Corporate Wellness BlogCorporate wellness and employee wellness blog

Develop a culture of wellness within your corporation

Create Exemplary Management Support

In the most successful Health Promotion Programs, senior managers lead their businesses by example.  And they work to ensure that the senior management structure not only allows, but actively encourages their staff to participate.

Organize a Wellness Advisory Team

Wellness committees serve as the eyes, ears, arms and legs of the wellness program, representing coworkers ideas and concerns, and assisting reshape the organizational culture toward health.

Conduct an Assessment of Financial and Human Assets and Liabilities

Successful Wellness Programs are built upon a foundation of information, including claims review, demographic analysis of the workforce, senior management and staff member surveys, health risk data, history of organizational wellness, and health benefit plan design.

Create Clearly Announced Vision, Mission and Outcomes

Establish a clear vision of health promotion program direction, expectations and measures to answer the questions, “Where are we going and how will we know when we get there?”

Develop a Comprehensive and Strategic Wellness Program

A multi-component plan ought to consist of strategically created and implemented awareness, lifestyle change, and supportive environment programs, in addition to policies and activities that target appropriate health risk behaviors and needs of the personnel.

Identify an Incentive and Reward Strategy

Incentives show the organizational commitment to the wellness program and motivate person to participate. Incentives vary commonly from program to program, but can include such things as time off, reduction in medical insurance premiums or co-pays, cash incentives, discounts to health clubs, free pedometers, etc.

Communicate to Employees

Your health promotion program must be simple and concise, use an identifiable brand, and rely on a selection of media to communicate with staff members and managers.

Evaluate Outcomes

Evaluate wellness program participation, satisfaction levels and behavioral change. You may want to track the number of workers’ compensation claims, productivity, turnover morale and absenteeism.

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Health Promotion Program – Management Support.

Develop Exemplary Management Support

Goal –  A Health Promotion Program established into the organization’s culture.

Focus – Develop support and excitement for the health promotion program from all levels of the corporation –  upper-level management, mid-level management, and grass-roots personnel.

Obtaining senior management’s buy-in is essential to launching an effective wellness program.  The staff members must understand that senior management is supportive of the wellness program.

Actions -

Develop an Senior Level Management Executive Team to determine high-level decisions â.” positions that ought to be included are the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Communications Officer, and other appropriate division-level managers and health promotion program professionals, as necessary.

The Senior Level Management Executive Team will -

o  Communicate to all levels of executive management about the wellness program and drive the integration of the Health Promotion Program as a part of the organization culture.

o  Ensure that organizational resources are available for health promotion program planning and implementation.

o  Make sure to encourage workers to participate and to assist in “recruiting” other workers, get the momentum going, and keep it growing.

o  Share success stories within the organization, and continue to raise the perceived value of participation.

Organize a Health Promotion Advisory Team

Goal – Develop a working committee that consists of workers and essential functional parts of the company.

Focus –  to assist in reshaping the organizational culture to support employee-wellness activities by serving as heralds and supporters for the wellness program.

Wellness Advisory Committees serve as an essential part of the infrastructure of your Wellness Program.  The team members are the eyes, ears, arms, and legs of the wellness program.

They represent their peers by sharing ideas and concerns about the wellness program.

Actions -

The Health Promotion Advisory Committee will -

o  Be sure to work with senior level management and the Wellness Program coordinator in the design, implementation, and examination of the health promotion program.

o  Create methods to enhance the acceptance and success of the activities of your Wellness Program by stimulating employee ownership of the health promotion program.

o  Hold periodic meetings to keep the committee informed of upcoming plans and events and to provide feedback to the wellness program coordinator about their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions, and those of their colleagues.

o  Recommend policy and environmental changes that are aimed at bettering the health and safety of staff.

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Wellness Program – Vision and Mission.

Goal – Create a baseline of information and identify human and organizational needs.

Focus –  Review a selection of information to better understand past and current conditions regarding health care utilization, organizational culture, demographic overview, and health promotion programs.

