Corporate Wellness ConsultantsCorporate Wellness Consultants and Corporate Wellness Programs

When it comes to working wellness into your workforce, you want someone who knows the ins and outs of health promotion, and who can counsel workers and provide primary care – all within the context of the current regulatory and legal environment.

AAOHN’s survey reported that more than half of workers (61%) want to receive health and wellness information from a medical professional, such as a consultant or an worksite occupational health nurse (OHN), compared to pamphlets or brochures (18%) or human resources staff (15%).

OHNs can develop, implement and evaluate components of work site Corporate Wellness Programs such as testing programs, exercise/fitness courses, Stress management, tobacco use cessation, nutrition and weight control programs, as well as chronic illness management programs. Plus, OHNs can help workers navigate through complicated health plans and may even serve as a triage point between workers and their personal medical providers.

Employees might refrain from seeing their medical provider when it means time away from work, inconvenient parking, waiting time in the office and co-pays. In situations where workers are under treatment for chronic diseases like heart disease, worksite nurses can routinely monitor risk factors such as blood pressure or cholesterol on a regular basis.

It’s often easier for an employee to ask an worksite nurse for information about symptoms or prescription medication than it is to schedule a follow-up visit to a personal medical provider. Benefits realized by employers include enhanced employee morale and retention, a recruitment advantage, increased productivity and decreased time away from work.

In companies with a safety department, the OHN can evaluate and address work-related health issues, including participation in workstation evaluations to correct potential ergonomic problems, and proactively addressing muscle strains by developing stretching programs and involving workers in leading stretches.

Good for waistlines & your bottom line

By Sandra Simpson, APRN, BC, COHN-S, manager in Occupational Health Services at a Fortune 500 business in Memphis, Tenn., and a member of the board of directors of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN). For a copy of the AAOHN wellness survey, visit www.aaohn.org, or call (800) 241-8014, x0.

In today’s hectic world, most of us are spending more time at work, and have increasingly less time to look after our health. For a long time, employers have understood the benefits associated with keeping workers well – increased productivity from decreased rates of absence and lowered disability claims. For these reasons, coupled with the fact that many companies realized double-digit medical costs last year, companies should consider Corporate Wellness Programs as a way to keep workers healthy.

But just how important are these programs to workers? How often are they willing to take part in programs designed to positively impact their health and wellness? Who do workers trust to provide them with important information about their health?

Answers to these questions and more were recently garnered from a study commissioned by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Inc. (AAOHN).

The AAOHN survey questioned 500 workers nationwide about their perceptions of Corporate Wellness Programs. More than three-quarters of all members indicated these programs are a good way to improve their overall health, and nearly 60% consider these offerings an incentive to remain with their current employer. employee retention and turnover impact the bottom line, so building Corporate Wellness Programs into the work site culture is a valuable way to help retain talented workers in addition to enhancing personal health and workplace productivity.

Health wish list

Employees appear to have their own agenda when it comes to their health. With new pressures resulting from an unstable economy, national security threats and work/balance issues, it’s not surprising that 85% of survey respondents cited Stress management as a priority topic for work site wellness.

In addition to stress, other preferred topic areas include testing programs (84%), exercise/physical fitness programs (84%), health insurance education (81%) and disease management seminars (80%).

In addition to lifestyle and personal health issues, those asked expressed concern about work-related health issues, including strains and injuries resulting from lifting or task-oriented muscle repetition, exposure to harmful substances, personal injury, vision changes due to computer work and workplace violence.

What you should do

With such a broad range of health concerns, a key goal for employers is finding a way to proactively address the health needs of the largest number of workers, and effectively change unhealthy behaviors, promote wellness and ward off disease and illness.

Printed materials such as brochures, posters, fliers or pamphlets present an easy solution. But it’s important to remember that different individuals require different formats for learning. A good rule of thumb: provide information in a variety of learning formats such as videos, pamphlets, health-related quizzes, display boards, lunch-and-learn presentations and reimbursement or incentive programs.

This assumes you’ve overcome the first hurdle – getting individuals to sign on to a Corporate Wellness Program. While survey respondents indicated health and Corporate Wellness Programs are important, just six out of 10 (60%) reported that they participated in the Corporate Wellness Programs at their companies. The other 40% cited lack of interest and lack of time as deterrents.

This points to the need for a broad-based, structured Corporate Wellness Program using a creative approach, with an incentive for participation and effective program marketing.

By investing in an organized Corporate Wellness Program headed by a qualified medical professional such as an worksite nurse, companies can give workers the access to the health information they want, and increase participation and generate interest at the same time.

The result: workers become savvier medical consumers who feel more in charge of their personal health. And healthier workers make for a healthier bottom line.

Wellness Challenges Are Popping Up Everywhere

Wellness Challenges are definitely hot right now and they are encouraging more and more people to get healthy and live better. Whether it is a city or a school or a social group or even a whole state, competitive spirits are being ignited by the challenge to be the healthiest team. The Wellness Challenges are usually about a six months to a year in length and they are made up of several teams, these teams all get points for physical activity, selecting healthy foods, and just making better life and health choices overall.

The best part about Wellness Challenges is even though there really is only way “real” winner; everyone that participates in the challenge is a life winner.

Wellness Challenges provides incentive to Get Healthy

Establishing a Wellness Challenges in your office is a great way to get workers to participate in your established Corporate Wellness Program. Have workers form teams and receive points for everything from attending a corporate Wellness Fair to getting a health risk assessment to starting an exercise regimen. At the end of the year, the teams will win prizes based on the number of points they have accumulated.

Wellness Challenges Enhance Corporate Health

Not only will Wellness Challenges improve the health of your workers, it will improve the overall health of the corporation by providing benefits such as reduced injuries, reduced frequency of worker’s comp, reduced health care costs, better worker attendance, and better corporate morale.

Like we said earlier, everyone is a winner in a Wellness Challenges!