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Wellness Articles

Wellness In The Workplace

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Wellness In The Workplace


Wellness in the workplace has many benefits for employers and employees. Some of these benefits include lower health care costs, reduced absenteeism, higher productivity, reduced use of health care benefits, reduced worker’s compensation and disability, reduced injuries, increased morale and loyalty, and improved employee health.

Studies repeatedly show that health promotion programs in the workplace are helping companies reduce injuries, health care costs and long-term disability. More companies than ever are introducing health and wellness strategies in the workplace to help ease the burden of the cost of care. Recent studies in Canada and the United States report that 80% of illnesses and diseases are preventable. Obesity, smoking, and other health risk factors account for 8 out of 9 leading causes of death, cardiovascular disease being the biggest killer. Of the more than 1,000,000 deaths per year in Canada and the United States, over 50% of the deaths are due to cardiovascular disease, most of which is preventable.

The Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA www.welcoa.org) report statistics stating that 81% of companies with over 50 employees have implemented at least some kind of health promotion program. These programs range from comprehensive wellness programs to smoking cessation, back care programs, stress management, exercise, and nutrition programs. For some companies, over half of the company profits are spent toward employee health care expenses. Many employers implement strategies such as cost shifting, cost sharing, cash-based rebates, and incentives. While these strategies can have an impact upon short-term expenses, in order to have a long-term affect upon employee health and the company bottom line, there must be a realized change in the employee population’s health status.

In order to implement wellness in the workplace, employers must first understand where they fall in the six stages of change. The six stages of change usually include the following categories:

1. Wellness In The Workplace: Pre-Contemplation (Not yet acknowledging that there is a problem behavior that needs to be changed)

2. Wellness In The Workplace: Contemplation (Acknowledging that there is a problem but not yet sure of wanting to make a change)

3. Wellness In The Workplace: Preparation / Determination (Getting ready to change)

4. Wellness In The Workplace: Action / Willpower (Changing behavior)

5. Wellness In The Workplace: Maintenance (Maintaining the behavior change)

6. Wellness In The Workplace: Relapse (Returning to older behaviors and abandoning the new changes)

The first stage of change, “Wellness In The Workplace: Pre-Contemplation”, like all of the stages of change can apply to both companies and employees. During this stage of change, people are not thinking seriously about changing their behavior or habits. They may be defensive about a subject or apprehensive about even discussing the behavioral issue. An organization or person that falls under this category is not actively pursuing answers to questions that they have. The fact that you are reading this article shows that you are not in “Wellness In The Workplace: Pre-Contemplation”, because you are actively pursuing knowledge on an identified subject matter.

The second stage of change, “Wellness In The Workplace: Contemplation” is a state in which people are more aware of the consequences of the habit under review. There have been conversations on the subject and although a solution has not been put in place, discussions on the subject have been openly broached with others. Companies and individuals are weighing the pros and cons of changing the behavior. For instance, perhaps your organization has been informed and even discussed the positive and negative effects of implementing a wellness program. Maybe you are thinking that it would be a nice commodity to have, but are not yet ready to make a purchasing decision due to budget constraints or fear that others on the executive leadership team might disagree with your action. This second stage of change is a teeter-totter stage.

The third stage of change, “Wellness In The Workplace: Preparation / Determination”, is a stage that many people choose to overlook or skip but is absolutely crucial for the success of a behavioral or cultural change. This is where many people are when they are looking around on websites trying to prepare for the decision-making process. Successful companies that implement wellness programs will usually look at around 20 or 30 wellness companies and narrow it down to 5 or 10 companies that they will accept proposals from. The companies are thoroughly reviewed and the organization is in the final stages of determining if they will change and how they would change.

The fourth stage of change, “Wellness In The Workplace: Action / Willpower” is where employers and employees believe that they can change and are actively involved in the change process. This stage of change is the shortest of all of the stages because the organization or individual has made a decision and is moving forward. The decision has been made and the organization is moving forward. In the case of wellness in the workplace, all of the possible vendors have been reviewed, the company has been selected and the organizations have started implementing their plan of action for improving employee health.

The fifth stage of change, “Wellness In The Workplace: Maintenance” is the longest of all of the stages. It is a stage of constant improvement and tweaking the process in order to get the desired results. This could mean implementing new wellness interventions and programs such as Biometric Testing, Activity Management, Stress Management, Health Coaching, and other new and exciting programs. It could also mean setting up or enhancing employee incentives in order to maximize participation and change behaviors even more.

Relapse is the last stage of change in the “Wellness In The Workplace: Relapse” change model. Many organizations may find themselves at this point in the change model if they have implemented a wellness program internally or chosen a wellness vendor that is less than ideal. Some companies have invested large amounts of money already in staffing on-site wellness coordinators that run and manage the workplace wellness program. These are oftentimes the best candidates for migrating to the Kersh Risk Management wellness program.

At Kersh Risk Management, we understand that every company is at some point in the “Wellness In The Workplace” stages of change continuum. We invite all companies, whether their current wellness program is successful or needs a little boost, to speak with one of our wellness consultants on how they can maximize their investment in a wellness program. To learn more about Kersh Risk Management and our unique employee wellness services, place fill out our online request wellness in the workplace wellness proposal form today.

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