Data collection plays an important role in planning, monitoring, and investigating  a health promotion program. It’ll also set the baseline for continued and future investigations of health promotion program efficiency, effectiveness, and feasibility.

Actions -

o  Claims review (health care, pharmaceutical) -

o  What have been the 10 most expensive major illness categories in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars paid for each?

o  What have been the 10 most costly therapeutic courses of drugs in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars paid for each?

o  What have been the 10 most frequently prescribed and filled therapeutic courses of drugs in each of the past five years? What are the number of claims and dollars paid for each?

o  Demographic analysis of employee population (may include dependents) -

o  List your number of personnel, by gender, for each of the past five years and the percentages of males and females by age groups.

o  Think about any other factors that may have affected the health of your workers and their use of the healthcare system.

This may include mergers, acquisitions, worksite trauma, worker strikes, layoffs, early retirement offers, etc.

Management survey -

o  Conduct surveys of mid-level management to understand their concerns and measure their level of interest and buy-in.

o  Employee-interest survey –  Gather information to figure out what the workers want and to measure the level of participation, satisfaction, and “success” of any previous activities.

Risk data (health-risk assessments) -

o  Is there any data from health-risk appraisals over the past five years?

Participation in similar activities -

o  List and describe all wellness programs that have been implemented over the past five years, including participation rates.

Design of the health plan, and anticipated changes -

o  Have there been any meaningful changes in the health plan’s design in each of the past five years, such as a change from an Health Maintenance Organization to a PPO, increased co-payments or deductibles, or increased worker contributions?

Develop Clearly Reported Vision, Mission and Outcomes

Goal –  Establish a clear vision of wellness program direction, expectations, and measures.

Focus – Establishing a vision, mission, goals and goals to keep your Health Promotion Program focused toward its desired outcomes. It will answer the questions, “Where are we going?” and “How’ll we know when we get there?”

Actions -

o  Identify two to five clearly reported objectives. Make certain that your wellness program is capable of having an impact in the area desired, and make certain that you’re capable of measuring that impact.

Example Goal – Employees having access to healthier food options

o  Launch two to five measurable goals that in particular state what your wellness program is going to accomplish, by when, how, and how it’ll be measured.

Example Objective –  Modify all vending machines to include 50% healthy food choices.

o  Identify several activities that will help you achieveyour objective. Activities are very specific.

Example Activity – Be sure to work with vending machine owners to identify healthful food options and restock with 50 percent of items that are healthier food options.

o  Identify who is going to do what, by when, and what resources are needed.

Example Detail –  the Program coordinator will contact XXX Vending Company by September 30.

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Health Promotion Program Incentives.

Create a Extensive and Strategic Wellness Program

Goal –  A extensive Wellness Program plan.

Focus –  Development of a plan that consists of a variety of awareness, lifestyle change, and supportive environment program, policies, and activities that’ll target risk behaviors, needs, and interests of workforce.

Your Wellness Program should provide an integrated, strategic approach specific to the needs, objectives, and culture of your corporation, designed throughout an annual cycle.

It will be imperative that you review and revise existing policies governing such areas as tobacco use, vending machines, and the staff cafeteria. Moreover, it is useful to examine what company health promotion or health-promotion activities are offered under your existing health-benefit plan.

Actions -

o  Create activities based on your wellness program goals and the specific needs of your personnel. Focus on those topics that are of greatest interest to your personnel and the greatest needs of your corporation, in that order. Prevent topics with narrow appeal.

o  Keep it simple. Design the wellness program so it’s easy for the participants to understand and track. Let personnel focus their learning efforts on their own behavior, not on the rules and regulations of the wellness program.

Furthermore, simplify the health promotion program administration. Let people  record their own activities when possible; create a mixture of self-reported activities along with verified activities.

o  Integrate a combination of activities to include awareness, educational, and behavior elements. Link the activities throughout the year to allow for desired behavior repetition.

o  Pick activities that every worker can participate in.

