Winston Salem WellnessWinston Salem Wellness – Winston Salem Health Promotion

Can a small employer support workplace wellness? You bet! In fact, in some ways it is easier to create a healthy workplace in a small employer than in a sizable employer.

Limited resources, especially in small organizations, can prevent a corporation from setting up a Company Wellness Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of fiscal resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level reinforcement;
• minimal knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• issue about making wellness available to all staff members.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small corporation owners may have an incorrect idea of what is involved in running a Corporate Wellness Program. Some employers aren’t certain that a program would really work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  Perhaps they don’t be aware of that it need not be costly and that they don’t need special employee. They may not be aware that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Accomplished

Many small corporations have found ways to have a Corporate Wellness Program that works for them. They keep the expense and effort to a minimum and still have results that are positive for everyone. In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthy workplaces frequently have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a positive culture, people feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a beneficial workplace culture than for a big workplace. Many staff members prefer to work for a small organization, he says, because it provides more opportunities to work closely with others and advance a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most thriving employers with fewer than 100 employees have:

• excellent employee benefits;
• policies that encourage a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• great leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible employer policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal wellbeing ahead of the personal gain of Senior Leadership.

All or most of these elements are also elements of a good Company Health Promotion Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are multiple ways to include wellbeing and health in a small employer. You may not necessarily need a wellness professional or a fancy fitness center. What you do need is support from upper management and a Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee of a few committed people. Here are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter in hard copy or online. Or send out a brief message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Utilized promotions that are ready-designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthy Eating

• Urge employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing competition.
• Get pedometers for employees and count their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or neighborhood health club and offer physical activity classes.
• Hire a local fitness instructor to teach classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenses can be shared with employees.
• Install safe bicycle parking.
• Serve healthy alternatives at corporation meetings and lunches.

Policy and Company Plans

• Enlist an ergonomics professional to evaluate workstations.
• Create policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).
• Offer a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Provide monetary incentives and rewards to be healthy.
• Offer wellness incentives as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an company health audit.
• Become a partner with the community (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Establish a Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee.

Small businesses may not have a lot of time, money, or human resources available for a Employee Health Promotion Program. But they frequently have a huge advantage over big companies-a beneficial workplace culture. That is a great foundation for a Employee Health Promotion Program. When employees are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more constructive, and tend to be healthier.  With a modest amount of creativity and passion, small businesses can cultivate thriving Employee Health Promotion Programs. Obtain support from management, establish a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to set up healthy workplaces focused on safety at the workplace and injury prevention for staff members.

More recently, programs are designed to support  staff members to choose healthier behaviors like increasing physical activity levels or stopping smoking. Campaigns to spread awareness, educational sessions to expand knowledge, opportunities to acquire new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for staff members to make healthy choices are often included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach people, since most adult Canadians invest a large part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are 2 aspects that contribute to the health of staff members, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace impacts health.

Increasingly, it is recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When people are satisfied with their job, they are more advantageous and tend to be healthier. When workers feel that the environment at work is harmful, they feel stressed. Stress has a big influence on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified 5 components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the corporation overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that employers must genuinely care about the wellbeing of their employees.

Organizations today who want to attract and retain good employees have leaders who know the importance between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a employer plan.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving employees in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and offering support to balance life at work and home.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that compensate well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include excellent health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more significant than ever for companies to enhance job satisfaction and make sure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.

How does workplace wellness advance the business?

A workplace wellness program can help a corporation to:

• attract and keep employees;
• reduce the costs of disability, prescription drugs, and absenteeism;
• cut the effects of a stressful workplace;
• decrease health costs or keep them contained; and
• improve morale by planning a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Workplace Health Promotion Programs Benefit workers?

employees of corporations that have a Company Health Promotion Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to better their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellbeing;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productivity and success at work;
• reduced personal health care costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for creating a healthy workplace. Workers are expected to arrive at work in great health, and the organization is expected to offer an environment that allows employees to maintain great health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about developing a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of employees, establishing a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A great Workplace Wellness Program has an effect on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellness.

