Employee Health Promotion

The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports specifies wellness as “a multidimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of well-being.” Wellness looks beyond the current template of treating disease and focuses on preventive conduct and healthier lifestyles. Employee Health Promotion Programs, also generally referred to as Employee Health Promotion Programs, serve as a complement to existing insurance-based health benefit programs and can take many forms and address a myriad different potential health conditions. They are a powerful strategy to promote positive lifestyle changes that can result in significant cost savings for organizations. Examples of potential elements of a Employee Health Promotion comprise of: Health Risk Assessments / Employee Health Screenings – Health Risk Assessments (aka Health Risk Appraisals), evaluate the most prevalent lifestyle-related risks of an individual. HRAs often comprise of screenings for Blood Pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels and other health indicators. These analyses provide valuable benchmarking measures that ideally will allow employees to prevent or decrease their risk of diseases. Finding Wealth Through Wellness, As noted by Kathryn Krivy, director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Wellness Institute in Chicago, “Medically based Health Risk Assessments are a necessity because in order to affect transformation in your business, you need to know what the problems are, and you just do not know until you get the data.” Physical Activity and Weight Management – One of the most popular Employee Health Promotion Programs is for organizations to provide access to a exercise facility, often on-Site. Other potential measures include offering healthier vending machines and cafeteria options, weight management support groups and fitness challenge programs. Some organizations, like hospital group Baptist Health South Florida, will even pay for employees to go to weight-loss classes such as Weight Watchers. Awareness and Education Programs – Many organizations hold events approaching the benefits of nutrition, safety or physical fitness, among other issues. Other options are to host a health & wellness fair or lead a disease-awareness campaign. Behavior Modification – This covers issues like smoking, wearing seat belts, and alcohol use. While many organizations will provide assistance for employees looking to modify behavior, some organizations, like healthcare benefits administrator Weyco, Inc., mandate transformation, such as stopping smoking, as a condition of employment. Alternative Treatments – Other Employee Health Promotion Programs can comprise of absorbing some or all of the costs for massages, stress-reduction activities like yoga or even herbal medicines.