PUTTING YOUR HEALTH TO WORK
- Workplace Wellness Programs can boost employee productivity, reduce absenteeism, and lower overall health care premiums.
- A recent study by the Small Business Majority claims that although many businesses are interested in implementing a workplace health promotion program, many fear that their business is too small to support a comprehensive program, or that the program will cost too much.
- Implementing a community-based Workplace Wellness Program improves the health and productivity of employees by supporting, enhancing, and supplementing Workplace Wellness Programs in your community.
FOLLOW THEIR LEAD!
Live Healthy Cumberland County (LHCC) implemented a Workplace Wellness Program to improve the health and quality of life of local employees. Local businesses partnered with LHCC to establish their own volunteer employees wellness committees, who initially took a survey to assess what types of healthy programs would benefit them. LHCC collaborates with 36 worksites throughout Cumberland County.
ACTION STEPS
Get Involved
- Contact local businesses to survey the needs of their employees and build partnerships.
- Attend local Chamber of Commerce meetings to rally the participation of local industry leaders, and push for the development of a local workplace wellness program.
- Provide local businesses with program ideas and introduce them to health educators like your local supermarket’s dietitian.
- Support local businesses’ Workplace Wellness Programs by being the conduit between businesses and local health providers.
Host a “Lunch and Learn”
- Contact your local dietitian to provide “Lunch and Learn” classes.
- Give your employees an opportunity to learn about the importance of healthy lunches and healthy products offered by your local grocery store.
Set up Employee Health Screenings
- Connect with your local health care providers or public health nurses to provide blood pressure and cardiovascular screenings to businesses in your community.
Begin the Challenge
- Provide weekly workouts and recipes for healthy homemade meals.
- Partner with local yoga instructors to offer yoga classes during lunch breaks.
- Encourage employee walking programs to measure how many steps each participant takes in a normal work day.
- Reward participants with the most steps taken or the healthiest number of homemade meals brought to work.
- Ensure your Workplace Wellness Program is sustainable by offering both low- and no-cost suggestions for programming.
- Work with wellness committees to initiate programming and ensure needed resources are available.
Evaluate Your Progress
- Evaluation allows a workplace to assess the efficacy of a wellness program by determining program outcomes and accomplishments.
- Collect data on:
- Employee participation and satisfaction through attendance and surveys of workplace wellness events.
- Behavior changes through post-program participant surveys to assess program impact.
- To learn more on how to evaluate your Workplace Wellness Program click here.
MORE RESOURCES
Live Healthy Cumberland County
CDC Workplace Health Promotion
Workplace Wellness that Works
American Heart Association Workplace Health Solutions
Small Business Attitudes on Wellness Programs