Posts from — April 2009

5 Ways to Assess and Improve Your employees’ Health

Emotional health is a state of wellness that comes from understanding and acknowledging our emotions and finding appropriate ways to express them. As employees, we often bring emotional problems from our childhood or current family life into the workplace because we haven’t dealt with them effectively outside of work. This can seriously damage workplace relationships and lead to poor execution and harmful feelings all around.

Many tools and techniques exist for helping us improve our emotional health. Some of the most common are given below, with real-life case histories illustrating their use. If an unpleasant mood or feeling persists over a length of time, don’t hesitate to seek out a qualified professional. Company Health Promotion Programs usually have professional reinforcement already in place as part of their services.

1. Wellness Coaching / Wellness Counseling:
One of the hallmarks of emotional health is the willingness to ask for help when we need it. Confidential professional help, the coaching and counseling provided by employee assistance or wellness programs, can support an external source of strength and insight for “working out” emotionally-based problems rather than “working them in” to your job.

2. Self-help Groups:
Self-help groups are designed to aid people in emotional situations in which they feel alone. The purpose of these groups is twofold: to allow people to safely feel and express their emotions, and to help break their isolation at work and/or in society at large and reintegrate them into society with the support of a peer group.

The classic self-help group is Alcoholics Anonymous, but thanks to technology, it’s possible to make connections with others that have common health challenges, no matter how unique the situation. People are taking advantage of tele-conference groups and social websites, such as sparkpeople.com and revolutionhealth.com. Worksite Wellness Programs often have such groups available through online or phone support. Progressive corporate wellness provider Exan Wellness, for example, offers teleconference cell groups and moderated wellness forums for interacting with others in a supportive, confidential and anonymous environment. People with shared challenges get together and discuss the emotional challenges they are facing at work or in other areas of their lives and work through shift together.

3. Journaling: Journaling is often recommended by counsellors as a way to help identify and process emotions. People record their emotions in writing as they experience them, in whatever form they wish. By helping the writer gain greater emotional clarity, journaling can help in making more emotionally informed decisions. In much the same way, letter writing enables people to identify and process the emotions they feel in relation to others. The letter does not have to be be sent or its contents shared: it simply supplies a place for the expression of feelings.

An 18-year-old “army brat,” Brent has always done well at school, academically and athletically. But in his last year of high school, something seems to have happened to him. He has lost all interest in school, becoming moody and withdrawn.

Brent describes to his guidance counselor all the times he had to move when he was growing up. Each move wrenched him from his friends and forced him to play the role of the “new kid on the block.” The counselor suggests that Brent write letters to the friends he has missed over the years telling them how he felt. Finally, he has a chance to say a proper goodbye.

4. Review Your Emotional Wellness: Businesses that seek to boost employees’ interpersonal skills, or emotional intelligence in the worksite are more efficacious, according to ground-breaking journalist Daniel Goleman. And emotional intelligence is the buzzword in workplaces these days. Some Company Health Promotion Programs have information about emotional intelligence, or emotional health assessments. Seek out more information about emotional intelligence for better corporate wellness.

5. Friendships/Support Systems: Friendships allow people to feel supported in their emotional journeys. At the same time, they give people an opportunity to develop their empathetic skills. These skills are also important for worksite health. When we are empathic with fellow staff members, we help them resolve harmful or unhealthy emotions. New friendships are made through hobbies, classes, clubs, or even through web-based groups. Many people are finding emotional satisfaction by finding friends through Facebook and other social websites.

Occasionally worksite stress that is not dealt with in a healthy manner can be brought home. A 36-year-old mother of three, Sarah, wants to be a great wife, a great mother, and a success at her job. One day, drained after a long day at work, she shouted at her rambunctious children and threatened to hit her youngest son. Her behavior horrified her. To make matters worse, she believes she is a failure at her job as well as at motherhood. She watches with jealousy as younger co-employees advance much more rapidly up the corporate ladder despite having less experience than she has.

