Wellness Program Incentives

Can a small business support workplace wellness? Absolutely! In fact, in some ways it is easier to create a healthy workplace in a small business than in a big business.

Limited resources, especially in small employers, can keep a corporation from setting up a Worksite Health Promotion Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of budget resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level reinforcement;
• minimal knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• concern about making wellness available to all staff members.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small employer owners may have an incorrect idea of what is involved in having a Company Wellness Program. Some employers aren’t convinced that a program would really work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  Perhaps they don’t be aware of that it doesn’t need to be costly and that they don’t need special employee. They may not be aware that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Accomplished

Many small companies have found ways to have a Worksite Health Promotion Program that works for them. They keep the cost and effort to a minimum and still have results that are positive for everyone. In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthy workplaces frequently have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a positive culture, individuals feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a beneficial workplace culture than for a sizable workplace. Many staff members prefer to work for a small employer, he says, because it supplies more opportunities to work closely with others and cultivate a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most efficacious organizations with fewer than 100 employees have:

• excellent employee benefits;
• policies that promote a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• excellent leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible company policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal well-being ahead of the personal gain of Senior Management.

All or most of these elements are also elements of an effective Workplace Health Promotion Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are various ways to include health and wellness in a small company. You do not necessarily need a wellness professional or a fancy fitness center. What you do need is reinforcement from upper management and a Worksite Wellness Program Committee of a few committed people. Here are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter in hard copy or internet based. Or send out a brief message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Use promotions that are ready-designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthy Eating

• Encourage employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing contest.
• Provide pedometers for workers and count their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or community fitness center and offer physical activity classes.
• Bring in a local fitness instructor to teach classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenditures can be shared with employees.
• Install safe bicycle parking.
• Serve healthy alternatives at corporation meetings and lunches.

Policy and Employer Plans

• Hire an ergonomics expert to evaluate workstations.
• Develop policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).
• Provide a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Provide financial rewards and incentives to be healthy.
• Give wellness incentives and rewards as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an corporation health audit.
• Become a partner with the community (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Establish a Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee.

Small businesses may not have an abundance of time, money, or human resources available for a Employee Health Promotion Program. But they often have a huge advantage over sizable companies-a beneficial workplace culture. That is a good foundation for a Employee Health Promotion Program. When employees are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more beneficial, and tend to be healthier.  With a little creativity and passion, small businesses can cultivate successful Employee Health Promotion Programs. Obtain reinforcement from senior staff, form a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to establish healthy workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury prevention for employees.

More recently, programs are designed to help  workers to choose healthier behaviors like increasing physical activity levels or stopping smoking. Campaigns to spread awareness, educational sessions to expand knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for workers to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach individuals, since most adult Canadians spend a big part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are two aspects that contribute to the health of employees, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace impacts health.

Increasingly, it is agreed upon that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When people are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is detrimental, they feel stressed. Stress has a sizable impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified 5 components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the employer overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that organizations must truly care about the well-being of their workers.

Employers today who want to attract and keep good employees have leaders who understand the association between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a employer plan.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving employees in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance life at home and work.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that compensate well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include good health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more important than ever for corporations to enhance job satisfaction and be sure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.

How does workplace wellness advance the employer?

A workplace wellness plan can help a organization to:

• attract and keep staff members;
• cut the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;
• cut the effects of a stressful workplace;
• reduce health costs or keep them contained; and
• improve morale by planning a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Company Wellness Programs Benefit workers?

staff members of companies that have a Workplace Wellness Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to improve their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellbeing;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productiveness and effectiveness at work;
• reduced personal health care expenditures; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for organizing a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in great health, and the employer is expected to provide an environment that allows employees to maintain great health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about creating a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of employees, establishing a beneficial work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A great Employee Health Promotion Program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.

Ideally, you will cultivate an overall plan for a Employee Wellness Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. For example, you are able to start by getting the following elements in place:

• reinforcement from senior staff
• a Corporate Wellness Program Committee or group
• information about the wellness needs and interests of staff members
• a budget
• program objectives
• an evaluation plan

Even if you have few financial and/or human resources(HR), you can still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you could focus on only one specific concern. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning can help you overcome limitations.

