Worksites & Businesses

Higher employee productivity, reduced absenteeism and increased morale aren’t the only benefits workplace wellness programs offer. When employers promote workplace health and offer employees preventative benefits, they can minimize injuries, limit long-term disability and significantly reduce health care costs. Summit County’s employers have the power to make worksite wellness a priority in every organization. Champions of worksite wellness have the influence to make healthy choices easy for employees. Worksite wellness efforts can have numerous benefits, including a healthier workforce, increased morale, higher employee productivity, reduced absenteeism and a reduction in healthcare costs.  Summit Prevention Alliance and St  Anthony Summit Medical Center supports Summit County’s employers in making wellness a priority.

St Anthony Summit Medical Center Role in Worksite Wellness

Erica Hughes, Executive Assistant to Jodee Trainor, CNO coordinates wellness events for St. Anthony Summit Medical Center and the community.  Her passion is worksite wellness and she feels that all worksites should promote healthy behaviors. Please check out Erica’s blog on worksite wellness: link to blog. The goal from this blog is to help employers and employees of Summit County promote a healthier lifestyle at work. 

Erica Hughes can help your worksite and business promote worksite wellness by providing these complimentary services:

• Working with employers and/or wellness representatives from various Summit County businesses to ensure all Summit County employees know of wellness options in the county. 
• Help troubleshoot issues that may arise in your worksite wellness initiatives.
• Help with forming a wellness committee.
• Provide worksite wellness technical assistance to Summit County worksites to establish a successful worksite wellness resource program. 

Please contact Erica Hughes for help with your Summit County worksite wellness program at EricaHughes@centura.org or 970-668-9531.

Summit County’s Worksite Wellness Network

Summit County’s Worksite Wellness Network (WWN) is a collaboration of various business who are dedicated to the wellness of their employees.  Each business has a representative that is interested in learning more about keeping their workplace healthy.  This representative can be executive, such as human resources, or it can simply be a point person for wellness at that establishment.  Representatives meet once a quarter to discuss ongoing wellness initiatives and brainstorm new ideas for their business.  The group is run by Erica Hughes from St. Anthony Summit Medical Center.  Erica organizes the date and researches any subjects that participants would like to learn about.  Together the participants of  WWN are making business in Summit County healthier.   Please contact Erica Hughes for more information on the WWN and for the meeting dates at EricaHughes@centura.org or 970-668-9531.

Work Wellness Events

 

Planning for Small Wellness Events

Did you know that a wellness event for your workplace does not have to be a huge production? Do you or someone you know take a walk regularly at the same time?  Do you always hike with your dog on Sundays?  You can easily invite your co-workers and it can be a wellness event!  These can be scheduled once a week – like a walking club, once a month, or as needed.  No formal training is needed – you just let people know when and where to meet and you have an event! 

 Some suggestions of wellness events that you can host are:

Walking as a group

Biking as a group

Hiking as a group

Skiing/Snowboarding as a group

Ice Skating as a group

Snow shoeing/ cross country skiing as a group

Taking your dogs to the park

Book Clubs

Healthy Pot lucks – bring the recipes and swap!

Meeting at one of the recreation centers as a group

The possibilities are endless!

 

Planning for Larger Worksite Wellness Events

Have you found out from your employees that they want as a wellness event? Please use the needs and interest survey for your worksite:Employee Survey

The next step is to set up your wellness event.  This may be intimidating, but fear not you have an entire community of resources available to you!

First figure out what type of event that you want.  Do you want this to be an educational event?  A physical activity?  Do you want your event to be free to your staff or have them pay a small amount? 

Where to hold the event:  If you are a larger business and have an area to hold a speaker you have already taken the first step.  If you are a smaller business you may need to do a little brainstorming.  Getting together with other small businesses may be beneficial to both of you!  Someone may have a resource for a place to hold your event – or you can pitch in and rent one of the low cost event rooms in the county.

It is very important to include your human resources department in your planning of events.  Each business has different rules as to who can come in and talk to the employees – talk to HR before planning the event so you do not run into trouble. 

Educational events –  There are many professionals in Summit County that would like to promote their business and will do wellness presentations for free.   There are a great amount of alternative care businesses here in Summit County – some of your staff may want to hear about acupuncture, Qi Gong, or naturopathic medicine.   There are many other topics that can be discussed such as helmet and seatbelt use, sun protection, stress relief and much, much more. 

 

Please contact Erica Hughes if you would like to be put in touch with other small businesses or need help with planning for a wellness event at EricaHughes@centura.org or 970-668-9531.

