Health And Wellness In The WorkplaceHealth And Wellness In The Workplace

Ideally, you will develop an central plan for a Worksite Wellness Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. By way of example, you are able to begin by getting the following components in place:

• support from management
• a Workplace 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 financial and/or human resources(HR), you have the potential to still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you could focus on only one specific problem. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning have the potential to help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for setting up Workplace Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps are able to have an effect.

Whether you choose to start with a single program or cultivate something larger, planning is essential. 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 employees and business?
• Encourage. How can you most effectively spread the word to employees? What opportunities exist for promotion? Consider everything, because employees have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, employees receive information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow employees.
• Deliver. Who is the best person or group to put the program into action? Ask other employers about approaches they have utilized. Solidify your budget before making a decision.
• Review. What ought to you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when creating your program:

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

The Elements of a Worksite Health Promotion Program

Initiatives to reward 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 clinics, pamphlets on heart disease, “lunch and learn” sessions on eating habits and short-term physical exercise programs.

These activities are significant, but workplace wellness should also be part of company’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 providing the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for workers to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in snack machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist 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 stairways 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. Businesses should 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
• Employee Assistance Programs

To develop a positive 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. Making sure that individuals enjoy being at work is not an simple task, but making the right changes is able to have a huge influence.

Health Practices

Provide programs and set policies that help workers 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.
• Tobacco cessation clinics or subsidies to help employees quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the problems raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks served at meetings and conferences.

Personal Worksite Health Promotion 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 a myriad of 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 rather than sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy meal. Have 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 be sure not to take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Arrange your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Plan and prioritize to ensure that the most significant things get done first.

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

Speak with other wellness practitioners to learn what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And do not forget to promote, promote, promote.

Many companies recognize the need for a inclusive plan to help their employees be the best they have the potential to be. They also know that efficacious and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program ought to include a wide range of key elements, 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 strategy (what’s valuable gets measured!).
• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Starting Your Corporate Health Promotion Program

Create carefully to ensure that your wellness program is viewed as part of a sweeping responsibility to maintaining the health and safety of each employee. Yes, creating a good plan takes a lot of effort and time (and occasionally resources). But planning is critical and well worth the investment required. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might begin by conducting a survey of employee needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the results and plan accordingly. If you do not, the workers won’t support the program.

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

Another important step is to establish an agenda and/or measurable goals/objectives to help you outline priorities, timelines and the resources required to start 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 countless hats. The leader’s duties include:

• Creating a vision of the wellness program after receiving input from all interested staff members.
• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the company (to senior managers and fellow workers alike).
• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.
• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.
• Establishing 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. For example, you’ll want to form a Company Health Promotion Program Committee made up of a diverse group of staff members to provide advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Assist you to get important information from all parts of the corporation.
• Organize 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:

• Ascertain areas of excellence.
• Ascertain factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Gain management’s support for your efforts (and maintain that support).
• Better understand issues 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 expenditure of your Employee Assistance Program(EAP).
• The expense of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The cost of your prescription drug 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 issues.
• Results of your environmental wellness audit.
• Other perceivable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A great communications plan supplies ongoing information to employees (including senior managers) and creates excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is part of an effective communications plan. By way of example, you might recognize individuals who have helped set up the program or provide tangible rewards for achieving goals.

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

If you pay attention to the key components of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while organizing 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 full schedule? Often 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 beneficial for employees. But employers also advance from having fit, energetic and healthy employees who are more beneficial.

The challenges

Your job takes up a lot of your time. In addition to the hours you spend actually working, there is the time required 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 tough.

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.

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

Senior Management plays a key role in creating a culture that promotes health. The leaders at your workplace influence 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 ensure the success of a employer exercise program is to have the management on side and cheering you on.

Ask your management 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 assist employee to be more physically active. For example, they might need to take a longer lunch break to attend exercise class, making up the time by arriving at work early or staying 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 exercise program, don’t forget to show appreciation.

You don’t need an onsite fitness center

Only very sizable companies are able to afford onsite fitness facilities such as exercise equipment or squash courts. Still, most employers are able to take other affordable steps to support workers who wish to become more active.

For example:

• Arrange for discounted fees for employees at a fitness center, 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.
• Have walking gatherings and set up lunch-hour walking groups
• Make workers cognizant of safe and pleasant walking routes near the workplace, as well as nearby facilities that offer exercise program (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 type of workplace can encourage staff members who wish to be physically active. It’s highly desirable to get upper management on side. Even if your boss isn’t supportive, you are able to still learn ways to get moving more. Set up activities for groups and individuals, and promote your co-staff members to join in.

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

The great news is that even short sessions of physical activity help your health. Research has established that 10-minute sessions that add up to between 30 and 60 minutes a day have the potential to produce significant health advantages.

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

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

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

Read on to check out strategies you are able to try. With proper responsibility, some of them are sure to work for you.

