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“Most people can get behind the idea that health, happiness, and productivity at work are related concepts, and that companies have an opportunity to foster all three—to everybody’s benefit—with a corporate wellness program,” Fortune reports.
“But while most companies do “something” to promote employee health and well-being, very few—just 7% of companies surveyed in a nationally representative 2008 study—offer what Laura Linnan, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and head of the CDC-funded Workplace Health Research Network, calls a ‘comprehensive program.'”
Here are five best practices that define a wellness program that’s likely to produce results employees and employers both seek:
1. Programs Are Practical and Accessible: “Comprehensive wellness initiatives offer a variety of scheduled programs.”
2. The Work Environment Is Health-Conscious: “Healthy vending machine and cafeteria offerings often top the list of ways successful wellness programs create workplaces that encourage healthy behaviors on a daily basis.
3. Wellness Is Integrated into the Company’s Structure: “Company leadership needs to see it as a cohesive entity, seamless with workplace safety, benefits, human resources, and other infrastructure elements.”
4. Wellness Is Linked to Existing Support Programs: “Linkages between a company’s wellness program and other company benefits like employee assistance programs (EAPs) are key to making it easier for employees to get support when they are in a difficult emotional or physical situation that affects both their health and their work.”
5. Health Screenings and Education Are Offered: “Health screenings are a controversial aspect of the corporate wellness landscape, with some claiming that tracking cholesterol, body mass index, and other figures amounts to de facto discrimination that places a heavier financial burden on workers in less-than-ideal health.”
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