Category — Creating a Corporate Wellness Program

Establishing a Corporation Exercise Team From Nine-To-Five People spend an abundance of time at work, and work environments are full of stress. Downsizing, mergers, increasing production requirements and extended hours take their toll on employee health. It can be gauged in rising absenteeism and increasing health costs. It is time to reverse the trend. Establishing a employer exercise team could be the perfect solution. Encouraging each other to start a physical activity program will reap big outcomes for the staff members and the employer.
Working Overtime
It is easy to find excuses to skip working out. One of them is always ‘not enough time’. But 2 walks for 15 minutes each has the same health benefit as 1 walk for 30 minutes. This fact makes building employer exercise team programs easy. Most employers hire a fitness trainer. The fitness trainer can develop a plan the employer can manage itself or let the fitness trainer start and monitor. Either way, there are lots of ways for staff members to exercise during the day.

* Go on walks outside during breaks or lunch
* Frequent sponsored exercise classes at an in-house fitness center or a local fitness center before or after work
* Use the stairs rather than taking the elevators, quantifying the number of stairs each week
* Do stretching exercises every hour to remain refreshed and alert

But it works even better when teamwork is added to the mix. A employer is as great as its staff members. Every employer operates on the concept of great teamwork to fulfill its mission and provide great customer service. What better way to begin that process than by building a employer exercise team? The rapport that is created among staff members working out together will carry over into the worksite itself. It is a well-known fact that group activities promote cooperation and exercise provides the perfect common activity. All humans need to exercise to maintain fitness. With a employer exercise program, the employer can convey its belief in team spirit, cooperative goals/objectives and strategy development. A local personal trainer can be hired to come onsite or the employer can hire a online trainer. Either way, documenting the progress of each employee’s fitness level as they take part in the exercise team projects will encourage participation.
Moonlighting
There are many types of fitness programs that can be offered to profit a worksite.

* A mixture of aerobics exercises followed by strength movements
* Circuit training at the health club
* Tai Chi Ch’uan for relaxation and stress control
* Step classes
* Body sculpting
* A series of progressive exercise classes offering steady fitness change
* Specialty classes for people over 55 or for pregnant women

On this page you can locate a personal trainer who can show how building a employer exercise team programs works. A employer will discover that once staff members begin to feel in-shape, the exercise program will carry over into their individual life. Now that is healthy moonlighting!

It is easy for staff members to ignore the facts about their health
when they are involved in just getting the work done. One of the major
benefits of Corporate Wellness is they bring health to the forefront of
employer awareness.
Obesity is a major topic and getting worse every day. But it is just
one topic among many. Employee health maintenance has become so
expensive that it is the fastest increasing component of many corporate
budgets.
An effective Corporate Wellness can slow down the rate of increase and
help staff members realize they have a responsibility to themselves and
their families to care for their own Health and Wellness. Each
individual is given a gift of life and it is imperative that life be
cared for carefully.

Benefits of Corporate Wellness

The benefits of wellness programs include the following:

• Increased awareness of detrimental behaviors such as smoking
• Cut back in employee obesity and subsequent ailments
• Convenience of programs for employer and staff members
• Documenting of employee physical activity program outcomes
• Accessability of a fitness consultant

Staff
Members are judged one-on-one at the employer or where there is
employer membership. Professional Corporate Wellness instructors create
a custom fitted plan that insures the employee will have a physical
activity program that matches their current physical condition and
lifestyle.
One of the major reasons that fitness programs fail is because people
set unrealistic expectations. They are always ‘in debt’ to their
program, unable to meet the requirements. A employer personal trainer
can advocate each individual set realizable goal and design a program
that is progressive.
The benefits of wellness programs are well documented in reports and
can be seen in reduced healthcare costs and higher productiveness.

Rewards of Corporate Wellness

Occasionally a high interest
rate can be a great thing for a employer – like when there is high
employee interest in a Corporate Wellness .
The benefits of Corporate Wellness apply to the employer and the staff
members.

