Abstract This paper looks at the development and operations of corporate wellness programs. Since employees typically spend eight or more hours a day in the office, employers can leverage that time to promote better health. Worksite wellness programs can reduce health care spending by promoting healthy behaviors that reduce health risks in high-risk individuals and keep low-risk people healthy. Programs vary in scope, depending on an organization’s size. This paper concludes that an appropriately designed and administered wellness program is an excellent way for companies to show employees that they care while improving the overall physical and mental health of the organization. Designing and establishing a wellness program involves several steps and decisions. Securing the support of top management is essential. Any meaningful change must come from the top. The executive team should define the goals of the program. For many organizations, this could mean reducing health care cost. Maybe there is high absenteeism or perhaps the company’s current culture encourages unhealthy behavior. The next step is to decide on a level of intensity for the program. A clear statement of corporate philosophy in health and wellness is very important. If high productivity is most important, then a wellness program might seek to address absenteeism first, by starting with safety education, stress management, or chronic disease management. If company philosophy emphasizes loyalty and retention, then programs that offer long-term lifestyle education for employees and their families might work best. T... ... middle of paper ... ...ams for employees can reduce health care costs and be a huge benefit to workers, but only if people actually take part. References Aldana, S.G. Financial Impact of Health Promotion Programs: Comprehensive Review of the Literature. American Journal of Health Promotion, 2001,15:296-319 Kossek, E.E., Ozeki, C., Kosier, D.W. (2001) Wellness Incentives: Lessons Learned About Organizational Change. Human Resource Planning, 24,4. Pelletier, K.R. (2001) A Review and Analysis of the Health and Cost-effective Outcome Studies of Comprehensive Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Programs at the Worksite: 1998-2000 Update. American Journal of Health Promotion,16(2):Nov/Dec 2001. Potempa, Allison and Ritter, Steve (2007). Designing an Effective Wellness Program, Step by Step. Retrieved October 29, 2007 from http://www.shrm.org/rewards/library_published/benefits.
Employee wellness programs, also known as a “worksite wellness program”, are programs that are designed to promote and support the health, safety, and well being of a company’s employees. Wellness programs are meant to improve the health of the staff, their morale, and in turn also help improve their productivity. There are many components that make up employee wellness programs, for example; Health Screenings, Health Fairs, Fitness classes, Smoking cessation classes, and even wellness issue workshops. Employers have begun adopting these programs in hopes of helping their employees while they are at an age when health interventions can still help transform their long-term health choice. This paper will focus on trends found between employee weight and productivity, and the impacts these could have on a business overall.
The people in the workplace can be categorize into two groups: the employer and the employees. The employees work for their employer and in turn the employer has the duty and responsibility to ensure that the minimum safety requirements are met. However, employers are not required to provide health insurance benefits to their employees. More often than not, providing health insurance benefits is very costly to the employer and in an attempt to mitigate the costs, employers’ encourage employee participation in various healthy lifestyle programs and initiatives as well as providing incentives for their participation in such programs. These kinds of action are not always met with enthusiasm, some find it unreasonable to be expected to do so on their own time to change their lifestyle to suit their employers.
Tannahill, A., Tannahill, C., & Downie, R. S. (1999) Health Promotion. Models and Values. Oxford University Press.
There is a need to adjust to a workforce that is increasingly diverse. Diversity is not only determined by traditional categories such as age, race, and gender. Diversity also includes generational differences, lifestyle, work style values and differences, employment expectations and goals, learning styles and abilities, educational levels and technological sense. In order to build a successful workforce for the future, adaptations to the vast array of differences in applicants and employees is a challenge to be recognized and addressed in the workforce action plan. With efficient occupational health services and smart occupational health personnel this can be achieved. Competitive industries invest more on workforce as they are well aware of its implications. This proactive approach of organizations impact both direct and indirect cost to industry. This clearly indicates that healthy organizations are more likely to be successful as they are more skilled of retaining workforce who is healthy in all aspects including physical, mental and psychological capabilities. I will conclude this document with a statement by Employees Benefit Journal Ann 2004, offering your workforce a full behavioral health program is one of the wisest decisions you can make to increase workplace wellness and
campaign and technical assistance to promote the benefits of worksite health promotion. A new CDC
Ontario's action plan for healthy eating and active living. (2006). Toronto, Ont.: Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion.
