Employee Health Promotion

Health screenings are valuable programs to identify chronic conditions in their early stages. Once identified, wellness intervention programs can help prevent a disease from progressing. Working with local hospitals and other organizations, you can get information on providing assessment and intervention programs that might better your employees’ health and save your business money in absenteeism, treatment for disease complications, and reduced productivity. Below are some ideas to assist you in getting started. Based upon 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 employees 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 wellness screenings depending on your worker population and needs

Your local hospital, business physician practice, or health department may offer assistance. However, if you have employees 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 decrease 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 assessment results are included on the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, which provides a more inclusive snap shot of health risks. The summary results offer the valuable information to plan appropriate interventions.

Employee Health Promotion Interventions

The key to the performance of screenings and Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments is the interventions or follow-up programs. The data collected during the screenings increases awareness and often motivates employees to consider making healthier changes. It’s the follow up interventions that offer the important backing and assistance necessitated for employees 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 modification programs, and/or business backing. Examples include:

• Strategies to lower Blood Pressure
• Managing diabetes
• Taking care of your heart
• Healthy eating
• Weight loss plans
• Improving physical exercise
• Smoking Cessation

Of course, this is for individual information only. Any follow-up interventions planned by the business would be based on interest expressed by the employee. Based on the outcome and your Employee Health Promotion Committee goals/objectives you have the potential to plan the best strategies for your business and employees. Consider the area resources available to offer services, such as health associations, hospitals, healthcare providers, and/or public health agencies.