Having a corporate wellness program in place can boost morale, improve health and fitness and increase productivity in the workplace. Now that you’ve taken the steps necessary to implement a corporate wellness program, how do you get your personnel interested and willing to participate?

By beginning healthy consuming habits, exercise and providing incentives, your workers won’t only sign up for the wellness program, but they will stick with it.

Does your corporation have an onsite gym that staff members have access to? When not, giving free or discounted gym memberships to a local gym can be an effective method for getting staff members to exercise. Regardless of whether the gym is on or off-site however, allowing staff members to use the facility during work hours, like on their lunch break, will increase the likelihood that they will exercise.

Rewarding employees’ achievements is another way to keep them excited and living a healthy lifestyle. Establishing corporation goals like collectively walking a certain number of miles, supports team building. Giving incentives like gift cards, certificates of achievement, and even a day off work can be effective ways to keep participation levels up.

Since there will likely be less sick days being used as a result of illness, your corporation might  be able to afford to provide a day off pass as an incentive. These incentives do not need to be expensive, just valuable to the staff member.

Providing a healthful lunch once a week for employees participating in the corporate health plan, is a excellent way to promote healthful eating. Offering an incentive of healthful, scrumptious, free food is one way to reward employees for their efforts while supporting their new healthful lifestyle.

Having a corporate health promotion program in place will provide long term benefits to both the company and the staff. This is one corporate plan that is definitely worth your time and money!

Do you work in your corporation’s human resources (HR) department? Are you looking for events to plan for your corporation this year? When so, it would be a excellent idea to look into hosting a corporate health fair. Corporate health fairs are valuable to both the corporation and the staff member because they promote general health, awareness and prevention.

What kind of vendors are at a health fair?

There are numerous providers to pick from when bringing a corporate wellness fair to your corporation.  The most well-liked providers include dentists, massage therapists, chiropractors, nutritionists and the American Red Cross. These few well-liked providers are a part of a long list available to attend wellness fairs.

Just how do we choose which vendors to include in the health fair?

While most providers are excellent for all workers, there are some providers available for companies with a specific demographic. for  instance, when your company has a lot of pregnant women or women of child bearing age, it could be a excellent  idea to have a provider especially talking about prenatal care.

When there are a lot of smokers at your business, you could want to have the American Lung Association present. Try to choose providers that meet your employees’ needs. Don’t forget that hosting a corporate health fair is meant to be beneficial to them.

When should we hold a health fair?

Anytime is a excellent time to host a wellness fair. Notwithstanding, you may want to consider not scheduling around holidays or busy seasons so that you can maximize participation. One more excellent option is having the corporate wellness fair on a weekend and making it family friendly. Corporate wellness fairs help keep everybody healthy, therefore increasing work productivity.

Not only does hosting a corporate wellness fair promote health, it also builds friendship between colleagues, improving team building and communication in the office. It’s a win-win for both the business and the employee!

In order for these wellness programs to run properly and produce results they must have a clear operating plan with an attainable and measurable goal.  The wellness programs must also encourage all workforce to lead a healthful way of life while at work and at home.

Health promotion programs have been introduced to companies all over the United States to make workers healthier and in turn happier. Businesses which implement these health promotion programs do so to varying degrees. Some simply offer literature about how to live a healthful lifestyle and reduce stress while at work.

Some corporations offer medical screenings and health risk assessments for free during the year to help employees understand what’s going on with their health and what they are able to do to improve it.

At the top of the list, there are the businesses which offer free, onsite fitness clubs and aerobics programs to be used at lunch breaks or after work. No matter what’s offered it’d be a waste not to take advantage of these wellness programs.

It requires careful planning and thought to implement health promotion programs. Once a health promotion program is put into place it is very crucial that you reassess and analyze it a few times to reach the main goal –  healthier workforce.

All the health promotion programs that are put in place should be assessed after a determined time frame to help the business understand what needs to be changed or kept in place to maintain employee health promotion.

Beginning corporation health promotion programs can easily help create a healthy culture. There should be an incentive program set up to drive interest to wanting to be more health conscious. Making good decisions that affect health now and in the future should be rewarded as individual’s goals are met.

You will find a number of health promotion program ideas that a company health promotion program may help plan for. Some ideas include giving out maps of walking or jogging trails located near the worksite. It’s a good  idea to post a steps gathered map on the worksite wall where all workforce can log their steps or miles.

Be sure to help encourage joggers, walkers, and those who enjoy other forms of exercise to form workout groups to meet before work, at lunch, or after work.

In a company environment, relationship development is also an area where aligning cultural touch points are necessary. Be certain to work culture affects health practices.

