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Workplace Fitness: Employers ARE getting the point (but oh so slowly)

Posted on May 30th 2007 6:00AM by Rigel Celeste

The CDC says that as many as 66% of Americans are overweight or obese, and although that may be no big surprise (yes, we know it's a problem!) this may come as a shock: that number of unhealthy people translates to a cost of $117 billion dollars a year to the economy, or more! Obviously the connection between health and economics is becoming hard to ignore, which is prompting more and more employers to take a look at just what they're doing to help combat this problem.

Different companies are taking different approaches, and like you'd expect some are better than others. Some places, like Merrill Lynch for example, are seemingly going in exactly the wrong direction. They're reducing the number of sick days available to their employees, thinking that less days available means less days taken and therefore less money spent. But that really does nothing to fix the underlying problem of why the employees are missing so many days to begin with, and if anything it may have people who are still sick coming back to work early and infecting others.Not everybody is looking at it that way, though. Bank One now pays for certain executives (I guess the "peon" employees aren't worth it) to get an annual physical health exam every year. They have found that by investing this relatively small amount of money, they actually save in the long run by having healthier staff with fewer absences. To me that's a much more positive approach than Merill Lynch's.

As this trend continues I think we can all expect to see more and more involvement from employers in the general health and wellness of their employees. Although we are all ultimately responsible for taking care of ourselves, the truth is that we spend a good chunk of our waking lives working -- the least bosses can do is make staying healthy a little easier!

So if you happen to be in a position of influence at your workplace please take this issue seriously, and make some moves toward creating (or improving) a wellness program. And influential or not, this slideshow has some great ideas that will help all of us -- like using Feng Shui in your office to help reduce stress, and sticking with a workout plan even if you have to travel a lot.

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Tags: career, desk, employee, employer, fitness, health, job, work, workplace

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Michelle Taylor 6-03-2007 @ 2:57AM

"75% of health care spending pays for illnesses which are preventable".
- Centers for Disease Control

Four of the leading causes of death in the nation—heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease —are directly linked to unhealthy lifestyles and tobacco use. Encouraging individuals to adopt healthy habits and practices may reduce the burden of chronic disease in communities throughout the United States. Public and private efforts and programs are increasingly designed to promote these healthy behaviors and lifestyles. Employers are becoming more aware that obesity, lack of physical activity, and tobacco use are adversely affecting the health and productivity
of their employees and ultimately, the businesses’ bottom line. As a result, innovative employers are providing their employees with a variety of work-site-based health promotion and disease prevention programs using health coaches and the “trans- theoretical theory of change” approach to wellness. These programs have been shown to improve employee health, increase productivity and yield a significant return on investment for the employer.

What is a Health Coaching Program?

Health coaching programs help people make smart choices about health behaviors through education, motivation and reinforcement of healthy options. Taking the time to build a rapport, assess readiness to change, identify areas of need and to create an action plan, leads to a healthier outcome. Research proves that this personalized, collaborative approach is more effective than the cookie-cutter method that often leaves those most at risk far behind.

Health Coaches typically are licensed, degreed healthcare professionals that have made the choice to work one-on-one with their clients, outside of the typical “medical model”; empowering them to make long-term healthy changes by building solid skills that will last a lifetime.

Wellness Promotion
Employee wellness education is the starting point of prevention. It is about encouraging individuals who have demonstrated positive, healthy behaviors and providing them with the tools and support they need to stay fit, manage stress and continue to make good health decisions. Programs often include initiatives such as health risk assessments, on-site screenings, wellness lecture series, health club memberships, and financial incentives.
By promoting continued healthy choices, employers can reduce overall healthcare costs and absenteeism as well as support a “culture of health and wellness”.

Health Improvement Plans
Health improvement plans are about identifying high-risk factors, and preventing or slowing disease progression and encouraging individuals through education and one-on-one behavioral health coaching to begin altering their risky actions.
The types of lifestyle high-risk factors addressed by health improvement plans include, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, tobacco cessation, and weight management. Individuals with known or potential health conditions may be aware of elevated risks but have not found the motivation to change. They haven’t experienced any major hospitalization or serious complications – yet. However, without some form of intervention, their conditions will likely progress to a much costlier, productivity-limiting chronic disease.

Disease Management
The goal of disease management is to empower individuals to effectively manage disease and prevent complications through adherence to medication regimens, regular self-monitoring of vital signs and healthful diet, exercise and other lifestyle choices by education, support and encouragement of both the physician and the health coach.
For employers, the cost of chronic disease goes far beyond the direct costs of healthcare and medical expenses. Absenteeism due to lost wages amounts to $65 billion annually for American companies. This cost is compounded by the impact of lost productivity due to workers who are limited in the amount or kind of work they can do, which can be as high as 34% of the total workforce. Disease management programs have proven to not only control health benefit costs but also improve the overall health and productivity of workplace environments.-

Monarch Health Promotions in Tucson, Arizona offers a range of healthy business solutions including, tobacco cessation, environmental health education, wellness program plans as well as respiratory disease management services.

Michelle L. Taylor
Monarch Health Promotions
http://www.monarchhp.com