Employer Wellness

Medical screenings are important programs to identify chronic disease in their early stages. Once identified, wellness intervention programs can help prevent a illness from progressing.

Working with local hospitals and other organizations, you are able to obtain information on providing screening and intervention programs that could improve your employees’ health and save your business money in absenteeism, treatment for illness complications, and reduced productivity.

Below are some ideas to help get you started.

Based on your Staff Member Needs and Interest Survey and the demographics of your workplace, consider offering periodic screenings to find specific health risks like –

• Blood Pressure Checks to identify employees with pre-hypertension or hypertension (high blood pressure),

• Cholesterol Screenings for total, HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol) and/or Triglycerides

• Blood Sugar Screenings fasting or non-fasting to screen for possible diabetes,

• Body composition, such as Body Mass Index  or body fat measures

• Bone density for potential risk of osteoporosis,

• Cancer screenings such as, skin examinations, mammograms, or PSA screenings,

• Vision checks for glaucoma, or visual acuity

• Other screenings depending on your worker population and needs

Your local hospital, company physician practice, or health department my provide assistance. Nonetheless, when you have a young workforce you could want to concentrate on programs that’ll keep them healthy rather than screening for early identification of chronic condition.

The focus of your wellness program could  be healthful lifestyle practices to reduce risk and prevent disease.

In addition to the health screenings, consider offering a Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} to all workers. the Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} will help to identify factors that might lead to additional risks, like smoking history, stress levels, perception of health, family history, job satisfaction, support systems, and mental health.

Often the screening results are included on the Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal}, which provides a more extensive snap shot of health risks. the summary results provide the important information to plan appropriate interventions.

Wellness Program Interventions

The key to the success of screenings and Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal}s / Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal}s is the interventions or follow-up programs. the information from the screenings increases awareness and often arouses workers to consider making healthier changes.

It’s the follow up interventions that provide the essential support and assistance needed for workers to actually make and maintain those changes.

The interventions can include individual follow-up and ongoing counseling, individual or group medical coaching on the risk factors, behavior change programs, and/or organizational support. Examples include –

• Strategies to lower blood pressure

• Managing diabetes

• Taking care of your heart

• Healthy eating

• Weight loss strategies

• Increasing exercise

• Tobacco use Cessation

Of course, this is for individual information only. Any follow-up interventions planned by the corporation would be based on interest expressed by the worker.

Based on the results and your Wellness Committee objectives you can plan the best strategies for your company and employees. Consider the community resources available to provide services, such as health associations, hospitals, health care providers, and/or public health agencies.

The Quick Wellness Program Ideas provides Quick program idea tips for your consideration. Also refer to Prevention Strategies to determine the best approach for your company based on the wellness budget in order to reach the desired outcomes and goals established.