Wellness programs, according to an article in Crain’s Detroit Business, come in two choices:  workplace wellness programs or health insurance products that aim at lower costs if healthy habits are followed.  Both options are a good choice, but only one will really provide long-term health benefits for your employees and lower costs over the years.

Wellness Programs Offer Assistance

Insurance-based products offer employees the opportunity, according to the article by Jay Green, to save money on their premiums if they follow certain steps, including performing an online health assessment, visiting their physician, and agree to adopt a healthy lifestyle.  These plans usually involve one coach call to the employee during the first 90 days.  We wonder if these brief wellness encounters will actually change a person’s lifestyle.

It is the overall change in a person’s lifestyle, as well as disease prevention that will lead to lower health costs in the future.

Onsite workplace wellness programs, like the ones that EmployeeWellnessUSA works with you to establish in your place of business, offers convenient health risk assessments and screening tests for things like diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure.  As the article states, these have initial start-up costs, but the savings accrue over time and employees are more likely to stay active in an onsite employee wellness program.

Wellness Programs Get Results

Finally, the article states that companies with an effective employee wellness program can expect to see “500 percent lower absenteeism, 400 percent fewer disability claims, and 350 percent lower health care costs.”  These are numbers that are very hard to argue with.

If you are ready to start seeing those numbers in your company, contact one of our wellness experts today.  They are there to answer all of your questions, as well as provide you with a free wellness proposal.

Wellness programs are becoming popular outside the workplace, showing the ever-increasing importance of disease prevention and health risk management.  Private insurance companies, as well as state Medicaid and Medicare offices are working on ways to improve the health of the people they insure in hopes to save money in the long run.  They are finding that mini-wellness programs are definitely the way to go.

Wellness Programs Help with Early Intervention

According to an article that appeared in The Indianapolis Star, employers, insurers and government agencies are turning to “early intervention to change the behavior of those struggling with common but dangerous health conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, heart failure and coronary heart disease.”
The tactics that they incorporate to improve their beneficiaries’ wellness postcard reminders for different lab tests or check-ups; and possibly even phone calls from nurses to work with the patients to make sure that they are taking their medicines properly and following the lifestyle changes that were suggested by their health care provider.

Wellness Programs Offer Quality Benefits

There are more benefits to a wellness program than just the cost savings that an employer or a state agency will see; there is the benefit to the actually patient.  The patient is going to get the motivation and the incentive to get better or to manage their health and their health risks by having to answer to someone, whether that someone is a full-time wellness employee at their company or a nurse affiliated with their insurance company.

Wellness Programs are Customized for Your Company

EmployeeWellnessUSA.com understands all the benefits that a wellness program can provide to the employer and to the employee and is here to help you get a custom corporate wellness program started today.  Call one of our wellness experts today and answer their questions so that they can put together a free wellness proposal for you and your company.

Wellness programs are a healthy investment, at least according to Lincoln industries in Nebraska.  CNN reported on this 565 employee company located in Lincoln, Nebraska and their serious and committed investment in their employee’s wellness.

Wellness Programs are part of Company Culture

The wellness program, according the story, has been in place for 16 years at Lincoln industries, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.  The company has three full-time employees dedicated to the wellness program and the wellness of the employees, who receive on-site massages and a round of instructor-led stretching before they start their shifts.

Wellness Programs Assessed

According to CNN, one of the stipulations of the wellness program, which employees are not required to participate in, is that they receive quarterly checkups where assessments are completed on their weight, amount of body fat and flexibility.  Based on these health assessments, the employees are then ranked from platinum all the way down to “non-medal”.  To become platinum level, where you receive a company-paid climbing trip, you must achieve certain fitness levels and be a non-smoker.  Smoking cessation classes are part of the wellness program.

Wellness Programs Bring Big Savings

The wellness program has been a wise investment for Lincoln Industries.  By having healthier employees, they have seen an average of $2 million in savings in health care costs per year.  The savings don’t stop there, since instituting a wellness program, workers’ compensation claims have gone from $500,000 per year down to less than $10,000 per year.