Workers will either form personal relationships in a bad way, like smoking in the break room, or they will form relationships doing something more physical like going for a round of golf for relaxation and developing friendships with fellow employees. Be sure to work ought to be done to develop healthful venues to develop expert friendships and relationships.

There are so many good benefits for a company selecting  to make company wellness a priority. Staff Members who participate in wellness programs are more likely to be the best employees.

Peer relationships in the worksite are important to building a healthful way of life culture that lasts.  As an added bonus, overall job satisfaction is better if employees are feeling well and healthful while doing their work.

By establishing a health promotion program, corporations can easily enhance the overall productiveness and can easily cut costs on medical expenses. Very often, corporations have concerns about the specific wellness Return On Investment (ROI) however the truth is that by encouraging healthier life choices, corporations are creating healthier workers who will work more diligently and miss fewer days of work because of disease.

It is imperative that corporations not just supply employee health promotion solutions for their employees, but that they also maintain continuing understanding of safety and wellness techniques. Employers need to keep up to date on health statistics and stay aware about ways to motivate specific wellness issues like cigarette smoking cessation or weight loss.

It is often ideal for a business to consult with doctors who participate in medical CME so that they are up to date with how they can assist their employees in maintaining wellness.

Moreover, when a corporation maintains an on-site health and fitness center, it’s necessary that the corporation employs individuals who have received the proper training and certification, which makes up the health and fitness center management, to assist staff members with exercising safely.

While corporations may establish a robust health promotion program with many alternatives, an incentive health promotion program is often necessary for encourage staff to actually take part in the programs.

Whether one is creating a employee wellness Chicago or a employee wellness small-town Nebraska program, the issue that organizations often have in common, is the lack of motivation of staff members to actually participate. Providing incentives for staff members, such as a free lunch or gift cards, could  be easy enough rewards to encourage staff members to take part in employee wellness.

It isn’t for substance abuse or depression. Actually, it’s financial in nature. Over the last five years, there is been a announced 69 percent jump in staff member employee assistance program use related to personal financial concerns.

The trend isn’t all that surprising in this era of salary freezes, high deductibles and cost-sharing of benefits premiums.

Statistics show that, for the first time since the Excellent Depression, the average American has negative savings – in other words, debt exceeds income – in a average month.

A lot of employees are racking up high credit card debt, make the problem worse.

Troubling trends

Here are some ominous numbers from a recent worker survey

o 27 percent of respondents said they were “one major setback away from financial disaster”

o 22 percent say they were “worse off than last year, with less take-home income and more debt”

o 40 percent say their corporation is “insensitive to their employees’ financial needs,” and

o only 6 percent said they felt comfortable with their current financial situation and ability to manage their debts.

The majority of personal-finance related EAP use arises from concerns over debt management, household refinancing and/or failed investments.

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But should you tackle this issue aggressively or trust your workforce to do the right thing?  Every corporation wants to create an environment where workforce feel trusted by management. But there’s also the need to stay protected legally, and it isn’t always easy to balance the two.

The cell phone issue is especially delicate since most workforce carry them nowadays, and improper use at work is a non-issue for the vast majority. But there are always several bad apples in every bunch.

Growing number of complaints

There has been an explosion of lawsuits – and complaints to senior level management – about personnel taking inappropriate photos at work with their cell phone cameras.

Most cases revolve around embarassing or expliclit photos of peers (sometimes but not always posted on the Internet or e-mailed to others in the office). Nevertheless, a handful of lawsuits have arisen from employees taking photos of confidential documents or other internal information.

As most benefits and HR veterans would tell you, the most valuable benefit an organization could offer its workforce is a worksite where they feel trusted and valued. Contrarily, it only takes one “joke” gone too far to stir up a hornet’s nest of trouble.  And no company is immune from this risk.

Three options

One step every business should take is circulating a memo or having a face-to-face meeting with workforce about the need to restrict camera phone use at work, says labor lawyer William Hannum.

This is the time to answer questions and make clear that the policy is a matter of a legal concern, not a case of Big Brother watching over employees’ shoulders. for added legal protection, you might want to develop a formal camera phone policy to be written staff member handbooks.

Some corporations have gone so far as to take the step of banning camera phone (or personal cell phone) use at work and prohibiting individuals  from posting personal photos or videos from company computers.

Nonetheless, these policies are challenging to enforce and run the risk of alienating the majority of personnel who use the devices responsibly.

As an alternative, a few firms that haven’t banned camera phones have had personnel sign a policy that gives managers permission to review photos or videos on the phone when there is a complaint. When you go down either of these routes, remember

o The policy should be enforced consistently

o your policy must describe specific steps for filing and reviewing  a complaint, and

o The policy should clearly detail the disciplinary steps for violations.