On the advice of a counselor, she decides to take time out for herself and take a course for amateur painters. It doesn’t take long before she strikes up a friendship with a single mom in the class. She once led a life very similar to Sarah’s before managing to achieve a better balance between work and family. Her new friend becomes a much-needed sounding board for Sarah and offers her perspectives on her life that she hadn’t considered before.

25% Jump in Employer Interest in Employee Health and Wellness

Worksite wellness for their employees, employers are discovering, is wonderful for the health of their employers as well. Corporate Wellness Programs help to cut the costs associated with poor employee health, which include absenteeism, loss of productivity and poor work quality.

A new Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 United States corporations indicated a significant paradigm shift in how corporations view health benefits for their workers. Of those surveyed this year, 88% are committed to instituting long-term healthcare assistance programs (over the next 3-5 years) for their workers, with the objective of boosting the health and productiveness of their workforce. This represents a 25% rise in interest in Employee Health Promotion Programs over 2007.

A strong offering of Workplace Wellness Programs to meet the demand has resulted. Health assistance providers have broadened their programs with tools that address general lifestyle factors, physical, social and psychological health factors. Programs look to predict chronic disease in their employees and give them the tools and the information to prevent it. Businesses also demand a way to measure the success of their medical care spending.

“Self-care is our motive,” says Vic Lebouthillier, president of progressive health & wellness provider Exan Wellness.”We really believe giving staff members tools to help them manage their own health, and promoting the advantages, while giving people resources to reach out for help is the key to thriving lifestyle change. Corporations are also telling us they need a cost-effective way to deliver Employee Wellness Programs. The sort of program we have developed over years delivers the highest medical return on investment.”

Combining worksite wellness promotions, web-based assessments and health trackers, web-based health information, phone conferences and self-help groups, and access to a wide variety of health professionals, is behind the success of the Exan program. “Having web-based statistics about workers’ health also makes it easier to track the bottom line – ROI” says Vic Lebouthillier.

“Corporations are moving beyond their traditional role as a provider of healthcare benefits to advance holistic programs that pinpoint the specific health needs of their employee populations, drive employee behavior change and eliminate barriers to healthcare,” says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.

Nevertheless, in a separate survey of 30,000 workers, 74 percent said that, even though they felt their employer had an obligation to help them understand how to use their health benefits program, only 12 percent felt the employer had any right to tell them how to be healthy. Based on these results, businesses need to drive home the fact that improved health is better for their workers as well as the employer. It’s a win-win situation.

Employers and staff members did learn common ground when it came to future healthcare. Both surveys indicate that 95 percent of staff members know that their taking care of their health today will effect future health care payments. A similar percentage also know the important of early detection and prevention when it comes to saving on health care costs.

Cost is important for most companies as well. Over 80 percent of those surveyed made cost mitigation a priority for 2008, but those cuts did not involve shifting responsibility for health care onto workers. Although 64 percent of companies have shifted costs to their workers, only 17 percent aim  to do so in the next 3-5 years. Similarly with health reimbursement accounts, 20 percent now offer these, but only about 5 percent aim  to use them in 2008.

These survey results indicate corporations are getting more proactive in helping their workers to change behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is obviously great for the well-being of workers, but also for the well-being of the corporations they work for. Almost half the corporations surveyed were convinced that changing health behaviors was key to greater productivity and lower absentee rates. Over 60 percent aim  to institute programs that help workers shift and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle. Almost of these corporations will also use data and measurements to be sure their health care strategies meet their health care objectives?

It is clear to almost all American citizens (especially those of us in business) that health care expenditures are skyrocketing out of control. No one doubts that either the market will solve the issue OR the government will impose one on us. Managed care has failed from either a cost containment or quality of care perspective. Employers have reached the point where the expense of providing healthcare insurance is almost as burdensome as government regulation. It’s time for some new thinking on health care and its impact on business and vice versa. “Corporate wellness” as an operational perspective rather than merely window dressing is one way to deal effectively with rising health care expenditures.