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

Whether you choose to begin with a single program or advance something larger, planning is important. First think about the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Identify an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the employees and company?
• Promote. How can you most effectively spread the word to staff members? What opportunities exist for promotion? Consider everything, since staff members have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, staff members get information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow staff members.
• Deliver. Who is the best person or group to put the program into action? Ask other organizations about approaches they have used. Decide on your budget before making a decision.
• Evaluate. What ought to you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when organizing your initiative:

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

The Elements of a Corporate Health Promotion Program

Programs to promote wellness in the workplace do not need to be restricted to one area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting beneficial personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure (BP) clinics, brochures on heart disease, “lunch and learn” courses on eating habits and short-term physical activity programs.

These activities are important, but workplace wellness ought to also be part of organization’s business plan and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently identified 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 offering the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for employees to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to assist workers join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairwells that invite employees 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, are able to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Employers ought to consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that support safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• Employee Assistance Program(EAP)s

To foster 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. Seeing to it that individuals enjoy being at work is not an simple task, but making the right changes can have a huge effect.

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 nutrition labels.
• Stop smoking clinics or subsidies to help workers quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the concerns raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthy snacks offered at meetings and conferences.

Personal Worksite Health Promotion Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your workplace, 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 numerous ways to bring exercise into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Hold 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 do not take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Set up your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Develop and prioritize to make sure that the most valuable things get done first.

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

Talk to other wellness practitioners to find out what works well for them. Listen to your co-employees to determine their needs and interests. And do not forget to promote, promote, promote.

Many companies recognize the need for a comprehensive strategy to help their staff members be the best they have the potential to be. They also know that successful and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program must include a wide range of key components, 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 overriding vision.
• A measurable plan (what’s important gets measured!).
• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Creating Your Employee Wellness Program

Plan carefully to ensure that your wellness program is seen as part of a sweeping commitment to maintaining the health and safety of each employee. Indeed, creating a strong plan takes much work and time (and sometimes resources). But planning is essential and well worth the expenditure necessitated. As the addage goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might start by conducting a survey of employee needs and interests. If you do this, pay attention to the results and plan accordingly. If you do not, the staff members will not support the program.

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

Another significant step is to set an agenda and/or measurable objectives to help you determine priorities, timelines and the resources necessitated to launch the program. Be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Senior Leadership

The leader of your wellness program must be able to wear many hats. The leader’s duties include:

• Creating a vision of the wellness program after receiving input from all interested workers.
• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the corporation (to senior managers and fellow staff members alike).
• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.
• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.
• Creating 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 goals and objectives at the beginning so that you get immediate and visible results. These first steps are the basis for a efficacious wellness program.

Good leaders involve as many people as possible in the program. By way of example, you’ll want to form a Company Wellness Program Committee made up of a diverse group of employees to provide advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Assist you to obtain significant information from all parts of the company.
• 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. Assessment allows you to:

• Determine areas of excellence.
• Determine factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Grasp management’s backing for your efforts (and maintain that backing).
• Better understand concerns that need attention.
• Learn from mistakes and change the program to keep it on the right track.

When you evaluate your program, you can measure such things as:

• Employee absences.
• Employee turnover rates.
• The expense of your Employee Assistance Program.
• The expense of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The expense 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 supports 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 meeting goals.

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

If you focus on the key elements of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while planning and delivering it, you will create a solid foundation and leave a legacy that endures.

How does physical activity fit into a full-time employee’s busy schedule? Many 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 advantageous for staff members. But employers also profit from having fit, energetic and healthy staff members who are more advantageous.

The challenges

Your job takes up a lot of your time. In addition to the hours you invest actually on the job, 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 hard.

Many jobs today are sedentary, and countless 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.

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

Upper Management plays a key role in creating a culture that promotes health. The leaders at your workplace impact 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 benefits of a healthy active workplace. The best way to ensure the success of a organization 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 help 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 workout 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 do not need an onsite health club

Only very sizable employers 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 staff members who wish to become more active.

By way of example:

• Arrange for discounted fees for employees at a gym, 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.)
• Provide 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 employees aware of safe and pleasant walking routes near the workplace, as well as nearby locations that offer fitness programs (such as walking, swimming, running, yoga, stretching).
• Find a certified instructor to instruct employee about health, fitness and how to become more active.