The enforcement aspect is in particular tricky. In cases where the phones are company property, employers obviously have the right to control non-work use – which includes requiring employees to turn over the contents stored on the phone in cases of suspected abuse. Workers have no legal expectation of privacy in such cases.  

Nevertheless, there’s a slippery slope when the phone is an employee’s property.  As a rule of thumb, companys usually have the right to inspect the contents as they pertain to alleged inappropriate behavior within the worksite.

Where it gets tricky is dealing with behavior that takes places on the employee’s private time, but overlaps with the workplace (e.g., workers go out socializing at a bar after work, and potentially embarassing camera phone photos get spread around the workplace). Legal professionals caution employers to tread very carefully in these cases.

Where does your company stand?

Does your corporation have – or is considering a policy on employee camera phones? Do you think such policies are workable or even appropriate?

In my conversations with attendees at the SHRM conference in Chicago, HR and benefits managers appear to be divided on the issue.

The more clinically viable the treatment, the less an worker compensates out of pocket for it.

Example –  Women over 40 and younger employees with a family history of breast cancer pay less for a yearly mammogram than employees for whom the test isn’t as necessary.

Value-based plans often work better than high-deductible plans when used in combination with standard wellness program features like health risk assessments.

Five target areas

As reported by the May 2008 issue of Simply Well, there are four quality-of-care criteria that have emerged as key benchmarks of the quality of care – healthcare management, preventive screenings and treatments, member service and access to care.

Areas of care that are of particular concern

o Employees’ dependents receiving appropriate and timely childhood/adolescent immunizations

o Breast cancer screenings for female health plan enrollees, ages 52 to 64

o Diabetic staff members receiving hemoglobin A1C and LDL-C testing

o Members receiving proper referrals and treatment for mental health issues (e.g., primary care physician refers a patient to a professional to ensure proper prescription and management of an anti-depressant medication)

o Pregnant workers receivig time and appropriate prenatal and postpartum care, and prevention of antibiotic treatment in adults with acute bronchitis.

The quality of care for a lot of of the aforementioned concerns can suffer when employees foot too much of the bill out of their own pockets.

The hope for value-based plans is that workers get some cost relief and obtain treatments that’ll reduce costs in the long run.

Contrary to common belief, the rules – with several key exceptions – apply only to a fraction of the medical information Benefits handles.

As long as the corporation remains legally “hands off” of employee’s private health information, you can dodge most of the HIPAA bullet.

For HIPAA privacy purposes, your corporation is considered “hands off” even when you obtain de-identified personal information, aggregate claims data and routine enrollment info.

Bottom line – If your organization’s health care programs are fully insured and the claims administered through a TPA, the insurance business – not your business – bears the brunt of the health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA) privacy compliance responsibility.

One major exception –  medical cafeteria plans. In the majority of cases, you’ve two compliance choices

o Process reimbursement requests first through your TPA, with the TPA making sure the claim qualifies underneath the terms of the cafeteria plan before your business reimburses it, or

o Create a written cafeteria plan privacy policy, issue a notice to workers, appoint a privacy officer and amend your plan documents.

Rarely affects FMLA

Many people  - including healthcare providers – misunderstand how HIPAA affects medical certifications for FMLA leave.  The key – HIPAA only applies to personal information that filters through your health plan, not certifications obtained from a physician.

Under FMLA, you’re permitted to obtain the minimum information you need to approve and administer leave. In like fashion, HIPAA doesn’t apply to most workers’ comp, return-to-work notices or disability claims.

Even so, it pays to be careful how you ask for and use the information. Other state and federal privacy laws often protect the same kinds of info people  assume falls under HIPAA.

Following procedures

The HIPAA privacy rules are heavy on paperwork and procedure.

But as long as your corporation follows  the info-gathering process spelled out in your medical plan documents, the HIPAA privacy rules ought to present few major obstacles.

Generic versions of high-cholesterol drug Zocor have been on market for two years now, but a fair share of business drug store plans have yet to make the switch.

If your Pharmacy Benefit Manager gives generic Zocor favored status on the formulary, now’s a good  time to remind employees

o most people  on cholesterol-control meds will get the same therapeutic value from generic Zocor as from the label brand and the more potent – and still patented – Lipitor

o  they are able to save $10 to $50 (or more, depending on your drug plan design) on their co-payment by switching, but

o  they ought to ask their doctor first. Individuals  with cholesterol levels over 200 and/or family histories of  ultra-high cholesterol may  be better off staying on Lipitor.

Reason –  It takes four times the amount of a Zocor-type medication  to equal one dose of Lipitor.