DIY Corporate Wellness Programmes: 5 Things to Consider

If you’re wondering whether or not a corporate wellness programme might benefit your company, make sure you know what you’re doing! According to Joshua Love, the president of national corporate wellness company Kinema Fitness, ‘As the president of a corporate wellness company, Kinema Fitness, I have noticed a recent trend in the way companies are approaching employee-based wellness programmes. Namely, companies are taking employee wellness more seriously now. They are truly trying to figure out the right solution to combat rising health issues and healthcare costs. Unfortunately, too many companies are trying to implement wellness programmes with little to no experience or game plan for success. As a result, more programs fail than succeed.’

 

But where are these companies going wrong? Love notes, ‘Corporate wellness cannot be treated as a band-aid, and you definitely won’t be able to find it in a fitness app. Engagement, motivation, support and strategy are the keys to a successful programme. If employees are not involved in the solution, it’s difficult to succeed. Preventable wellness is a complete lifestyle and behaviour change and change takes time and commitment.’ So here are a few things to bear in mind when you’re designing a wellness programme for your company:

 

1. A Higher Level of Awareness is Essential: People ‘are becoming more and more health conscious,’ admits Love. ‘But due to higher stress, longer work days and constant multitasking, it is more difficult to find the time to act on wellness goals. Creating an on-site wellness programme is important because the majority of an employee’s time is spent at the workplace.’

 

2. Many Chronic Diseases are Preventable: Love points out, ‘According to the CDC, chronic diseases account for 75% of total healthcare costs. They are also the most preventable type of disease. Such illnesses include heart disease, stroke, cancer and obesity. The only way to prevent disease is with actionable steps to halt progression. When old habits are years in the making, you cannot expect behaviour change to happen overnight. However, when a person is able to commit mentally, emotionally and socially and on a conscious level, progress is possible. An employee wellness programme needs to address this through consistent education and layers of accountability.’

 

3. Be creative: ‘Corporate wellness shouldn’t be boring,’ Love asserts. ‘Creating unique and dynamic programmes that consistently evolve over time ensure the best possibility of long-term success. Human beings need to be challenged and stimulated in different ways and different means to create change. Challenge your programme to stay on the latest trends; it will help to appoint a wellness lead that takes direct responsibility over the operations.’

 

4. Combat Rising Healthcare Costs: ‘Healthcare costs are rising year after year,’ notes Love. ‘Employers, especially those at small companies, can simply not afford to take on this burden any longer. As a result, they are passing the costs on to their employees through higher deductibles. But healthier employees can actually help their own bottom line.  Some employers are now lowering employee’s contributions with rebates if they do participate in a wellness programme.’

 

5. Corporate Wellness is Complex and Long-Term: Love argues, ‘The success of corporate wellness is driven by the unique strategy behind it. It involves a framework that outlines short and long-term goals for the employee and the employer. Corporate wellness needs support, leadership, commitment from the vendor, employer and employees. A successful programme takes time and constantly evolves so it can be integrated into the fabric of the company’s culture. Corporate wellness is not just one solution. It is the culmination of many solutions that work together under one strategy. It involves layers of physical activity, education, communication, incentives, and a long-term commitment.’

Categories: Awareness, behaviour change, Chronic Disease, Chronic Diseases, corporate wellness, corporate wellness programme, Employee Wellness, healthcare costs, Long term, takes time

Corporate Wellness Programmes: What Works, & What Doesn’t?

There are many people who are for corporate wellness programmes, or the promotion of workplace health. According to a recent article in the American Journal of Health Promotion by Michael O’Donnell, comprehensive programmes are extremely beneficial to employees’ wellbeing, providing education, engagement strategies, skill building as well as social and environmental support. However, Wolf Kirsten, the Founder and President of International Health Consulting and President of the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion (IAWHP), argues, ‘While these elements no doubt play a role in the success of programmes; a distinctive blueprint does not yet exist, and most programmes in place are not able to produce the desired outcomes. Therefore, more focus should be given to the “how” of workplace health promotion.’

 

Kirsten details, ‘The rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a global phenomenon…63% of all deaths worldwide currently stem from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), approximately 500 million people are obese and more than one in seven are overweight. Coupled with the global ageing trend, the need for enhanced prevention and health promotion has become a priority. The workplace has been established as one of the priority settings for health promotion in the 21st century, including by the World Health Organization (WHO). The majority of adults spend most of their waking hours at the workplace, often as a captive audience, and thus the workplace provides a huge opportunity to inform and help workers to improve their health.’

