Category — Worksite Wellness

Research studies show that untargeted health-promotion campaigns have little long-term impact.                  

Chronic diseases, which rob person and families of their health and happiness, represent major costs to employers in the form of health-care and disability costs, lost productivity, and absenteeism.                  

Wellness Programs should address risky behaviors that can help your employees eat healthier, increase their level of physical activity, help reduce stress, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and quit use of tobacco. Wellness programs should focus on assisting employees achieve and maintain their optimal health status.

Robust worksite-health programs focused on changing lifestyle behavior have been proven to yield a $3 to $6 return on investment for each dollar invested. It takes about three to five years after the initial program investment to realize these savings.

Ninety-three percent of United States  corporations offer some kind of health-promotion program for their employees, but is it the right type?

Primary Kinds of Wellness Programs

Programs focusing on illness management. These programs monitor and treat specific illnesses. Illness management follows the 80/20 rule –  80 percent of health-care costs are spent on 20 percent of employees.

Illness management is stated to have a $7 to $10 return on investment within a year. the 20 percent of employees requiring the greatest medical expenditures today are generally different 20 percent who’ll cause the greatest medical expenses a year or two down the road.

Programs focusing on health enhancement and risk management. These programs focus on lifestyle behavior change, and offer a $3 to $6 return on investment within two to five years, as reported by a 2004 report issued by the National Business Group on Health.

It is important to note that a $3 to $6 return on an entire staff member population produces a higher total savings than does disease management.

Good Data Drives Good Company Decisions

• Based on more than 120 research studies, the National Company Group on Health announced that, within five years of program implementation, overall benefit-to-cost ratios (return on investment) of –

• $3.48 in decreased health-care costs per dollar invested.

• $5.82 in lower absenteeism per dollar invested.

The Facts Speak for Themselves – Wellness Helps Reduce Costs

• A 2003 analysis of one big USA  business found that simply assisting staff members control their blood pressure (BP) alone can save $547 per person per year.

• Johnson and Johnson claims to have saved $38 million in health-care costs for its workers between 1995 and 1999 by promoting healthful lifestyles.

Health expenses decreased $224 per worker per year (averaged over four years), and this rate improved over time. the business found most benefits in the third and fourth years after program initiation.

• A 2004 Univ. of Michigan study of 23,500 General Motors employees showed that nonexercising employees claimed at least $100 more per year in health-care costs than exercisers.

The published study  also reported that obese, sedentary workers who began exercising at least twice a week lowered their costs by an typical of $500 a year.

• the Washoe County School District in Nevada estimated that, in a single year, it spent $300,000 on direct costs associated with obesity and $1 million for gastric-bypass surgeries. It instituted a weight-loss program that paid employees $10 per pound lost, up to 25 pounds.

Program participants missed three fewer workdays per year, producing a cost savings of $15.60 per program dollar spent.

Staff Time                  

Building a successful Wellness Program requires staff time as well as money. Some larger organizations may spend 20 hours per week for three to six months preparing all the steps before launching a Wellness Program.                  

Company Costs                  

Monetary costs can fluctuate commonly, depending on whether the business compensates all costs, the employees pay all costs, or the costs are shared.                  

A 1992 study indicated that 28 percent of businesses spent $5 or less per worker, and 19 percent spent between $6-10 per worker.                  

The Wellness Council of America estimates the cost per employee to be between $100 and $150 per year for an effective wellness program that produces a return on investment of $300 to $450. A sample expenditure for various levels of programs include –                   

Program Type                  

A minimal (largely paper) program          $1 – $7         

A moderate program                   

A medium program with several activities       $16 – $35            

A fairly robust program             $36 – $75      

A very comprehensive, effective program       $76 – $112            

• the news isn’t encouraging. According to Corporation Week, family health-care premiums increased 49% from 2000 to 2004.

Another increase of 12-15 percent is expected in 2005. General Motors expects to spend $5.6 billion on healthcare costs in 2005, or 40 percent more than it earned in profits in 2004.

• More research shows that poor diet andphysical inactivity are major drivers of increases in healthcare costs for businesss. the number of obese adults has doubled since the 1970s.

• the rise in obesity has a significant impact on health-care costs. on average, 2002 health-care costs for an obese person were $1,244 higher than for a person with a healthy weight.

• Obesity is causing rapid increases in type 2 diabetes and contributes directly to a 65 percent increase in diabetes treatment from 1987 to 2002. Nearly $1 of every $5 spent on healthcare in the U.S. is for a person with diabetes.

Treating employee healthcare as an investment, rather than a cost, can yield long-term dividends

• at least 50% of your organization’s health-care costs are driven by the lifestyle related behaviors of your employees, such as use of tobacco, poor diet, and lack of exercise.

• In the past 10 years, the annual return on investment for Wellness Programs has been as much as $6 saved for every $1 spent, doubling the return on investment of earlier programs.

