Employers are struggling to find alternatives to contain or control the rising health care costs. Approaches that have been adopted include increased co pays, decreased benefits, and higher deductibles. Another approach to address the costs of health care is the implementation of health promotion or worksite wellness programs. It is seen that worksite wellness programs (WWP) have the potential to improve the health of workers which would ultimately translate into reduced health care expenditure by the state and employers, reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, and improve employees’ altitudes and job performance with distinct economic benefits.
The core of our disease prevention and health promotion program will therefore be to create more awareness of the benefits of WWP among the top employers in the entire nation. This will be structured around the tenets of developing a health and productivity management model that will directly relate the company’s investment in WWP to its overall productivity and profitability.
Specifically, the program will assess employee health behavior with a questionnaire and physical assessment of exercise habits and body fat measurements, prior to offering help to control high-risk behaviors in areas such as weight control, nutrition, and stress management. The program will also offer classes, self-study and individual support. In addition to the above, this paper will provide differences in the types of health promotion programs and services available within the workplace and how they can be remodeled or improved.
Body
Employees form the most prized assets of any organization. Their wellness in terms of their health determines their attraction, recruitment and retention. It has been proven that employers who attach great importance to the employee wellness programs have the competitive advantage to not only attract the best labor but also retain them for their growth.
Worksite wellness programs differ in their interventions related to intensity, duration and comprehensiveness. The most popular programs include individual counseling, nutritional assessment and support, physical fitness, smoking cessation classes, back care programs, and stress management. Worksite wellness and health promotion programs are programs aimed at positively influencing employees to lead responsible and healthy lifestyle. Research on employee wellness program comes along with the advantage of enabling employers to institute relevant and effective employee wellness programs within their organization. Furthermore, such initiatives empower employers to engage their employees in responsible and healthy lifestyles for maximum human capital production.
Conclusion
Employers are overburdened by the multitude of demands of employee wellness programs. The changes in lifestyle have particularly impacted the health of workers and the entire population at large. Poor nutrition, lack of exercise, stresses in the work place, and drug and substance abuse, to name a few issues, predisposes the population to a higher risk of developing complications that may require health care interventions. The sum of a more aging population and declining popularity of fitness programs that have precipitated by increase in family demands, have led to a less healthy work force. The increase in the development of health and wellness programs within the culture of organizations is based on the desire to improve the overall human capital productivity. There is the belief that potential improvement to personal wellness and improved organizational finance can be realized through these initiatives.