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Workplace Health and Wellness An Extended Application
Designing Total Employee Participation in the Health Promotion Program
Workplace health and wellness programs have begun to germinate a growth spurt in health promotion but it has not yet expanded to a size where it can help all employees in any given company. Cohesive design remedies are necessary to extend the application of workplace health and wellness programs to the entire employee population.
Another budding phase in the health promotion program is recognizing the need for community-based resources to support workplace health and wellness and to subsidize smaller companies who do not have as many financial resources. Renewed focus on customized incentives for employee participation is also imperative for workplace health and wellness efforts to take root.
Expanding Health Promotion Programs Requires Clear Leadership
Strong, charismatic leadership resonating through the whole company will carry the enthusiasm farther than containing it within a select few. Publicizing healthy policies and visibly implementing health promotion program initiatives increases awareness of why intervention is necessary and who the benefits affect.
Education should come from consultation with non-profit health industry representatives or independent wellness vendor employees to coordinate the workplace health and wellness intervention as comprehensively as possible.
Appropriate Health Risk Information is the Foundation for Health Promotion Programs
Good Health Risk screening tools are the cornerstone for all effective workplace health and wellness programs. If the available budget is a staged-based plan, the initial expenditures should include a Health Risk Appraisal that will accurately measure the unique characteristics of your company if none of the free ones are suitable.
To make the Health Risk Appraisal process effective, the data should be shared with the employee by a professional who is qualified to interpret it and make recommendations that are used to design a health promotion program profile and plan. Feedback from this is only relevant if it is personal and ongoing for as long as the participant is employed by the company.
Health Promotion Program Incentives: Finding Ones that Work
To achieve a difference in the level of workplace health and wellness, the company requires a participation rate of eighty to ninety percent of employees in the health promotion program. Most of these people will fall outside of the chronically ill members.
Good incentives allow people to win frequently. This will motivate them to go on and continue with the health promotion program. Especially with addictive behavior, the participant needs to feel that success is possible. In addition, the person needs to become self-motivated by intrinsic rewards which will also ensure continued enrolment in the health promotion program.
Creating stronger motivators also involves removing motivators that stimulate the behavior that is targeted for omission. Re-structuring the benefit plan to encourage healthy choices will help to strengthen the motivation as well.
Using Workplace Health Promotion to Reduce Employee Turnover
Increasing productivity also means decreasing employee turnover. Employees who stay with the company hone their skills and specialize their knowledge which can be an invaluable asset to the productivity.
Older employees who have been with the company for many years are a loyal asset and coveted resource. Chronic conditions such as those generated by obesity have long range complications that directly affect the health and longevity of employee retention.
Workplace Health and Wellness: Extending the Reach
Companies cannot embrace wellness in isolation; wellbeing by nature is a result of a healthy lifestyle at home, at work and in the community. This entails associates and partners within the community that can support workplace health and wellness programming, education and diet changes for a comprehensive result that is not possible without group integration.
Overall wellbeing has no downside. Everybody wins; the employee, the company, the family and the community.
Writer Bio: Charlene Rennick is an internationally published author with a diverse background in writing and research. Rennick is currently the Editor for six different health promotion for small business websites including: Wellness Proposals, Infinite Wellness Solution's and Infinite Wellness Online. Rennick is also a regular contributor to the American Chronicle.
