1. Enhanced Morale – When the organizational culture begins to change as a result of your health promotion efforts, you and your employees may actually start to see and feel a new level of energy within the organization.  Ultimately, one of the most ambitious goals of any broad-based health promotion program is to attempt to influence the attitudes and actions of the organization’s most valuable resource — its employees.
2. Reduced Turnover – As we all know, employee replacement costs can be quite high for any kind of organization.  The effort and expense associated with running employment ads, reading applications, checking references, interviewing qualified candidates, hiring and training a new employee can be a serious burden on any organization.  In light of the challenges that high employee turnover pose, many employers are looking to health promotion programs as an additional perk that can help to prevent employees from jumping ship.
3. Increased Recruitment Potential – In the midst of a very tight labor market, employers are forced to pull out the stops in order to recruit new talent.  In some instances, Wellness can prove to be a very valuable tool in sealing the deal.
4. Reduced Absenteeism – When an employee misses work in a organization setting, the entire organization is forced to absorb his/her responsibilities.  Even in the event of the occasional absence caused by things like colds and the flu, work can back-up and tensions can build.  Even worse is a long-term absence caused by a major health event that requires hospitalization and/or rehabilitation.  By preventing certain types of illness caused by poor lifestyle habits, health promotion programs can play an important role in reducing absenteeism.
5. Medical Cost Containment – Most employers don’t start a health promotion program with cost containment in mind.  However, cost containment for certain health problems should be considered a viable goal by many employers.
6. Enhanced employee Health Status – One of the greatest advantages of a well-designed Employee Wellness Program is the promise of enhanced health.  There is a growing body of evidence that suggests well-designed Employee Wellness Programs can successfully impact such behaviors as tobacco use, high-risk alcohol use, and more.

Wellness incentives may seem like an effective way to get workers excited about Employer Wellness Program – but is it wise?

This helps and encourages organizations 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 business bottom line … then, yes, it could be necessary.

Tax Breaks as Wellness incentives

In 2007, two senators decided to band together to create the “Healthy Workforce Act.” This act is designed to encourage organizations 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 medical care for everyone. They decided to start with America’s employees.

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

1) A health education and awareness component, which could include Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) and Health Testings.
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 offering meaningful incentives to taking part in workers, such as a reduction in medical premiums or allowing workers to engage in walking Employee Wellness Programs during the workday.
4) The creation of an staff member engagement committee – which would tailor the Employer Wellness Program to the needs of the employees at a particular company.

If this law gets passed, many organizations will be scrambling to offer Employee Wellness Programs in hopes of receiving the Wellness incentives.

AAOHN’s survey found that more than half of employees (61%) want to receive health and wellness information from a health care professional, such as a consultant or an worksite occupational health nurse (OHN), compared to pamphlets or brochures (18%) or human resources staff (15%).

OHNs can develop, begin and evaluate components of work site Employee Wellness Programs such as testing programs, exercise/fitness courses, Stress management, tobacco use cessation, nutrition and weight control programs, and chronic illness management programs. Plus, OHNs can help employees navigate through complicated health plans and may even serve as a triage point between employees and their personal health care providers.

Employees might refrain from seeing their health care provider when it means time away from work, inconvenient parking, waiting time in the office and co-pays. In situations where employees are under treatment for chronic diseases like heart disease, worksite nurses can routinely monitor risk factors such as blood pressure or cholesterol on a regular basis.

It’s frequently easier for an employee to ask an worksite nurse for information about symptoms or prescription medication than it is to schedule a follow-up visit to a personal health care provider. Benefits realized by employers include enhanced employee morale and retention, a recruitment advantage, increased productivity and decreased time away from work.

In employers with a safety department, the OHN can evaluate and address work-related health issues, including participation in workstation evaluations to correct potential ergonomic problems, and proactively addressing muscle strains by developing stretching programs and involving employees in leading stretches.

