How to Choose a Wellness Program

How does one go about choosing a wellness program? What do wellness programs do?

Wellness programs offer a systematized process for reducing health care costs, keeping employees healthier and happier, and increasing retention. Wellness programs create a supportive, preventive and health oriented environment for employees to work in. Programs are often comprised of five components:

• Communication
• Assessment
• Education
• Incentives
• Evaluation

Communication involves distributing information to employees via e mails, fliers, newsletters, posters, brochures, etc. so that employees are fully aware of what is available to them. Assessment involves screening employees to assess their general health and stress levels. Education involves seminars, exercise classes and health challenges; venues for discussion on various topics to aid in the prevention of health problems and/or disease. Examples include:

• promotion of a smoke free workplace
• an exercise and fitness program for general health
• training and education seminars concerning proper nutrition, weight management and stress reduction techniques

Incentives encourage employees to utilize the program. Evaluation is a measured approach to recognize programs that are working.

Wellness Corporate Solutions specializes in administering wellness programs for corporations and businesses. At Wellness Corporate Solutions we maintain an online presence through our newsletters, blogs and press releases. If you are in search of a wellness program, contact us at info@wellnesscorporatesolutions.com Wellness Corporate Solutions works nationwide and we are experts in helping companies customize programs to fit their employees needs and corporate culture. Check us out at: www.wellnesscorporatesolutions.com

The Walkstation Shows ROI Within First Year!

A few blogs ago I introduced the Walkstation (created by research from Dr. James A. Levine of the Mayo Clinic) as the answer to bring healthy habits to sedentary workers. The Walkstation is a combination of a height adjustable, fully electronic integrated desk with a low speed commercial grade treadmill attached to it. As a professional in the wellness industry who has been working on work site wellness programs for many years, I believe this machine is the answer to change the health of sedentary employees. Now, there is data to back up my own personal conclusion. Using the Health Risk Factor Survey, a standard way to measure percent of productivity increase when health factors are eliminated, Dr. Dee Edington, from the American Journal of Health Promotion
http://www.healthpromotionjournal.com/ calculated that if a Walkstation is purchased for the price of $4400 and four people use it enough to drop 2 health risks factors, the unit could potentially return the initial investment within one year by reducing current health risk factors and avoiding new ones. The grand total saved for one Walkstation in one year could potentially be $4408! In addition, there are dollars gained by an increase in productivity for those employees who drop health risks.

If the Walkstation was used in combination with an incentive program (points earned toward rewards for participating) there is no doubt that the ROI could possibly much higher.

An employer, HR director, CEO, COO or anyone with sedentary employees needs to take action now! Contact Juliet@wellnesscorporatesolutions.com
for more information or visit http://shopmd.arbee.net user ID: JRODMAN and password: WALKSTATION for more details on model choices and details.

North Carolina Wellness Programs Funded By Pharmeceutical Company

In 2008, an interesting partnership for a pilot wellness program has been initiated in North Carolina by the North Carolina State Health Plan http://statehealthplan.state.nc.us , the North Carolina Department of Transportation http://www.ncdot.org/, the North Carolina Prevention Partners http://www.ncpreventionpartners.org/, and Astra Seneneca Pharmaceutical, LP. http://www.astrazeneca.com/ncm.aspx

The pilot worksite wellness program being implemented at NCDOT is being paid for by a $1.5 million dollar charitable donation from Astra Seneca, LP. The goal of the partnership will be to use funds to improve employee health and reduce costs that are attributed to mostly preventable disease. The State Health Plan reports 70% of medical and pharmacy claims costs are attributed to mostly preventable chronic disease related to poor nutrition, obesity, lack of physical activity and tobacco use. It is intriguing that a pharmaceutical company would be willing to donate such a significant amount of money to implement wellness programs when most of their money is made from selling drugs that support chronic illnesses. Michael Draine, the National Sales Director at AstraZeneca was quoted as saying "We have a global responsibility to support health and healthy behaviors worldwide. Making a contribution to North Carolina Prevention Partners to fund the work site wellness project at the NCDOT helps us meet that responsibility. We are pleased to contribute to a program that will help State Health Plan members manage their health more effectively.” It will be interesting to see if this pilot program is more or less successful than other programs already implemented.

Also in 2008, North Carolina implemented a NC HealthSmart Work site Wellness Program Statewide http://www.shpnc.org/worksite-wellness.html. This program provides universities and agencies with a Toolkit of guidelines and ready-to-use materials to organize a work site wellness committees and implement work site wellness programs. The Toolkit is comprised of five workbooks which include:

• starting or enhancing an effective wellness committee
• Healthy eating
• Physical Activity
• Tobacco cessation
• Stress Management

In addition to the Health Smart Program, North Carolina previously created a non-profit, statewide organization called, NC Prevention Partners. Started in 1998, this organization is also dedicated to building effective prevention and health systems in NC communities to improve health of all North Carolinians. This organization has many initiatives including:

• Healthy Hospital Initiative
• Preventive Health Benefits
• Rx Quit for Life
• Quit Now NC
• Healthy Dining Zone

It is certainly clear that North Carolina is making the effort to improve the health of it's population. The web sites above may provide a great deal of information and creative ideas for your employee population. Contact info@wellnesscorporatesolutions.com for more information on how you can initiate wellness in the workplace.