Good Corporate Wellness Starts with Personal Health and Wellness

Personal health and wellness might be the fatal flaw in your corporate wellness plan. Is personal health and wellness part of your strategy? Does corporate wellness stop when your employees leave the office?

Give Your Employees Personal Health and Wellness Continuity

If employees don’t have the tools to pursue wellness on a personal level, then it becomes easy for them to “fall off the wagon” and slide back into a less healthy lifestyle. If you have a walking wellness program, for example, it should encourage employees to build walking routes near their homes, perhaps with the cooperation of the neighborhood association or coworkers who live in the neighborhood.

Personal Health and Wellness Means Never Being “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”

Your corporate wellness program coordinators should have “vacation wellness” as part of their job scope. In other words, you don’t want corporate wellness to stop at the boundaries of the corporate campus. Instead, integrate personal health and wellness with your employee wellness programs.

For example, what if Human Resources were to give out a personal health and wellness wallet card whenever someone goes on vacation or sabbatical? With some card stock and a small laminator, these cards could be easily customized to remind the employee of the employee wellness programs that he or she is currently participating in, making it easier for them to continue with their health and wellness on a personal level when away from the familiar environs of the office.

This benefits your corporate wellness programs in two ways:

• it reduces the chance that the employee will come back to the office feeling unfit, overwhelmed and unable to resume their health and wellness activities; and
• it shows that their employer is just as invested in their personal health and wellness as they are

Like a marathon, personal health and wellness is a long-haul commitment and it’s difficult for any one person to do in isolation. Simply put, it’s easier to maintain your health and wellness when you know others are depending on you and watching your personal performance. It’s easier to stick to an exercise program when you have a jogging partner who wakes you up when you oversleep, or spots you when you’re lifting weights.

Similarly, it’s easier to stick to your personal health and wellness plan when you know your employer is supporting you and wishing you the best.

Don’t Dictate Personal Health and Wellness

Just as corporate wellness surveys serve a vital function in building a health and wellness plan at work, it’s critical that you involve employees in designing an off-site personal health and wellness strategy. No one enjoys being dictated to, but everyone enjoys having assistance in tacking tough problems. Make it clear that employees are in charge of their personal wellness. Your role as their health management partner is to support, advise, counsel, provide resources and dole out information.

Of course, don’t forget that part of your personal health and wellness responsibility is to provide good health risk assessment baselines so employees can proceed safely on the road to better fitness. For that purpose, and for any health and wellness questions you may have, think of EmployeeWellnessUSA as your health management partner. Don’t hesitate to call our health and wellness experts about how we can help with onsite health screenings or simply for obligation-free advice.

The Wellness Councils of America Have an Employee Wellness Test for Your Community

Employee wellness program administrators, get ready. The Wellness Councils of America have thrown down the gauntlet.

No, they’re not inviting you to some bare-knuckle confrontation in the parking garage. That would be counter to the principles of the twenty-one-year-old Omaha, NE, non-profit, which is dedicated to encouraging healthier lifestyles, focusing primarily on better employee wellness through the workplace. WELCOA, as it’s more succinctly known, is an organization of like-minded individuals, corporations and Wellness Councils in the United States that defends the health of the American worker.

The corporate wellness challenge? To see if your organization can help catalyze and catapult your community to prestigious “Well City” status.

Are You Fit for “Well City”?

According to WELCOA, Well Cities are those cities that take health management seriously at every level, from the individual citizens to the small non-profits to the largest employers.

In Well Cities, a significant portion of the community has taken a committed approach to employee wellness. Employers are drawing lines in the sand, agreeing to help employees eat healthy, get exercise and de-stress.

Employee Wellness Is a Win-Win Proposition for Employees and Employers

As you may already know from reading the articles in our employee wellness library, a focus on health risk management and proactive employee wellness planning has tangible benefits for both employees and employers. Employee wellness statistics show that better health means better productivity and job satisfaction. Some employees actually consider corporate wellness programs to be compensation - as valuable as a high salary.

But it doesn’t stop there. The numbers also show that employee wellness ROI can be in the range of $2.30 to $10.10 per dollar spent on corporate wellness programs, benefits and initiatives. These savings come in the form of lower absenteeism, less sick time and lower health insurance premiums.

Current Well Cities

The list of WELCOA Well Cities is diverse and exclusive:

• Bangor, ME
• Kanawha Valley, WV
• Kearney, NE
• Gainesville, FL
• Hobart, IN
• Lincoln, NE
• Chattanooga, TN
• Omaha, NE
• Jacksonville, FL

Employee Wellness Mavericks - Get Well City Soon!

We at EmployeeWellnessUSA believe that service-minded employee wellness coordinators should think long and hard about the ancillary benefits of shooting for Well City status in your community. Not only is it a good opportunity to meet like minded organizations and city officials in your area, but it has the potential to galvanize your workforce. Applying for Well City status suddenly makes their health and wellness a matter of civic pride.
For more on employee wellness and Well City, see the WELCOA Well City website. Or simply contact our employee wellness specialists about your corporate fitness plans.