McLeroy, K.R., Bibeau, D., Steckler, A., et.al. (1988). An ecological perspective on health promotion programs. Education Quarterly, 15, 351-377.
Lastly, building a business case for the wellness initiative is an important part of the process. According to previously noted literature review, it makes good business sense. Employees with healthy behaviors, on average, are more productive when at work and incur lower medical costs than workers with less healthy behaviors. In writing a wellness operating plan, several business aspects should be addressed like the overall goal of the program, the specific objectives, the implementation strategies with a timeline, the communication methods to be used, and a detailed budget (Goetzel et. al., 2004).
A study of health risk data and medical insurance claims at a paper mill in Canton, North Carolina, revealed that the Canton employees who had taken part in a health and fitness programs spent an average of 30% less on medical claims than non-participants. Having established a clear link between health and fitness activities and lower health care costs, the Canton study led to refine and expand wellness programs. The company took a closer look at all the issues that could affect job performance and determined that the company needed to broaden the concept of wellness to include mental and emotional health as well as physical well being. In short, the company began to recognize that each employee is a whole person who brings much more than job skills to work every day. The company also began to understand that efforts at wellness promotion could only succeed by taking the needs of the whole person into account.
Engaging employees and families in healthy work programs, regular check-ups and illness prevention strategies are smart investments.
Creating an individual health and wellness plan helps you plan for your future of creating and /or maintaining a positive, safe lifestyle by addressing underlying issues. “No matter how hard we try and no matter what skills we bring to bear, some problems remain out of our control. When this is the case, we can tell the truth: ‘It’s too big and too mean. I can’t handle it.’ In that moment, we take a step toward greater health” (Ellis, 2015, p. 320). Problems and their solutions within a health plan can be evaluated through five different categories: Diet, Exercise, Rest, Safety, and Health Support. Today we will discuss how I was personally affected in each of those areas and how I plan to implement a solution.
With the health care costs reaching high number there is no wonder we have a large number of absenteeism. So many wait to the last possible painstaking work day to decide to see a doctor about their aliment, and all of that could be prevented. Preventing oneself to have to take time off from work is one way to keep costs low. There are so many areas that need to be addressed when it comes to what is going to slow us down as a company. According to estimates by Dr. Jaime Claudio(1991), a corporate wellness consultant for Health Plus, a provider of health-care insurance, a comprehensive eating awareness and weight- management program designed to improve long-term habits could generate an 80% reduction in the incidence of potential problems caused by obesity in the workplace. These problems include hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and diminished work efficiency. Obesity is not the only eating disorder that is a problem, there is bulimia and anorexia. Smoking, drinking, substance abuse, and stress are problems that are brought into the workplace and stop productivity. We have to be aware of issues that are there but are not usually thought of as an illness.
Workers of every organization need to embrace the culture of living a healthy lifestyle rather than implementing specialized health programs and insurance plans (Goetzel, 2012). Coca-Cola Company initially perceived health and well-being as only integrated into the safety programs that employees are given. The company needs to distinguish between health and wellness from safety concerns. Many governments have encouraged wellness programs through the Affordable Care Act; this raises the legal limits on the penalties imposed on the employees by employers for the health-contingent wellness plans (Baicker,
Health promotion consists of all actions that encourage maximum spiritual, mental and physical functions despite of whether an individual is ill or well. Most of these plans are aimed at bringing positive lifestyle changes (Van Leuven, & Prion, 2007). A major core competency for all NPs is health promotion. Through regular screening, immunizations and counselling, NPs can guide their patients towards the goal of health promotion and disease prevention. As a future NP, my goal is to provide patient-centered, holistic care focusing on health promotion and sickness prevention. I also believe that an understanding of practice models like Pender’s Health Promotion Model will enable me to empower patients to obtain self-efficacy and behavior specific changes.
The second ideal is healthy weight, this includes access to “tools and resources that any employee can use to help reach and maintain a healthy weight” (HealthAhead). The final portion of this program is Healthy in a Click, this is a computer based program offering access to information regarding living a healthy lifestyle including, recipes, wellness topics, and ways to challenge each other to fitness related goals (HealthAhead). This program is clearly working to help avoid downtime as the corporation has shown a 12% decrease in health related absenteeism, which can result in a huge gain regarding overall output per employee (GE Goals and