Corporate Employee Health and Wellness Programs

Corporate wellness is to improve employee's overall wellness and health as well as to reduce overall cost for the employer.

Goal-oriented policies on worksite wellness help to improve and measure the overall effectiveness of the health and wellness program.

A 3 year implementation will be a realistic goal for any company that is designing employee wellness programs into their corporate culture.  It is best to have at least a target of 80 % participation rate as well as wellness coaching in the corporation. Good objectives and realistic goals for employee wellness programs can actually provide a standard by which to measure success and make necessary adjustments.

Target Worksite Wellness Program Objectives

Objectives are more solid and easy to comprehend than goals. We divide the goals into short-term, more easily measurable steps for overall health and wellness called objectives.

Most Worksite wellness programs have two objectives: process and outcome.

If the outcome objective is for 10 employees to quit smoking, the process objectives for this would be for all 10 smoking employees to participate in a worksite wellness screening event to evaluate how much each employee actually smokes.  Pair the smokers into heavy or light smoking categories and then have the wellness coach set realistic targets on how they begin their journey to stop smoking. 

The same 10 employees as part of the worksite wellness program initiative will also become involved in regular physical activity and education classes to learn healthy replacement habits as well as see a physician for a routine health exam.

The outcome objective for this group would be for the 10 employees to now only stop smoking but to form and write guidelines for future policies on heath and wellness at the worksite.

Wellness Screening Tools

The foundation for every effective worksite wellness promotion program is a wellness screening tool that measures the wellness risks present in the targeted employees. Most wellness specialist have a long history using these screening tools. These tools will show the percentage of employees in good condition that can be kept healthy. And the percentage of employees who are at risk for serious problems that cost themselves and the company extra in medical care. 

The company needs to have a good quality wellness screening tool. How to proceed will depend on the company’s resources and budget. A trained wellness care professional or wellness coach can monitor and manage the screening test and collect data from the individual targeted employee if funds are available. Health and wellness in the workplace is rapidly increasing its importance for every dollar saved is a dollar earned for most corporations. 

The data collected can be used to provide immediate employee feedback. They can help the company to determine which educational resources are required or which healthy and wellness products are beneficial and refer the participating employees for follow-up consultation. In addition, these results are used to tailor-make worksite wellness promotion programs to the particular health risks present in each employee. 

Wellness screening tools should be equally applicable to all employees (not just the day shift). They should be observable for even the hesitant employees who may have questions and doubts. Lets take chronic back pain for example. Because chronic back and neck pain is so prevalent in the United States, a back pain health screen is the most popular screening tool used. This evaluation includes posture measurement, weight and height ratios, muscle mass assessment and any resulting consultation to do with obesity, nutrition and physical exercise.

What is a Health Risk Appraisal?

Health Risk Appraisals involve more details than a wellness screen. Typical wellness screen only isolates blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, heart rate and body weight measurements for the purpose of determining risks to health. The Health Risk Appraisal further investigates family history, current health issues, lifestyle and predispositions to less obvious risks (such as seatbelt use) to wellness.

Each individual’s predicted wellness risk rating can be provided by Health Risk Appraisal. It also provides recommendations for reducing certain risks and practical suggestions for changing the estimated outcome. A health age is based on lifestyle, not chronology.

Health Risk Assessments are the single most valuable tool within a worksite wellness promotion program. They streamline program objectives and provide a good base for scientific measurement and program evaluation.

In order for a corporation to truly reach the maximum benefit of these health and wellness programs, then the company itself needs to be willing to uphold the necessary recommendations and policies that the health and wellness programs initiate. 

Set A Goal - Applying Ergonomics - To Reduce Employee Back Pain and Wellness At Work

Lets look back at the subject of chronic back pain for a minute.  Under the assessment of setting goals to reduce chronic back pain for employees, an ergonomic professional may be called in to make recommendations about the working environment and establish an ergonomic risk reduction program.  It may mean that better quality ergonomic office chairs for employees that sit at their desk all day is indeed an effective way to reduce muscle fatigue in chronic low back pain for their workers. 

That same professional will probably offer training on proper ergonomic posture and a posture corrector (such as exercises to improve posture) for bad or poor posture.  

It may mean that the entire workstation be recommended for a face lift. Such as a more ergonomic desk and keyboard, an ergonomic mouse and ergonomic wrist rest be added for total office ergonomics.

The point being, worksite wellness programs are flexible and because of this they and are only as good as the commitment put behind them by the employer.  Broad goals with broad objectives will reap similar outcomes that will not be focused but may form a baseline to bring all employees at least to a minimum health and wellness level.   It is unlimited as to just how specialized a health and wellness program can be defined.  They key is for a company to establish a goal withing their budget, set objectives to obtain those goals and to get started as soon as possible on what they feel is best for overall profitability keeping in mind that money saved on health risk and cost of injury and sickness is money earned.