• Reducedhealthcare claims as employee health advances
• Reduced cases of obesity
• Reduced cholesterol rates
• Greater cardiovascular health
• Reduced incidences of high Blood Pressure (BP)
• Reduced use of sick time
• Enhanced stress management
• Stronger staff members are less likely to be injured
• Reduced disability claims

Today, you can frequently discover a health and wellbeing room in an
office building for employee convenience. That is an indication of the
level of effectiveness of a physical activity program.
The benefits of wellness programs include deterence of common
healthcare conditions that once were considered rare.
The improvement in employee health nets the employer a cut back in
healthcare care costs and that savings flows directly to the bottom
line of the financial report. There are really no negatives to a
Wellness program.
The benefits of wellness programs are so outstanding; it is hard to
know why any employer would choose not to put together a fitness plan
for their staff members. Look on the internet-based and see for
yourself the world of opportunity to improve the health of your staff
members and your

Organizations are expected to be responsible in every way. They protect the environment, contribute to local area projects and pay taxes. They also are concerned about the health of their staff members. One of the advantages of wellness programs is they give staff members every opportunity to improve their quality of life both at work and after work. Wellness is not just about performing a few exercises. It is a comprehensive service-oriented program that takes into account diet, overriding fitness and job fitness.

Benefits of Corporate Wellness

The Benefits of Corporate Wellness form a long list.

• Betteremployee productiveness
• Betteremployee concentration
• Better morale
• Lower absenteeism

The advantages of wellness programs can’t be underestimated. With one-on-one consultation and group programs, staff members learn to handle stress in a positive way. This not only helps with life at work, it helps with customer service and the quality of life with our personal relationships. Everyone who works has had those days when work goes home with you because of the burden stress has on physical and mental wellbeing. Stress produces a chemical that boosts fat generation in bodies. A wellness program allows staff members to deal with stress in such a manner they 1. reduce stress caused illnesses and 2. don’t carry the stress of employment with them throughout non-work activities. The advantages of a wellness program are the outcome of the use of exercise and nutrition planning to teach staff members how to stay personally in-shape. It is much easier for the body to handle stress when the whole body is in-shape. staff members who are not healthy directly cost the employer an abundance of money in absenteeism, better healthcare costs and lost productivity. Employee relations can also suffer as a result of staff members who feel daily stress of employment.

Benefits of Corporate Wellness – Satisfaction Guaranteed

The Benefits of wellness programs are both tangible and intangible.

• Current chronic ailments are discussed to prohibit further physical deterioration
• Preventive Corporate Wellness keep healthcare costs reduced over time
• Staff Members experience better energy which boosts productiveness
• Unhealthy snacking in the worksite is discussed
• Ergonomics are studied to lower employee injury potential
• Employee flexibility is better
• Self-image of staff members is better
• Employee cooperation developed through physical activity programs
• Solutions to health and fitness problems are provided

The advantages of employer fitness programs include on-Site and off-site services customized to match employer goals/objectives. Even if a program is in place, it can be developed or expanded to meet the needs of the employer and its staff members. Routine assessments, health education, health management and health consulting services are some of the many advantages of wellness programs monitored by Corporate Wellness experts. Among the many choices available, a employer program normally will provide the following as a minimum.

• Physical Exercise
• Core muscle building
• Muscle building
• Better flexibility
• Dietary analysis and changes

Wellness programs vary depending on the size of the employer, availability to fitness equipment and budget. But no matter what shape the Corporate Wellness takes, the Benefits of Corporate Wellness will improve overriding employee satisfaction. This reaps big benefits for the employer. Help your staff members be the very best they can be mentally and personally, by realizing the Benefits of Corporate Wellness .

Information to evaluate your program comes from regularly collected evaluation and follow-up data of your program that look at process and outcomes of your program. The Worker Health Program has available a computerized case-management system which includes queries that allow easy assessment of process and outcome results at any point in time.