Examples -

o  Challenges –  Activities that focus on practicing a desired behavior and continue for 4-8 weeks and focus on specific topics (such as physical activity, nutrition, or stress management).

o  Learning experiences (seminars, videos, classes) –  One-time activities that last for a relatively short time and focus on a specific topic; these can precede “challenge activities” to prepare participants for behavior change.

o  Behavior changes (such as smoking cessation) –  Interventions may or might not be offered at the worksite; individuals ought to be encouraged to make lifestyle changes that they wanted to make even without the incentive.

o  Disease management (support and education groups for diabetes and hypertension) –  These may  be provided or supported by the company through disease-management providers, or by community, health, or religious companies.

o  New skills (first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation) –  These may  be provided or supported by the organization, or by community, health, or religious organizations.

o  Screenings, wellness assessments, physical exams –  A wellness assessment provides the corporation with aggregate data that may be used in wellness program planning and evaluation; preventive screenings and physical exams may be encouraged by awarding credits to workforce.

o  Program support (membership or leadership in wellness committee or challenge team) –  Reward those who work with you to help make your Health Promotion Program a success.

o  Community events –  Reward participation in events like the Heart Walk or March of Dimes Walk; limit the number of these events that could be counted toward the annual total, and be selective about which events you allow to be counted.

Create an Incentive Strategy

Goal –  to motivate and reward staff member participation and completion.

Focus – Create a sense of interest in participation and completion of wellness activities.

Providing incentives and rewards will send an important message to the workers that the corporation is committed to improving their health and will share the rewards that these changes will bring. It also plays a meaningful role in arousing person to participate.

Actions -

o  Identify through staff members what incentives they value most.

o  Identify what incentives the business can provide.

o  Integrate your incentives into your benefits strategy.

o  Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.

o  Give participation incentives.

o  Avoid offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”

o  Avoid rewards for biometric changes.

o  Use incentives to promote your Wellness Program, through logos and branding.

Examples -

Paid time off, reduction in health insurance premiums or co-pays, cash incentives, discounts to health and fitness centers, free pedometers, etc.

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Wellness Program Communication.

Goal –  Increase awareness of and participation in the Health Promotion Program.

Focus –  Promote the Wellness Program to employees to encourage participation in activities and benefits.

A well-designed communications strategy is paramount to successful wellness program awareness and participation. Even a “world class” wellness program design won’t succeed when nobody knows that it is available or how to get involved.

Workers who do not get involved in the wellness program must be doing so because they select not to participate, not because they did not know about how, when, or where to participate.

Actions -

o  Conduct a Resources and Communications Audit to identify internal and external resources available to support your Wellness Program, in addition to knowing how information will be disseminated.

o  Keep the health promotion program simple and concise –  easy to peruse about, understand, and act upon.

o  Build the brand; make certain it’s something that staff can identify with. Add the brand to T-shirts, water bottles, mouse pads, stress balls, etc.

Use a selection of media -

o  Print â.” handouts, fliers, posters, banners, paycheck inserts, newsletter articles, bulletin boards, literature racks, post cards.

o  Electronic â.” Web, intranet, e-mail, closed-circuit TVs, sign lines, audiovideo productions.

o  Staff meetings and company events; word of mouth.

o  Use existing channels of communication â.” what works best in your corporation â.” and be sure to know about all points of contact and systems of distribution.

Timing for communications -

o  Prior to activity to create awareness and to educate.

o  During activity to stimulate participation.

o  After an activity to report results.

o  Between activities to maintain momentum and interest.

Consistency of communications -

o  Use branding; maintain a consistent look, feel, and tone of messages.

o  Maintain this consistency throughout the wellness program.

Surveys and forms -

o  Collect information.

o  Disseminate information.

o  The news isn’t stimulating. According to Business Week, family health care premiums increased 49% from 2000 to 2004.

