Employee Health and Wellness

Employee Health and Wellness 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 Employee Health and Wellness benefits.

Part of the problem is that some executives erroneously believe that the Employee Health and Wellness benefits are mostly on the staff member side. The truth is that Employee Health and Wellness benefits both the employer and staff member – and according to Employee Health Promotion statistics , the employer stands to gain $2.30 to $10.10 in cost savings per dollar spent. Employee fitness saves businesses money.

At the same time, medical care and insurance costs continue to skyrocket. Employee Health and Wellness benefits are one of the only ways to cut those costs while helping employees at the same time. As Karen Roberts, senior vice president with Aon Consulting, said about Employee Health and Wellness 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.”

Employee Health and Wellness benefits include helping to prevent cancer, obesity, heart disease and hypertension. It’s rare that corporations can cut costs and assist struggling employees, support families and even arguably save lives. Isn’t that a good thing?

Health and Wellness Fair activities put the spotlight on Employee Health Promotion

A Health and Wellness Fair is a excellent way to shake your staff members out of the doldrums and into better awareness of their health and wellness. A Health and Wellness Fair brings your organization together to discuss Employee Health Promotion, examine Medical Insurance and “cafeteria” plans, explore health savings accounts, publicize corporate Health Promotion 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 employees, both from their employer and from local, state, regional and national health services;
increased motivation for improving health behavior
increased participation in employee Health Promotion Programs, commuter and carshare programs and health savings accounts
better awareness of individual health status through health screenings, Health and Wellness Fair activities, displays, handouts, and demonstrations, and
better information on what employees are seeking from their employer’s health management initiatives, and which employees are interested in participating.

Planning a Health and Wellness Fair

Planning a Health and Wellness Fair is a lot like beginning an Employee Wellness Program on a smaller scale. Just like an Employee 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 Employee Wellness Program Recruitment

Many Employee Health Promotion planners find that Health and Wellness Fairs are the primary reason why employees sign up for walking Health Promotion Programs, health savings accounts and other pro-employee corporate Health Promotion Programs.

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

Employee Health Screening means better heath risk assessment baselines and better security

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

Both security and Employee Health Promotion are of critical importance to the modern business. As a result, Employee Health Screening should be one of the tools in the arsenal of a forward-thinking organization.

Workplace health screenings aren’t just a “feel-good” measure for your employees. Assessments of staff member health help your workers to prioritize their well-being, which results in happier, more productive employees. Health risk assessments also build your database of staff member biometric data. Employee Health Screening, when handled on-site 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 workforce build better health risk assessment baselines that you can use to analyze workforce fitness and the efficacy of your corporation’s Health and Productivity Programs. Collected biometric data can even allow an staff member’s doctor to assess that individual’s health over many years, helping him or her spot trends and diagnose disease.

Our Employee Health Screening 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. You or your corporate security department may find it useful to coordinate our Employee Health Screening and health screenings with your own biometric security procedures. 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.

Employee Wellness Programs: The Grand Slam

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

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

Employee Wellness Programs Don’t Have To Be Expensive

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

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

What are some common employee Health Promotion Programs?

Employee Wellness Programs run the gamut, depending on your worksite 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.

Following are some examples of employee Health Promotion Programs:

ergonomic safety
cardiovascular disease education and testing
employee safety
health risk assessments
walking wellness programs
drug testing

Employee Health and Wellness: A Long-Term Committment

“Corporate Health and Wellness” – what does that phrase mean to you? To many of us, it evokes an array of ambivalent thoughts — the fitness center 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, Employee Health and Wellness 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.

The sad fact is that 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 Employee Health and Wellness issues that weigh down staff member attendance and erode a corporation’s productivity.

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

Prescription Medication dependency degrades Employee Health and Wellness

It doesn’t help that Americans 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 Americans spend about $180 billion dollars on Prescription Medications each year, with the estimated 2011 tally at a whopping $414 billion. The average number of Prescription Medications per United State citizens in 2004 stood at twelve.

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

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

An employer has the potential to improve Employee Health and Wellness

It’s not all bad news, though. Occupational health screenings and well-designed corporate Health Promotion Programs can help you fight the downward Employee Health and Wellness spiral for you and your workforce. In fact, good Employee Health and Wellness efforts – like a strong walking health promotion programs initiative – can literally save lives and reduce the symptoms that cause employees to turn to prescription medications in the first place.

Maintaining Employee Health Promotion during Cold Season can be a challenge for any organization. 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 employees 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.

Employee Health Promotion: Prevention is the Key

Prevention is the key to maintaining good health in the worksite and increasing overall Employee Health Promotion. 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 Employee Wellness Program at the worksite for good health year-round.

Keeping the Office Germ-free During Cold 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. Workplace health screenings conducted regularly as part of an overall health management program will increase the chances of Employee Health Promotion year round, and especially during Cold Season.