The Insurance Issue

The first step in solving the problem is to realize that an employee’s health is their own responsibility. Expecting businesses to offer unlimited healthcare insurance coverage is simply unrealistic and unreasonable. It’s time for businesses (on a broad scale) to reconsider their role in providing healthcare insurance coverage. Instead of providing complete coverage for all workers through group plans, businesses ought to start to modify the burden of health coverage to those covered.

Here’s the approach. Offer catastrophic health care insurance as a group benefit to all workers with a sizable enough deductible (say $5000 per employee) to make the cost affordable for the organization. Then, allow workers to buy their own health care insurance policies (based on their own needs) and pay for them through payroll deduction with pre-tax earnings. There are numerous insurance businesses that sell individual plans on this basis. Everybody wins. Employees can tailor their coverage to their own needs and circumstances using their own doctors. Corporations win by stopping the endless cycle of rising expenditures and ever-changing plans. And when individuals become responsible for the cost of their own insurance, they become more attentive to their own health. Besides, if an employee is interested in working for you ONLY because your organization offers great insurance benefits aren’t they telling you they’re going to cost you more money in the future?

Design a “Wellness Culture”

Our current “sickness culture” perpetuates the healthcare crisis and hastens the demise of market-based solutions. By sickness culture, I mean our focus on health problems rather than on having a healthy worksite and performance culture.

So, what would a “wellness culture” look like? First, rather than paid sick days, workers might be rewarded at year’s end with an attendance bonus. Workers would be reimbursed for thriving completion of tobacco cessation and weight-loss programs. Organizations would invest in corporate memberships at local health clubs so every employee can participate. Workers would be available in-house wellness programs on a variety of concerns ranging from ergonomics to stress management. Finally, employers would commit to hiring and retaining healthy workers. Simply put, healthy workers cost less and are more productive than unhealthy ones. Applicants should be screened for health habits and practices that limit their productiveness and improve the likelihood of future expense. While this may seem harsh, it rewards those workers whose personal lifestyle and habits ensure the best Return on Investment by the company committing to hire, train and pay them.

Be open to “alternative and complementary” approaches

Studies published in primary healthcare journals reveal that individuals who use “alternative and complementary” health modalities (including chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga and massage) are generally healthier, better educated, take fewer medications and miss fewer days from work than the average American. Since these individuals look for ways to stay healthy without prescriptions and surgery, they end up being a net benefit in terms of attendance and productiveness. Old prejudices in this area must be discarded in order for businesses to improve productiveness and boost profitability

Conclusion

Medical Care costs are rising at a staggering pace. Managed care is an abysmal failure. Employers are buckling under the pressure of offering health coverage to their staff members. American competitiveness in the market is sagging. These times call for extraordinary solutions. It’s time for American employers to consider some out-of-the-box solutions to the medical care crisis. Corporation wellness is an approach that is timely, achievable and reasonable given the alternatives. All options must be considered while we still have a chance.

Research spanning more than a decade has consistently demonstrated Company Health Promotion Programs to be monetarily effective and that every dollar invested on a corporate wellness program can return $2.30 and $10.10 by reducing absenteeism, sick day usage and by lowering insurance costs. Additionally it is noted that there are marked improvements in employee success and productiveness in employers that implement a Company Health Promotion Program.

Healthy organizations enjoy improved employee morale and an improved ability to attract and retain key people. Additionally, staff members are more alert and constructive. For instance, Coca Cola reports that they save an estimated $500 a year per employee once they implemented a exercise program in which 60% of their staff members take part. Coors Brewing Employer reported that staff members who participated in their Employee Health Promotion Programs reduced their absentee rate by 18%.

employees enjoy their share of advantages from Employee Wellness Programs too. A healthy lifestyle impacts every part of a person’s life, including their work environment. Employee Wellness Programs result in fewer injuries, less human error and a work environment that is more harmonious and relaxed. Additionally, employees who work at a company that implements a Employee Wellness Program know that their company is concerned about their wellness and health. Staff Members frequently report a reduction in their stress levels due to Employee Wellness Programs.