Strategy #1: Multi-tasking

The first strategy you can 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 activity 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 an entire 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 exercise level, and it also benefits your neighborhood and the environment by lowering the number of cars on the road.

You can also get physical activity while doing chores.

When you’re working around home, 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 American citizens spend eight 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 exercise will revitalize you and help you be more advantageous.

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 core a workout.

Take active breaks at least once every day. During your coffee break, try doing some yoga, stretching or taking a quick walk. You might find 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 rather than the elevator whenever you can. The stairs in your building are an opportunity to get your heart pumping.

Establish 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 strategy, 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 kids to the park, play with them instead of just watching them play.

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

You can even be active when you’re watching your children do activities without you. By way of 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

Schedule your physical exercise directly into your daytimer. Set a specific time and place for working out. Make your physical exercise appointments a priority, just as significant 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 individuals: 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 is able to help you develop a physical activity plan and schedule.

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

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

• Commit to workplace physical exercise in policy statements and commit funding to physical exercise pushes.
• Clearly communicating the benefits of being physically active during the workday reinforces the company’s responsibility to helping all workers be active. Use gatherings, 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 employees who actively commute to work or exercise during lunch to make up any missed time later in the day.
• Allow employees to work part time, so that they are able to participate in physical activity.
• Include a physical activity account in your benefit plan to pay for or subsidize fitness memberships, assessments, classes, counselling or instruction.
• Give interest-free loans for staff members to buy bicycles or good 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 individuals to lead stretch breaks or physical exercise programs or classes. For help in finding accredited fitness leaders, visit Alberta’s Provincial Fitness Unit.
• Recognize workers who take part in physical exercise. Survey workers first to determine how they prefer to be recognized, e.g., through corporation 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 gatherings over lunch.
• Promote active breaks instead of coffee breaks.
• Have active fundraisers rather than bingos. By way of 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.
• Promote a casual dress day. One study reported that workers 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.
• Develop a wellness newsletter or intranet.
• Promote the Activity Tracker and bolster staff members to track their physical activity 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 workplace such as stairs.
• Offer physical exercise opportunities at different times to accommodate night-, shift-, and part-time staff members.
• For staff members in remote or satellite offices, offer equal access to key pushes via the intranet. Adapt challenges to suit their environment and take advantage of local facilities and resources.
• Make physical exercise available to staff members with special needs. Adapt information and activities for any employee who are visually impaired or physically disabled as well as for individuals who speak English as a second language.
• Educate staff members about physical exercise using information from reputable sources such as the Alberta Centre for Active Living.
• Offer facilities that invite worksite physical activity. Possibilities include bike racks, exercise room, change rooms with lockers and showers, and safe and attractive grounds for walking.
• Have walking meetings.
• Promote 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 incentives and rewards such as shoe bags, ball caps, T-shirts or water bottles to reward employee participation.
• Hand out pedometers for three months, so that workers have the potential to discover how many steps they usually take and how much exercise they need to add to get basic health benefits.
• Create space for employees 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.
• Create a workplace health and wellbeing fair.
• Hire a qualified fitness specialist to design and manage an worksite fitness facility.
• Supply workers with active wear that shows off the company logo.

• Develop a launch event to foster excitement about upcoming activities and to set up a social climate that establishes being active as the norm.
• Design and encourage monthly or bi-monthly company 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.
• Start a swim club at a local pool. Invite groups of employees to swim the distance of a nearby lake. Convert kilometres to lengths and reward employees who complete the swim. Set up a challenge between employees and managers to see who covers the greatest distance.
• Display a sign-up board where employee can join a group or find a buddy to participate in activities of interest.
• Create a company badminton tournament that lasts several months, with each employee playing once a week. Post the results as the tournament progresses.
• Create an office Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon or Masters Games. Invite teams to compete in several activities over a month. Reward everyone who participates.
• Create a point system in which one minute of exercise 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.
• Organize a stair climb challenge. Post a chart at the top of the stairwell, and promote workers 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.
• Display and encourage a sign-up board for lunchtime walking groups.
• Create a walk “across this country” Choose a route, figure out how many steps it would take to walk that distance and challenge workers to do it. Give or loan pedometers to workers, 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 workers and managers to see who can walk across this country first.
• Design a walk to work club. Acknowledge workers 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 could compete with each other and with management.
• Encourage workers to walk 10,000 steps a day. Buy pedometers for all participating workers or, if you can’t afford that, make pedometers available at a reduced rate. Provide tips for increasing daily steps, and reward workers who succeed.

There is no single correct way to approach wellness programs but winning programs share common success factors. These include commitment from management, employee participation, adequate resources, and a policy on health that goes hand in hand with the organization’s mission, vision and values.

Corporate Wellness Program: A Range of Approaches

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

Other companies plan a variety of initiatives to meet the needs of the different sorts of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to cultivate a sound organization case, complete with a health plan, before beginning any sort of program. Corporations want to ensure that a new program is completely integrated with their overall organization vision and mission.

