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Employee Health Promotion Programs: A Second Look
Health Promotion Programs: Employee Health is a worthy Investment
Employee Health and Wellness Programs have been a part of corporate health care benefits for decades, but the recent spike in health care costs has incited a revival of health promotion program attention. Employers are taking a serious look at health promotion programs as an alternative method to contain the costs of health care.
Over the past thirty years, the trend in Employee Health and Wellness Programs has shown that the employee workforce is the key to any successful health promotion program; specifically, by engaging them to actively pursue their own improvements and by including their feedback in the development of health promotion program incentives.
Ultimately, it is the employees who must undertake the greatest degree of change. Companies have to depend on the willingness of their employees to modify their lifestyle choices in order to reduce the costs of maintaining an employee health and wellness program.
Maintaining a marginal level of functioning within an arena of managed illness is no longer an acceptable health care option. Changing eating habits, ceasing tobacco use and learning how to deal with stress are huge lifestyle alterations that require a great deal of corporate support and investment.
Health Promotion Programs: Who Should Benefit the Most?
Who benefits from health promotion programs: the employees whose health is suffering, the company whose profits are sinking under the weight of managing illnesses or the health insurance company whose rates are higher than ever? Based on the expectation that the employees have to exert the most work, and the company has to foot the bill, the employer-employee team should reap the highest level of benefits from the employee health and wellness program.
Consulting an independent wellness vendor to ensure that a realistic health promotion plan will achieve the financial and wellness goals of the company should be the only middleman in the program. Electing to use the services of a health promotion program representative from the Health Insurance Company can often backfire by giving them the Health Risk Assessment data they require to justify raising the health coverage premium.
Independent wellness vendors will assist with choosing corporate objectives, selecting a health risk data collection appraisal and training company staff to track effectiveness of the health promotion program. Providing free educational resources is another asset that the independent wellness vendor can provide as part of the strategic plan for reducing the costs of health care.
Health Promotion Programs: Components for Success
Companies that have achieved a significant return on their investment from their employee health and wellness programs consistently report that using a Health Risk Appraisal, including employee input during the design of health promotion program, isolating chronic diseases for management, having on-line health coaching available at any time, targeting high risk cases for personalized health management, and building employee health and wellness programs in the workplace are crucial to the success of their health promotion program.
Health Promotion Programs: The Team Formula Wins
Creating an employee health and wellness program is a project that involves all employees across the ranks. Health care benefits affect everyone; engaging senior level management in the health promotion program raises the likelihood that the initiative will be successful.
Enthusiastic and supportive supervisors will be better able to communicate the benefits of the health promotion program to the employee population and make participating during flex time a realistic and less stressful expectation. Engaging employees to commit to health promotion programs is increased if a culture of better health is encouraged and demonstrated by all the employees including those in the senior management.
Writer Bio: Charlene Rennick is an internationally published author with a diverse background in writing and research. Rennick is currently the Editor for several employee health promotion program websites including: Wellness Proposals, Infinite Wellness Solution's and Infinite Wellness Online.
