Wellness Program Incentives

Health screenings are significant programs to identify chronic disease in their early stages. Once identified, wellness intervention programs can help prevent a disease from progressing. Working with local hospitals and other employers, you can obtain information on offering evaluation and intervention programs that could improve your employees’ health and save your company money in absenteeism, treatment for disease complications, and reduced productivity. Below are some ideas to assist you in getting started.

Based on your Employee Needs & Interest Survey and the demographics of your workplace, consider offering periodic screenings to find specific health risks such as:

• Blood Pressure Checks to identify workers with pre-hypertension or hypertension (elevated blood pressure),
• Cholesterol Screenings for total, HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol) and/or Triglycerides
• Blood Sugar Screenings fasting or non-fasting to screen for possible diabetes,
• Body composition, such as body mass index (BMI) or body fat measures
• Bone density for potential risk of osteoporosis,
• Cancer screenings such as, skin examinations, mammograms, or PSA screenings,
• Vision checks for glaucoma, or visual acuity
• Other health screenings depending on your worker population and needs

Your local hospital, organization physician practice, or health department may offer assistance. Nevertheless, if you have staff members you may want to concentrate on programs that will keep them healthy instead of screening for early identification of chronic conditions. The focus of your wellness program might be healthy lifestyle practices to lower risk and prevent disease.

In addition to the wellness screenings, consider offering a Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment to all employees. The Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment will help to identify factors that may lead to additional risks, such as smoking history, stress levels, perception of health, family history, job satisfaction, support systems, and mental health. Often the screening results are included on the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, which provides a more all-inclusive snap shot of health risks. The summary results support the valuable information to plan appropriate interventions.

Workplace Health Promotion Program Interventions

The key to the effectiveness of screenings and Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals is the interventions or follow-up programs. The information from the screenings increases awareness and often motivates workers to consider making healthier changes. It’s the follow up interventions that offer the essential backing and assistance needed for workers to actually make and maintain those changes. The interventions have the potential to include individual follow-up and ongoing counseling, individual or group health coaching on the risk factors, behavior change programs, and/or business backing. Examples include:

• Strategies to decrease Blood Pressure
• Managing diabetes
• Taking care of your heart
• Healthier eating
• Weight loss strategies
• Improving physical exercise
• Smoking Cessation

Naturally, this is for individual information only. Any follow-up interventions planned by the corporation would be based on interest expressed by the employee.

Based on the results and your Workplace Wellness Program Committee objectives you are able to plan the best strategies for your corporation and staff members. Consider the area resources available to offer services, such as health associations, hospitals, medical care providers, and/or public health agencies.