• the average reduction in health-plan costs, sick time, disability costs, and workers’ compensation is more than 25 percent for well-designed Wellness Programs.

• Fit staff members are more productive staff members, with fewer sick days, fewer accidents, higher morale, and lower job turnover.

The concern for employee wellness is an increasing trend for American company. Why? the link between employee wellness and the bottom line is clear and consistent.

Corporations who integrate wellness in their overall objectives find they experience lowered absences, better morale, lowered health risks, and lowered health-care costs.

The purpose of this guide to is to encourage and help you launch your own Wellness Program. When you already have a program, but aren’t receiving the results you expected, perhaps some of the ideas and best practices in this toolkit will help you and your staff members reap the benefits of a healthier workforce.

At least 50% of health-care expenditures are lifestyle-related, and accordingly, potentially preventable. Yet despite the $5,000 an typical corporation spends on health care per staff member each year, most corporations are spending less than 5% of that on health testings and prevention.

The most robust meta-evaluation of Wellness Program studies shows something very exciting! It shows that Wellness Programs are not only effective at assisting to reverse the rising spiral of health-care costs, but these programs are also becoming more effective. the typical cost-benefit ratio has increased from 1 – 3 for earlier programs to 1 – 6 today.

Simply put, the typical reduction in health-care costs, sick leave, disability costs, and workers’ compensation is more than 25% for well designed programs.

Corporate wellness provides a long-term approach for helping keep workers well. the single most important thing you can do for your workers is to start a Wellness Program now.

Health coaching to facilitate the promotion of healthy behavior and achievement of health-related goals

Coaching has become acceptable to both company and person to help improve performance, manage stress and achieve work and personal goals. Yet very few papers have been published with a specific focus on health and coaching.

This article highlights the possible role of coaching to facilitate the promotion of healthful behaviors and to help individuals achieve their health-related objectives.

Introduction to Health Coaching

The practice of personal, family, health, life, business, sports, performance and executive coaching has grown substantially since the early 1990s (Cockerill 2002, Fournies 2000, Neenan and Palmer 2001, Parsloe and Wray 2000, Peltier 2001).

Although the term “coach” has been borrowed as a metaphor from sport, it’s now applied to the personal and work domains. Accordingly the term “coaching” has entered into the public psyche beyond the sports pages of the national newspapers and is becoming ordinarily accepted as advantageous to its recipients.

It can even be seen as trendy having your own personal life coach. Whereas, in the United Kingdom, there’s still a stigma attached to seeing a counsellor or psychotherapist.

What’s health coaching?

There are many definitions of coaching. Four are summarized below –

1. Health coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them – a facilitation approach (Whitmore 1992, based on Gallwey, a tennis professional).

2. Health coaching – Directly concerned with the immediate improvement of performance and development of skills by a form of tutoring or instruction – an instructional approach (Parsloe 1995).

3. Health coaching – the art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of another – a facilitation approach (Downey 1999).

Psychologists have created another variation –  

4. Health coaching psychology is for enhancing well-being and performance in personal life and work domains with normal, non-clinical populations, underpinned by models of coaching grounded in established adult learning or psychological approaches (adapted Grant and Palmer 2002).

It can probably be assumed that these definitions should reflect the nature of coaching as practised by many practitioners.

Therefore the key aspects of coaching, depending upon the model of coaching being applied, appear to include enhancing well-being, learning, facilitation, tutoring, instruction, development of skills and bettering performance. In addition, coaching is usually goal and solution focused (Grant 2001).

Health Coaching

Similar to health education specialists, ordinarily the coach takes an active and directive role. Ordinarily, the coach assists the coachee to achieve their goals by facilitating the learning process.

If “health coaching” or “coaching for health” is the focus, the coach may help to educate the coachee on specific health-related topics and subsequently support them in achieving

Health Coaching –  Practice Briefing

Health coaching to facilitate the promotion of healthful behavior and achievement of their health-related goals. as the term coaching is becoming acceptable to the public, the theory of health coaching could be more favourably received by a customer group on the other hand to attending a health education lecture.

An established health-related professional body, the Institute of Wellness and Education, provides a definition of wellness and health education in their constitution –

The practice of wellness and health education could  be described as the organisation and execution of the influences affecting the environment, in addition to individual knowledge, attitudes and behavior, in matters concerning health with a view to enabling communities and person to maintain and promote personal and community health and well-being, together with a proper acceptance and use of the health and medical services available. (IHPE 2002)

This definition does not conflict with the general principles of the coaching approach, although its focus is on health and it can also be at the community level. This would be similar to stress or stress management coaching that is now available.

The International Stress Management Association (UK) has recognized the practice of this form of coaching for a number of years. It might be argued that stress management training and stress management coaching comes under the umbrella of the health education field.

Another professional body, the Association for Coaching (2003), includes both stress management coaching and health coaching on its website as “Speciality Coaching’.

