Corporate Wellness BlogCorporate wellness and employee wellness blog

Benefits of Smoking Cessation Programs

Instances of respiratory illnesses, cancer and other illnesses could be lowered through smoking cessation efforts. Tobacco use cessation programs can provide gigantic opportunities for improved health.

The American Cancer Society reports that tobacco use staff members cost companies an average of $1,429 per smoker annually in increased healthcare costs over non-tobacco use staff members.

Starting a tobacco use cessation program costs an average of $45 per worker each year, saving organizations an average of $1,383 each year for each worker who quits tobacco use. Furthermore, the American Cancer Society reports that smokers are absent from work 50 percent more often than nonsmokers.

They are also 50% more likely to be hospitalized and have 15% higher disability rates. Tobacco use decreases onthe- job productivity as well. Staff Members who take four 10- minute smoking breaks a day work more than a month less annually than workers who don’t take smoke breaks.

Places to begin with use of tobacco cessation programs -

o  Develop a “buddy” program to provide encouragement for those who commit to stop use of tobacco.

o  Offer lung capacity tests at business wellness fairs.

o  Consider reimbursement for smoking cessation tools –  nicotine gum, patches and inhalers.

o  Limit smoking areas in the worksite.

o  Present on-site smoking cessation sessions.

Benefits of Smoking Cessation Programs

Instances of respiratory illnesses, cancer and other illnesses could be lowered through smoking cessation efforts. Tobacco use cessation programs can provide gigantic opportunities for improved health.

The American Cancer Society reports that tobacco use staff members cost companies an average of $1,429 per smoker annually in increased healthcare costs over non-tobacco use staff members.

Starting a tobacco use cessation program costs an average of $45 per worker each year, saving organizations an average of $1,383 each year for each worker who quits tobacco use. Furthermore, the American Cancer Society reports that smokers are absent from work 50 percent more often than nonsmokers.

They are also 50% more likely to be hospitalized and have 15% higher disability rates. Tobacco use decreases onthe- job productivity as well. Staff Members who take four 10- minute smoking breaks a day work more than a month less annually than workers who don’t take smoke breaks.

Places to begin with use of tobacco cessation programs -

o  Develop a “buddy” program to provide encouragement for those who commit to stop use of tobacco.

o  Offer lung capacity tests at business wellness fairs.

o  Consider reimbursement for smoking cessation tools –  nicotine gum, patches and inhalers.

o  Limit smoking areas in the worksite.

o  Present on-site smoking cessation sessions.

Benefits of Nutrition Programs

Nutrition directly impacts nearly every aspect of physical and mental health. A healthy diet can help protect against such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, stroke, certain cancers and depression. Obesity, which is one of the most common conditions linked to diet, affects a record number of American Citizens.

The American Journal of Health Promotion estimates the cost of obesity to USA corporation to exceed $12.5 billion in healthcare, sick leave, and life and disability insurance.

Furthermore, one study reports that obesity raises health care costs by 36 percent and medication costs by 77 percent.  To offset the health risks of obesity and poor diet, many companies have committed to helping personnel ensure proper nutrition and undertake weight control programs.

Well-liked nutrition programs -

o  Provide staff with educational materials or courses on proper nutrition provided by a registered dietitian.

o  Offer on-site Weight Watchers meetings or other weight control programs.

o  Give nutritious and health conscience meal choices in the cafeteria and vending machines.

o  Clearly post nutrition information for all cafeteria and vending machine items.

o  Provide low cost, healthful, take-home dinner options for personnel and their families.

o  Draw attention to healthful consuming habits by providing token incentives, like pencils or ID holders, for achieving five fruits or vegetable servings a day for a week.

Nutrition programs in action

While many companies address weight control through fitness programs, companies are increasingly focusing on nutrition through separate programming. Recognizing the productivity improve and lowered medical expenditures that come with maintaining a healthful weight, many companies might help pay for obesity treatments for personnel.

For  instance, to increase the health of dangerously obese workers, drug maker Wyeth reportedly pays for stomach-shrinking surgeries that carry price tags of up to $40,000.

A 2003 Society of Human Resource (HR) Management study shows that 24 percent of businesss offer losing weight programs. In Ohio, Honda offers an onsite, registered dietitian who provides individual or group consultations on weight management. Body fat analysis and Body Mass Index (BMI)  measurements are available to workforce at any time.

At Grange Insurance’s Columbus headquarters, the cafeteria chef evaluates meals and provides employees basic nutrition information, including Weight Watchers points.

A lot of businesses partner with the American Cancer Society to offer nutrition information through the “5-ADay” program, which provides employers free signage and educational materials about the importance of eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

The program also offers a fruit and vegetable “frequency card” that gives personnel a free portion of fruit or vegetables after he or she’s purchased a preset number.

