Wellness Programs : Wellness Programs – Creating Supportive Environments.
Exactly how does it feel to walk into your workplace? Do people look happy? is the place well lit and cheerful? Do you feel welcome, wanted and energized? Or do you feel a gloom come over you, and count the hours until you can leave?
The influence of the worksite environment on the wellness of employees is profound. First there is the physical look, feel, smell, and sounds of the place. Then you are affected by the policies, like whether others are allowed to smoke around you.
After awhile, more subtle factors start to affect you. Do your attempts to adopt a healthier lifestyle get recognized at work, or are they sabotaged? Are your managers inspiring you by being healthy role models? Do you get regular opportunities to learn healthier behavior?
In a supportive environment, personnel feel that the company they work for provides them with encouragement, opportunity, and rewards for healthy lifestyles.
And the spirit that results is highly contagious. Employees who feel cared are naturally more loyal and productive.
The following ideas will help you transform your workplace environment into one that indeed supports the wellness of your employees and organization.
Health Promotion Program Ideas for Creating Supportive Environments
Health Promotion Friendly Facilities
When you enter a worksite, do you feel comfortable? Could you be glad working there? is there enough light and clean air? Are there pleasant work areas, places to eat decent food, take a walk before lunch? Close your eyes. Precisely how does it smell? Sound? Do the employees have enough space?
There’s no doubt that our physical environment affects us, from basic safety matters to subtle factors that can cause or reduce stress. Healthy environments often have these features –
• Vending machines with healthy food options like low-fat milk, fruits, sugar-free and caffeine-free beverages and low-calorie snacks
• Workout area, walking paths, playing fields, basketball hoop, or other exercise opportunities on-site or nearby
• Cafeteria offers healthy foods including a salad bar with low-fat dressing
• Natural light is used whenever possible; all lighting is appropriate and adequate
• Heating and ventilation is adjustable, comfortable and healthy
• No cigarette machines, ashtrays, or tobacco use areas on-site
• Noise levels are safe and conducive to concentration
• Be sure to work station furniture conforms to ergometric standards
• Safety hazards have been eliminated
• Lockers and showers are available for workforce who workout before work or during breaks
• Stairs are clean and well lit, convenient and pleasant to use
Familiarity may make it hard to evaluate a workplace. Individuals get used to stressful conditions and forget that conditions ever bothered them.
It might be useful to ask people who are unfamiliar with your workplace to walk through with you. Expert consultants can also help.
Proactive Health Promotion Policies
One clear way to influence behavior is through policies and procedures. If nurses aren’t permitted to work more than twelve hours in a row, there will be fewer medication errors.
When parents are allowed flextime to attend to their children’s needs, they’ll be less stressed. When staff members can apply unused sick days to planned vacation time, they’ll save them up instead of calling in sick to use them all.
Supportive corporate policies might include –
• Seatbelt use required in organization cars
• Alcohol and drug policies are appropriate to the industry
• Emergency procedures are developed, known, and practiced
• Flexible work schedules allow staff to exercise, attend children’s school conferences, etc.
• Nontobacco use policy is enforced
• Excessive overtime is discouraged
• Membership at exercise facility is partially reimbursed
• Shift workers are scheduled to allow adequate rest
• Medical care coverage rewards good health
• Absenteeism policy rewards workforce who don’t use sick days
• Worker assistance program available to help workforce with chemical dependencies, depression, family problems
• Meaningful consequences are given for unsafe, unhealthful, prohibited behavior. Your corporation might have a policy against alcohol use during work hours, but if everybody looks the other way when someone comes back from lunch smelling like beer, the culture is one that authorizes drinking at lunch-and one in which written policies could be safely ignored.
Prohibited behaviors ought to be confronted promptly. Otherwise your policies become mere lip service instead of springboards to health.
Consistent Recognition and Rewards for Success
Attention, praise, and rewards are given for wellness achievements.
You can show you value wellness by celebrating your health promotion programs and those who’ve made lifestyle improvements in corporation newsletters, on bulletin boards, and at annual banquets, meetings, and celebrations. Incentives are a direct way to show appreciation, too.
Wellness mentors are sought and applauded, too. Employees who support others’ efforts to improve their health are noticed and appreciated. Peer modeling and mentoring courses can encourage those who enjoy assisting others to step forward into a new role.
Managers Model and Support Healthy Behavior
Nothing could say “We encourage you to exercise often” better than a manager going on a bicycle ride during the lunch hour–or your supervisor sitting next to you in a weight control class.
Wellness activities promote relaxed interaction between people from different departments and at different levels in the chain of command. That promotes relaxed communication and a feeling of solidarity that is pure gold.
Managers can also provide support for personnel who are working on bettering their health. It doesn’t take anything fancy-just a “good job” or “nice to see you at the health and fitness center” can put a glow on the cheeks of most of us.
Managers can also help by allowing workforce the flexibility to attend wellness events.
Ongoing Health Promotion Programs
It is crucial that you give staff the sense that the health promotion program is a permanent and important part of the company, not a company fad. That can begin as soon as a new staff member is hired.
New employees are oriented to the health promotion program as one of the staff member benefits. Information about the health promotion program ought to be presented by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable individuals who invites the new staff member to participate.
The staff members are familiar with the ongoing health promotion programs.
The health promotion programs and wellness staff are well known in the corporation. Opportunities to participate are abundant and it’s easy to sign up.
A broad variety of awareness courses are offered. There are topics of interest for everybody.