 

Thanks to the increased awareness of the workplace as a viable setting for wellness practises, there are more corporate wellness programmes than ever before. The results of the Global Survey on Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies have shown that, since 2007, there has been a steady increase with regards to employers recognising their role in employee health and wellbeing. But why should you, as an employer, implement a corporate wellness programme in your workplace? Promoting workplace health not only improves the morale of your workforce, the 2012 Global Survey shows that it also makes your employees more productive, and reduces absenteeism.

 

Kirsten notes, ‘The issue of workforce morale and work engagement coupled with rising work-related mental illness has become a major challenge for enterprises worldwide and many programmes are addressing this gap. Employees feel constantly overstressed, pressured, worried about their job security and often display a lack of motivation thus affecting productivity and customer service. Other big drivers for employers are corporate image as well as recruitment and retention. The main health issues driving health promotion and wellness strategies are strikingly similar across the globe: stress (a key contributing factor to mental illness), physical activity, nutrition, work-life issues and chronic disease.’

 

So what works for corporate wellness programmes, and what doesn’t? Kirsten points out, ‘A notable global initiative is the Global Healthy Workplace Awards programme, which has set the ambitious goal to gather and disseminate better practices globally for the creation of healthy workplaces based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Healthy Workplace framework. The WHO model provides guidance for a comprehensive and systematic approach on a global scale.’ The four main areas of influence WHO identifies are physical work environment, psychosocial work environment, personal health resources and enterprise-community involvement.

 

Kirsten adds, ‘The Healthy Workplace model also follows a continual improvement process, such as highlighting the need for evaluation, and places leadership engagement and worker involvement as central priorities. Perhaps most importantly, the very centre of the model exemplifies that promoting health at the workplace is both the right thing (ethical) and the smart thing (adds value) to do…Based on the existing evidence in the US, and elsewhere, it is much more likely for a corporate wellness programme to work if it follows the eight-step process outlined in the WHO model.’

Categories: Chronic Disease, corporate wellness programme, World Health Organisation

Choose the Right Foods to Guard against Chronic Diseases

According to a recent survey, roughly six in 10 people eat out four or more times a week. Though it may be convenient, eating out can have a detrimental affect on your wellbeing, as this 60% tend to have a higher intake of fat and calories than those who eat out less. Singapore has tried to combat this nutrition wellness problem, by implementing the Health Promotion Board’s (HPB) Healthier Hawker Programme.

According to Mr Ang Hak Seng, chief executive officer at HPB, the aim of the programme is to boost the presence of healthy, tasty and affordable food choices through the hawker centres, by having hawkers use healthier ingredients as the default, without patrons having to ask. He says ‘The impetus for the Healthier Hawker Programme was to improve the accessibility of healthier food. It is important to complement public education about healthier eating, with sufficient opportunities to purchase healthy food that is tasty and affordable.’

He added, ‘Professional chefs were contracted to work with hawkers to experiment and provide advice on how to prepare dishes with the healthier ingredients,’ which are available at Yuhua, Eunos Crescent, Haig Road and Geylang Serai as well as three coffee shops in Bukit Batok East, Marsiling and Hong Kah North. But what are these healthy ingredients replacing?

On average, the daily intake of saturate fats in Singapore is 60% over the recommended amount. Ang commented, ‘Too much saturated fat, a bad fat, has the effect of raising blood cholesterol levels and thus increases risk of heart disease,’ adding that participating hawker stalls are using healthier cooking oils which are at least 25% lower in saturated fat than oils used before. These oils also contain more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which are responsible for improving heart health. They do this by reducing blood clotting in your arteries and lowering your blood cholesterol level.

It has also emerged that one in 10 Singapore residents are classified as obese, and these rates are on the rise. This is a worldwide epidemic, and certainly evident here in the UK, and so even without Singapore’s new hawker programme, something needs to be done. Obesity increases your risk of diabetes, heart diseases and several other health conditions, but you can reduce this risk with a diet rich in whole grains. So, if you are dining out, go for plain white rice or brown rice, which is higher in fibre, B vitamins and minerals.

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Choose the Right Foods to Guard against Chronic Diseases

Categories: Chronic Disease, diet, fats