Ideally, you will advance an central plan for a Workplace Health Promotion Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. For example, you can begin by getting the following components in place:

• backing from upper management
• a Corporate Wellness Program Committee or group
• information about the wellness needs and interests of employees
• a budget
• program objectives
• an evaluation plan

Even if you have few financial and/or human resources(HR), you can still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you might focus on only one specific concern. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning can help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for setting up Worksite Wellness Programs. Even the smallest steps are able to have an impact.

Whether you choose to start with a single program or advance something larger, planning is important. First think about the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Ascertain an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the staff members and organization?
• Promote. How can you most effectively get the word out to workers? What opportunities exist for promotion? Consider everything, since workers have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, workers get information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow workers.
• 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.
• Evaluate. What should you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when creating your program:

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

The Elements of a Employee 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 positive personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure (BP) clinics, brochures on heart disease, “lunch and learn” sessions on eating habits and short-term physical exercise programs.

These activities are valuable, but workplace wellness must also be part of employer’s business strategy and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently detailed three key components 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 providing 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 snack machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to help staff members join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairwells that invite workers 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, can affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Companies must consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that support safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• Employee Assistance Programs

To advance 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. Seeing to it that people enjoy being at work is not an simple task, but making the right changes has the potential to have a huge effect.

Health Practices

Provide programs and set policies that help employees remain healthy or improve 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.
• Stop smoking clinics or subsidies to help staff members quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the problems raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks offered at gatherings and conferences.

Personal Workplace Health Promotion Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your workplace, 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 many ways to bring activity into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Hold walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office instead of sending an e-mail.
• Eat well at work. Pack a healthy snack. Keep 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 gatherings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you have the potential to leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and do not take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Arrange your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Create and prioritize to ensure that the most valuable things get done first.

There is no limit to the number or variety of Corporate Health Promotion 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 find out what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And don’t forget to promote, promote, promote.

Many businesses recognize the need for a all-inclusive plan to help their employees be the best they are able to be. They also know that successful and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program should include a wide range of key components, including:

• A clear agenda or statement of goals and objectives.
• A plan characterized by passion.
• A strong leader who is creative and organized.
• A focus on short-term outcomes combined with an central vision.
• A measurable plan (what’s important gets measured!).
• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Beginning Your Company Health Promotion Program

Establish carefully to ensure that your wellness program is seen as part of a broad commitment to maintaining the health and safety of each employee. Yes, creating a good plan takes an abundance of work and time (and sometimes resources). But planning is important and well worth the cost needed. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might begin by delivering a survey of employee needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the results and plan accordingly. If you don’t, the staff members will not support the program.

Gathering information about what you’re already offering is also a great idea. By way of example, you may be surprised by your organization or organization’s current wellness and health policies.

Another significant step is to set an agenda and/or measurable goals and objectives to help you determine priorities, timelines and the resources needed to launch the program. Be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Upper Management

The leader of your wellness program must be able to wear many hats. The leader’s duties include:

• Establishing a vision of the wellness program after receiving input from all interested staff members.
• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the corporation (to senior managers and fellow staff members alike).
• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.
• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.
• Creating and maintaining leadership skills such as giving effective presentations and being well-organized.

Good leaders avoid becoming overwhelmed by overly ambitious and complex plans. You may want to stick to short-term objectives and goals at the beginning so that you get immediate and visible results. These first steps are the basis for a successful wellness program.

Good leaders involve as many people as possible in the program. By way of example, you’ll want to form a Workplace Wellness Program Committee made up of a diverse group of staff members to offer advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Assist you to obtain significant information from all parts of the corporation.
• Create ambassadors who will help you enable the wellness program.

Keeping Score and Celebrating

Always keep in mind how you will monitor progress and evaluate the success of your wellness program. Evaluation allows you to:

• Identify areas of excellence.
• Identify factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Gain management’s reinforcement for your efforts (and maintain that reinforcement).
• Better be aware of problems that need attention.
• Learn from mistakes and change the program to keep it on the right track.

