Diploma Of Early Childhood Education And Care

                  Diploma Of Early Childhood Education And Care



Here are 5 hallmarks of successful worksite wellness programs that are likely to deliver value

to both employees and the employer and to produce the results employers like to see.

1. Programming and Interventions Are Practical and Accessible

Everyone is busy today and experiencing significant pressure on their available time. People

will do however what they find meaningful and of a priority to them. Comprehensive wellness

initiatives, programming and interventions need to address employee interests, pain points or

their life's current challenges. A variety of programming and interventions across the broad

spectrum of wellness needs to be offered to employees and available at a time and place that

works for the employee. Remember that wellness is about more than just physical health. Offer a

variety of scheduled events, activities and other types of programming and interventions at

times convenient for your employee population. Deliver your programming through multiple

strategies such as in-person, on-line, in print, audio recordings and video. Remember that we

all learn differently.

2. The Focus Is On Both the Individual and the Organization

Far too many wellness programs focus only on employee change. This approach addresses only half

the issue. The workplace environment, climate and culture need to be healthy as well. The

workplace environment needs to support the healthiest choice being the easiest choice. Healthy

food offerings should be available in vending machines, cafeterias, snack bars and at any

company events where food is offered. Both the social and physical environment need to be

positive and supportive-signage, policies, practices and benefits should be in place to support

individuals who want to change to a new or maintain a healthy lifestyle.

But a healthy workplace environment is only one piece of a healthy workplace. The workplace

needs to also have a positive, supportive climate and culture.

Organizational climate is how the work environment is perceived directly and indirectly.

Changing the environment will likely change employee perceptions related to the environment.

According to MIT organizational culture researcher Edgar Schein, PhD, workplace culture is made

up of the work environment, the workplace climate and most importantly the unconscious, taken-

for-granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings that guide and shape employee

behavior. Workplace culture will always trump strategy, so it has significant power over and

relationship to any change related process.

3. Wellness Is Integrated Throughout the Organization

Wellness needs to be a mindset and not just another program. Since wellness is a broad,

holistic, multi-dimensional concept/construct, wellness has applicability in all the various

other programming and interventions offered by the employer, including training and

development, leadership development, management and supervisor training, employee benefits,

work-life, EAP, safety and corporate social responsibility. Far too often, wellness and other

benefit type services and programming each remain in their own respective silos. Each program's

strengths and resources need to be integrated with the other programs being offered. Services

delivered to employees should be seamless and based on what the employee wants and needs.

Company leadership needs to see wellness as being its own cohesive entity, seamless with

workplace safety, benefits, human resources, and other infrastructure elements. Employee

health, wellness and wellbeing should be embedded in everything the organization does.




Most worksite wellness programs today are not really wellness programs at all - they are

employee health management programs. And you would like to know the difference, right?

Health and wellness can be depicted as being on a continuum with health located at one end and

wellness being at the other end. The midpoint of a health - wellness continuum can be

considered to be the neutral point.

In a work place setting, on the health side of the continuum, the focus is on addressing the

employee's health status. This generally means focusing on the employee's chronic illnesses and

health related risk factors.

At the far end of the health section, the focus would be on such things as chronic disease or

condition management, treatment adherence and medication adherence. At this end of the

continuum, it would also be appropriate to educate employees about specific health plan

benefits related to their disease and best practice treatment guidelines and protocols. To

better help manage their health issue, employees located here on the continuum might also

benefit from chronic disease self-management type programs.

Remaining on the health side of the continuum, but moving closer to the continuum's neutral

point, the focus of the worksite wellness program becomes employee risk management and disease

prevention. Risk identification typically involves the use of a health risk assessment (HRA)

tool with or without the use of worksite based biometric screenings. The use of these tools

allows the employer to see at an aggregate level, the risk profile of their employee

population.

Employee risks, along with employee interests and the interests of management form the basis of

the risk management strategies and tactics used by the wellness program. Typical risk

management and disease prevention strategies involve increased employee awareness and

education, lifestyle/behavior change initiatives and the development of a supportive workplace

environment.

It is important to point out that risk reduction and disease prevention, at best, only get the

individual employee to the neutral point on the health - wellness continuum. Zero risks and

prevention do not create wellness. They only create no risks and no disease. The research here

is quite clear across many different fields of study. Eliminating the negative does not create

a positive. Positives must be created by a deliberate, positive end result action.

Wellness and its various wellness models are a positive. This is why wellness is found at the

opposite end of the continuum from health. Wellness is located north of the continuum's neutral

point. Wellness is also known as well-being, thriving, flourishing, optimal living and other

such terms.

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