Another increase of 12-15% is expected in 2005. General Motors expects to spend $5.6 billion on health care costs in 2005, or 40% more than it earned in profits in 2004.

o  More and more research shows that poor diet andlack of exercise are major drivers of increases in health care costs for businesss.  The number of obese adults has doubled since the 1970s.

o  The rise in obesity has a meaningful impact on health care costs. on average, 2002 health care costs for an obese individuals were $1,244 higher than for a individuals with a healthy weight.

o  Obesity is causing rapid increases in kind 2 diabetes and contributes directly to a 65% increase in diabetes treatment from 1987 to 2002. Nearly $1 of every $5 spent on health care in the United States is for a individuals with diabetes.

Treating staff member healthcare as an investment, rather than a cost, can yield long-term dividends

o  At least 50 percent of your organization’s health care costs are driven by the lifestyle related behaviors of your staff members, such as smoking, poor diet, and lack of exercise.

o  In the past 10 years, the annual return on investment for Wellness Programs has been as much as $6 saved for every $1 spent, doubling the return on investment of earlier wellness programs.

o  The typical reduction in health-plan costs, sick leave, disability costs, and workers’ compensation is more than 25 percent for well-designed Health Promotion Programs.

o  Fit employees are more productive employees, with fewer sick days, fewer accidents, higher morale, and lower job turnover.

The concern for worker health promotion is an increasing trend for American business. Why? the link between worker health promotion and the bottom line is clear and consistent.

Corporations who integrate wellness in their overall goals find they experience lowered absences, better morale, lowered health risks, and lowered healthcare costs.

The purpose of this guide to is to encourage and help you launch your own Wellness Program. If you already have a wellness program, but aren’t receiving the results you expected, perhaps some of the ideas and best practices in this toolkit will help you and your staff members reap the benefits of a healthier workforce.

At least 50% of healthcare expenditures are lifestyle-related, and therefore, potentially preventable. Yet despite the $5,000 an average business spends on healthcare per employee each year, most businesss are spending less than 5% of that on medical screenings and prevention.

The most robust meta-evaluation of Health Promotion Program studies shows something very exciting! It shows that Health Promotion Programs are not only effective at helping to reverse the rising spiral of healthcare costs, but these wellness programs are also becoming more effective.  The average cost-benefit ratio has increased from 1 – 3 for earlier wellness programs to 1 – 6 today.

Simply put, the average reduction in healthcare costs, sick leave, disability costs, and workers’ compensation is more than 25% for well designed health promotion programs.

Corporate wellness provides a long-term approach for helping keep staff well.  The single most important thing you are able to do for your staff is to start a Wellness Program now.

In our modern and hectic lives filled with the demands of family, work, and much more, it could seem difficult to tackle our wellness on our own.

A lot of of us create objectives that seem beyond reach and we cannot seem to stick to a specific wellness program for an extended period of time.

With the numerous struggles that prevent us from reaching our optimum individual wellness, many of us would welcome the assistance and guidance of a expert wellness coach.

A wellness coach is a trained specialist who works with person to help them to reach their wellness goals by developing and starting personal wellness programs.

A wellness coach is highly educated and typically maintains advanced degrees in areas like Exercise Physiology, Occupational or Physical Therapy, Athletic Training, and Nutrition.

A wellness coach sets achievable goals for the customer, holds them accountable, and acts as a guide, motivator, and support system for that individual.  They focus on behavioral change by using individually designed health promotion programs to meet the unique needs of the customer while offering creative solutions to help them achieve their goals.

In order to fully understand the role of a wellness coach it is crucial to understand the various factors that involved in overall wellness.  The five major components of wellness are health risks, exercise, stress management, weight management, and nutrition.

A wellness coach focuses on each of these areas of wellness while meeting the specific needs of the client whether they’re trying to lose weight, get in shape, reduce stress, or quit tobacco use.

They evaluate a person’s needs based on a highly scientific study known as a HRA .  After a wellness coach has determined the specific needs of the client, he or she’s able to create the health promotion program, set achievable goals for that individual, and monitor them while they reach success.