Education Can Increase Employee Health Promotion During Cold Season

Educating employees about various ways to stay healthy during Cold Season may help prevent the spread of any sickness to the entire office. Hand washing is a crucial component in maximizing Employee Health Promotion, as bacteria collects on keyboards, mouses, around the water cooler and next to the community coffee pot. As employees 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.

Employee Health Promotion is possible during Cold Season. With Employee Health Promotion, your office can reach one step closer to immunity from sickness during Cold Season.

Health Risk Assessment: Helping Quantify Employee Health help you quantify staff member health

An Health Risk Assessment (HRA) is an important tool to help you isolate the value of strong corporate Health Promotion 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 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:

blood pressure check,
cancer testing,
blood glucose test, and
a thorough analysis of the staff member’s health status.

Health Risk Assessments would analyze the staff member’s:

lifestyle indicators,
medical conditions,
medications,
functional concerns and abilities,
quality of life,
self-efficacy,
fitness level.

Employee Health Promotion Study Shows Millions Lost Due to Illness

Employee Health Promotion 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 employees in labor markets worldwide add up to a lot of money. The Employee Health Promotion 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 Employee Health Promotion 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.

Employee Wellness Programs the Answer

A sustainable solution to these challenges cannot be solved by medical benefits alone. Workplace commitments to Employee Health Promotion are also crucial. Companies are advised to implement workplace health screenings for their employees, as well as look into a comprehensive health management program. These and other precautions are good secret weapons against the economic pitfall of unhealthy employees.

Health and Wellness Fair activities put the spotlight on Employee Health Promotion

A Health and Wellness Fair is a excellent way to shake your workforce out of the doldrums and into better awareness of their health and wellness. A Health and Wellness Fair brings your organization together to discuss Employee Health Promotion, examine Health Insurance and “cafeteria” plans, explore health savings accounts, publicize corporate Health Promotion 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 employees, both from their employer and from local, state, regional and national health services;
increased motivation for improving health behavior
increased participation in staff member Health Promotion Programs, commuter and carshare programs and health savings accounts
better awareness of individual health status through health screenings, Health and Wellness Fair activities, displays, handouts, and demonstrations, and
better information on what employees are seeking from their employer’s health management initiatives, and which employees are interested in participating.

Planning a Health and Wellness Fair

Planning a Health and Wellness Fair is a lot like beginning an Employee Health and Wellness Initiative on a smaller scale. Just like an Employee Health and Wellness Initiative, 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 Employee Health and Wellness Initiative Recruitment

Many Employee Health Promotion planners find that Health and Wellness Fairs are the primary reason why employees sign up for walking Health Promotion Programs, health savings accounts and other pro-staff member corporate Health Promotion Programs.

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

Employee Wellness Programs – With Perks

Employee Wellness Programs don’t always stir the blood of employees, even though they’re designed to do just that. How do you get employees to enroll in Employee Wellness Programs – and stay enrolled?

The brochures for these programs tout the benefits to employees and companies. Employee Health Promotion statistics show that there are tangible benefits. Employee Wellness Programs actually do save lives by getting workers to take their health seriously.

However, St. Louis, Missouri-based Maritz Inc., the world’s largest incentive organization, has applied their own invigorating twist to health management by offering gift rewards to employees who participate in Employee Wellness Programs. The gift reward program is Maritz’s own Exclusively Yours® plan. Health management participants earn points, which can be then redeemed for merchandise, electronics, restaurant vouchers and travel, much like a frequent-flier program.

Enrollment incentives in Employee Wellness Programs?

Undoubtably businesses that don’t work in the incentives industry will be tempted to cry foul about using such a rich carrot to incentivize health program enrollments. Not every organization can throw that kind of money at health management resources – and not every organization has the built-in cost savings as a business that specializes in offering incentive programs.

For certain rich incentives like Maritz’s will break through the glaze that appears over many employees’ eyes when they’re encouraged to do something new, different or difficult. For many employees uncomfortable with health management and physical activity, “new, different and difficult” would apply to Employee Wellness Programs. So where does that leave companies who are unwilling or unable to offer incentives for health management program enrollment?

Successful Employee Wellness Programs motivate employees – before and after signup

Health management program administrators should keep the long-term view in mind when trying to get employees to take that critical first step. Even the best incentives can fail in the face of faltering organization, badly-designed Employee Wellness Programs and wavering support. Make sure to run good Employee Wellness surveys before you build your Employee Wellness Programs so employee input and needs are being met by your Employee Wellness Programs. The goal is positive outcomes, not high enrollment numbers.

Employee Wellness Programs cannot survive managerial apathy. If executive and managerial participation is widespread and heartfelt, employees will follow their leadership. The potential rewards and Employee Wellness benefits are clearly worth reaping, for both your employer and your co-workers.