Posts from — December 2008

Worksite Wellness Plan Advantages 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 Worksite Wellness Plan Advantages.

Part of the problem is that some executives erroneously believe that the Worksite Wellness Plan Advantages are mostly on the worker side. The truth is that Worksite Wellness Plan Advantages both the company and worker – and according to Worksite Wellness Plan statistics , the employer stands to gain $2.30 to $10.10 in cost savings per dollar spent. Employee fitness saves organizations money.

At the same time, medical care and insurance costs continue to skyrocket. Worksite Wellness Plan Advantages 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 Worksite Wellness Plan Advantages 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.”

Worksite Wellness Plan Advantages 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?

Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing means better heath risk assessment baselines and better security

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

Workplace Wellness Programs are of imperative importance to the modern business. As a result, Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing should be one of the tools in the arsenal of a forward-thinking organization.

Workplace Health Screening and Biometric Testings aren’t just a “feel-good” measure for your employees. Assessments of worker health help your workers to prioritize their well-being, which results in happier, more productive employees. Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals also build your database of worker biometric data. Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing, when handled workplace 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 staff members build better health risk assessment baselines that you can use to analyze staff members fitness and the efficacy of your company’s Health and Productivity Programs. Collected biometric data can even allow an worker’s doctor to assess that person’s health over many years, helping him or her spot trends and diagnose disease.

Onsite Employee Health Screening and Biometric Testing 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. 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.

Workplace Wellness Programs: A Long-Term Committment

“Workplace Wellness Programs” – what does that phrase mean to you? To many of us, it evokes an array of ambivalent thoughts — the gym 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, Workplace Wellness Programs 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 the majority of of the heath issues that weigh down worker attendance and erode a company’s productivity.

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

Prescription Medication dependency degrades Health and Wellness

It doesn’t help that United States citizens 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 United States citizens 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 worker is taking 14, 18, or even more than 20 medications in an attempt to enhance their Health and Wellness.

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

An company has the potential to enhance Health

It’s not all bad news, though. Occupational Health Screening and Biometric Testings and well-designed Workplace Wellness Programs can help you fight the downward spiral for you and your staff members. In fact, good Workplace Wellness Programs – like a strong walking Workplace Wellness Programs initiative – can literally save lives and reduce the symptoms that cause employees to turn to drugs in the first place.

Health Risk Assessment: Helping Quantify Employee Health help you quantify worker health

An Health Risk Assessment Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals is an important tool to help you isolate the value of strong Worksite Wellness Plan 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 and Biometric Testing 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 assessment 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 person’s health, and includes the majority of of these features:

a blood pressure check,
cancer testing,
blood sugar test, and
a thorough analysis of the worker’s health status.

Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals would analyze the worker’s:

lifestyle measures,
health conditions,
prescriptions medications,
functional concerns and abilities,
quality of life,
self-efficacy,
fitness level.

Health and Wellness Fair activities put the spotlight on Workplace Wellness Programs

A Health and Wellness Fair is a outstanding 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 Workplace Wellness Programs, examine Medical Insurance and “cafeteria” plans, explore health savings accounts, publicize Worksite Wellness Plan 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 company and from local, state, regional and national health services;
raised motivation for improving health behavior
raised participation in Workplace Wellness Programs, commuter and carshare programs and health savings accounts
better awareness of person health status through Health Screening and Biometric Testings, Health and Wellness Fair activities, displays, handouts, and demonstrations, and
better information on what employees are seeking from their company’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 Worksite Wellness Plan on a smaller scale. Just like an Workplace 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 Worksite Wellness Plan Recruitment

Many Worksite Wellness Plan planners find that Health and Wellness Fairs are the primary reason why employees sign up for walking Workplace Wellness Programs, health savings accounts and other pro-Workplace Wellness Programs.

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

Workplace Wellness Programs: The Grand Slam

Workplace Wellness Programs are as close to a grand slam proposition as you’ll find, according to the majority of researchers and Worksite Wellness Plan experts.

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

Workplace Wellness Programs Don’t Have To Be Costly

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

Worksite Wellness Plan statistics on successful programs are particularly persuasive. Unlike many cost-saving measures, Workplace Wellness Programs actually add to worker satisfaction – but they also reduce Medical Insurance premiums and worker absenteeism.

What are some common Workplace Wellness Programs?

Workplace Wellness Programs run the gamut, depending on your workplace demographic, from exercise 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 Workplace Wellness Programs:

ergonomic safety
cardiovascular disease education and testing
worker safety
Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals
walking Workplace Wellness Programs
drug testing

Maintaining Worksite Wellness Plan during Flu Season can be a challenge for any company. 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.