When you evaluate your program, you have the potential to measure such things as:

• Employee absences.
• Employee turnover rates.
• The expense of your Employee Assistance Program(EAP).
• The expenditure of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The cost of your prescription plan.
• Accident rates and safety records.
• Employees’ participation in wellness programs (and whether they’re staying in the programs).
• Changes in employees’ health habits.
• Level of employees’ awareness of healthy lifestyle concerns.
• Results of your environmental wellness audit.
• Other noticeable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A good communications plan supports ongoing information to workers (including senior managers) and creates excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is part of an effective communications plan. By way of example, you may recognize people who have helped established the program or offer tangible rewards for meeting goals/objectives.

Everyone needs to know whether employees are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some advance from them. Showing that a wellness program has financial benefits is often an significant factor in maintaining strong support from the top.

If you focus on the key components of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while creating and delivering it, you will lay a solid foundation and leave a legacy that lasts.

How does physical activity fit into a full-time employee’s hectic schedule? Many times, it doesn’t.

One possible solution to this challenge is to make physical activity a part of the work day. Clearly, being active at work is advantageous for workers. But employers also profit from having fit, energetic and healthy workers who are more advantageous.

The challenges

Your job takes up a lot of your time. In addition to the hours you invest actually working, there is the time needed to get to and from work and take lunch and rest breaks during the work day. In the end, there are a limited number of hours left over for the rest of your life. This work life imbalance is especially true for Alberta, where statistics show that we work exceptionally difficult.

Many jobs today are sedentary, and many Americans drive to work. The pressures of work may also cause us to eat lunch at our desks and skip breaks. Then, after work or on the weekends we juggle household chores, family responsibilities and social engagements.

Employee Health Promotion Programs: Get started on a workplace exercise program

Upper Management plays a key role in creating a culture that promotes health. The leaders at your workplace effect the various policies and the informal or formal practices, and these policies and practices affect your attitude towards healthy active living.

Start by talking to your boss about the advantages of a healthy active workplace. The best way to guarantee the success of a employer physical activity program is to have the management on side and cheering you on.

Ask your boss to consider taking these actions:

• Send a memo or message about the significance of health and healthy living that encourages employee to take an active break each day.
• Provide for flexible work hours that help employee to be more physically active. By way of example, they might need to take a longer lunch break to go to exercise class, making up the time by coming to work early or remaining late.
• Provide a meeting room or other suitable office space for noon-hour yoga or exercise classes, and hire a teacher to lead them, or use videos.

If your boss agrees to support a workplace physical activity program, do not forget to extend gratitude.

You don’t need an onsite health club

Only very large businesses can afford on-Site fitness facilities such as exercise equipment or squash courts. Still, most employers can take other affordable steps to support employees who wish to become more active.

For example:

• Arrange for discounted fees for employees at a gym, recreation center or YMCA facility.
• Install showers and a place to hang a towel. (Make sure the showers are cleaned regularly and that women who use them will feel secure.)
• Install bike racks or a locked enclosure that is safe, conveniently located and well lighted.
• Hold walking gatherings and set up lunch-hour walking groups
• Make employees knowledgeable about safe and pleasant walking routes near the workplace, as well as nearby locations that offer physical activity programs (such as walking, swimming, running, yoga, stretching).
• Find a certified instructor to teach employee about health, fitness and how to become more active.

Any size and sort of workplace is able to encourage workers who wish to be physically active. It’s highly desirable to get management on side. Even if your boss isn’t supportive, you are able to still find ways to get moving more. Set up activities for groups and individuals, and bolster your co-workers to join in.

We all know that physical activity is an valuable part of health and wellness. But sometimes it’s hard to find time for physical activity. Lack of time is the number one barrier that individuals say prevents them from participating in physical activity on a regular basis.

The good news is that even short sessions of physical activity help your health. Research has established that ten-minute sessions that add up to between 30 and 60 minutes a day have the potential to produce significant health benefits.

Also, there are numerous ways busy people have the potential to use to be more active. These strategies include:

• multi-tasking
• being active at work
• being active with loved ones
• scheduling activity into daily life

Different strategies work for different people. Being familiar with the different strategies is key to adopting and maintaining an active lifestyle.