Benefits of Nutrition Programs

Nutrition directly impacts nearly every aspect of physical and mental health. A healthy diet can help protect against such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, stroke, certain cancers and depression. Obesity, which is one of the most common conditions linked to diet, affects a record number of American Citizens.

The American Journal of Health Promotion estimates the cost of obesity to USA corporation to exceed $12.5 billion in healthcare, sick leave, and life and disability insurance.

Furthermore, one study reports that obesity raises health care costs by 36 percent and medication costs by 77 percent.  To offset the health risks of obesity and poor diet, many companies have committed to helping personnel ensure proper nutrition and undertake weight control programs.

Well-liked nutrition programs -

o  Provide staff with educational materials or courses on proper nutrition provided by a registered dietitian.

o  Offer on-site Weight Watchers meetings or other weight control programs.

o  Give nutritious and health conscience meal choices in the cafeteria and vending machines.

o  Clearly post nutrition information for all cafeteria and vending machine items.

o  Provide low cost, healthful, take-home dinner options for personnel and their families.

o  Draw attention to healthful consuming habits by providing token incentives, like pencils or ID holders, for achieving five fruits or vegetable servings a day for a week.

Nutrition programs in action

While many companies address weight control through fitness programs, companies are increasingly focusing on nutrition through separate programming. Recognizing the productivity improve and lowered medical expenditures that come with maintaining a healthful weight, many companies might help pay for obesity treatments for personnel.

For  instance, to increase the health of dangerously obese workers, drug maker Wyeth reportedly pays for stomach-shrinking surgeries that carry price tags of up to $40,000.

A 2003 Society of Human Resource (HR) Management study shows that 24 percent of businesss offer losing weight programs. In Ohio, Honda offers an onsite, registered dietitian who provides individual or group consultations on weight management. Body fat analysis and Body Mass Index (BMI)  measurements are available to workforce at any time.

At Grange Insurance’s Columbus headquarters, the cafeteria chef evaluates meals and provides employees basic nutrition information, including Weight Watchers points.

A lot of businesses partner with the American Cancer Society to offer nutrition information through the “5-ADay” program, which provides employers free signage and educational materials about the importance of eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

The program also offers a fruit and vegetable “frequency card” that gives personnel a free portion of fruit or vegetables after he or she’s purchased a preset number.

Benefits of Fitness Programs

Exercise decreases weight, decreases risks of heart attack and stroke, helps to control blood pressure (BP) and diabetes, and improves mood. Studies increasingly show that exercise may also help reduce the occurrence of certain types of cancer.

Scientists at the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention (CDC) lately documented another major advantage –  exercise improves the health of the nation’s medical care expenditures.3 As reported by the CDC, physically active individuals incur $865 less per year in medical costs than inactive individuals .

Dr. Michael Moore, vice president and chief medical director at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, maintains that exercise is the most effective tool in health maintenance. “When you might prescribe exercise in a pill, it’d be the number-one prescribed treatment in the world,” he said.

In step with Dr. Moore’s prescription, almost one-third of U.S. organizations help workforce pay for gym memberships, as reported by an Associated Press report. Subsidizing gym memberships is just one way organizations encourage active life choices.

Popular fitness-forward programs -

o  Start a company softball or volleyball league.

o  Compile and distribute information about opportunities to join athletic groups in your community.

o  Offer partial or complete reimbursement for exercise facility memberships.

o  Hold aerobics, karate, yoga or other types of fitness courses on-site.

o  Provide extended lunch hours for personnel who commit to lunchtime exercise plans.

o  Introduce an on-site fitness facility that is free, or available at a nominal cost, to workers and their families.

o  Conduct onsite wellness fairs that include fitness demonstrations and promote fitness activities and resources.

Benefits of Fitness Programs

Exercise decreases weight, decreases risks of heart attack and stroke, helps to control blood pressure (BP) and diabetes, and improves mood. Studies increasingly show that exercise may also help reduce the occurrence of certain types of cancer.

Scientists at the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention (CDC) lately documented another major advantage –  exercise improves the health of the nation’s medical care expenditures.3 As reported by the CDC, physically active individuals incur $865 less per year in medical costs than inactive individuals .

Dr. Michael Moore, vice president and chief medical director at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, maintains that exercise is the most effective tool in health maintenance. “When you might prescribe exercise in a pill, it’d be the number-one prescribed treatment in the world,” he said.

In step with Dr. Moore’s prescription, almost one-third of U.S. organizations help workforce pay for gym memberships, as reported by an Associated Press report. Subsidizing gym memberships is just one way organizations encourage active life choices.