Process Evaluation

Process evaluation looks at the Corporate Wellness ’s effect as seen at various points in time. Information that is gathered from the various forms that wellness staff members fill out ought to supply you with the following:

• How many staff members were screened?
• How many staff members who were referred to a doctor went?
• How many staff members who expressed interest in health improvement programs went?
• How many staff members who were referred to health improvement programs went?
• How many staff members who went to health improvement programs completed them?
• How many staff members are in follow-up caseload?

You can use this sort of process evaluation to evaluate and learn about the health of your program.

Outcome Evaluation

A central goal of the program is to better the health of staff members. Information on how to judge how well your program is meeting this goal is called “outcome evaluation” because you are evaluating the end results or outcome of your program. In wellness programs, objectives are gauged by specific (outcomes) behavior changes and reductions in health risk levels. Have staff members lowered their Blood Pressure (BP)? Have they lost weight? Are they working out more? Is alcohol consumption at a safe level? For example these are the types of questions you can ask to learn if you are reaching your objectives:

• For staff members with high Blood Pressure (BP) (140 / 90 or higher or on medication) at evaluation, what percentage have it under control (below 140 / 90) a year later?
• What is the modification in average Blood Pressure (BP) levels among all staff members with high Blood Pressure (BP) 1 year after evaluation? Two years later?
• For staff members with high blood cholesterol levels (above 240) at screening, what percentage has reduced their cholesterol to borderline-high levels (200-239)?
• For staff members with borderline-high blood cholesterol levels, what percentages have reduced their cholesterol to the desirable range (below 200)?
• What is the modification in average cholesterol levels among all staff members with high and borderline-high blood cholesterol levels 1 year after evaluation? Two years later?
• For staff members who were overweight at evaluation, what percentage have lost 20 pounds or more a year later? Ten pounds or more? What is the average weight loss?
• For staff members who were smokers at evaluation, what percentages have quit smoking? For at least a year?
• For staff members whose level of alcohol consumption put them at-risk at evaluation, what percentage have quit drinking alcohol? Are consuming alcohol at levels considered safe by CDC standard procedures? Have reduced their drinking, but are still at-risk?
• For staff members, what percentages are working out at least three times a week for at least 20 minutes?
• If fitness levels were gauged, what percentages have improved fitness?

Set a regular time such as every 6 months to look at which staff members your program is reaching and how effective it is at helping them lower their health risks. Use this information to make new decisions about how to direct your program efforts. Then make the modification you need to better your program. Some may feel that evaluation is an extravagance; it is not. Screening is a crucial part of a wellness program. You will need to know what is working and what is not. Decision-makers who fund the program need to be updated on the success of the program. Evaluation will provide you with crucial data to maintain and expand the program and convince management to continue to support the program.

The keys to a thriving wellness program are persistent one-on-one outreach and follow-up counseling to encourage health improvement, adherence to treatment regimens, changes in lifestyle behaviors, and to prevent relapse. Periodic outreach and follow-up procedures provide staff members with a safety net which keeps them involved in the program and prevents treatment dropout and relapse. Counselors ought to follow up on staff members at least every 6 months throughout the career of the employee at the worksite. The goals/objectives of follow-up are to:

• Involve staff members who have health risks in treatment and risk reduction programs.
• Involve all staff members in health improvement programs and worksite-wide wellness activities.
• Support staff members in carrying out the risk reduction or health improvement activities they have chosen.
• Help staff members comply with their treatment regimens.
• Prevent relapse.
• Prevent staff members from dropping out.
• Help staff members maintain behavior changes.

Follow-up can be conducted in person, by phone, mail, and via computer if the technology is available. Most preferable is an in-person contact. Computer programs which can do case load management are available to help counselors track information and perform follow-up.

