Health And Wellness In The WorkplaceHealth And Wellness In The Workplace

The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports interprets wellness as “a multidimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of wellness.” Wellness looks beyond the current model of treating disease and focuses on preventive actions and healthier lifestyles. Workplace Health Promotion Programs, also generally referred to as Workplace Health Promotion Programs, serve as a complement to existing insurance-based health benefit programs and can take many forms and address a myriad different potential health conditions. They are a powerful strategy to promote positive lifestyle changes that can result in significant cost savings for companies.

Examples of potential elements of a Employee Wellness Program comprise of:

Health Risk Assessments / Employee Health Screenings – Health Risk Assessments (aka Health Risk Appraisals), evaluate the most prevalent lifestyle-related risks of an individual. HRAs frequently include screenings for Blood Pressure (BP), cholesterol, glucose levels and other health indicators. These analyses support significant benchmarking measures that ideally will allow workers to prevent or lower their risk of illnesses. Finding Wealth Through Wellness, As noted by Kathryn Krivy, director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Wellness Institute in Chicago, “Medically based Health Risk Assessments are a necessity because in order to affect change in your employer, you need to know what the concerns are, and you just don’t know until you get the data.”

Physical Activity and Weight Management – One of the most popular Corporate Wellness Programs is for organizations to support access to a exercise facility, often onsite. Other potential measures include offering healthier snack machines and cafeteria options, weight management support groups and fitness challenge programs. Some organizations, like hospital group Baptist Health South Florida, will even pay for workers to go to weight-loss courses such as Weight Watchers.

Awareness and Education Programs – A lot  organizations have events discussing the benefits of nutrition, safety or physical fitness, among other topics. Other options are to host a health & wellness fair or conduct a disease-awareness campaign.

Behavior Modification – This covers issues like smoking, wearing seat belts, and alcohol use. While many employers will supply assistance for workers looking to change behavior, some employers, like medical benefits administrator Weyco, Inc., mandate changes, such as quitting smoking, as a condition of employment.

Alternative Treatments – Other Workplace Health Promotion Programs can cover absorbing some or all of the costs for massages, stress-reduction activities like yoga or even herbal medicines.