Category — employee health and wellness

When choosing  a program from a vendor you should ask the following questions -

• How many worksites have done the program?

• What kinds of employee population was the program offered?

• What educational materials are used?

• Will the program meet the needs of employees?

• What are the techniques used to help change behaviors?

• Does the program help individuals  move through stages of readiness to make health behavior changes?

• How do you market the program to employees?

• What follow-up do you provide?

• How do you make referrals for medical care or other supportive services workers may need?

• How do you know the program works?

• How do you measure participant satisfaction?

When staffing your wellness program you need to consider whether to hire a wellness staff or contract with wellness specialists from outside your organization.

Small and medium size worksites don’t usually have a wellness specialist on staff. If your worksite is in this category, you’ll need to contract with providers outside your business.

Large businesses have a few choices. They can hire a staff solely for the wellness program, they can contract with outside wellness providers, or they can use a combination of internal staff and outside providers.

When choosing  a provider some key questions in the areas of staff, program structure, process, and effectiveness need to be addressed. Each of these key questions is discussed in the following sections.

Wellness Company Staff

Health professionals become wellness professionals when they’re trained in the full range of wellness activities. Wellness professionals are generalists who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and schooling.

They could be nurses, dietitians, health educators, counselors, exercise physiologists, or have other backgrounds. But further to their main training, they know something about all wellness topics, including use of tobacco, stress, exercise, and nutrition.

They also know how to engage and support individuals  in making and sustaining health improvements and have good individuals  skills.

Normally, wellness experts at worksites fall into three broad categories, wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and wellness instructors.

• Wellness screeners introduce workers to the program, take health measurements, collect health-related information, provide initial counseling, and help workers define for themselves what they need and want in a wellness program.

• Wellness counselors work with workers after the screening to help them create and carry out a plan to reduce their risks and improve their health.

• Wellness instructors teach classes and minigroups on different health topics.

A wellness program in a small business can be staffed by a single staff person who fills all three roles. Bigger worksites will use different individuals  to fill these roles.

When selecting  staff or selecting  among wellness corporations, ask the following questions -

• Do prospective staff members have a range of health backgrounds that will provide appropriate professionalise in the topics to be addressed?

• Have prospective staff members functioned well as wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and/or wellness instructors?

• Will this staff include people  from the ethnic and racial backgrounds found in your worker population?

• is each staff member comfortable with the range of backgrounds found in your staff member population, and able to communicate effectively with the various social and educational levels of your employees?

• Do employees have a warm, but specialist, counseling style when interacting with employees?

An annual plan for the major wellness programs and activities is a useful management tool. This is an excellent wellness committee task. Often an activity and wellness theme per month is offered to workers.

Some organizations pick to follow a National Health Observances calendar which offers advantages. the materials developed by these various national health organizations are very credible. the materials are generally high quality and available free or at a nominal cost.

The company benefits from additional publicity that occurs in various media throughout the community related to the national observance. for planning suggestions you could want to utilize the HOPE Publications Wellness Resource Planning Guide available for free at this Web site.

A Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal}  is sometimes used joined with a biometric testing. an HRA is a computerized assessment tool which looks at an individual’s family history, health status, and lifestyle.

An HRA seeks to identify precursors associated with premature death or serious disease and quantifies the probable impact for each individual.

An HRA instrument is derived from an understanding of the while a illness. Based on this understanding, useful prediction instruments can be constructed to assess the health risks of an individual. Individuals with a higher number of health risks tend to have more serious health problems over time.

Drawing attention to their health risks can help clients reduce risk factors which lead to the onset of unnecessary illness and subsequent premature death.

The questionnaire covers lifestyle habits (like smoking, seat belt use, and exercise) and physical measures (like cholesterol, blood pressure levels, height, and weight).

For accuracy, it is vital to obtain direct measures of blood pressure, cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol. the HRA also provides recommendations and indicates what risks are modifiable. Types of measures to assess health risks are discussed under Screening Programs.

The impact of a health risk (assessment|appraisal} is much greater when it’s given in-person, with immediate feedback to the patron. This also provides an opportunity to invite the patron’s participation in continuing health counseling and to gain their written consent to do pro-active outreach to them.

A health age can be computed based on the individual answers to the questionnaire and physiologic factors. the health age might indicate the individual to be younger or older than their chronological age.

HRA programs are one the most prolific types of wellness activities utilized by organizations. Continuing research on HRAs is examining the efficacy of this tool.

Among the large advantages of this tool is that it can provide an aggregate group report of a company and may be utilized as an evaluation tool.

Detailed information is available from the Society of Prospective Medicine (www.spm.org/desc.html) who publishes a handbook on HRAs.

The most common screening performed in wellness programs is heart health assessment.

The screening can include a written heart health test, blood pressure measurement, cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol test, glucose (blood sugar), weight, educational materials specific to diet, nutrition, exercise, cholesterol, tobacco use, and weight.

The health specialist conducting the screening then provides a consultation and helps set goals with the participant.

The backbone of wellness programming at the worksite is medical testing. It is the first major activity a company ought to do when first starting a wellness program.

Biometric screening is often used paired with the administration of a Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} .

The most effective way to screen is to utilize a health expert trained in wellness screening techniques and counseling to privately and individually assess participants.