Priorities for Follow-Up

People with multiple health risks ought to be at the top of the list. People in key positions such as union leaders or department heads with health risks ought to also be contacted early so that they learn what the program is about and can share the information with others. People who need a medical evaluation for high Blood Pressure (BP) or blood lipids ought to also be targeted early. Many staff members will have seen their doctors as a result of the evaluation, but some will need more encouragement to do so. Those with no health risks can be followed up each year. A follow-up counseling session can take 20 to 45 minutes. At minimum, follow-up must include those who were told to seek medical evaluation for high Blood Pressure (BP) readings, high blood lipid readings, or borderline high blood cholesterol readings with 2 or more other risk factors. It may include those who were identified as at-risk for one or more of the other major risk factors: at-risk levels of alcohol consumption, being overweight, and having low HDL.

Follow-Up With Physicians

A letter (see forms) ought to be sent to the physician or clinic of each employee who has high Blood Pressure (BP), high blood lipids, or is under a physician’s care. The letter ought to explain the program and ought to include the employee’s relevant, current health measurements. Along with the letter, send a self-addressed return envelope. Follow-up with the physician ought to be repeated every 6 months until it is established that the employee is under satisfactory control. Contacting the physician is valuable for three reasons:

• The doctors receive staff members’ health measurements taken at the worksite.
• You receive the Blood Pressure (BP) and blood lipid readings the doctor takes and information on the treatment the doctor prescribes. Many times the employee does not have this information or does not remember it. The information can be used when counseling the employee.
• Follow-up encourages physicians to pay closer attention to heart disease risk factors among their patients.

The menu approach offers staff members a range of options to support lifestyle changes. It allows people to choose the kind of help that suits their schedules and preferences. The four basic types of programs include:

• Classes
• Minigroups
• Guided self help
• Individual counseling

Classes

Classes (8 or more) can be an effective means of offering education and social backing for behavior modification. The length of a class can vary depending on topic requirements. It is not sufficient to offer only classes at a worksite. Many staff members are under time constraints with after work commitments and although they may be interested they simply can’t take part because of their schedules. staff members may be very eager to begin a program but because of lack of participants to meet class quotas, the program is canceled. Many national employers such as the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Weight Watchers, etc. offer classes; you ought to have little trouble in identifying a provider for class sort programs. You may want to contact your local hospital, health department, or YMCA for possible options. For selecting a vendor to provide a program you may want to review the section on program structure.

Minigroups

When there is not enough interest to create a class, those who are interested in a given health topic can be formed into a minigroup (2 to 7). The minigroup can cover the same content as a class but do so in a less formal manner. Presentation of information and discussion is the major format of the minigroup.

Guided Self-Help

Most staff members do not want formal help in making health changes; they prefer to do it on their own. In guided self-help, the wellness counselors provide backing, materials, and encouragement. Meeting times can be arranged and contact can be made either in person, by phone, or computer. Materials can be made available at the worksite, or mailed to the individual. Some worksites now make information available via intranets or the Internet.

Individual Counseling

One of the most thriving ways to help people change and better their health status is counseling (or coaching) on a one-on-one basis. In published research studies, wellness programs which incorporated individual counseling as part of the program process achieved significantly higher participation rates and achieved greater risk reduction/risk elimination than standard group programs. Research studies have established that individual counseling is both cost effective and cost beneficial. A wellness counselor ought to be trained in evaluation techniques, for in certain situations, they may be needed to both screen people and counsel them. They ought to know how to do the following:

• Review employee health risks
• Contact staff members who have health risks.
• Counsel staff members on a one-on-one basis, helping them set goals/objectives, solve issues, and get expert help when they need it.
• Help staff members follow their treatment recommendations and make lifestyle and health behavior changes.
• Recruit staff members into health improvement programs, such as weight loss and smoking cessation.
• Work with staff members on a one-on-one basis using guided self-help.
• Conduct classes and minigroups if necessary.
• Work with Corporate Wellness Committee members to plan and conduct worksite-wide wellness activities.

Wellness counselors are health generalists; they must have basic knowledge about a wide range of health subject matters and health risks. Counselors must be able to talk with staff members about their medical issues and the treatments prescribed by their doctors. They ought to have a great overview of nutrition, exercise physiology, pathophysiology of disease, pharmacology, psychology, and behavior modification skills.