Wellness coaches focus on physical health as well as mental and emotional health in order to create a balance in the client’s life.  They not only work on assisting the client with their current wellness issues, but they assist the client to maintain their individual health by building future objectives in their health promotion program.

Every individual has unique needs and time constraints that require attention in different ways.  A wellness coach provides convenience with their services by working with clients in a variety of ways.

The client and coach may use telephone meetings, e-mails and instant messaging (electronic coaching), face-to-face interactions, or a combination of these various forms of communication.

Although electronic coaching is becoming the most well-liked method because of its lower cost and efficiency, each patron may pick the method or methods will work best for them.

The wellness coach is available 24 hours a day through internet based communication to make it even more convenient for the customer to reach his or her objectives.

Health Promotion coaches offer the type of assistance that fits the needs of each customer to make it easier for the customer to embrace their personal health promotion program.

Based on the convenience, knowledge, and assistance that is offered by a wellness coach, it’s easy to see why more people  are taking benefit of these coaches to assist them in achieving their ultimate wellness objectives.

Precisely how to Take Control of Stress and Improve Your Wellness

What’s Stress?

Stress is the emotional, physiological, and psychological effects caused by internal or external mental pressure. It’s an unavoidable part of life, but despite its negative connotation, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Stress may even be beneficial in cases when it enhances performance and assists individuals  to achieve challenging goals. Nonetheless, when stress is excessive and causes an individual to feel loss of control, medical problems can occur like headaches, tension, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, irritability, and digestive problems.

When stress levels elevate to this point, wellness is compromised. Person may seek the assistance of a stress management coach for help them take control of their lives and improve their wellness.

Who are Stress Management Coaches?

Stress management coaches are educated experts who develop health promotion programs to assist individuals in developing coping strategies to manage stress and minimize the presence of stressors in daily life.

Coaches explore the reasons why a personal may react in certain ways to various situations by using health assessments as well as depression and anxiety screenings.

After determining an individual’s causes for their feelings, stress management coaches are better able to develop wellness programs tailored to meet specific needs.

Coaches set attainable objectives, act as a mentor and a support system, and use techniques that are most suitable for each specific individual.

There are many effective methods to reduce stress, and stress management coaches can help you to achieve your goals to make yourself happier and healthier.

Just how Controlling Stress Improves Your Health

When individuals are faced with chronic stress it starts to cause physical signs which can range in severity.  Chronic stress can weaken the immune system, hence making the individual more susceptible to colds and the flu as well as more serious medical problems like heart disease and diabetes.

Wellness might also suffer because the maintenance of healthy habits is often diminished in priority in the presence of stress.  There are numerous helpful techniques that a stress management coach can help you develop to protect your health from the dangers of excessive stress.

Take Control

Stress can be as detrimental to individual health as a poor diet or even smoking when it is out of control.  Managing stress is an achievable goal and will definitely be a reality with the help of a expert.

With a stress management coach person might work to accept that stress and take action to manage it.  Learning to effectively deal with stress will improve current daily life and protect your wellness in the future.

Exactly how can a health coach help me? This is a question that many individuals  ask themselves time and time again. After all, the thought of having somebody to help reach your goals has to be somewhat appealing, right?

But with that in mind, until you know what a wellness coach can do for you, you’ll probably never move forward with hiring one. Luckily, with a bit of research and soul searching you’ll be able to determine the benefits of working with a wellness Coach.

Generally speaking, the most basic way that a wellness coach can help is by assisting you in reaching your health and exercise related objectives. While it is easy for people  to set objectives, when it comes to actually carrying out the work to reach them things can get a bit more difficult.

This is where a health coach can come into play. They’ll be able to assess your objectives, let you know if they are feasible, and then work with you every step of the way. This way, you will not be on your own when times get tough and you feel like throwing in the towel.

Now that you know the general details, the next thing is to consider the more in depth areas in which a wellness coach can assist you.  As you can imagine, a wellness coach devotes most of their time to coaching others as far as their physical and sometimes psychological health is concerned.