Read on to check out strategies you have the potential to try. With proper commitment, some of them are sure to work for you.

Strategy #1: Multi-tasking

The first strategy you have the potential to try is multi-tasking. This means doing things you already do, but in a more physically active way. This way you get done what you need to get done and you get physical exercise at the same time.

For example, you’re already travelling to work and other places. Instead of taking the car or the bus every time, try using active methods of transportation like biking, rollerblading, walking and skateboarding.

If you can’t use active transportation for a whole trip, try to be active for at least part of the trip. If you’re taking the bus, for example, get off a few blocks early and walk the remainder of the way.

Active transportation benefits your body by building your activity level, and it also benefits your neighborhood and the environment by reducing the number of cars on the road.

You have the potential to also get physical activity while doing chores.

When you’re working around the house, try to be creative and look for the active choice. By way of example, if you’re cleaning the crack between the fridge and the counter, why not move the fridge so you have the potential to clean the area better and build your strength at the same time?

For outdoor work, opt for the old-fashioned way of doing things, as they’re usually more active. By way of example, use a snow shovel rather than a snow blower.

Strategy #2: Be Active at Work

Many Americans spend 8 hours a day or more working at a sedentary job. Here are a few simple ways to keep your body moving during work. The physical activity will revitalize you and help you be more constructive.

When you’re working at your desk, try sitting on a balance ball or disk for part of your day (30 minutes to an hour). This gives your back and abs a workout.

Take active breaks at least once a day. During your coffee break, try doing some yoga, stretching or taking a quick walk. You may discover that walking up and down the stairs a few times does a better job of rejuvenating you than the java jolt.

Speaking of the stairs, take them instead of the elevator whenever you can. The stairs in your building are an opportunity to get your heart pumping.

Design walking gatherings at work. Getting outside and having gatherings in a less formal setting is a great way to be active, makes the workday more fun and encourages creative ideas for work projects.

Strategy #3: Be Active With Your Loved Ones

Do physical exercise with your family, friends, neighbours and pets. With this plan, you and your loved ones are doing some great multi-tasking together: enjoying quality time with each other and getting some of the physical exercise that you all need to be healthy.

Go for walks, swims or bike rides together. Play Frisbee, soccer and other games and sports together. When you take your children to the park, play with them instead of just watching them play.

Many area facilities offer classes that keep you and your little ones active at the same time. Research these classes and take one or two.

You are able to even be active when you’re watching your kids do activities without you. For example, if your child plays hockey, take the opportunity to walk up and down the stairs in the stands a few times. If you feel self-conscious about doing it alone, why not gather a group of parents to do it together?

Strategy #4: Provide Physical Activity into Your Day

Plan your physical activity directly into your daytimer. Set a specific time and place for working out. Make your physical activity appointments a priority, just as important as any other appointment you put in your daytimer.

To help you stay committed to your physical activity appointments, you might want to make appointments that involve other people: such as by meeting with a personal trainer, taking exercise class or jogging with a friend.

If you’re not sure how many appointments to make or what you must be doing during your appointments, try consulting with a personal trainer. A personal trainer has the potential to help you advance a physical activity plan and schedule.

The bottom line: see what works best for you. Experiment with the strategies. Find inspiration by talking to other people about how they stay active and what strategies they use. Be creative and patient while you learn what strategies work best for you. And be aware that your “best strategy” may change from time to time.

With enough effort, you will discover what works for you. Then, run with it!

