Employee Wellness

System

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-28-07 AT 09:07AM (CST)[/font][br][br]I work for a nonprofit with about 200 employees. Our health insurance company recently offered us their free wellness program which includes on on-line wellness survey & feedback, on-line lifestyle wellness programs, and encourages tracking your annual exams (physical, mammogram, etc.) on-line. We sent the enrollment information to our 100 employees that are covered by the health insurance, but it doesn't seem to be catching on. We can't afford much in terms of rewards (we are raffling $200 worth of gift certificates to those that complete all 5 steps).

Does anyone have suggestions of inexpensive initiatives that worked to improve overall wellness and morale at their company? We'd like to be able to allow ALL our employees to participate AND enjoy the program.

I also don't have much senior management support. Any suggestions there?

NeedCoffee

Wellness is such an important topic, yet getting senior management on board can often be difficult, if not impossible! Here's a few suggestions - maybe something will spark an idea!

1. Contact your local public health representatives for the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, American Dietetic Assocation, etc. I was able to get tons of free goodies from them that promote wellness. They also have access to free programs they may be able to bring to your company.
2. Circulate a sign-up sheet the next time your town has a Breast Cancer/Alzheimers/Diabetes/etc walk, and see how many people you can get to join. Offer a special raffle (perhaps with your free swag!) to participants in the walk. This is also great teambuilding!
3. Talk to local gyms about group rates - not a corporate membership that your company would have to subsidize - most gyms give discounted rates for enrollments of 10 or more. Then, have a lunchtime brown-bag session where a trainer comes in to talk about fitness and nutrition, and plug their gym.
4. See if your community is part of the Steps To A Healthier US program - you can often get pedometers from them to pass out to your employees.
5. Institute a "Walk with the CEO (or mgmt member of your choice)" day once a week. At lunchtime, have interested employees bring their walking shoes and do a 30 minute walk with the CEO. This is a great morale booster as well.

I wish you luck - its difficult but worth it! Kudos for trying to get wellness into the workplace.

Sarah

System

Thanks for the good advice, Sarah! I really like the "walk with the CEO idea."