Any size and type of workplace is able to promote employees who wish to be physically active. It’s highly desirable to get upper management on side. Even if your boss isn’t supportive, you can still learn ways to get moving more. Set up activities for groups and individuals, and bolster your co-employees to join in.

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

The good news is that even short sessions of physical exercise help your health. Research has established that ten-minute sessions that add up to between 30 and 60 minutes a day can produce significant health benefits.

Also, there are numerous ways busy people can 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 people. Being familiar with the different strategies is key to adopting and maintaining an active lifestyle.

Read on to check out strategies you can try. With proper commitment, 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 a whole 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 rest of the way.

Active transportation benefits your body by increasing your exercise level, and it also benefits your neighborhood and the environment by lowering the number of cars on the road.

You have the potential to also get physical exercise while doing chores.

When you’re working around the house, 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 are able 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 instead of a snow blower.

Strategy #2: Be Active at Work

Many Americans spend eight hours a day or more working at a sedentary job. Here are a few simple ways to keep your body moving during the workday. The physical exercise will revitalize you and help you be more productive.

When you’re working at your desk, try sitting on a stability 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 may discover 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 instead of the elevator whenever you can. The stairs in your building are an opportunity to get your heart pumping.

Create walking gatherings at work. Getting outside and having gatherings in a less formal setting is a great way to be active, makes work more fun and encourages creative ideas for work projects.

Strategy #3: Be Active With Your Loved Ones

Do physical activity with your family, friends, neighbours and pets. With this plan, you and your loved ones are doing some great multi-tasking together: enjoying quality time with each other and getting some of the physical activity 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 area facilities offer classes that keep you and your kids active at the same time. Research these classes and take one or two.

You have the potential to even be active when you’re watching your kids 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: Schedule Physical Activity into Your Day

Plan 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 important as any other appointment you put in your daytimer.

To help you stay committed to your physical exercise appointments, you might want to make appointments that involve other people: 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 ought to be doing during your appointments, try consulting with a personal trainer. A personal trainer is able to help you cultivate a physical exercise plan and schedule.

The bottom line: see what works best for you. Experiment with the strategies. Find inspiration by talking to others about how they remain active and what strategies they employ. Be creative and patient while you learn 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 activity in policy statements and commit funding to physical activity initiatives.
• Clearly communicating the benefits of being physically active during the workday reinforces the company’s commitment to assisting all employees be active. Use meetings, bulletin boards, newsletters and e-mail to reach as many employees as possible at least once a year.
• Provide flex time for physical exercise. Invite staff members who actively commute to work or exercise at lunchtime to make up any missed time later in the day.
• Consider allowing staff members to work part time, so that they can take part in physical activity.
• Include a physical activity account in your benefit plan to pay for or subsidize fitness memberships, assessments, classes, counselling or instruction.
• Provide interest-free loans for workers to buy bicycles or great 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 people to lead stretch breaks or physical exercise programs or classes. For help in finding accredited fitness leaders, visit Alberta’s Provincial Fitness Unit.
• Recognize staff members who participate in physical exercise. Survey staff members first to determine how they prefer to be recognized, e.g., through company 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 meetings over lunch.
• Promote active breaks instead of coffee breaks.
• Have active fundraisers instead of bingos. By way of example, workers 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 might include a session with a yoga instructor or an evening ski trip.
• Encourage a casual dress day. One study reported that workers who dress casually were more physically active.

• Make sure that your building’s stairwells are clean, attractive and safe, and post signs encouraging staff members to use the stairs.
• Establish a wellness newsletter or intranet.
• Promote the Activity Tracker and encourage workers to track their physical activity every week.
• Be creative, and make the most of the workspace you have. For example, mark off a safe walking path inside or around the building. You might also set up a training circuit, highlighting features of the worksite such as stairs.
• Offer physical activity opportunities at different times to accommodate night-, shift-, and part-time employees.
• For workers in remote or satellite offices, offer equal access to key drives via the intranet. Adapt challenges to suit their environment and take advantage of local facilities and resources.
• Make physical activity available to workers with special needs. Adapt information and activities for any employee who are visually impaired or physically disabled as well as for people who speak English as a second language.
• Educate workers about physical exercise using information from reputable sources such as the Alberta Centre for Active Living.
• Provide facilities that invite onsite physical exercise. Possibilities include bike racks, physical activity room, change rooms with lockers and showers, and safe and attractive grounds for walking.
• Hold walking gatherings.
• Promote workers to walk to co-workers’ offices rather than e-mailing or phoning.
• Set up a stretching room. This low-cost program requires only a room, stretching mats, stability balls and medicine balls. Put up posters that show stretches and exercises.
• Offer 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 staff members are able to discover how many steps they usually take and how much exercise they need to add to get basic health benefits.
• Set aside space for employees to plant and maintain a flowerbed or garden at the workplace. Use any resulting produce for meetings and potluck lunches or donate it to charity.
• Develop a workplace wellbeing and health fair.
• Hire a qualified fitness specialist to design and manage an onsite fitness facility.
• Supply staff members with active wear that displays the organization logo.