Wellness Challenges 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 Wellness Challenges 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 Wellness Challenges is even though there really is only way “real” winner; everyone that participates in the challenge is a life winner.

Wellness Challenges offers incentive to Get Healthy

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

Wellness Challenges Enhance Corporate Health

Not only will Wellness Challenges improve the health of your workers, it will improve the overall health of the corporation by providing benefits such as fewer injuries, worker’s comp claims, decreased medical care costs, better staff member attendance, and better business morale.

Like we said earlier, everyone is a winner in a Wellness Challenges!

As a first step to starting your Employee Wellness Program, we recommend that you have a designer draw up an attractive map of your business campus or vicinity. Plan out and test a few short walks of varying distances, and using a pedometer and watch, figure out how long each walk is in time and distance. Have a little fun with your walking Employer Wellness Program by equating each walk with a common office activity of the same duration, like a writing a one-page status report or filling out a common form. Post the map in the workplace and make sure people know about walking Employee Wellness Programs by using your office communication channels – newsletters, announcements, company meetings. Keep it fun by building weight-loss teams, setting up races or organizing healthy picnics and athletic activities around the walking Employee Wellness Programs route.

Following are some other walking Employee Wellness Programs tips from Tom Weede, author of The Entrepreneur Diet: The On-the-Go Plan for Fitness, Weight Loss, and Healthy Living:

Make sure to link the walking Employer Wellness Program to work objectives. Employees need to be reassured that these walks are part of their responsibility to be healthy and productive. They’re not personal errands that need to be compensated for by longer days at the office.
Keep healthy snacks in the workplace.
Reinforce the walking Employer Wellness Program message by regularly mentioning it during staff member meetings
Set up a health-related benefit that walking Employee Wellness Programs participants can use for health-related expenses.

Tool #1: Establish effective goals
• Focus on areas that can impact the overall goal.
• For example, if the overall goal is to lose weight, the most productive areas to focus on are the activity and dietary changes that will lead to long-term weight loss.
• For example, stress management and improving self-esteem may also impact weight loss; however, improving relationships, while a worthy topic, will not necessarily impact weight loss.
• Make the goals specific, attainable, and forgiving. For example:
• “Exercise more” is too general.
• “Walk five miles everyday” is specific, but may not be attainable.
• “Walk 30 minutes everyday” is specific and more attainable, but is not very flexible.
• “Walk 30 minutes, five days a week” is specific, attainable, and forgiving.
• Use a series of short-term goals to achieve the ultimate goal.
• Short-term goals break big challenges into more easily attained pieces.
• Smaller steps also provide Employer Wellness Program members with encouragement and success. These small successes are critical for maintaining motivation towards a long-term goal.

Tool #2: Increase self-awareness
• Self-monitoring is useful for tracking behavioral and environmental cues that trigger a particular behavior.
• Keeping track of behavior status is also useful for times when progress towards a goal is difficult to measure, or when an individual is in a maintenance stage.

Tool #3: Provide rewards and motivation
• Encourage members to reward themselves for achieving small successes on the way to their ultimate goal.
• Remember that rewards don’t always have to be “things.” Words of encouragement and praise can provide powerful motivation when spoken by a teacher, instructor, parent, friend, etc.

Tool #4: Respond effectively to set-backs
• behavior change is conceptually a continuum. However, movement along that continuum is not just in one direction. Staff members can move backwards or forwards or sometimes just stay put. Communicate to members that set-backs, lapses and even staying the same (i.e., maintenance) are common for individuals trying to change behavior.
• Stress is frequently a factor in lapses and relapses. Provide a variety of stress management resources to help members better handle the stress which could trigger a set-back.
• Brain storm to create a list of potential (and probable) obstacles to participant behavior change. Then formulate strategies to meet each of those challenges.
• Enhanced time management and decision-making skills can be effective ways to overcome behavior change relapses.
• Provide members with information regarding the behavior change process so that they will be better prepared for the challenges they will face. A brief overview of the Stages of Change may be helpful.