As workers feel better, more relaxed, more valued and more human to their corporation; they enjoy a growth in work rate. This increase in work rate, while constructive to the corporation, is also essential to the employee as it increases their own sense of self worth and confidence levels. Staff Members who feel successful and who feel that they accomplish goals/objectives are central happier and in a better frame of mind.

The benefits of Workplace Health Promotion Programs, both tangible and intangible, are evident. It is a wise move for a employer to start a Workplace Health Promotion Program, particularly when they incorporate some form of mental health aspect into it. This also has social benefits as domestic violence and child abuse is demonstrated to be lowered in areas where wellness programs are implemented. These days, a employer can almost not afford to have some sort of wellness program to offer to their workers.

Some of the top wellness programs currently in use today include:

Health Risk Assessments or HRAs

Health Risk Assessment is a top corporate wellness program currently in use globally. Employers that start it determine the safety and health problems of employees by the assessment of appropriateness of the facilities and equipment against the needs of the employees.

It can, for example, guide the employer into determining how the air quality within an office room affects the users and then help the assessment group to come up with the measures necessary to correct the concern. An HRA can also evaluate the level of exposure staff members have to certain hazardous or dangerous materials and practices.

Immunizations

This isn’t always practiced in every country since there are regions where government sponsored immunization shots are available. Nonetheless, it has also become an significant component of the top Workplace Health Promotion Programs in many companies in North America.

Immunization shots, such as those used to combat flu, for example, are offered to employees for free.

Employee Assistance Program(EAP)

EAPs consist of a wide variety of services. It can range from providing educational resources to staff members regarding health issues to sponsoring health services and healthcare. In many businesses, medical and insurance have also become a staple part of their benefits system.

In-house diet drives

This is another wellness program that employers use, particularly those that offer in-house commissary or cafeteria services. Instead of serving richer, high-calorie fare, cafeterias offer options for a healthier diet, usually in the form of low-calorie foods and sugar substitutes.

In-house employee wellness newsletter and campaign drives

One of the top wellness programs that businesses can implement is a self-powered tool using a newsletter to encourage wellness, coupled with a visible campaign. The campaign may be done periodically and focus on a specific topic, such as smoking hazards, cancer, stress, carpal tunnel syndrome, safety in the worksite, etc.

The employee wellness newsletter in itself can be an effective means to deliver information to employees or members of a organization but it is far from perfect. Some employees, for example, may not read the newsletter entirely or even pay attention to it. If the concerns outlined in the newsletter are promoted through an active and highly visible campaign, it will be easier to maximize positive results.

Exercise and physical activity drives

Another top wellness program for businesses is one that involves physical activities. Companies often sponsor exercise-related programs such as marathons and business sports programs to advocate workers to remain fit or lose excess weight. In mid- to large-sized businesses, businesses may even pay for health club memberships or in-house exercise facilities.

Incentives and Rewards

Some of the top wellness programs implemented by employers involve Incentives/Rewards. This involves organization-sponsored programs that reward workers for achieving specific wellness-related goals and objectives. Participation in health campaigns and signing up for wellness programs are two of the most frequently rewarded schemes. Rewards can range from special recognitions to over time acquired points (for bigger rewards) to specific gifts. In a few cases, cash may also be used.

Nonetheless, incentive systems have had mixed reactions and levels of success. But it continues to be one of the top choices among employers who are willing to modify it in order to fit their unique needs.