Wellness Programs are the Right Investment

EmployeeWellnessUSA.com was established to help companies like Lincoln Industries see the rewards and savings a wellness program can bring.  Employee wellness benefits everyone’s bottom-line with a decrease in loss wages due to illness or injury, employees see the ROI from their time and commitment.

Wellness proposals are available free of charge from EmployeeWellnessUSA and offer insight into the wellness program that is right for your company.  Contact one of our wellness representatives today and start seeing a healthier bottom-line.

Employee wellness programs are important now more than ever.  According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, with the troubles in the economy it seems that the costs of employer provided healthcare keep continuing to grow and it doesn’t seem like it is going to change.  The article states that during the year 2008, U.S. employers can expect to see an increase of 10% in healthcare costs.

This increase in health care costs is causing some small businesses to reduce their employee health benefits or get rid of them altogether.

Employee Wellness for Healthier Lifestyles

Employee wellness programs do provide an option for small businesses.  The corporations can offer discounted co-pays and deductibles to those employees that fully participate in the offered corporate wellness program.  Full participation means getting health screens, receiving a health risk assessment, and then working with their wellness coordinator to work towards a healthier lifestyle.

The healthier the employees, the lower the overall healthcare costs for the corporation.  Just one lengthy hospital stay can almost deplete a small business’ healthcare budget.

Employee Wellness and Your Bottom Line

Employee wellness programs provide many advantages to a company’s bottom-line.  Corporate wellness statistics from Prudential Insurance show a benefit expense of $312 per person enrolled in a wellness program compared to an expense of $574 per employee that wasn’t enrolled.  Coors Brewing Company showed a positive side-effect of participant absenteeism dropping by 18%, thus greater production and less healthcare costs overall.

Employee Wellness is Smart Business Decision

With the down economy and the increase in healthcare costs, deciding to implement a wellness program is a smart business decision.  Not to mention, it is very simple to do with the help of our wellness representatives.  They will work with your staff in putting together the best and most appropriate wellness program for your employees.  Contact them today to receive your free wellness proposal and start cutting your healthcare costs.

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 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.

This year represents the 5th year of World Wellness Weekends and the second year that it will be in Austin, Texas. World Wellness Weekend is a health, wellness, and sustainable living festival that is dedicated to educating and empowering people to be healthier and happier. The festival takes place this weekend, May 30th through June 1st at the Austin Convention Center.

World Wellness Events

The World Wellness Weekend will include speakers such as; Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love), Bill Phillips (Body for Life), Marci Shimoff (Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out), and John Gray (Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus); will be providing tips and sharing experiences on how to live better and healthier.

Musical entertainment provided by Michael Franti, Papa Mali, Carolyn Wonderland, Afrofreque will fill the air of the convention center with the sounds of the world. There will even be an Eco-Fashion show this year that will feature fun and sustainably produced fashion.

World Wellness Expo

The wellness expo will feature over 150 booths and 80 classes, presentations and workshops that will teach attendees all about living a better life. Attendees will learn creating financial prosperity, healthy relationships, better lifestyles, as well as to improve physical, mental and emotional health.

This will be an interactive event that invites attendees to sample organic and healthy foods, to sample new nutritional products, enjoy a mini-massage and shop for hand-crafted items by local and global artisans.

World Wellness

The World Wellness Weekend represents the increase and interest in the importance of living a healthier lifestyle and to make healthier choices for yourself and your loved ones. Corporations can share this concern by encouraging their employees to pay more attention to their wellness and their health habits. EmployeeWellnessUSA.com offers valuable advice and information on how employers can help their employees live better.

The 61st annual World Health Assembly is taking place this week in Geneva, Switzerland and at this assembly; the World Health Organization (WHO) is presenting its report titled “Preventing Non-communicable Diseases (NCD) in the Workplace through Diet and Physical Activity.”

The report calls for workplace wellness programs to be promoted and implemented worldwide.

Importance of Employee Wellness

The report states that NCD related deaths have surpassed transferable disease related deaths and have become the leading global killers. Examples of NCD’s are heart disease, diabetes and stroke. In 2005, 60% of worldwide projected deaths were caused by non-communicable diseases. They are predicting that this health trend will continue through at least 2030.

