Beginning an Employee Health Promotion Program

The worksite setting is a powerful, but frequently overlooked, component in managing worker health. Here we will identify some of the best-practices in creating an Employee Health Promotion Program that supports your organization´s employee health strategy and allows workers to take charge of their own health. For example, an Employee Health Promotion Program that includes a smoke-free worksite policy improves the likelihood that workers will try to quit tobacco use and will quit smoking successfully.

Similarly, an Employee Health Promotion Program that includes discounting healthy foods in your cafeteria and vending machines helps raise workers´ consumption of healthy foods which supports your investment in disease management programs for workers with diabetes, heart disease or hypertension. The following will guide you through the ten key steps in creating an Employee Health Promotion Program and worksite setting that promotes worker health.

In an era of increasing healthcare costs and fierce competition, businesses have a vested interest in the health of their workers. Research has found that, on average, workers with healthy behaviors (such as not smoking or being active for 30 minutes a day) incur lower healthcare expenses, are absent from work less frequently, and are more productive when at work (higher presenteeism) than workers with unhealthy behaviors.

Employee Health Promotion Program: Securing Upper Management Support

Employee Health Promotion Program support from the highest level of upper management is vital to your success in creating a culture of wellness within your worksite. Look for Employee Health Promotion Program support from a leader who is respected by and can influence other leaders. (It´s not important that he or she be the fittest executive within your organization just that they directly support the Employee Health Promotion Program.)

You will be relying on this culture-of-health champion to advocate for changes that you recommend and to ensure the organization allocates adequate Employee Health Promotion Program resources (staff, time, and money) to maintain and improve the worksite policies, physical setting, and social norms.

Secure Employee Health Promotion Program Staff and Budget

The creation and maintenance of an Employee Health Promotion Program within your organization needs to be someone´s priority. However, unless your organization is quite large, you likely don´t need to hire a full-time staff person for the Employee Health Promotion Program. There are a number of ways to find an individual with the needed skills to guide and support your organization's Employee Health Promotion Program.

Beginning facilities and Employee Health Promotion Program policies, such as those allowing workers to be physically active during the workday, does not need to be expensive, but it does require adequate and sustained funding. If possible, include the creation of a worksite setting that supports the Employee Health Promotion Program as a permanent component of the operating budget; that helps to ensure it´s an ongoing priority for your organization.

Employee Involvement in the Employee Health Promotion Program

Pulling together a representative group of workers to advise your organization´s Employee Health Promotion Program ensures that improvements in worksite facilities, policies and practices address the true needs and barriers of all groups of workers. In addition, these workers can support as the front-line Employee Health Promotion Program supporters of policies and practices with their peers.

Develop an Employee Health Promotion Program "Brand" and Vision

an Employee Health Promotion Program vision and a brand are powerful first steps in turning an Employee Health Promotion Program from an idea to a reality. What would you like your worksite environment to look like five years from now? A succinct Employee Health Promotion Program vision statement summarizes for all (workers and leaders alike) the reasons for creating an Employee Health Promotion Program. It also reminds everyone of the link between worker health and your organization´s ability to achieve its overall mission.

Branding your organization's Employee Health Promotion Program conveys to workers that the organization´s commitment and support of healthy behaviors is important and is here to stay. Select an Employee Health Promotion Program name and logo that resonate with workers. Then use that brand on all Employee Health Promotion Program communications with workers about the policies, facilities and programs your organization offers to promote healthy behaviors.

Assess Your Present Employee Health Promotion Program Situation

Exactly how your organization creates an Employee Health Promotion Program that promotes healthy eating, physical activity, and reduces tobacco use will depend on the unique characteristics of your organization and employee population.

Assess how the current worksite facilities, policies, and unwritten norms support -- or discourage -- healthy behaviors.

Gather information on the health and health-related behaviors of your employee population. The most common method is by using a validated health risk assessment. If you don´t have data specific to your workers, you can estimate the prevalence of different health risks and behaviors within your employee population using state or national data. Note: Information on workers´ health interests alone is not sufficient; but can be a useful supplement to health risk data and might help you set priorities.

Set Employee Health Promotion Program Goals and Priorities

Use what you´ve learned about employee health and about your current worksite setting to determine your organization´s Employee Health Promotion Program priorities. From those Employee Health Promotion Program priorities, define clear and measurable Employee Health Promotion Program goals for improving employee health and your organization´s culture. Well written goals will provide the basis for planning and for measuring your progress.

Select Employee Health Promotion Program Procedures

Focus your organization´s Employee Health Promotion Program resources (time, energy and money) on procedures that are most likely to produce results: an increase in healthy eating, an increase in physical activity, and a reduction in tobacco use. There´s no need to guess at what might work. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reviewed thousands of studies and has identified the Employee Health Promotion Program approaches most likely to result in significant, lasting, and widespread improvements in health behaviors. Those Employee Health Promotion Program procedures are included in the physical activity, tobacco, and healthy eating sections of this website.

The formula for Employee Health Promotion Program success is to make the healthier choices the easier choices.

Implement Employee Health Promotion Program Procedures

Once you´ve chosen your Employee Health Promotion Program Procedures, it can be useful to arrange the work on a time line. The "right" amount of time for implementing each Employee Health Promotion Program strategy depends on the staff time, budget, and business demands of your organization. Work plans maintain your efforts moving and help to ensure that plans to establish an Employee Health Promotion Program stay on track even if there are changes in staffing or other challenges.

Educate and Communicate About the Employee Health Promotion Program

Ensure workers are aware of the Employee Health Promotion Program opportunities you´ve provided. Planning your Employee Health Promotion Program communications allows you to communicate regularly with workers without overwhelming them at any one time.

Monitor and Report Your Employee Health Promotion Program Results

At the same time that you plan your Employee Health Promotion Program Procedures, think about how you´ll measure success. It´s much easier to gather information – or to establish systems for collecting information -- before you implement an Employee Health Promotion Program strategy rather than as an afterthought. Keep in mind that you´re likely to see improvements in worker morale and/or behaviors before you see decreases in absenteeism or healthcare claims.

Report both your Employee Health Promotion Program successes in building a healthy worksite environment (such as complete implementation of a policy that provides workers time for walking during the workday), and Employee Health Promotion Program successes in getting workers to take charge of their health (an increase in the number of workers who contacted the stop-smoking program, or an increase in the number of fruit-cups purchased from the cafeteria following a promotion and price-cut).

Additional information and resources about beginning an employee health promotion program can be found at websites like www.WellnessProposals.com and www.InfiniteWellnessSolutions.com.