Peer Pressure

In countless companies, companies take advantage of peer pressure in order to promote staff members to participate in wellness programs. This is currently one of the favorite Workplace Wellness Programs currently in use today and growing in popularity. Peer pressure is often leveraged to help reward competitions referring to worksite wellness and to persuade staff members to be active in corporation-sponsored health and wellbeing fairs.

Wellness is a great concept. It brings happiness into health and encourages a truly holistic approach to life. Wikipedia defines wellness as a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an central feeling of wellness. It sounds like exactly what every one is looking for. But when you start to talk about corporate wellness, or workplace wellness, all life goes out of the concept. Total solutions, disease management and health screening do not inspire visions of enjoying life and living it to the full. They start from the assumption that sickness is here to stay and needs to be discovered, managed and controlled but can never be healed.

The wellness industry is growing phenomenally fast. Wellness guru, Paul Zane Pilzer, has labeled it the next trillion dollar industry. But wellness has two different faces. On the one hand there are the small companies – people working from home or in small centers selling all kinds of wellness products and services at a speed of growth that is escalating rapidly. On the other hand corporate wellness is also exploding but in a very different direction.

The baby boomers who are driving the popular wellness revolution have been described as the first generation to refuse to accept the inevitability of death. They are actively looking for ways to prevent aging, stay healthy into old age and enjoy themselves more than ever before after retirement. This is a radical departure from current notions of old age, which are frequently dominated by pictures of sickness, frailty and suffering.

The employers have been largely forced to take on wellness. This is partly through legislative pressure, with a myriad of countries introducing laws to make employers liable for stress-related sickness in their staff members. It is also financially motivated, as research has repeatedly shown the enormous costs of absenteeism (and increasingly of presenteeism as well).

Whereas the baby boomers are actively looking for new solutions and new lifestyles the organizations are struggling to organize largely traditional and mainstream health systems, such as doctors, nurses, insurance and screening systems. The issue is that the traditional health system does not have solutions for the problems that people are handling.

Nobody ever went to see a doctor to get happy, because a doctor doesn’t have any clue how to make people happy. And a myriad of stress-related health issues are described as chronic diseases, which means that they last for a very long time – or perhaps for the rest of your life – because there is no medical cure. Counseling is a common offering in businesses for emotional issues, but whilst it may offer a useful pressure valve it is not a powerful treatment for stress, unhappiness or depression.

Imagine walking into a company where the staff members are happy, healthy, full of inspiration, fit, love working, have meaningful family lives, active social lives, and enjoyable relationships at work and in their neighborhood. That kind of company would be a pleasure to work in and bound to be successful because people would be working to their optimum capacity.

So can we create a system of true wellness that will serve the development of the corporations and their employees and will pay for itself because of the advantages that both sides will gain?

First of all we have to face the fact that we can’t place all the responsibility into the hands of the current health system. Rates of Absenteeism, stress, depression, the very roots of the wellness revolution, have not been solved by the current system. If they had been we wouldn’t have this revolution, we would all be much more well. So we need to look elsewhere for solutions.

We also can’t rely on makeshift feel-great wellness offerings, such as the onsite massage team which visits the office once a month or the wellness day that raises awareness for a modest amount of while but leaves most people unaffected. They are simple to organize but have little or no real effect on employee wellness.

Organization needs are different than individual needs and many of the new small wellness companies that are springing up simply don’t have the capacity to serve the corporate market. Still it is in the best interest of both companies and workers to discover and develop systems of health and wellness that really work – that benefit people to be happy, handle stress, love working, and to have sufficient energy to go home at the end of the day and enjoy their family and social life. So far the corporate world has hijacked the concept of wellness and turned it into a modern version of occupational health. It is time to raise the vision and learn how to make truly healthy, happy workplaces where people thrive.

High rates of employee turnover and the costs of sick days are increasingly taking bites into organization profits. The high cost of recruitment programs only adds to the challenges that these problems in total cost the average organization. Many organizations are finding the solution to these challenges by increasing job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of programs that give a decrease in these costs.