• Commit to workplace physical activity in policy statements and commit funding to physical activity drives.
• Clearly communicating the benefits of being physically active during the workday reinforces the company’s commitment to helping all workers be active. Use meetings, bulletin boards, newsletters and e-mail to reach as many workers as possible at least once a year.
• Provide flex time for physical exercise. Invite workers who actively commute to work or exercise at lunchtime to make up any missed time later in the day.
• Allow staff members to work part time, so that they can take part in physical exercise.
• Include a physical activity account in your benefit plan to pay for or subsidize fitness memberships, assessments, classes, counselling or instruction.
• Provide interest-free loans for employees to buy bicycles or great walking shoes/runners.
• Conduct periodic employee interest surveys of employee physical exercise preferences, and offer a variety of options to suit those interests and needs.
• Hire qualified people to lead stretch breaks or physical exercise programs or classes. For help in finding accredited fitness leaders, visit Alberta’s Provincial Fitness Unit.
• Recognize employees who take part in physical activity. Survey employees first to determine how they prefer to be recognized, e.g., through employer newsletters, appreciation lunches, rewards and/or thank you notes.
• Offer child care and other family-friendly amenities during physical activities that occur after work.
• Avoid scheduling meetings over lunch.
• Promote active breaks rather than coffee breaks.
• Have active fundraisers instead of bingos. For example, employees might climb the Calgary Tower stairs or take turns riding a stationary bike for 24 hours.
• Make birthday celebrations active times. Instead of a lunch, invite the birthday person to choose an exercise. Options could include a session with a yoga instructor or an evening ski trip.
• Encourage a casual dress day. One study saw that staff members who dress casually were more physically active.

• Make sure that your building’s stairways are clean, attractive and safe, and post signs encouraging employees to use the stairs.
• Establish a wellness newsletter or intranet.
• Encourage the Activity Tracker and advocate workers to track their physical exercise every week.
• Be creative, and make the most of the workspace you have. By way of example, mark off a safe walking path inside or around the building. You might also set up a training circuit, highlighting features of the worksite such as stairs.
• Provide physical activity opportunities at different times to accommodate night-, shift-, and part-time employees.
• For employees in remote or satellite offices, offer equal access to key initiatives via the intranet. Adapt challenges to suit their environment and take advantage of local facilities and resources.
• Make physical activity available to workers with special needs. Adapt information and activities for any employee who are visually impaired or physically disabled as well as for people who speak English as a second language.
• Educate employees about physical activity using information from reputable sources such as the Alberta Centre for Active Living.
• Offer facilities that invite onsite physical exercise. Possibilities include bike racks, physical activity room, change rooms with lockers and showers, and safe and attractive grounds for walking.
• Hold walking meetings.
• Encourage staff members to walk to co-workers’ offices instead of e-mailing or phoning.
• Set up a stretching room. This low-cost plan requires only a room, stretching mats, stability balls and medicine balls. Put up posters that show stretches and exercises.
• Give rewards and incentives such as shoe bags, ball caps, T-shirts or water bottles to reward employee participation.
• Loan out pedometers for three months, so that workers have the potential to learn how many steps they usually take and how much exercise they need to add to get basic health benefits.
• Allocate space for workers to plant and maintain a flowerbed or garden at the workplace. Use any resulting produce for gatherings and potluck lunches or donate it to charity.
• Plan a workplace health & wellness fair.
• Hire a certified fitness specialist to create and manage an worksite fitness facility.
• Supply staff members with active wear that shows off the company logo.

• Organize a launch event to establish excitement about upcoming activities and to create a social climate that establishes being active as the norm.
• Design and reward monthly or bi-monthly employer events that are fun and active, e.g., picnics with physical games, employee tournaments and dragon boat racing. Encourage families to join in by including all-ages events such as relay races, soccer matches, bocce ball and baseball games.
• Begin a swim club at a local pool. Invite groups of staff members to swim the distance of a nearby lake. Convert kilometres to lengths and reward staff members who complete the swim. Set up a challenge between staff members and managers to see who covers the greatest distance.
• Post a sign-up board where employee can join a group or find a buddy to take part in activities of interest.
• Design a business badminton tournament that lasts several months, with each employee playing once a week. Display the results as the tournament progresses.
• Design an office Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon or Masters Games. Invite teams to compete in several activities over a month. Reward everyone who participates.
• Organize a point system in which one minute of activity equals one point. Set a target, and post a chart where all workers are able to track their points. Reward the first group to reach that target.
• Establish a stair climb challenge. Display a chart at the top of the stairwell, and encourage employees to track the number of flights of stairs they climb each workday. Set up teams, and award a prize to the first team to climb the equivalent of Mount Everest.
• Post and reward a sign-up board for lunchtime walking groups.
• Organize a walk “across America” Choose a route, figure out how many steps it would take to walk that distance and challenge staff members to do it. Give or loan pedometers to staff members, and ask them to record the number of steps they take. Or, if you can’t afford pedometers, track the minutes walked. Set up a challenge between staff members and managers to see who has the potential to walk across America first.
• Create a walk to work club. Acknowledge staff members who either walk to work or walk to public transit.
• Have a volunteer group leader guide weekly lunchtime power walks.
• Establish a million-step challenge. Form groups, challenge each group to walk a combined total of a million steps and reward the winner. Departments or sites might compete with each other and with management.
• Encourage employees to walk 10,000 steps a day. Buy pedometers for all participating employees or, if you can’t afford that, make pedometers available at a reduced rate. Provide tips for increasing daily steps, and reward employees who succeed.

