Employee Wellness Newsletter : Putting Together a Employee Health Promotion Program

Ideally, you will cultivate an overriding plan for a Corporate Health Promotion Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. For example, you have the potential to start by getting the following elements in place:

• backing from management
• a Company Health Promotion Program Committee or team
• information about the wellness needs and interests of employees
• a budget
• program objectives
• an assessment plan

Even if you have few monetary and/or human resources, you have the potential to still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you might focus on only one specific issue. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning have the potential to help you overcome limitations.

This article will give you some with some ideas for establishing Workplace Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps have the potential to have an impact.

Whether you choose to start with a single program or cultivate something larger, planning is critical. First consider the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Identify an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the workers and company?
• Promote. How can you most effectively spread the word to staff members? What are the opportunities for promotion? Consider everything, because staff members have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, staff members receive information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow staff members.
• Deliver. Who is the best individual or group to put the program into action? Ask other employers about approaches they have utilized. Decide on your budget before making a decision.
• Assess. What must you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when planning your plan:

• organizing and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the sort of program or campaign

The Elements of a Corporate Wellness Program

Initiatives to encourage wellness in the workplace don’t need to be restricted to one area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting beneficial personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure (BP) clinics, pamphlets on heart disease, “lunch and learn” sessions on eating habits and short-term physical exercise programs.

These activities are important, but workplace wellness should also be part of business’s business plan and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently detailed three key elements of a healthy workplace:

• physical environment
• social environment and personal resources
• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider offering the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for staff members to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist employees join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairways that invite staff members to use them.
• Assessing the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.
• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, as well as ways of doing business, are able to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Employers must consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that offer safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• EAPs

To develop a beneficial social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include:

• being respected
• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission
• freedom of expression
• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” may not address current employee needs. Ensuring that people enjoy being at work is not an easy task, but making the right changes can have a huge influence.

Health Practices

Offer programs and set policies that help employees remain healthy or better their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading diet labels.
• Tobacco cessation clinics or subsidies to help workers quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the problems raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks provided at meetings and conferences.

Personal Corporate Wellness Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your worksite, don’t let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to think about:

• Be active at work. There are numerous ways to bring exercise into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Have walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office instead of sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy meal. Place a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for meetings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you are able to leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and be sure not to take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Set up your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Plan and prioritize to be sure that the most valuable things get done first.

There’s no limit to the number or variety of Workplace Wellness Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the results so that you can sustain momentum.

Talk to other wellness practitioners to learn what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And don’t forget to promote, promote, promote.