Health And Wellness In The WorkplaceHealth And Wellness In The Workplace

How does it feel to walk into your worksite? Do people look happy? Is the place well lit and cheerful? Do you feel welcome, wanted and energized? Or do you feel a gloom come over you, and count the hours until you have the potential to leave?
The power of the workplace environment on the wellbeing and health of workers is profound. First there is the physical look, feel, smell, and sounds of the place. Then you’re affected by the policies, like whether others are allowed to smoke around you. As time passes, more subtle factors begin to affect you. Do your attempts to live a healthier lifestyle get recognized at work, or are they sabotaged? Are your managers inspiring you by being healthy role models? Do you get regular opportunities to learn healthier behaviors?
In a supportive environment, workers feel that the business they work for supports them with encouragement, opportunity, and rewards for healthy lifestyles. And the spirit that results is highly contagious. Workers who feel cared are naturally more loyal and advantageous.
The following ideas will help you change your workplace environment into one that actually supports the wellness of your staff members and business.

Worksite Health Promotion Program Ideas for Creating Supportive Environments

Wellness Friendly Facilities

When you enter a worksite, do you feel comfortable? Could you be happy working there? Is there proper light and clean air? Are there pleasant work areas, places to eat decent food, take a walk before lunch? Close your eyes. How does it smell? Sound? Do the workers have proper space?
• Vending machines with healthy food choices like low-fat milk, fruits, sugar-free and caffeine-free beverages and low-calorie snacks
• Workout area, walking paths, playing fields, basketball hoop, or other exercise opportunities workplace or nearby
• Cafeteria offers healthy foods that may include a salad bar with low-fat dressing
• Natural light is used whenever possible; all lighting is appropriate and adequate
• Heating and ventilation is adjustable, comfortable and healthful
• No cigarette machines, ashtrays, or smoking areas worksite
• Noise levels are safe and supportive of concentration
• Work station furniture conforms to ergometric standards
• Safety risks have been eliminated
• Lockers and showers are available for employees who work out before work or during breaks
• Stairs are clean and well lit, convenient and pleasant to use
Familiarity can make it difficult to evaluate a workplace. People get used to stressful conditions and forget that conditions ever bothered them. It may provce useful to ask people who are unfamiliar with your workplace to walk through with you. Professional consultants can also assist.

Proactive Wellness Policies

One clear way to influence behavior is through policies and procedures. If nurses aren’t permitted to work more than twelve hours consecutively, there will be fewer medication errors. If parents are given flextime to address their children’s needs, they’ll be less stressed. If workers have the potential to apply unused sick days to planned vacation time, they’ll save them up instead of calling in sick to utilize them all.

Supportive corporate policies may include:

• Seatbelt use necessitated in company vehicles
• Alcohol and drug policies are relevant to the industry
• Emergency procedures are developed, known, and practiced
• Flexible work schedules allow staff members to exercise, catch children’s school conferences, etc.
• Nonsmoking policy is enforced
• Excessive overtime is discouraged
• Membership at fitness facility is partially reimbursed
• Shift staff members are scheduled to allow adequate rest
• Healthcare Costs coverage rewards good health
• Absenteeism policy rewards staff members who don’t use sick days
• Employee Assistance Program ready to help employees with chemical dependencies, depression, family issues
• Meaningful consequences are carried out for unsafe, unhealthy, prohibited behavior.  Your organization may have a policy concerning alcohol use during work hours, but if everyone looks the other way when someone comes back from lunch smelling like beer, the culture is one that permits drinking at lunch-and one in which written policies are able to be safely ignored. Prohibited behaviors must be confronted promptly. Otherwise your policies remain mere lip service rather than springboards to health.

Consistent Recognition And Rewards For Success

Attention, praise, and rewards are provided for wellness achievements.
You can show you value the Employee Health Promotion Programs by celebrating your programs and those who have made lifestyle improvements in organization newsletters, on bulletin boards, and at yearly banquets, meetings, and celebrations. Incentives are a direct way to render appreciation, too.
Wellness mentors are sought and applauded, too. Employees who support others’ efforts to improve their health are noticed and appreciated. Peer modeling and mentoring classes can promote those who enjoy assisting others to step forward into a new role.

Managers Model And Support Healthier Behavior

Nothing could say “We bolster you to exercise frequently” better than a manager going on a bike ride during the lunch hour–or your supervisor sitting next to you in a weight management class. Wellness activities encourage relaxed interaction between people from different departments and at different echelons in the chain of command. That promotes relaxed communication and a feeling of solidarity that is pure gold.
Managers might also provide support for employees who are working on bettering their health. It doesn’t take anything fancy-just a “great job” or “nice to see you at the fitness center” has the potential to put a glow on the cheeks of most of us.
Managers can also help by allowing staff members the flexibility to catch wellness events.

Ongoing Worksite Health Promotion Programs

It’s important to give employees the sense that the wellness program is a permanent and important part of the corporation, not a corporation fad. That can activate as soon as a new employee is hired.
New workers are oriented to the wellness program as one of the employee benefits. Information about the program should be presented by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable person who invites the new employee to participate.
The employees are familiar with the ongoing wellness programs.
The wellness programs and wellness coordinator are visible in the employer. Opportunities to take part are abundant and it’s simple to sign up.
A wide variety of awareness classes are provided. There are topics of interest for everyone.