Many people  decide to hire a health coach because they need simple help in getting their body back in shape. After all, as you start to get older and time gets tight, keeping in shape is not always the easiest thing to do.

This is especially true if you spend the majority of your time at work and/or with your family. But luckily, a health coach can work with you either in person, on the phone, or even online. This makes it easy to get the assistance that you need without really changing your lifestyle.

One thing that you need to know about hiring a health coach is that they’ll work with any kind of patron. When you think that your problem is too simple, you’re wrong.  And in the same thought, there’s no issue that is too large either.

The fact of the matter is that a health coach takes excellent pride in helping anyone who needs it. So before you pass this opportunity by, keep in mindthat whatever you are up against you will qualify for help.

To find out exactly what a wellness coach can do for you, touch base with one of them to discuss your situation. From there, you will have a much better feel for how to move forward.

Do you find it difficult to stay aroused when trying to make changes to your health? Are you aware that changes should be made in your daily life but you do not know where to begin? When so then wellness coaching might just be the solution you have been seeking.

Health Promotion coaching is a service provided by trained experts who work with you individually to help you reach your wellness objectives. Health Promotion coaching motivates, guides, and supports individual’s for reach sustainable behavioral changes by offering creative solutions to their problems.

Wellness coaching provides individually designed wellness programs to meet your unique needs by focusing on physical, mental, and emotional health. They help you become proactive in your life by eliminating unhealthy behaviors and making wellness a priority.

Advantages of Wellness Coaching for Your Employees

Staff Members could benefit  from wellness coaching in a selection of ways. Wellness coaching can help person decrease major health risks in their lives by changing high risk behaviors.

Some of the many reasons why personnel work with wellness coaches are to get in shape, lose weight, reduce stress, quit smoking, and develop balance in their lives. Health Promotion coaches assist individuals with current medical problems in addition to preventing future health issues.

Because each health promotion program that a wellness coach creates is unique to suit the needs of the patron, they can be certain that it’ll be a program that is right for them. A lot of busy workforce mistakenly believe that they do not have the time for wellness coaching.

Fortunately wellness coaching specialists have the ability to provide their services in a variety of convenient ways. While electronic coaching through the use of e-mails and instant messaging has become a popular method because of its convenience, telephone and face-to-face interactions may also be used.

Employees have the ability to achieve their objectives and improve their lives through the assistance of wellness coaching.

Benefits of Health Promotion Coaching for the Company

The overall advantages of wellness coaching for a business are remarkable. Staff Member high risk behaviors such as smoking and obesity cost corporations millions of dollars every year.

These high risk behaviors often cause avoidable disease and keep workforce from coming to work. Health Promotion coaching guides, supports, hold patrons accountable, and ensures that they receive continued motivation to help them achieve their wellness objectives and eliminate unhealthy behaviors in their lives.

By implementing wellness programs and using wellness coaching in their businesses, corporations reduce the risk of avoidable disease in their businesses.

This improves the overall health of workers, decreases healthcare and insurance costs, decreases absenteeism, and ultimately enhances performance and productivity.

When employees experience the advantages of higher levels wellness in their lives it causes an improvement in job attitude, energy, and morale.

Organizations that utilize wellness coaching for their staff experience the benefits of higher productivity.

Information to evaluate your wellness program comes from routinely collected screening and follow-up data of your wellness program that look at process and outcomes of your program.

The Employee Medical Program has available a computerized case-management system which includes queries that allow easy assessment of process and outcome results at any point in time.

Process Investigation

Process evaluation looks at the wellness program’s impact as seen at various points in time.

Information that is collected from the various forms that wellness staff members fill out should supply you with the following -

o  Precisely how many workforce were screened?

o  Exactly how many staff members who were referred to a doctor went?

o  Precisely how many staff who expressed interest in wellness programs went?

o  Just how many personnel who were referred to wellness programs went?

o  Precisely how many staff who went to health promotion programs completed them?

o  Just how many workforce are in follow-up caseload?