The Problems of Chronic Disease

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 60% of deaths in 2005 could be attributed to chronic disease (cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes).1  The largest attributing factors to the chronic diseases include tobacco use, physical activity, and diet.2  The costs of these diseases are staggering.  For example, if there were a 10% reduction in mortality from heart disease and cancer, it could save the US $10.4 trillion each year.3  Further the WHO projects that over 80% of the US population will be either considered overweight or obese by the year 2015.

The Problems of Financial Distress and Dissatisfaction

As hard as it may be to fathom, a 2004 study found that 67% of U.S. Workers are dealing with Personal Financial Issues.4 In another study, it was found that these issues can exist in all segments of any workforce, regardless of income, education, or position level.5 Couple these facts with our workforce reality:

* The workforce is aging and demand for professionals in many industries continues to exceed the supply – and will for the foreseeable future.
* Due to the shortages of quality personnel the stress on our current workforce is increasing.
* With these workforce shortages, most organizations cannot continue to pay spiraling market prices for professionals.
* Lastly, those personality attributes that make many professionals great caregivers or service-providers also tend to make them less apt to focus on matters of personal financial management.

The Return On Investment

There are significant reasons why organizations should employ Procedures to begin Employee Wellness Programs for their staff members:

* Increase Productivity including reductions in medical care and workers compensation claims, absenteeism, and presenteesism;
* Reduce employer paid medical care and re-insurance premiums; and
* Increase staff member, physicians and patient satisfaction; and
* Increase staff member retention and productivity.

A recently published Towers Perrin case study6 found that a ten percentage point improvement on staff member engagement was linked to a 4.6 percentage point improvement on customer satisfaction and revenue growth and labor cost improvements equal to a 2.8% impact on controllable margin.

What all this shows is that providing Employee Wellness Programs and incentives and rewards is more than just “the right thing to do.”  Rather, there is a profound business case.  As workforce capacity and engagement increase, a bottom-up cultural change takes place in your business.  These changes drive improvements in customer satisfaction, productivity, absenteeism, and presenteesism – all of which drive improvements in profitability.

The Course of Change

As an employer, you can have a tremendous impact on the health of the community.  Here are a few suggestions on how you can engage your staff members (possibly include flowchart):

1. Define the Plan – Determine if you have the internal resource availability and knowledge to develop a formal Employee Wellness Program.  Many organizations, due to confidentiality legal and other reasons, pick to engage outside people to manage these processes.
2. Communication – Once you have developed the plan, communicate the plan to all staff members – using multiple media and approaches.
3. Lead by Example –Begin Employee Wellness Programs at the top (walk the walk).  Give yourselves the opportunity to go through a health risk assessment and a financial assessment.  If you can, communicate your results and your action steps to staff.
4. Develop incentives and rewards for Staff Participation – Here are a couple of financial incentives and rewards you can provide staff that are low cost and optimally have a return on investment:

1. Pay staff members to take a risk assessment
2. Lower employee contributions to medical plan for those with reduced risk of chronic disease and correspondingly raise employee contribution to medical plan for those with increased risk of chronic disease

5. Provide Personal Risk Assessment Counseling – Provide resources that can meet one on one with each staff member to understand their health risks and opportunities
6. Eliminate Trans-Fat from Your Dietary Offerings – If you have workplace food facilities, and haven’t been mandated by legislative statute, you should eliminate trans-fatty oils from the staff member and customer meals
7. Eliminate all Smoking Areas for Employees – More and more organizations, including large cities, are now banning tobacco use on their facilities.
8. Provide Proper Monitoring Programs – Probably the hardest part of the plan, the ongoing monitoring is critical.  Some organizations are large enough to own or build wellness centers – but even then, many staff members feel uncomfortable in using them.  Typically the users of wellness centers are those least in need.  The good news is that there are many external and online tools and options that are available today.
9. Encourage Other Local Businesses to Provide Employee Wellness Programs.  In some cases (e.g. hospitals), there are options where this can even generate revenue and/or deepen relationships with the communities you serve.