Popular fitness-forward programs -

o  Start a company softball or volleyball league.

o  Compile and distribute information about opportunities to join athletic groups in your community.

o  Offer partial or complete reimbursement for exercise facility memberships.

o  Hold aerobics, karate, yoga or other types of fitness courses on-site.

o  Provide extended lunch hours for personnel who commit to lunchtime exercise plans.

o  Introduce an on-site fitness facility that is free, or available at a nominal cost, to workers and their families.

o  Conduct onsite wellness fairs that include fitness demonstrations and promote fitness activities and resources.

Health Promotion program means different things to different corporations. Effective health promotion programs could be as simple as bringing bushel baskets of fresh fruit into break rooms to encourage better eating. They could be as extensive as building fitness facilities onsite or compensating for obesity treatments.

A driving factor behind the push toward wellness spans businesses of all types, sizes and cultures –  that is, healthcare expenses are spilling over the corporate belt buckle.

The annual cost of medical services in the U.S. is rising at seven times the rate of inflation.  And the rise in health care costs is one boom pundits expect our economy to sustain.1

This trend makes it increasingly difficult for companys to maintain current levels of insurance coverage. In 2003, health care inflation forced 65% of companies to elevate employees’ share of healthcare costs.

Seventy-nine% of large firms said they’ll increase workers’ share of health care costs in 2004.2 But with lost benefits and increased financial burdens come lost morale and productivity.

Companys are searching for another way. While corporations can’t control many of the supply-side elements contributing to rising healthcare costsâ.”malpractice insurance rates, the nursing shortageâ.”they can help curb demand. That’s why efforts are being redirected from disease to wellness.

The case for wellness is supported by an ever growing body of evidence demonstrating the high costs associated with controllable health risks -

o  One study reports that obesity raises health care costs by 36% and medication costs by 77%.

o  Michigan officials estimate physical inactivity cost the state almost $8.9 billion in 2002, a cost estimated to be largely borne by companys through insurance premiums and lost productivity.

o  The not-for-profit National Committee for Quality Assurance reports that the estimated typical cost for postnatal care for women who didn’t receive prenatal care was $2,341 more than for women who had.  And the indirect costs of unhealthful behavior may be just as high.

Data shows that healthier staff are more productive, spending more time at work and showing increased “presenteeism,” or productivity, while there. Moreover, healthier staff use fewer medical services.

The five leading causes of death in the USA â.” heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes â.”  are directly linked to unhealthful life choices. Obviously, stimulating healthful habits presents an opportunity to improve employees’ well being, reduce the need for health care services and help control costs.

Offering worker health promotion benefits â.” large or small â.” represents an intersection between corporate social responsibility and responsibility to stakeholders. Between worker health and corporate health. It’s often the right thing to do for personnel and businesss.

Research by Traveler’s Corp. shows a $3.40 return for every dollar invested in Health Promotion Programs. for many companies, the choice to offer worker wellness benefits is easyâ.”one where conscience and pragmatism align.

The challenge arises in picking  the wellness programs that will deliver the most impact based on trends in your employees’ health risks and medical claims costs.

From big organizations to the corner deli, company owners welcome ways to increase productivity, reduce rates of absenteeism and cut costs. In like manner, wellness programs can range from modest to elaborate.

In deciding where to focus a company’s limited resources, looking at costs, benefits and best practices is a good starting point. This section profiles six aspects of wellness and explores their benefits to workforce and companys.

When it comes to working wellness into your workforce, you want someone who knows the ins and outs of wellness, and who can counsel workers and provide primary care – all within the context of the current regulatory and legal environment.

AAOHN’s survey announced that more than half of personnel (61 percent) want to receive wellness information from a health care professional, like a advisor or an onsite occupational health nurse (OHN), compared to pamphlets or pamphlets (18 percent) or human resources staff (15 percent).

OHNs can develop, implement and evaluate components of work site wellness programs like screening programs, exercise/fitness courses, stress management, smoking cessation, nutrition and weight control programs, in addition to chronic disease management programs.

Plus, OHNs can help staff members navigate through complicated heath plans and may even serve as a triage point between staff members and their personal healthcare providers.

Workers might refrain from seeing their health care provider when it means time away from work, inconvenient parking, waiting time in the office and co-pays.

In situations where staff are under treatment for chronic conditions like heart illness, onsite nurses can routinely monitor risk factors such as blood pressure (BP) or cholesterol on a regular basis.

It is often easier for an staff member to ask an onsite nurse for information about symptoms or prescription medication than it is to schedule a follow-up visit to an individual health care provider.

Benefits realized by corporations include enhanced employee morale and retention, a recruitment advantage, increased productivity and lowered time away from work.