You can use this type of process analysis to evaluate and learn about the health of your health promotion program.

Wellness Program Outcome Examination

A central objective of the health promotion program is to increase the health of workers. Information on how to judge how well your health promotion program is meeting this objective is called “outcome examination” because you’re reviewing  the results or outcome of your health promotion program.

In health promotion programs, goals are measured by specific (outcomes) behavior changes and reductions in health risk levels. Have employees lowered their blood pressure? Have they lost weight? Are they exercising more? is alcohol consumption at a safe level?

For  instance these are the kinds of questions you are able to ask to figure out if you are reaching your objectives -

o  For workforce with high blood pressure (140 / 90 or higher or on medication) at screening, what percentage have it under control (below 140 / 90) a year later?

o  What is the change in average blood pressure levels among all employees with high blood pressure 1 year after screening? Two years later?

o  For employees with high blood cholesterol levels (above 240) at screening, what percentage has reduced their cholesterol to borderline-high levels (200-239)?

o  For staff with borderline-high blood cholesterol levels, what percentages have lowered their cholesterol to the desirable range (below 200)?

o  What is the change in typical cholesterol levels among all workers with high and borderline-high blood cholesterol levels 1 year after screening? Two years later?

o  For workers who were overweight at screening, what percentage have lost 20 pounds or more a year later? Ten pounds or more? What is the average weight reduction?

o  For staff who were smokers at screening, what percentages have quit smoking? for at least a year?

o  For workers whose level of alcohol consumption put them at-risk at screening, what percentage have quit drinking alcohol? Are consuming alcohol at levels considered safe by CDC guidelines? Have decreased their drinking, but are still at-risk?

o  For workforce, what percentages are exercising at least three times a week for at least 20 minutes?

o  If fitness levels were measured, what percentages have improved fitness?

Be sure to set a regular time like every 6 months to look at which employees your wellness program is reaching and how effective it’s at helping them reduce their health risks. Use this information to make new decisions about how to direct your wellness program efforts. Then make the change you need to improve your wellness program.

Some might feel that evaluation is a frill; it’s not. Investigation is a necessary part of a wellness program. You will need to know what’s working and what’s not.

Decision-makers who fund the health promotion program need to be updated on the performance of the health promotion program. Examination will provide you with necessary data to maintain and expand the health promotion program and convince upper-level management to continue to support the health promotion program.

The keys to a successful health promotion program are persistent one-on-one outreach and follow-up counseling to encourage health improvement, adherence to treatment programs, changes in lifestyle behaviors, and to prevent relapse.

Periodic outreach and follow-up procedures provide staff members with a safety net which keeps them involved in the health promotion program and prevents treatment dropout and relapse.

Counselors should follow up on personnel at least every 6 months throughout the career of the staff member at the worksite.  The goals of follow-up are to -

o  Involve staff members who have health risks in treatment and risk reduction programs.

o  Involve all staff members in health promotion programs and workplace-wide wellness activities.

o  Support employees in carrying out the risk reduction or health improvement activities they have chosen.

o  Make certain to help staff obey their treatment programs.

o  Avoid relapse.

o  Prevent staff members from dropping out.

o  Be sure to help personnel maintain behavior changes.

Follow-up can be conducted in person, by phone, mail, and via computer when the technology is available. Most preferable is an in-person contact.

Computer programs which could do case load management are available to help counselors track information and perform follow-up.

Priorities for Follow-Up

Individuals  with multiple health risks ought to be at the top of the list. Individuals  in key positions such as union leaders or department heads with health risks should also be contacted early so that they learn what the wellness program is about and can share the information with others.

People  who need a medical evaluation for high blood pressure (BP) or cholesterol should also be targeted early. Many workforce will have seen their doctors so of the screening, but some will need more encouragement to do so. Those with no health risks could be followed up each year.

