Workplace Wellness Program: Win-Win

An effective workplace wellness program focuses on prevention and chronic disease management utilizing self-management. Dr. Ron Goetzel, Principal Investigator (PI) of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that if employers can reduce health risk factors by less than 0.2%, they can earn back the costs of wellness programs over a five year period.

The Editor in Chief and President of the American Journal of Health Promotion, Michael P. O’Donnell, PhD, MBA, MPH, believes that self-management ability comes when people have the right learning experiences and access to environments that make positive health practices easy.

In order to help employees improve self-management capabilities and reduce health risk factors:

  1. get management on board;
  2. make programs convenient;
  3. provide a budget; and
  4. involve the family and community.

Wellness programs require the support of the entire community. Employees are less likely to participate if management does not set the example. Getting family involved is also key. How easy is weight loss when family is not supportive or participatory?

Employees should not have to chose between work and wellness.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 5:23 am and is filed under General. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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