Wellness is Increased during Summer

Wellness is important year-round; however if your employees haven’t gotten on the wellness bandwagon, then now is the perfect time to get them there.

Summer is an ideal season to get back into shape and improve overall wellness.  The weather is beautiful, employees can get outside and they are motivated by the thought of having to wear clothes with less coverage.  Fitness, or lack of fitness, is apparent in the summer.

Wellness in the Summer has Advantages

There are many advantages to starting a corporate wellness program in the summer.  Employees are more likely to get outside and walk or participate in group activities during the summer than they are in the cooler months of the fall and winter.  The summer months are also a great time to establish a wellness challenge with your employees and celebrate the completion of the challenge with a participant picnic or cookout.  Finally, it always seems easier to eat healthy during the summer with all the fresh vegetables and fruits that are available during this time.

Wellness Program Kick-off

If you are ready to start an employee wellness program and take advantage of the summer months, than EmployeeWellnessUSA can help you.  We recommend following these steps to getting a wellness program started in your office.

• Pick a coordinator for the program who is willing and able to see it through.
• Make sure that you have the support of the corporate leadership.
• Formulate a wellness committee of leaders
• Perform an employee wellness survey to uncover the obstacles and goals of your wellness program
• Establish a good starting point through health risk assessments
• Build the program that fits your goals
• Constantly analyze the program and make improvements and adjustments as needed

Wellness Programs Provides Benefits

Remember to stress to employees that the wellness program is for them.  Employee wellness programs have been found to prevent obesity, cancer, heart disease and hypertension.  Participating in a program that provides all that should be an easy decision for the corporation and for the employees.

Wellness’ Return on Investment

Wellness Programs … do they offer a strong return on investment? This is a question that we are sure goes through ever corporations mind. HR Magazine addresses the wellness return on investment topic in their June 2008 issue.

Wellness Programs: The Bottom Line

According to the article, titled “Finding Wellness’ Return on Investment,” determining the return on investment of a wellness program is not an easy thing to do for companies because it involves a lot of different variables and time.

However, the corporations that have taken the time to determine the ROI of their wellness programs have found that it is quite significant. Not to mention, the wellness program’s effect on the improvement of employee health and the slowing of the rate of their employee health care costs.

Wellness’ alliance for ROI

Wellness is such an important part of today’s corporate culture, that several large corporations have come together to form the Alliance for Wellness ROI, Inc. According to the HR Magazine article, The Alliance for Wellness ROI was specifically created to address the lack of consistency in proving the value of wellness programs.

The alliance, formed by BMW of North America, Henry Ford Health System, Kraft Foods Global, MasterCard Worldwide and Schlumberger Limited, strongly believes in showing the value of wellness programs and want to develop a standard for how wellness programs are measured.

Wellness Program Components

According the alliance, the following components should make up an corporate-offered employee wellness program:

• Disease Management programs
• Employee assistance programs
• Fitness programs
• Health risk assessments
• On-site medical programs
• Personal wellness profiles
• Screenings and preventative care
• Smoking-cessation programs
• Telephonic wellness services
• Weight management programs
• Wellness education and communication
• Work/Life balance programs.

EmployeeWellnessUSA can assist you in creating an Employee Wellness Program that includes all the above components, as well as others that fit the needs of your employees. Please contact one of our wellness professionals to receive a free wellness proposal.