A follow-up counseling session can take 20 to 45 minutes.  At minimum, follow-up must include those who were told to seek medical investigation for high blood pressure readings, high cholesterol readings, or borderline high blood cholesterol readings with 2 or more other risk factors.

It might include those who were identified as at-risk for one or more of the other major risk factors –  at-risk levels of alcohol consumption, being overweight, and having low HDL.

Follow-Up With Doctors

A letter (see forms) must be sent to the doctor or clinic of each employee who has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or is under a doctor’s care.

The letter ought to explain the health promotion program and ought to include the staff member’s relevant, current health measurements.

Along with the letter, send a self-addressed return envelope. Follow-up with the physician should be repeated every 6 months until it’s determined that the employee is under satisfactory control.

Contacting the physician is important for three reasons -

o  The physicians receive employees’ health measurements taken at the worksite.

o  You receive the blood pressure (BP) and cholesterol readings the physician takes and information on the treatment the physician prescribes.

Many times the worker does not have this information or does not remember it.  The information may be used when counseling the worker.

o  Follow-up encourages physicians to pay closer attention to heart disease risk factors among their patients.

The menu approach offers workforce a range of choices to support lifestyle changes. It allows individuals  to choose the type of help that suits their schedules and preferences.

The four basic kinds of wellness programs include -

o  Classes

o  Minigroups

o  Guided self help

o  Individual counseling

Classes

Courses (8 or more) can be an effective means of providing education and social support for behavior change.  The length of a class can vary depending on topic requirements. It isn’t sufficient to offer only courses at a workplace.

A lot of employees are under time constraints with after work commitments and although they might be interested they simply cannot participate because of their schedules.

Employees could  be very eager to begin a wellness program but because of lack of participants to meet class quotas, the wellness program is canceled.

A lot of national businesses like the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Weight Watchers, etc. offer classes; you should have little trouble in identifying a provider for class type wellness programs.

You may want to contact your local hospital, health department, or YMCA for possible choices. for picking  a vendor to provide a wellness program you may want to review the section on wellness program structure.

Minigroups

When there is not enough interest to create a class, those who are interested in a given health topic can be formed into a minigroup (2 to 7).

The minigroup can cover the same content as a class but do so in a less formal manner. Presentation of information and discussion is the major format of the minigroup.

Guided Self-Help

Most workforce don’t want formal help in making health changes; they prefer to do it on their own. In guided self-help, the wellness counselors provide support, materials, and encouragement.

Meeting times can be arranged and contact can be made either in individuals, by phone, or computer. Materials can be made available at the workplace, or mailed to the individual. Some workplaces now make information available via intranets or the Internet.

Individual Counseling

Among the most successful ways to help individuals change and improve their health status is counseling (or coaching) on a one-on-one basis.

In published studies, wellness programs which incorporated individual counseling as part of the wellness program process achieved significantly higher participation rates and achieved greater risk reduction/risk elimination than standard group programs. Studies have demonstrated that individual counseling is both cost effective and cost beneficial.

A wellness counselor must be trained in screening techniques, for in certain situations, they might be required to both screen person and counsel them. They should know how to do the following -

o  Review staff member health risks

o  Contact personnel who have health risks.

o  Counsel staff on a one-on-one basis, assisting them set goals, solve problems, and get specialist help when they need it.

o  Be certain to help employees follow their treatment recommendations and make lifestyle and health behavior changes.

o  Recruit workforce into health promotion programs, such as losing weight and smoking cessation.

o  Make certain to work with employees on a one-on-one basis using guided self-help.

o  Conduct classes and minigroups if necessary.

o  Be sure to work with wellness committee members to plan and conduct worksite-wide wellness activities.

Wellness counselors are health generalists; they must’ve basic information about a wide range of health topics and health risks.

Counselors must be able to consult with personnel about their health problems and the treatments prescribed by their doctors.

They should’ve a good overview of nutrition, exercise physiology, pathophysiology of illness, pharmacology, psychology, and behavior change skills.