 

Resources

These are resources to help you with a successful worksite wellness program during all four stages: assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation.

 

Colorado Worksites: Resources and Tools for Implementing Wellness

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently released a comprehensive worksite wellness resource guide for employers who want to start or improve health promotion initiatives. This free resource guide, Colorado Worksites: Resources and Tools for Implementing Wellness, outlines strategies and resources to take worksite wellness programs to the next level.  To view the guide, click here.

ASSESSMENT – Put it to the test!  Use assessment tools to evaluate your workplace’s walkability, health promotion programs and overall healthfulness.

• Assessing the Walkability of the Workplace
  This audit tool from the American Society of Health Promotion Facility allows planners to identify and eliminate barriers to convenient walking opportunities in the workplace.  
• Checklist of Health Promotion Environments at Worksites (CHEW)
  This checklist allows businesses to determine the degree of health promotion occurring in the workplace. 

PLANNING – Why reinvent the wheel? 

Download toolkits and use resources to help you make the case for and plan a successful wellness program in your workplace.

Reduce Health-Related Costs

• LEANWorks! (Leading Employees to Activity and Nutrition)
  This website was developed particularly for small and mid-size companies, which typically have more limited resources to devote to obesity prevention efforts. However, the tools and resources available on CDC LEANWorks! can benefit companies of any size.

Other Planning Tools

• CDC Healthier Worksite Initiative
  Information, resources and step-by-step toolkits will help you implement programming that will improve the health of your employees.   
• Culture of Health – Resources
  Business Health Forum and Mountain States Employers Council (MSEC) discovered this list of free to low cost resources through research and their work in the community. 
• Culture of Health – Toolkits
  Business Health Forum and Mountain States Employers Council (MSEC) discovered this list of state worksite wellness toolkits and resources through research and their work in the community.
• Healthy Workforce 2010
  This health promotion sourcebook is essential for employers large and small.  
• Investing in Maternal and Child Health
  This employer’s toolkit presents strategies and tools to improve the health of children, adolescents and women before, during and after pregnancy.   
• Making the Business Case for Worksite Health Promotion
  This template helps wellness coordinators prepare documentation for their own organization.  
• National Wellness Institute
  The National Wellness Institute provides health promotion and wellness professionals with resources and services to fuel professional and personal growth.   
• Promoting Physical Activity in the Workplace
  This resource, from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, provides intervention guidance on workplace health promotion with reference to physical activity.
• School Employee Wellness – A Guide for Protecting the Assets of Our Nation’s Schools
  This comprehensive guide provides information, practical tools and resources for school employee wellness programs.  
• The Wellness Council of America
  As North America’s premier resource for worksite wellness, the Wellness Council of America is dedicated to helping organizations of all kinds build and sustain results-oriented wellness programs.  WELCOA offers a wealth of free resources, tools and information.

IMPLEMENTATION – Get started!

Educate yourself about other organizations’ best practices, find tips and tools and learn about different programming you can use to implement and maintain effective worksite wellness programming.

• California 5 a Day – Be Active! Worksite Program
  This website suggests healthy food offerings and physical activity breaks to accommodate the needs of employees. 
• Diabetes at Work
  Diabetes at Work provides intuitive information to help employees manage their diabetes and take steps toward reducing risks for related complications, such as heart disease.  
• Healthy Meeting Guidelines
  These guidelines were produced by the New York State Health Department.  
• Physical Activity at Work – Bringing Physical Activity into the Workday
  This mailing list provides tips and guidelines for promoting physical activity in the workplace.
• The Wellness Council of America
  As North America’s premier resource for worksite wellness, the Wellness Council of America is dedicated to helping organizations of all kinds build and sustain results-oriented wellness programs.  WELCOA offers a wealth of free resources, tools and information.  

EVALUATION – The truth is in the numbers!

Use these calculators to estimate the cost impacts of worksite wellness programs on healthcare costs and employee productivity.

• Blueprint for Health
  The Blueprint for Health was developed by the Health As Human Capital Foundation and Riedel & Associates in collaboration with the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) and the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH).  It allows users to evaluate the cost impact of wellness programs.  
• Physical Inactivity Cost Calculator
  Developed by East Carolina University’s Department of Health Education & Promotion, this calculator allows users to determine the cost impacts of lack of physical activity in the workplace.
• ROI Based Analysis of Employee Wellness Programs
  Organizations of all sizes and from all industries are investigating ways to save money in the form of health care, disability, sick time, recruitment and retention costs.  This document looks at the problem facing employers, the cost attributed to that problem and the critical components a wellness program must incorporate in order to provide a high return on investment solution to that problem.