The educational program ought to include approaches to stress awareness/reduction at the environmental level and at the individual level. Social, physical, and employer stressors ought to be explained and methods to ease or elevate stressors ought to be presented. At the individual level how changes in attitudes and behaviors help one to cope with stressors; learning techniques to minimize stress response, such as meditation, relaxation response, and exercise. Content of the program ought to provide the following:

• Identifying sources of stress
• Relationship of stress to health
• How the individual experiences stress, personal, family, work
• Solutions for coping and managing stress
• Techniques for reducing stress
• Value of stress, both harmful and beneficial
• Practical steps of incorporating stress reduction into lifestyle

Personnel conducting stress management programs ought to have training in psychology, behavioral sciences, or related disciplines such as mental health professionals, counselors, health educators, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Training in a reputable program on how to instruct the stress management course including group process skills is a must.

A nutrition education program ought to include a nutritional needs assessment, education counseling, and referral as crucial. Educational sessions and materials ought to include the following information:

• The relationship of nutrition and chronic diseases
• Improving eating patterns
• Relationship of nutrition and proper weight maintenance
• Exercise
• Stress
• Blood Pressure (BP)
• Cholesterol
• Diabetes and other chronic diseases.
• Nutritionally accurate information regarding the relationship of health to diet, including cholesterol, fats, fiber, alcohol, carbohydrates, salt, sugar, and vitamin/mineral supplementation.

Methods for identifying healthier foods and incorporating low-calorie, high nutrient foods into eating habits. Guidelines for improving eating habits ought to be based on or consistent with national recommendations such as The Food Guide Pyramid. Instructor ought to be a registered dietitian, registered nurse, or have a baccalaureate degree or higher in health education with training in nutrition. If an allied health professional instructs the program, a consultation and review of the program design by a registered dietitian is recommended.

It is recommended that smoking cessation programs subscribe to the Code Of Practice for Tobacco Cessation Programs. Smoking cessation programs ought to be multi-component with a focus on skills to build beneficial voluntary behavior modification practices. Useful techniques include implementing reasons for quitting, understanding the smoking habit, various techniques for stopping and remaining a non-smoker, overcoming the issues of quitting, short-term intention setting, weight control, stress management, effect of exercise, relationship of alcohol consumption to urges to use tobacco. Use no aversive or scare tactics. In programs that use aids such as the “patch” or medications such as “Zyban” appropriate consultation ought to be available on the usage of these aids. The instructor ought to have formal training in smoking cessation from a nationally recognized employer such as American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, or a nationally recognized commercial program such as Smoke Enders. Evaluation of success is at times very dubious in smoking cessation programs. Measurement of success ought to include participation rate, including the number beginning the program, the number completing the program, and the average number per session. Also included, number and percent who stopped smoking at the end of the program, and the number and percent who had not resumed smoking by the end of one year.

Participatory fitness programs ought to include education on benefits of regular exercise and risks of a sedentary lifestyle, its effect on cardiovascular health and diseases, its relationship with weight control and stress management, and aerobic exercise options. Discussion and practice of safe principles of exercise - warm up, cool down, frequency, intensity, duration, flexibility and strength components. The program follows standard procedures by the American College Of Sports Medicine. Safety precautions ought to include the following:

• Informed consent prior to beginning exercise with clear and complete written and verbal standard procedures of possible risk, purpose of exercise, exercise format to be followed, opportunity for questions, and a signed informed consent with date.
• A screening/evaluation of participants to determine if medical evaluation is crucial for exercise such as the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q, see forms).
• Measurements of Blood Pressure (BP) and resting heart rate are useful evaluation information to determine exercise readiness.
• Members who fail screening are medically referred and ought to obtain a written clearance from their physician to exercise.
• The basic content of an aerobic exercise program ought to include:

Warm up 5 - 10 minutes Aerobic exercise 20 - 40 minutes Cool down 5 - 10 minutes Exercise instructors ought to have education and training in exercise physiology, physical education, physical therapy or comparable discipline, or possess a current certification by a nationally recognized sports medicine or exercise association, and be CPR certified.