There is no one right way to approach wellness programs but successful programs share common success factors. These include responsibility from management, employee involvement, adequate resources, and a policy on health that goes hand in hand with the organization’s mission, vision and values.

Company Wellness Program: A Range of Approaches

Although the intention is to eventually have a long-term, all-inclusive wellness program, some businesses prefer to begin with a single program at a basic level. By way of example, the first steps might be as simple as offering lunch-hour sessions on first aid or healthy eating; or they might launch a pilot project to learn how interested staff members are to ensure staff members needs are being met before taking on anything more ambitious. This approach supplies a chance to show the effect on staff members and the workplace so upper management will be more willing to consider a larger and more far-reaching plan.

Other employers plan a variety of pushes to meet the needs of the different types of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to foster a sound business case, complete with a health strategy, before attempting any sort of program. Employers want to be sure that a new program is fully integrated with their overall business vision and mission.

Employee Wellness Program: Success Factors

Whether your organization chooses to think big from the outset or to begin with something smaller, always keep in mind the following key success factors:

• reinforcement and participation from management;
• employee participation in creating;
• programs that meet employee needs;
• a realistic budget; and
• continuous review.

In sports, a game plan is a series of steps that a group must follow to accomplish its objective of winning. Most winning teams plan to win. Businesses also need game plans, even if they do not call them by that name.

Good planning will help to ensure that your wellness program happens the way you want it to, and that costs have the potential to be identified in advance and kept within budget. Good planning prevents small issues from becoming bigger.

Steps in Planning a Corporate Health Promotion Program

Get senior staff reinforcement. You may need to cultivate a organization case to convince managers that the wellness program is a organization strategy-that employee health and job satisfaction impacts their productivity. workers need to see evidence that senior staff believes in and is committed to employee health.

Establish a planning committee. Participants have the potential to include representatives from employee groups as well as from human resources(HR), health and safety, and communications.

Accumulate information. To prove that your Company Health Promotion Program is productive, establish a benchmark before the program begins. You may wish to look at employee satisfaction, absenteeism rates, stress levels, prescription expenditures or WCB expenditures. Assess what workplace facilities are available to support workers to make healthy choices such as showers and change areas or a secure place to store a bicycle. Assess employee needs through a survey or questionnaire, suggestion box or focus group. Communicate the results.

Organize the plan to reflect the information gathered. Include program objectives, activities and how you are intend to measure whether your objectives were met. Keep the plan flexible. You may have to change direction in response to employee feedback or changes in the company’s structure.

Get upper management approval. Support for employee time and a budget are needed.

Put activities in place. Offer a variety of activities that create awareness, expand knowledge, advance skills, and support social interaction. (Activities could include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Workplace Health Promotion Programs Week, SummerActive, WinterActive, corporate challenge, golf days, and newsletters that support information about community resources.) Workplaces can also make it easier for workers to make healthy choices by providing flextime to allow workers to fit activity in when it is convenient or by subsidizing programs in cooperation with community or private fitness facilities. A policy on catering for gatherings can make sure that healthy foods are offered.

Evaluate the plan. Share your successes with others, learn from your mistakes and modify activities.

A wellness program doesn’t have to be complicated or a huge cost. Just do it. Get backing from senior staff, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.