This wellness professional takes a brief health history and measures blood pressure (BP) and cholesterol. With computerized cholesterol desktop analyzers, results are obtained in about four minutes.

Immediate feedback, consultation, and educational materials are provided. for those identified at-risk, follow-up appointments can be scheduled at this time. the whole process takes about twenty minutes per individual.

The screening also provides an immediate opportunity to register participants in various health improvement programs based on their interests and identified health risks.

Health testing could be done annually and used to monitoring health risks within the worksite.

A medical screening program needs to provide multiple opportunities for participation. the service ought to be provided for all the various shifts of a business. the screening program ought to be conducted in highly visible areas so the process can be observed.

Reluctant workers often like to be able to see what the program is about before they participate. When wellness screeners aren’t busy, they ought to perform outreach going to areas where workers gather and attempt to recruit workers.

When well-planned and promoted, health testing can attract participation rates of 60% to 100%. These high participation rates have a positive impact on management producing support for further programming.

Objectives are broad-based statements about what the program is expected to do. the goal of the wellness program is to enhance the health of the individual and the organization. Objectives like mission statements provide direction in a program.   

Objectives are specific and provide a means of measurement of the program to determine effectiveness. There are two kinds of objectives, process and outcome.    

Process goals state the activities that need to occur to achieve a desired outcome.

Examples of process objectives are -

• Number of participants screened

• Number of participants in and completing health improvement programs

• Satisfaction of program participants

• Number of participants who were medically referred and saw their physician

• Number of promotional activities

• Number of participants seen in follow-up

Example of outcome goals are -

• Number of participants who improved fitness level

• Number of participants who decreased cholesterol level

• Number of participants who lost weight, body fat

• Number of participants who quit smoking

• Number of participants with high blood pressure who reduced their blood pressure

• Number of participants whose initial level of alcohol consumption put them at-risk who are no longer at-risk

• Number of participants with risk factors who saw their physician and are being treated for high blood pressure (BP) or cholesterol years later

Wellness committees are important in that they create a sense of ownership in the program, and facilitate various tasks involved in wellness programming at the workplace.

The committee ought to be composed of a cross-section of employees representing various occupations, levels, and subgroups with the organization.

A common mistake is filling the committee with the most health/fitness-conscious people  in the corporation. Don’t rely solely on volunteers to fill a committee. Make sure that your committee members have enough power in the corporation to run an effective wellness program.

The wellness committee is made up of workers from the workplace. It oversees the wellness program and assists carry it out.

The committee ought to meet about once a month to review the previous month’s activities and plan future ones. When the program is just starting, the committee may meet on a weekly basis until things get going.

Committee members don’t carry out medical procedures, counsel customers, or handle confidential medical information. Wellness specialists perform these tasks.

In general, the committee’s duties fall into three areas -  planning, promoting, and helping to run programs.

Planning the programs can include -

• Locating space for activities

• Planning and organizing worksite-wide events such as contests

• Evaluating reports prepared by the program staff and making recommendations

Promoting the program can include -

• Recruiting workers to participate in screening and health improvement programs

• Encouraging employees to participate in follow-up counseling

• Organizing promotional strategies using newsletters, signs, bulletin boards, computers, and other media available within the workplace

Assisting to run the program can include -

• Establishing up equipment for various activities

• Assisting to conduct worksite-wide activities

• Monitoring all activities and analyzing  the performance of the expert staff

• Acting as wellness mentors to fellow workers

The size of the wellness committee will be dependent on the size of the organization. Select members by asking day management to nominate or appoint workers.

Make an announcement through flyers, memos, and meetings to recruit potential members. Explain the purpose of the committee, duties and responsibilities, and the time commitment.

Recognize your wellness committee volunteers. Allow them to participate in programs at a reduced cost. Hold appreciation breakfasts/lunches/dinners.

Print names of committee members on business communications about the wellness program.

Buy special T-shirts, caps, and buttons for them. Write letters to supervisors saying that you appreciate the member’s service. Create awards certificates for members.

The following could be used as a guide for committee size -    

• Less than 300 employees   2 to 4

• 300 to 1,000 employees   4 to 6

• 1,000 employees or more   6 to 12

Effective wellness programs recognize the importance of building a supportive cultural environment. the workplace culture includes shared values/heartfelt beliefs about what is important. It includes social standards of expected and accepted behavior called “cultural norms.”

It includes coworker support from family, friends, and coworkers. This support can help one adopt healthful lifestyles. Tools are available to audit a business.

The long-term success of any wellness program is dependent on the corporate culture.

Some healthy culture signs in a business are -

• Employees communicate openly

• Leaders support diversity and opinion

• Employees have fun

• Policies support wellness

• Staff Members are encouraged to grow

• Workers work together as a team

• Employees’ skills and talents are matched to their jobs.

• Flexible work schedules are available

• Corporations consider employees as their most asset

Effective wellness programs attempt to develop healthy workplace climates. A healthy workplace climate is one which encourages teamwork, cooperation, and empowerment of the individual.

People  have a sense of community, a shared vision, and a positive outlook. Policies promote and support wellness efforts within the workplace.

• Effective programs identify ways that company policies and organizational traditions encourage wellness.

• Effective programs work at the group and organizational level to build support for healthy lifestyle choices.

• Effective programs set clear target objectives and objectives for the health improvement of the worksite.