It has become increasingly clear to most managers that a well designed wellness program / physical activity program with a strong nutritional and fitness lifestyle emphasis will directly meet this need. Upper Management’s goals and objectives for a advantageous wellness program must be viewed through the perspective of increased employee work rate, diminished absenteeism due to health related causes, improved employee morale, diminished utilisation of business subsidised health benefits, enhanced group cohesion and effectiveness and a decline in turnover due to lack of job satisfaction. It is obvious that an improvement in any of these areas will have a positive effect on the financial status of any organisation.

The benefits from an staff members point of view can be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, decreased body fat, a more youthful fit body, an increased ability to handle job related stress, greater feelings of confidence and morale and more social connections at work contributing to greater feelings of satisfaction with their work and workplace.

To be most advantageous a wellness program needs to achieve both upper management’s and employee’s goals, and this can be accomplished through a program that will provide the individual employee with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and wellness, and the benefits of attaining a fitter, healthier lifestyle, and a plan that will allow them to achieve the crucial changes to their physical condition that can be applied in the context of their life and work.

The Bottom Line – Worksite Wellness Programs

Reduced Absenteeism – Dupont reduced absenteeism by 47.5 percent over six years for the participants of their company fitness program, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).

Diminished Medical Care Expenditures – Steel case showed a reduction in health care claim expenditures of 55% for corporate fitness program participants over non-participants over a six year period – an average of $478.61 for participants vs. non-participants who averaged $868.88, (The Am. Journal of Health Promotion, Sept/Oct, 1991).

Reduced Turnover – Turnover among exercise program participants at the Canadian Life Assurance Business was 32.4% lower over a seven year period compared with non-participants (Canadian Journal of Public Health, Jan/Feb, 1988).

Positive Return on Investment – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Indiana saw that its company fitness program had a 250 percent return on investment; $2.51 for every $1 invested over a five year period (American Journal of Health Promotion, March, April, 1991).

The Partnership for Prevention was formed to advocate Fortune 1000 corporations to consider making workforce health a CEO concern and adopt strategies to promote prevention and wellness. Following several years of double-digit rate increases for health care insurance, corporations are realizing that one of the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have employees take more responsibility for both expenditures and health choices. A majority of corporations surveyed feel that the best way for lowering expenditures is monetary rewards and incentives to advocate employees to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Nearly 100% of companies surveyed say that health costs will be a critical or significant concern over the next five years, according to a survey by United Benefit Advisors. More companies are adopting higher deductible health plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, wellness programs, and expanded disease management programs in order to control ever-growing health care costs.

Failure to deal with these issues might be disastrous for a business. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we have built a health care machinery we can’t afford. I think we are choking the economic engine of America.” In his October 2005 newsletter, Dr. Andrew Weil stated, “I think rising health- care costs are becoming the major economic concern in our nation”. Obesity costs California businesses billions of dollars each year. Projected costs for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect health care costs, worker’s compensation, and lost productiveness. California has experienced one of the fastest growing rates of obesity of any state.

According to California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe, “The obesity epidemic is more than a public health crisis, it is an economic crisis.” What is frightening is that most people do not even realize that they are obese, which is defined as only 20 percent above normal weight. There is a great need for additional education on weight and resulting diseases, and the worksite is an ideal venue. Wellness education and programs can result in a valuable return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce results in a very short period of time.

Although countless organizations have attempted some form of wellness program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing. In many cases, the healthier staff members participated for rewards and incentives, such as gym memberships, but those who required it most did not take advantage of the program in a meaningful way. Companies are looking at ways to advocate more staff members to buy into the wellness movement.

A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource Executive Magazine and presented by Carlson Marketing Group titled, “Healthier workers; Healthier Bottom Line: Engaging workers is the Missing Link in Managing Healthcare Costs,” drove this point home. This session offered actionable advice on how employers are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on employee program engagement. It also highlighted how you can create an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential influence for your company.