Unhealthy diets, excessive caloric intake, lack of physical activity and tobacco use are the major risk factors in the cause of NCD’s. Now more than ever, the understanding of the importance of health and wellness is crucial.

Employee Wellness is Effective Tool

The report states that workplace wellness programs are found to be effective in improving health-related risk factors, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The report also states that wellness programs will improve the health of employees, improve the corporate image, improve employee morale, reduce employee absences and sick leave, increase employee productivity, and reduce corporate health care costs.

Employee Wellness Monitoring

Finally, the report mentions that to have a successful employee wellness program, monitoring and evaluation through health risk assessments and health outcomes are essential and should be included in the wellness program implementation. The evaluations ensure that the program developed meets the proper needs of the employees. Employees should be reevaluated on an on-going basis to make sure the wellness program is still working, or to see if there are any adjustments that need to be made.

Start an Employee Wellness Program

Employee Wellness USA can get your company started on the right track to reducing the risks of non-communicable diseases within your staff. Please contact one of our health representatives and they will be more than happy to assist you with putting together a free wellness proposal.

Wellness Challenges are definitely hot right now and they are encouraging more and more people to get healthy and live better. Whether it is a city or a school or a social group or even a whole state, competitive spirits are being ignited by the challenge to be the healthiest team. The challenges are usually about a six months to a year in length and they are made up of several teams, these teams all get points for physical activity, selecting healthy foods, and just making better life and health choices overall.

The best part about wellness challenges is even though there really is only way “real” winner; everyone that participates in the challenge is a life winner.

Wellness Challenges Provides Incentive to Get Healthy

Establishing a wellness challenge in your office is a great way to get employees to participate in your established wellness program. Have employees form teams and receive points for everything from attending a corporate health fair to getting a health risk assessment to starting an exercise regimen. At the end of the year, the teams will win prizes based on the number of points they have accumulated.

Wellness Challenge Kick-Off

Contact Employee Wellness USA and have our team come out and provide on-site health screening for all participating employees, so that everyone has a baseline to judge their improvement from. We will then work with you to create a wellness program that will be the foundation of the challenge.

Wellness Challenges Improve Corporate Health

Not only will wellness challenges improve the health of your employees, it will improve the overall health of the corporation by providing benefits such as reduced injuries, reduced frequency of worker’s comp, reduced healthcare costs, better employee attendance, and better corporate morale.

Like we said earlier, everyone is a winner in a wellness challenge!

You probably have seen this term many times and wondered what exactly it means. A wellness proposal is a proposal put together by a wellness company, such as EmployeeWellnessUSA.com, that makes suggestions for what type of wellness programs you should choose, what tools you will need to accomplish your corporation’s wellness goals, and costs associated with it.

Wellness Proposals Assist Human Resource Departments

A wellness proposal is a great thing to have in hand when HR Departments go to upper management to request funding for a wellness program. It will provide necessary stats and trends, background information, and costs that will enable the HR Department to fully present their case. Upper management will appreciate the preparedness and the research that has gone into your wellness request.

Wellness Proposals Lead to Better Wellness Programs

A well thought out wellness proposal can lead to a better wellness program, because the building blocks will already be in place. Wellness proposals will guarantee that your corporation gets the proper wellness program established. Wellness programs can vary greatly, but when your employees ask, you can tell them that they generally include the following:

• “Walking Wellness,” which incentivizes employees to take walking breaks around the vicinity of their workplace.
• Company sports teams, yoga classes and massage therapists at the workplace.
• Dietary advice, weight-loss and healthy cooking classes, stress management sessions, and either an employee wellness resources column in the employee newsletter or a wellness newsletter.
• “Take the stairs” initiatives to show how stair-walking can improve health.

How to Get a Wellness Proposal

You can get a wellness proposal by contacting an Employee Wellness USA corporate wellness representative. They will ask you all sorts of questions regarding your corporate goals, employee goals, budgets, etc, to assist them in putting together your personalized wellness proposal. The best of all, at Employee Wellness USA, it’s FREE. So what are you waiting for?