Workplace Wellness Program: Prevention is the Key

Prevention is the key to maintaining good health in the workplace and increasing overall Workplace Wellness Program. 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 Worksite Wellness Plan Program in the office for good health year-round.

Keeping the Office Germ-free During Flu 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 Screening and Biometric Testings conducted regularly as part of an overall health management program will increase the chances of Worksite Wellness Plan year round, and especially during Flu Season.

Education Can Increase Worksite Wellness Plan During Flu Season

Educating employees about various ways to stay healthy during Flu Season may help prevent the spread of any sickness to the entire office. Hand washing is a crucial component in maximizing Workplace Wellness Program, 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.

Worksite Wellness Plan is possible during Flu Season. With Workplace Wellness Program, your office can reach one step closer to immunity from sickness during Flu Season.

Worksite Wellness Plan Study Shows Millions Lost Due to Illness

Worksite Wellness Plan was shown to be a huge economic boon for corporations 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 Worksite Wellness Plan research 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 Worksite Wellness Plan A “Huge Expense”

The United States Center for Disease Control also reports that chronic disease accounts for approximately 75 percent of yearly worker medical care costs in the United States, which constitutes a huge expense for corporations. 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.

Workplace Wellness Programs the Answer

A sustainable solution to these challenges cannot be solved by medical benefits alone. Workplace commitments to Worksite Wellness Plan are also crucial. Companies are advised to begin workplace Health Screening and Biometric Testings 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.

Workplace Wellness Programs – Employee Engagement Strategies

Workplace Wellness Programs without employee engagement are of little use to a company. How do you get employees to enroll in Workplace Wellness Programs – and stay engaged in the programs?

The handouts for these programs discuss the benefits to employees and organizations. Worksite Wellness Plan statistics show that there are tangible benefits to a company for offering such programs. Workplace Wellness Programs actually do save lives by getting workers to take their health seriously, increase productivity, decrease absenteeism and more.

However, St. Louis, Missouri-based Maritz Inc., the world’s largest incentive company, has applied their own invigorating twist to health management by providing gift rewards to employees who participate in Workplace Wellness Programs. The wellness incentive 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 incentive rewards in Workplace Wellness Programs?

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

For certain rich incentive rewards 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 exercise, “new, different and difficult” would apply to Workplace Wellness Programs. So where does that leave organizations who are unwilling or unable to offer incentive rewards for health management program enrollment?

Successful Workplace Wellness Programs motivate employees – before and after signup

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

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

Wellness might be the fatal flaw in your Workplace Wellness Program. Is Wellness part of your strategy? Does workplace wellness stop when your employees leave the office?

Wellness Continuity

If employees don’t have the tools to pursue health and wellness on a Personal level, then it becomes easy for them to “fall off the wagon” and slide back into a unealthy lifestyles. If you have a walking program, for example, it should encourage employees to build walking routes near their homes, perhaps with the cooperation of the neighborhood association or coworkers who live in the neighborhood.

Workplace Wellness Programs: Always on Your Mind

Your Worksite Wellness Plan coordinator should have “vacation wellbeing” as part of their job scope. In other words, you don’t want a Worksite Wellness Plan to stop at the boundaries of the workplace campus. Instead, integrate Personal health and wellness with your Workplace Wellness Programs.

This can benefit your Workplace Wellness Programs in two ways:

it lowers the chance that the worker will come back to the office feeling unfit, overwhelmed and unable to resume their Workplace Wellness Programs; and
it shows that their company is just as invested in their Personal health and wellness as they are

Like a marathon, Personal health and wellness is a long-term venture and it’s difficult for anyone to do in isolation. Simply put, it’s easier to maintain your health and wellbeing when you know others are depending on you and watching your Personal performance. It’s easier to maintain to an fitness program when you have a jogging partner who wakes you up when you oversleep, or spots you when you’re lifting weights.

Similarly, it’s easier to maintain to your Worksite Wellness Plan when you know your company is supporting you and wishing you the best.

Don’t Dictate Personal Health

Just as Wellness surveys serve a vital function in building a Workplace Wellness Program, it’s imperative that you involve employees in designing an off-site wellness strategy. No one enjoys being told what to do, but everyone enjoys having assistance in tacking tough problems. Make it clear that employees are in charge of their own health and wellness. Your role as their health management partner is to support, advise, counsel, offer resources and information.

Of course, don’t forget that part of Personal health and wellness responsibility is to offer good health risk assessment baselines so employees can proceed safely on the road to better fitness.