Workplace Health Promotion Program: Success Factors

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

• backing and participation from management;
• employee participation in planning;
• 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 goal of winning. Most winning teams plan to win. Organizations also need game plans, even if they do not call them by that name.

Good planning will help to make sure that your wellness program happens the way you want it to, and that expenditures are able to be identified in advance and kept within budget. Good planning prevents small concerns from becoming bigger.

Steps in Creating a Corporate Wellness Program

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

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

Collect information. To prove that your Company Wellness Program is advantageous, establish a benchmark before the program begins. You may wish to look at employee satisfaction, absenteeism rates, stress levels, prescription costs or WCB expenditures. Evaluate what workplace facilities are available to support employees to make healthy choices such as showers and change areas or a secure place to store a bicycle. Evaluate 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 required.

Put activities in place. Provide a variety of activities that establish awareness, expand knowledge, develop skills, and offer social interaction. (Activities might include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Employee Wellness Programs Week, SummerActive, WinterActive, corporate challenge, golf days, and newsletters that offer information about neighborhood resources.) Workplaces have the potential to also make it easier for staff members to make healthy choices by offering flextime to allow staff members to fit exercise in when it is convenient or by subsidizing programs in cooperation with neighborhood or private fitness facilities. A policy on catering for gatherings is able to be sure that healthy foods are offered.

Review 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 expenditure. Just do it. Obtain reinforcement from management, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.

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.

These are simple programs that can be done within your employer to encourage healthy lifestyles during a contest or during other times. The goal is to advocate employee participation. Some examples:
• Design a sub-committee of enthusiastic employees who will help reward the physical activity program by offering ideas, suggestions and encouragement to fellow employees.
• Establish monthly mailbox handouts to reward a contest or support fitness-related education/encouragement information.
• Send a periodic voicemail on each member’s phone with encouraging wellness messages.
• Make available regular cumulative health progress reports.
• Offer reduced fat or heart-healthy lunch selections once a week in your cafeteria or have staff members bring a healthy snack to share, with a recipe book compiled at the culmination of the contest or specified time period (such as a National Nutrition Month in March).
• Distribute employee gifts (pedometers or other novelty item related to some aspect of your contest theme) as registration starts.
• Allocate for employees “Fitness 15-Minute Walk Breaks;” company time to walk, exercise, etc. If appropriate, you might use a space not currently used to set up a treadmill, elliptical, bicycle, some free weights and relaxation music.
• Have a T-shirt design contest.
• Create posters to map contest (or fitness) progress and to serve as reminder of your goals and objectives:
   • Use push pins or other identifiers for each individual to put up in the office showing how they have progressed – staff members have the potential to get very creative with this and design pins that reflect their personalities.
   • Use a bar graph to compare progress.
   • Use a “thermometer” type graphic and illustrate progress – consider a different, health-related graphic all together and color it in as you progress.
• Provide aerobic dance or walking videos in your conference or break rooms.
• Compile a list of organized activities in the neighborhood that offer opportunities to get employees exercising by participating as a group (below are just a few):
   • Race For The Cure
   • March of Dimes Walk America event
   • Juvenile Diabetes Research
   • Foundation Walk to Cure
   • American Heart Association’s Heart Walk
   • American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life
   • American Lung Association’s Lung Run
   • Local marathons or special neighborhood walks or runs
• Designate or catch a health-and-fitness workshop or retreat.
• Hold a soup-and-salad luncheon followed by a hula-hoop contest!
• Use the mall as an alternate walking location during inclement weather.
• Designate “Move it Mondays” – allow staff members to take an extra 10 minutes during lunch for physical activity.
• Designate “Tasty Tuesdays” – offer employees with low-calorie treats/snacks.
• Create “Walking Wednesdays”- allow employees to take an extra ten minutes at lunch to walk, or “Wacky Wednesdays” that allow employees to explore new exercises.
• Establish “Thirsty Thursdays” – make healthy smoothies or juice drinks for staff members.
• Designate “Fresh Fruit Fridays” for employee – offer seasonal fruit treats.
• Send weekly physical activity tips to employees via the most effective communications vehicle in your workplace.
• Partner with another corporation representative for local media events coordinated through your advertising or communication department.
• Encourage departmental teams to challenge each other (examples: Customer Service, Marketing, Health Support).
• Designate walking clubs with executive/supervisory leadership.
• Seek out local aerobic opportunities or classes through churches, community groups, college, YMCA, etc.
• Contact several local area fitness centers and ask if they can or will offer group discounts for exercise programs, waive enrollment fees, or set up a 12-week program as opposed to signing an extended contract.
• Have a Frozen Yogurt Social – “Reap the Benefits of Fitness.”
• Map out a walking track around the facility including the number of laps required for one mile.