Legal Concerns

When thinking about a Employee Wellness Program, one must take into account certain requirements under ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code (Code) and the Public Health Service Act (PHSA). All three laws were amended by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to provide for enhanced portability and continuity of health coverage. HIPAA also added Code section 9802, ERISA section 702 and PHSA section 2702, each of which prohibits discrimination in health coverage based on health status.

To be a bona fide Employee Wellness Program, the plan must meet the following requirements:

* An individual’s total incentive must be limited. A limit of 10 percent to 20 percent of the total cost of employee-only coverage may be appropriate, according to the DOL.
* The program must be reasonably designed to promote good health or prevent disease.
* The incentive must be available to all similarly situated individuals. The program must allow any individual for whom it is unreasonably difficult because of a medical condition to meet the Employer Wellness Program standard (or for whom it is medically inadvisable to attempt to meet the Employer Wellness Program standard) an opportunity to meet a reasonable alternative standard.

1 2005 Preventing chronic disease:  A important investment. World Health Organization
2 2007 Working Towards Wellness:  Accelerating the prevention of chronic disease.  World Economic Forum
3 2007 The Value of Health and Longevity.  Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topal, University of Chicago
4 2004 Employer/Employee Equation Research on Worker Types, Preferences and Engagement Issues – Concours Group, Age Wave and Harris Poll
5 1997 Neal E. Cutler, Ph.D
6 2003 Talent Report: New Realities in Today’s Workforce – Towers Perrin

A driving factor behind the push toward wellness spans employers of all types, sizes and cultures: that is, health care expenses are spilling over the business belt buckle. The annual cost of medical services in the United States is rising at seven times the rate of inflation. And the rise in medical costs is one boom pundits expect our economy to sustain.1

This trend makes it increasingly challenging for employers to maintain current levels of insurance coverage. In 2003, health care inflation forced 65% of employers to increase employees’ share of health costs.

Seventy-nine% of large firms said they will increase workers’ share of health costs in 2004.2 But with lost benefits and increased financial burdens come lost morale and productivity.

Companies are searching for another way. While employers cannot control many of the supply-side elements contributing to rising health care costs—malpractice insurance rates, the nursing shortage—they can help curb demand. That’s why efforts are being redirected from illness to wellness.

The case for Employee Wellness Programs is supported by an ever growing body of evidence demonstrating the high costs associated with controllable health risks:

• One study reports that obesity raises health care costs by 36% and medication costs by 77%.
• Michigan officials estimate physical inactivity cost the state nearly $8.9 billion in 2002, a cost estimated to be largely borne by employers through insurance premiums and lost productivity.
• The not-for-profit National Committee for Quality Assurance reports that the estimated average cost for postnatal care for women who did not receive prenatal care was $2,341 more than for women who had. And the indirect costs of unhealthful behavior can be just as high.

Information shows that healthier employees are more productive, spending more time at work and showing increased “presenteeism,” or productivity, while there. Further, healthier employees use fewer medical services. The five leading causes of death in the United States — heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes —  are directly linked to unhealthy lifestyles. Clearly, encouraging healthful habits presents an opportunity to improve employees’ well being, reduce the need for health care services and help control costs.

Offering employee wellness benefits — large or small — represents an intersection between business social responsibility and responsibility to stakeholders. Between employee health and corporate health. It’s frequently the right thing to do for employees and employers.

Research by Traveler’s Corp. shows a $3.40 return for each dollar invested in Employee Wellness Programs. For many employers, the choice to offer employee wellness benefits is easy—one where conscience and pragmatism align.

The challenge arises in selecting the programs that will deliver the most impact based on trends in your employees’ health risks and medical claims costs. From large employers to the corner deli, organization owners welcome ways to boost productivity, reduce absenteeism and cut costs. Likewise, Employee Wellness Programs can range from modest to elaborate.

