Employee Health Promotion Initiatives: The Grand Slam

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

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

Employee Health Promotion Initiatives Don’t Have To Be Expensive

Fortunately, staff member Health Promotion Programs don’t require a big investment. Like any other corporate project, mismanagement and “death by committee” can inflate the cost of staff member Health Promotion Programs, but it’s hard to spend too much time and money on them. After all, staff member 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 Health Promotion Program machinery.

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

What are some common staff member Health Promotion Programs?

Employee Health Promotion Initiatives 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.

Here are some examples of staff member Health Promotion Programs:

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

Maintaining Employee Health Promotion during Flu Season can be a challenge for any corporation. 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 workers 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 workplace 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 Health Promotion Program in the workplace 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. On-Site 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 Flu Season.

Education Can Increase Employee Health Promotion During Flu Season

Educating workers 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 Employee Health Promotion, as bacteria collects on keyboards, mouses, around the water cooler and next to the community coffee pot. As workers 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 Flu Season. With Employee Health Promotion, your office can reach one step closer to immunity from sickness during Flu Season.

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 Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Nearly three million productive workers 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 staff member healthcare 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 Health Promotion Initiatives 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 workers, as well as look into a comprehensive health management program. These and other precautions are good secret weapons against the economic pitfall of unhealthy workers.

Employee Health Promotion Initiatives – With Perks

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

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

However, St. Louis, Missouri-based Maritz Inc., the world’s largest incentive corporation, has applied their own invigorating twist to health management by providing gift rewards to workers who participate in Employee Health Promotion Initiatives. 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 Health Promotion Initiatives?

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 corporation can throw that kind of money at health management resources – and not every corporation has the built-in cost savings as a business that specializes in providing incentive programs.

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

Successful Employee Health Promotion Initiatives motivate workers – before and after signup

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

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

Good Employee Health Promotion Starts with Employee Health Promotion

Employee Health Promotion might be the fatal flaw in your Employee Health Promotion Program. Is Employee Health Promotion part of your strategy? Does workplace wellness stop when your workers leave the office?

Give Your Employees Health and Wellness Continuity

If workers don’t have the tools to pursue health and wellness on a individual 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 workers to build walking routes near their homes, perhaps with the cooperation of the neighborhood association or coworkers who live in the neighborhood.

Employee Health Promotion Means Never Being “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”

Your Corporate Employee Health Promotion Program coordinators should have “vacation wellbeing” as part of their job scope. In other words, you don’t want corporate health promotion to stop at the boundaries of the workplace campus. Instead, integrate individual health and wellness with your Employee Health Promotion Initiatives.

This benefits your Employee Health Promotion Initiatives in two ways:

it lowers the chance that the staff member will come back to the office feeling unfit, overwhelmed and unable to resume their Employee Health Promotion Initiatives; and
it shows that their employer is just as invested in their individual health and wellness as they are

Like a marathon, individual health and wellness is a long-term commitment and it’s difficult for anyone to do in isolation. Simply put, it’s easier to maintain your health when you know others are depending on you and watching your individual performance. It’s easier to stick to an physical activity 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 stick to your Employee Health Promotion Program when you know your employer is supporting you and wishing you the best.

Don’t Dictate Individual Health

Just as Employee Health Promotion surveys serve a vital function in building a Employee Health Promotion Program, it’s critical that you involve workers 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 workers 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 individual health and wellness responsibility is to offer good health risk assessment baselines so workers can proceed safely on the road to better fitness.

Employee Health Promotion: An Attainable Goal

Was Employee Health Promotion on your corporation’s new year’s resolutions list? Here we are a little over midway into the third month of 2008, the time when resolutions start to falter if they haven’t lost momentum completely. Has your Worksite’s wellness resolution fallen by the wayside? If so, there are still ways to get back on track.

One Employee Health Promotion tip comes to us from the YMCA of Greater Des Moines, reported from the Jersey Shore. Rod Shirk, the YMCA’s chief financial officer, participated in the organization’s first executive Employee Health Promotion Program, which registered his cholesterol as higher than normal. That prompted him to get a physical, which showed high levels of a prostate-specific antigen that often indicates prostate cancer. The outcome? His doctors caught a life-threatening illness just in time.

All thanks to a single health management program.

So of course, Shirk is a huge proponent of Employee Health Promotion Initiatives. He says, “For us here at the YMCA, if we are telling people to be healthy, we had better set a good example for our workers.”

Employee Health Promotion Decreases Health Care Costs

Though cases like Shirk’s dramatic cancer save are the most desirable effect of Employee Health Promotion Initiatives, it isn’t the initial draw for Worksites. They do it to reduce healthcare costs, and there’s no doubt that Employee Health Promotion Initiatives do just that. Health Promotion Statistics show that Employee Health Promotion Initiatives return anywhere from $2.30 to $10.10 per dollar spent on wellness. “Health care costs should go down as people think about changing their diets and getting more active,” Shirk says.

The Employee Health Promotion savings aren’t just in the Medical Insurance department. Human resource departments report that Employee Health Promotion Initiatives also reduce absenteeism and increase productivity.

Still, businesses have been loath to invest that elusive Employee Health Promotion dollar despite the well-documented returns. A Principal Financial Group and Harris Interactive survey found that only 10% of small- to medium-size businesses have made workplace health screenings – like the one that saved Shirk’s life – available to their workers.

Is It Necessary to Incent Organizations to Initiate Employee Health Promotion Initiatives?

Employee Health Promotion Incentives may seem like an effective way to get workers excited about Employee Health Promotion – but is it wise?