Employers can no longer disregard the issue of their employee’s unhealthy lifestyles and must take action to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to decrease health expenditures, absenteeism and lost productivity. employees also profit as they derive better health and greater satisfaction in both their personal and professional lives. The alternative is being caught in a non-competitive position and severely impacting the bottom-line of the organization.

A listing of potential wellness issues and ideas not previously mentioned follows. Take some time to “think tank and brainstorm” new ideas with your own internal employee Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee.

Nutrition Category
• Low-fat campaign/food groups
• Team salad bars
• Vending machine changes
• Diet analysis by a nutritionist
• Produce on parade
• Eating disorder support group
• Restaurant education

Physical Activity/Exercise Category
• “Elevoiders” – stair climbing
• Poker walk
• Mall walking program
• Facilities – showers, bike lockers, exercise space, etc.
• Team treks
• Walk-a-block trails
• Recreational tournaments
• How-to-find equipment talks
• Running maps
• Biking maps
• Deskercises (mini stretches for desk jockeys)
• Fit-over-forty club
• Tennis shoe Tuesday
• Walk 100 miles in 100 days
• Walking “buddies”
• NW Trek!

Miscellaneous Category
• House calls
• Meet your benefits providers
• Dental health
• Fire safety
• Ergonomic assessments
• Self-help learning
• CPR/first aid course
• Hearing test
• Hand washing campaign
• Cancer screenings
• Back class
• Passports to health
• Vision screenings

Stress Management Category
• Comedy hour
• Stress Pest
• Humor newsletter
• Money management courses
• Time management seminars
• Relaxation class
• Better sleep campaign
• Relaxation room

Other departments within a employer will likely focus on related areas of employee safety and injury prevention. Wellness activities are a natural partner to many other human resource, employee motivation, and safety programs. Body mechanics, ergonomics, and safe on the job practices are three areas which may be coordinated together.
• Soft Tissue Sprains & Strains: This injury category continues to remain the number one financial loss for workers’ compensation. Many health care insurance dollars are also invested on back pain, other sprains, and strains. Wellness and safety efforts can focus on:
• Warm up stretches before beginning work or periodic stretching during work. These can do much to prevent soft tissue injury. Offer training to work groups so they may start a stretching program. These groups can then continue on their own.
• The Company Wellness Program Committee might consider contracting a fitness professional to come in and conduct stretching “refreshers” for employee groups throughout the year.
• Offer body mechanics training on an yearly basis or more frequently if possible. These training sessions ought to focus on work related tasks and safety, as well as feature a segment on home tasks and body safety.
• Partner with your employer’s workers’ compensation carrier to assist  in offering body mechanics training, job safety analysis, and other preventative services which can help staff members work safer, smarter, and avert injury.
• Start a safety problems suggestion box. Urge workers to report safety and/or injury problems. Help management to establish policy to recognize and reward workers who offer safety suggestions, offer tips, and solution ideas.
• A periodic presentation featuring a local medical provider approaching such topics as safe body mechanics, recovering from a back injury, appropriate spine care, etc.
• Partner with senior staff and supervisor teams to recognize and reward work groups who are successful with safety and injury prevention.
• The ergonomics of an employees’ workstation/work place design is important and applicable to every group.
• Provide ergonomic training opportunities to interested employees volunteers. These people can then help  other employees to assess their work areas for safety, comfort, and injury prevention.
• It is often more effective to have an observer evaluate staff members for helpful and friendly comfort recommendations rather than it is for individuals to assess themselves.
• One suggestion is to have workers remind one another about correct posture, to take breaks, to stop and do quick mini stretches, etc.
• Take before and after photos of work areas as changes are made. This will help to corroborate how small adjustment changes can frequently make large comfort changes.
• Partner with the employer’s workers’ compensation carrier to help cultivate ergonomic policies and practices and to provide employee training.