the term “Health Risk Assessment” have you puzzled? If so, then you are not alone. Unfortunately there is no standard definition or format for a Health Risk Assessment. A health risk assessment is both a procedure and a document, too, depending on the context — you must answer questions and ideally undergo some simple Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing to develop a document that describes what’s good and bad about your current state of health.

To add confusion to the situation, there’s a field called health risk management. Talk to an OSHA inspector about health risk assessment and they will likely assume you’re referring to an analysis of contaminants and industrial chemicals in a factory or manufacturing facility.

Health Risk Assessment: The Typical Health Risk Assessment

A comprehensive health risk assessment is aimed at producing a concrete baseline of a individual’s health, and includes most of these features:

a blood pressure check,
cancer testing,
blood sugar test, and
a analysis of the employee’s health status.

Health Risk Appraisals would analyze the employee’s:

lifestyle factors,
medical conditions,
prescriptions,
functional concerns and abilities,
overall quality of life,
self-efficacy,
physical fitness level.

Health and Wellness Fair activities put the spotlight on Corporate Wellness Programs

A Health and Wellness Fair is a excellent way to shake your employees out of the doldrums and into better awareness of their health and wellness. A Health and Wellness Fair brings your organization together to discuss Corporate Wellness Programs, examine Medical Insurance and “cafeteria” plans, explore health savings accounts, publicize Corporate Wellness Program Programs and share success stories and challenges.

Some common Health and Wellness Fair desired outcomes include:

better awareness of the health services and resources available to workers, both from their corporation and from local, state, regional and national health services;
increased motivation for improving health behavior
increased participation in Corporate Wellness Programs, commuter and carshare programs and health savings accounts
better awareness of individual health status through Health Screening and Biometric Testings, Health and Wellness Fair activities, displays, handouts, and demonstrations, and
better information on what workers are seeking from their corporation’s health management initiatives, and which workers are interested in participating.

Planning a Health and Wellness Fair

Planning a Health and Wellness Fair is a lot like starting an Corporate Wellness Program on a smaller scale. Just like an Corporate Wellness Program, your Health and Wellness Fair will need publicity, logistical planning, programming, targeted goals, in-house marketing and of course, executive approval. Festive touches like free food, kid-friendly activities, live music, art displays, talent shows and other community-minded fun will help cement the appeal of your Health and Wellness Fair and ensure that the Health and Wellness Fair becomes a welcomed, annual event.

You can find some Health and Wellness Fair planning tips at the Family and Consumer Sciences site of Texas A&M University. These Health and Wellness Fair tips are aimed more at community and non-profit organizers, but you can discover many useful Health and Wellness Fair ideas at the site.

Health and Wellness Fairs and Corporate Wellness Program Recruitment

Many Corporate Wellness Program planners find that Health and Wellness Fairs are the primary reason why workers sign up for walking Corporate Wellness Programs, health savings accounts and other pro-Corporate Wellness Programs.

Don’t forget – not only do workers value these programs highly, but the increased energy and decreased sick leave associated with Corporate Wellness Programs also saves your company money. The Corporate Wellness Program Statistics are clear – healthier businesses work harder and pay less in Medical Insurance premiums.

Corporate Wellness Programs: The Grand Slam

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

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

Corporate Wellness Programs Don’t Have To Be Expensive

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

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

What are some common Corporate Wellness Programs?

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

Here are some examples of Corporate Wellness Programs:

ergonomic safety
cardiovascular disease education and testing
employee safety
Health Risk Appraisals
walking Corporate Wellness Programs
drug testing

Maintaining Corporate Wellness 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.

Corporate Wellness Program: Prevention is the Key

Prevention is the key to maintaining good health in the workplace and increasing overall Corporate 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 Corporate Wellness Program Program at the worksite 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 increased by cubicles, bringing many people into a close space. Worksite Health Screening and Biometric Testings conducted regularly as part of an overall health management program will increase the chances of Corporate Wellness Program year round, and especially during Flu Season.

Education Can Increase Corporate Wellness 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 Corporate 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.

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

Corporate Wellness Program Study Shows Millions Lost Due to Illness

Corporate Wellness Program was shown to be a huge economic boon for businesses in a recently-released joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Economic Forum (WEF). Nearly three million productive workers in labor markets worldwide add up to a lot of money. The Corporate Wellness 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 Corporate Wellness Program A “Huge Expense”

The U.S. Center for Disease Control also reports that chronic disease accounts for approximately 75 percent of yearly employee health care costs in the U.S., 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.

Corporate Wellness Programs the Answer

A sustainable solution to these challenges cannot be solved by medical benefits alone. Workplace commitments to Corporate Wellness Program are also crucial. Companies are advised to implement onsite Health Screening and Biometric 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.