• Develop a launch event to establish 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 business activities that are fun and active, e.g., picnics with physical games, employee tournaments and dragon boat racing. Urge families to join in by including all-ages activities such as relay races, soccer matches, bocce ball and baseball games.
• Begin 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.
• Post a sign-up board where employee can join a group or find a buddy to take part in activities of interest.
• Create a organization badminton tournament that lasts several months, with each employee playing once a week. Post the results as the tournament progresses.
• Organize an office Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon or Masters Games. Invite teams to compete in several activities over a month. Reward everyone who participates.
• Organize a point system in which one minute of exercise equals one point. Set a target, and post a chart where all workers can track their points. Reward the first group to reach that target.
• Organize a stair climb challenge. Display a chart at the top of the stairwell, and bolster 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.
• Develop a walk “across America” Choose a route, figure out how many steps it would take to walk that distance and challenge employees to do it. Give or loan pedometers to employees, 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 employees and managers to see who is able to walk across America first.
• Establish 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.
• Organize 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.
• Challenge employees to walk 10,000 steps a day. Buy pedometers for all participating employees or, if you can’t afford that, make pedometers available at a reduced rate. Provide tips for increasing daily steps, and reward employees who succeed.

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

Corporate Wellness Program: A Range of Approaches

Although the objective is to eventually have a long-term, all-inclusive wellness program, some employers prefer to begin 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 find out how interested workers are to ensure workers needs are being met before taking on anything more ambitious. This approach provides a chance to show the effect on workers and the workplace so management will be more willing to consider a larger and more far-reaching strategy.

Other employers plan a variety of pushes to meet the needs of the different sorts of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to develop a sound company case, complete with a health strategy, before beginning any type of program. Employers want to make sure that a new program is completely integrated with their overall company vision and mission.

Corporate Wellness Program: Success Factors

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

• backing and participation from upper management;
• employee participation in creating;
• programs that meet employee needs;
• a realistic budget; and
• continuous review.

In sports, a game plan is a series of steps that a team must follow to accomplish its goal of winning. Most winning teams plan to win. Businesses also need game plans, even if they don’t call them by that name.

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

Steps in Developing a Workplace Wellness Program

Obtain management support. 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 productiveness. staff members need to see evidence that management believes in and is committed to employee health.

Establish a planning committee. Members are able to include representatives from employee groups as well as from human resources, health and safety, and communications.

Gather information. To prove that your Worksite Wellness Program is constructive, establish a benchmark before the program begins. You may wish to look at employee satisfaction, absenteeism rates, stress levels, prescription expenditures or WCB costs. Assess what workplace facilities are available to support staff members to make healthy choices such as showers and change areas or a secure place to store a bicycle. Assess employee needs through a survey or questionnaire, suggestion box or focus group. Communicate the results.

Design the plan to reflect the information gathered. Include program objectives, activities and how you are going 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.

Obtain senior staff approval. Support for employee time and a budget are required.

Put activities in place. Offer a variety of activities that foster awareness, expand knowledge, advance skills, and support social interaction. (Activities could include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Company Health Promotion Programs Week, SummerActive, WinterActive, corporate challenge, golf days, and newsletters that support information about community resources.) Workplaces can also make it easier for staff members to make healthy choices by offering flextime to allow staff members to fit activity in when it is convenient or by subsidizing programs in cooperation with community or private fitness facilities. A policy on catering for gatherings is able to be sure that healthy foods are provided.

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 investment. Just do it. Get reinforcement from upper management, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.