Worksite Wellness ProgramsWorksite Wellness Programs

Worksite Wellness Programs start and end with individual health. Individuals, after all, are able to make decisions about maintaining and / or improving their health and wellbeing. Employee Worksite Wellness Programs must therefore provide the tools and resources necessary to assist and motivate individuals to actively participate in the program.

Individual health is only one component of establishing worker Worksite Wellness Programs. Below you’ll find some things to assist you in your efforts to develop a healthy atmosphere for you and your coworkers.

Encouraging Your Employer to Begin an Worksite Wellness Program

This is the first step in establishing a Worksite Wellness Program. In recent times more and more businesses are establishing to see the value of promoting and supporting the health of their workers. Partnership for Prevention, a nonprofit organization, has released a sourcebook called “Healthy Workforce 2010″ (http://www.wellnessproposals.com/pdfs/tool_kits/healthy_workforce_2010.pdf). This sourcebook is an excellent resource containing information on:
• Benefits of Worksite Wellness Programs
• Suggestions on where to start
• Tools like surveys and evaluation forms

These resources are for both businesses and workers to guide the development and assess the effectiveness of their new Worksite Wellness Program. Make available it to your employer as a place to start or read it yourself and present your ideas.

Participating in Worksite Wellness Programs

Once you have an worker Worksite Wellness Program established, participating fully in all aspects of the program is important. Many of us know that we need to more actively engage in Worksite Wellness Programs to improve our health, yet have difficulty finding and taking the time to do so. These simple steps can jumpstart your participation in an worker Worksite Wellness Program:
• Examine the offerings that interest you and that you need for health improvement.
• Schedule time to go to the seminar or service.
• Actively following through with recommendations from the program.
• Make a decision now to improve your health. You will feel better today and tomorrow and the next day for actively moving towards wellness.

Here is a list of potential Worksite Wellness Programs that might be available to you at work:
• ergonomic evaluations and ergonomic training classes
• lactation rooms and classes
• prenatal education program
• quiet rooms for relaxation
• stress management programs
• fitnes centers
• onsite corporate massage
• nutritional information
• workplace primary medical care services
• child care facility or resources and referral service
• tobacco cessation programs parenting classes
• elder care resource and referral service
• cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose screening programs
• influenza vaccinations
• weight management programs
• medical care consumerism programs
• employee assistance program
• wellness coaching
• onsite mammography

More information to follow in my next posting about Employee Worksite Wellness Programs