In deciding where to focus a organization’s limited resources, looking at costs, benefits and best practices is a good starting point. This section profiles six aspects of wellness and explores their benefits to employees and employers.

Wellness is important year-round; however if your workers haven’t gotten on the Wellness bandwagon, then now is the perfect time to get them there.

Summer Time is an ideal season to get back into shape and improve overall Wellness.  The weather is beautiful, workers can get outside and they are motivated by the thought of having to wear clothes with less coverage.  Fitness, or lack of physical fitness, is apparent in the summer.

Wellness in the Summer Time has Advantages

There are many advantages to starting a Employer Wellness Program in the Summer Time.  Employees are more likely to get outside and walk or participate in group activities during the summer than they are in the cooler months of the fall and winter.  Summer is also a great time to start a Wellness challenge with your workers and celebrate the completion of the challenge with a participant picnic or cookout.  Finally, it always seems easier to eat healthy during the summer with all the fresh vegetables and fruits that are available during this time.

Employer Wellness Program Kick-off

We recommend following these steps when starting a Employer Wellness Program in your office.

Pick a coordinator for the Employer Wellness Program who is willing and able to see it through.
Make sure that you have the support of business leadership.
Formulate a Wellness committee
Make use of a Employer Wellness Program survey to uncover the obstacles and goals of your Employer Wellness Program
Provide Health Risk Assessments (HRAs)
Analyze the Employer Wellness Program and changes as needed
Remember to stress that the Employer Wellness Program is for the employees.  Employee Wellness Programs have been found to prevent obesity, cancer, heart disease and hypertension.  taking part in in a Employer Wellness Program that offers all that should be an easy decision for the corporation and for the workers.

Individual health is only one part of starting staff member Employee Wellness Programs. Below you’ll find some things to assist you in your efforts to create a healthy atmosphere for you and your coworkers.

Encouraging Your Employer to Start an Employer Wellness Program

This is the first step in starting a Employee Wellness Program. In recent times more and more organizations are starting to see the value of promoting and supporting the health of their staff members. Partnership for Prevention, a nonprofit organization, has released a sourcebook called “Healthy Workforce 2010″ (http://www.wellnessproposals.com/pdfs/tool_kits/healthy_workforce_2010.pdf). This sourcebook is an excellent resource containing information on:
•    Benefits of Employee Wellness Programs
•    Suggestions on where to start
•    Tools like surveys and evaluation forms

These resources are for both organizations and staff members to lead the development and assess the effectiveness of their new Employee Wellness Program. Provide it to your employer as a place to start or read it yourself and present your ideas.

Participating in Employee Wellness Programs

Once you have an staff member Employer Wellness Program established, participating fully in all phases of the program is important. Many of us know that we need to more actively engage in Employee Wellness Programs to improve our health, yet have difficulty finding and taking the time to do so. These simple steps can jumpstart your participation in an staff member Employee Wellness Program:
•    Review the offerings that interest you and that you need for health  improvement.
•    Schedule time to go to the presentation or service.
•    Actively following through with recommendations from the program.
•    Make a decision now to improve your health. You will feel better today and tomorrow and the next day for actively moving towards wellness.

Here is a list of potential Employee Wellness Programs that might be available to you at work:
•    ergonomic evaluations and ergonomic training classes
•    lactation rooms and classes
•    prenatal education program
•    quiet rooms for relaxation
•    stress management programs
•    onsite fitness centers
•    chair massage
•    nutrition education
•    workplace primary medical care services
•    child care facility or resources and referral service
•    smoking cessation programs parenting classes
•    Senior care resources and referral service
•    cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose screening programs
•    flu shots
•    weight management and / or weight loss programs
•    medical care consumerism programs
•    employee assistance programs
•    health coaching
•    onsite mobile mammography

More information to follow in my next posting about Employee Employee Wellness Programs