This helps and encourages businesses to understand the importance of maintaining a healthy employees, not only for the welfare of its workers, but as well as the welfare of the corporate bottom line … then, yes, it could be necessary.

Tax Breaks as Employee Health Promotion Incentives

In 2007, two senators decided to band together to create the “Healthy Workforce Act.” This act is designed to encourage businesses to keep workers healthy and prevent disease. The senators believed that having a country focused on “well care” versus “sick care” would decrease the overall costs of healthcare for everyone. They decided to start with America’s employees.

The legislation, introduced by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, states that businesses would receive a Employee Health Promotion incentive – a fifty percent tax credit – if they offer to their workers a Employee Health Promotion Program that meets the following criteria:

1) A health awareness and education component, which could include health risk assessments and health screenings.
2) A behavioral change component – such as counseling, seminars, or self-help materials to empower workers to lead healthier lifestyles.
3) A supportive environment component – including providing meaningful incentives to participating workers, such as a reduction in medical premiums or allowing workers to engage in walking health promotion programs during the workday.
4) The creation of an staff member engagement committee – which would tailor the Employee Health Promotion Program to the needs of the employees at a particular corporation.

If this legislation gets passed, many businesses will be scrambling to offer Employee Health Promotion Initiatives in hopes of receiving the Employee Health Promotion Incentives.

Employee Obesity: The Facts

Employee obesity has become one of the fastest growing healthcare problems in America. It is well known that America is considered one of the, if not “the”, heaviest countries in the world. This is largely in part due to fast food, un-healthy snacks and a very sedentary lifestyle. However, what many people are not aware of is that the rate of obesity in our country has doubled in the last 30 years and this weighs heavily on a corporation’s bottom line.

According to a new report from The Conference Board, Weights and Measures: What Employers Should Know about Obesity, obese workers cost private businesses an estimated $45 billion annually. Here are some of the report’s findings:

Obesity is associated with a 36% increase in spending on healthcare, more than smoking or problem drinking.
34% of adult Americans fit the definition of “obese”
Obesity related health problems are costing U.S. businesses millions of dollars annually in medical expenditures and work loss.

Employee Obesity: How businesses Can Help

With the increase in obesity and employer costs associated with it, it is more and more imperative to establish a way to assist workers with their healthy living choices. Employee Health Promotion Initiatives can help businesses help their workers. By providing assistance with health screening, health risk assessments and by conducting Employee Health Promotion surveys; Employee Health Promotion Initiatives allow the employer non-invasive ways to communicate their concerns about their staff member’s health.

We suggest establishing a Walking Employee Health Promotion Program to assist your workers in meeting their weight-loss goals. Walking Wellness is a program designed to get your workers away from their desk and get them outside for a little exercise. Keep it fun by having contests, setting up weight-loss teams and having organized healthy picnics.

What is a Employee Health Promotion Program Proposal?

You probably have seen this term many times and wondered what exactly it means. A Employee Health Promotion Program Proposal is a proposal put together by a wellness consultant that makes suggestions for what type of Employee Health Promotion Initiatives you should choose, what tools you will need to accomplish your corporation’s wellness goals, and costs associated with it.

Employee Health Promotion Program Proposals Assist Human Resource Departments

A Employee Health Promotion Program Proposal is a great thing to have in hand when HR Departments go to upper management to request funding for a Employee Health Promotion Program. It will offer necessary stats and trends, background information, and costs that will enable the HR Department to fully present their case. Upper management will appreciate the preparedness and the research that has gone into your wellness request.

Employee Health Promotion Program Proposals Lead to Better Employee Health Promotion Initiatives

A well thought out Employee Health Promotion Program Proposal can lead to a better Employee Health Promotion Program, because the building blocks will already be in place. Employee Health Promotion Program Proposals will guarantee that your corporation gets the proper Employee Health Promotion Program established. Employee Health Promotion Initiatives can vary greatly, but when your workers ask, you can tell them that they generally include the following:

Walking programs which offers workers with incentives to take their walking breaks at their workplace.
Company teams, onsite yoga classes and massage therapists at the workplace.
Nutrition advice, weight-loss and healthy cooking classes, stress management sessions, and either an Employee Health Promotion resources column in the staff member newsletter or a wellness newsletter.
Stairwell initiatives to show how stair-walking can improve health.

Health Promotion Competitions Are Popping Up Everywhere

Health Promotion Competitions are definitely hot right now and they are encouraging more and more people to get healthy and live better. Whether it is a city or a school or a social group or even a whole state, competitive spirits are being ignited by the challenge to be the healthiest team. The Health Promotion Competitions are usually about a six months to a year in length and they are made up of several teams, these teams all get points for physical activity, selecting healthy foods, and just making better life and health choices overall.

The best part about Health Promotion Competitions is even though there really is only way “real” winner; everyone that participates in the challenge is a life winner.

Health Promotion Competitions offers Incentive to Get Healthy

Establishing a Health Promotion Competitions in your office is a great way to get workers to participate in your established Employee Health Promotion Program. Have workers form teams and receive points for everything from attending a Employee Health Promotion Fair to getting a health risk assessment to beginning an exercise regimen. At the end of the year, the teams will win prizes based on the number of points they have accumulated.

Health Promotion Competitions improve Corporate Health

Not only will Health Promotion Competitions improve the health of your workers, it will improve the overall health of the corporation by providing benefits such as reduced injuries, reduced frequency of worker’s comp, reduced healthcare costs, better staff member attendance, and better corporate morale.

Like we said earlier, everyone is a winner in a Health Promotion Competitions!