Wellness programs are a proactive approach to reducing health risks among your employees, ultimately reducing health care costs. An investment in a wellness program is an investment in your greatest asset – your employees.
Wellness programs offer attractive benefits to employees, but they also add value to the employer as well. Some ofthe reasons employees are motivated to participate in wellness programs include:
Desire to achieve better overall health.
Reduce personal health care costs.
Increase longevity of life.
The benefits an employer can expect to see while maintaining a wellness program for employees include:
Improved energy and productivity among employees.
Employees will be motivated to work harder and perform better.
Decrease in absenteeism due to illness.
Improved employee moral.
Decrease in health care costs as employees reduce unhealthy behaviors and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Gain control of illnesses, conditions, and unhealthy behaviors before they become more serious.
How to start
A brief health interest survey will provide insight about specific programs that interest your employees.
By conducting this survey, you can learn which programs your employees will embrace.
An HRA (health risk assessment) is a scientifically based tool that provides baseline data to map out a participant’s health risk and readiness to change behaviors. The HRA also monitors risk over time and charts the participant’s progress as they take part in many helpful health education activities.
Promote Employee Health Screenings This step provides employees with important information to assess and better understand their own personal health status. When it comes to prevention, it’s important that
employees understand their “numbers,” such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI (body mass index).
Sponsor an Annual Physical Activity Campaign. Get your employees up and moving. Sponsor an annual physical
activity campaign.
Establish an In-House Employee Wellness Lending Library.
Consider Offering On-Site Lunch & Learn Programs.
Thanks Health New England for providing some of this information.