In corporations with a safety department, the OHN can evaluate and address work-related health issues, including participation in workstation evaluations to correct potential ergonomic problems, and proactively addressing muscle strains by developing stretching programs and involving staff members in leading stretches.

Wellness Programs are excellent for waistlines and your bottom line

In today’s hectic world, most of us are spending more time at work, and have increasingly less time to look after our health. for a long time, employers have understood the benefits associated with keeping staff members well – increased productivity from lowered absenteeism and lowered disability claims.

For these reasons, coupled with the fact that many corporations realized double-digit healthcare costs last year, corporations should consider Wellness Programs as a way to keep employees healthful.

But just how important are these wellness programs to employees? Exactly how often are they willing to participate in wellness programs designed to positively impact their wellness? Who do workforce trust to provide them with important information about their health?

Answers to these questions and more were recently garnered from a research study  commissioned by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Inc. (AAOHN).

The AAOHN survey questioned 500 staff members nationwide about their perceptions of Wellness Programs. More than three-quarters of all participants indicated these wellness programs are a good way to improve their overall health, and nearly 60% consider these offerings an incentive to remain with their current business.

Worker retention and turnover impact the bottom line, so building health promotion programs into the work site culture is a valuable way to help retain talented workforce in addition to enhancing personal health and worksite productivity.

Wellness wish list

Staff Members appear to have their own agenda when it comes to their health. With new pressures resulting from an unstable economy, national security threats and work/balance issues, it’s not surprising that 85 percent of survey respondents cited stress management as a priority topic for work site wellness.

In addition to stress, other preferred topic areas include health screening programs (84 percent), exercise/physical fitness programs (84 percent), medical insurance education (81 percent) and disease management (DM) workshops (80 percent).

In addition to lifestyle and personal health issues, those asked expressed concern about work-related health issues, including strains and injuries resulting from lifting or task-oriented muscle repetition, exposure to harmful substances, personal injury, vision changes due to computer work and worksite violence.

Starting a Wellness Program

With such a wide range of health concerns, a key goal for businesss is finding a way to proactively address the health needs of the biggest number of staff members, and effectively change unhealthy behaviors, promote wellness and ward off disease and disease.

Printed materials like flyers, posters, fliers or flyers present an easy solution. But it is important to remember that different people  require different formats for learning.

A good rule of thumb –  provide information in a variety of learning formats such as videos, flyers, health-related quizzes, display boards, brown bagger presentations and reimbursement or incentive programs.

This assumes you’ve overcome the first hurdle – getting individuals  to sign on to a health promotion program. While survey respondents indicated health promotion programs are important, just six out of 10 (60 percent) announced that they participated in the health promotion programs at their businesses.  The other 40% cited lack of interest and lack of time as deterrents.

This points to the need for a comprehensive, structured wellness program using a creative approach, with an incentive for participation and effective wellness program advertising.

By investing in an organized health promotion program headed by a certified healthcare specialist such as an on-site nurse, companies can give staff the access to the health information they want, and increase participation and generate interest at the same time.

The result – employees become savvier health care consumers who feel more in charge of their personal health.  And healthier employees make for a healthier bottom line.

Wellness programs are designed to help enhance the overall health and awareness of health related issues of staff members in the worksite.

Despite the fact that these health promotion programs are set up to help individuals set, work toward and maintain healthful lifestyle choices, they sometimes fail.

There are five primary reasons health promotion programs are unsuccessful.  The first reason is because of lack of staff member interest. It is very important when presenting a new health promotion program to employees that every effort is made to communicate the all encompassing benefits of the health promotion program to the business and to the individual.

Next, wellness programs can fail because of lack of staff resources. When a wellness program is introduced but there are few resources to offer with the wellness program, it will be difficult for an staff member to want to take benefit of it.

As part of the previous reason for failure of a health promotion program, inadequate funding also can set a health promotion program up for failure. With little money to promote a health promotion program, it could be difficult to spread the word about the benefits of a health promotion program.

An all too frequent reason that health promotion programs do not reach optimal success is because the health promotion program and its coordinators fail to engage high risk employees. If high risk employees have the majority of the health issues in a worksite, they must be the most targeted individuals for a health promotion program.

To see 100% participation is the optimal goal, but to engage those with the most severe health concerns is a immense priority.

In conclusion, the inability to enlist the support of senior level management is a meaningful reason why health promotion programs might not be successful. Without the endorsement, support and flexibility that senior level management can offer a health promotion program, it is far less likely that it’ll actually succeed.

Health promotion programs succeed for just as many reasons as they fail. With engaged and aroused staff members, obtaining wellness goals is attainable and promising.