Consequently the term “health coaching” is entering into public awareness, although not necessarily among mainstream health education or promotion professionals.

Within the field of health, papers have been published on behavioral counselling which has been used to educate patrons with coronary heart illness (Steptoe et al 1999). Intriguingly, the counselling is active and directive in nature and takes an educational approach which can be more accurately described as instructional coaching.

A tentative definition of health coaching is given below –

Health coaching is the practice of health education and wellness within a coaching context, to enhance the well-being of person and to facilitate the achievement of their health-related goals.

This definition attempts to link health education and promotion to the key elements of coaching.

Psychological Blocks to Change

Due to the personal nature of coaching it may include tackling the health-related psychological blocks to change which can be challenged in the individual or group coaching session.

These cognitive or attitudinal blocks to change can be divided into Health Inhibiting Thinking (HITs) and Health Enhancing Thinking (HETs).* Cognitive techniques such as Socratic questioning can be used to help a customer to modify their thinking.

Health Coaching –  Final Thoughts

With the increasing interest in coaching, the introduction of “health coaching” or “coaching for health” might have an appeal across different generations.

Nonetheless, there is a lack of published research that underpins the effectiveness of health coaching. Although many models of coaching exist (Bluckert 2003), the application of models to health coaching which take an educational approach, like cognitive-behavioral or multimodal, may provide promising results (Neenan and Palmer 2001, Palmer et al 2003).

In our modern and hectic lives filled with the demands of family, work, and much more, it might seem difficult to tackle our wellness on our own.  

A lot of of us develop goals that seem beyond reach and we can’t seem to stick to a specific wellness program for an extended period of time.  

With the numerous struggles that prevent us from reaching our optimum individual wellness, many of us would welcome the assistance and guidance of a expert wellness coach.  

A wellness coach is a trained specialist who works with person to help them to reach their wellness objectives by developing and implementing personal wellness programs.  

A wellness coach is highly educated and ordinarily maintains advanced degrees in areas such as Exercise Physiology, Occupational or Physical Therapy, Athletic Training, and Nutrition.  

A wellness coach sets achievable goals for the client, holds them accountable, and acts as a guide, motivator, and support system for that individual.  They focus on behavioral change by using individually designed programs to meet the unique needs of the client while offering creative solutions to help them achieve their goals.  

In order to fully understand the role of a wellness coach it is important to understand the various factors that involved in overall wellness.  The five major components of wellness are health risks, physical activity, stress management, weight management, and nutrition.  

A wellness coach focuses on each of these areas of wellness while meeting the specific needs of the customer whether they’re trying to lose weight, get in shape, reduce stress, or quit use of tobacco.  

They evaluate a person’s needs based on a highly scientific study known as a Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} .  After a wellness coach has determined the specific needs of the client, he or she’s able to create the wellness program, set achievable objectives for that individual, and monitor them while they reach success.  

Wellness coaches focus on physical health as well as mental and emotional health for create a balance in the customer’s life.  They not only work on assisting the customer with their current wellness issues, but they assist the customer to maintain their individual health by creating future objectives in their wellness program.  

Every individual has unique needs and time constraints that require attention in different ways.  A wellness coach provides convenience with their services by working with customers in a variety of ways.  

The client and coach may use telephone meetings, e-mails and instant messaging (electronic coaching), face-to-face interactions, or a combination of these various forms of communication.  

Although electronic coaching is becoming the most popular method due to its lower cost and efficiency, each client may choose the method or methods will work best for them.  

The wellness coach is available 24 hours a day through internet based communication to make it even more convenient for the customer to reach his or her objectives.  

Wellness coaches offer the kind of assistance that fits the needs of each patron to make it easier for the patron to embrace their personal wellness program.  

Based on the convenience, knowledge, and assistance that is offered by a wellness coach, it’s easy to see why more individuals  are taking benefit of these coaches to assist them in achieving their ultimate wellness goals.  

How to Take Control of Stress and Improve Your Wellness

What’s Stress?

Stress is the emotional, physiological, and psychological effects caused by internal or external mental pressure.  It is an unavoidable part of life, but despite its negative connotation, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  

Stress might even be advantageous in cases when it enhances performance and assists people  to achieve difficult objectives.  However, when stress is excessive and causes an individual to feel loss of control, health problems can occur such as headaches, tension, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, irritability, and digestive problems.  

When stress levels elevate to this point, wellness is compromised.  Person may seek the assistance of a stress management coach for help them take control of their lives and improve their wellness.  

Who are Stress Management Coaches?

Stress management coaches are educated experts who develop programs to assist individuals in developing coping strategies to manage stress and minimize the presence of stressors in daily life.  

Coaches explore the reasons why a personal may react in certain ways to various situations by using health assessments in addition to depression and anxiety screenings.  

After deciding an individual’s causes for their feelings, stress management coaches are better able to develop programs tailored to meet specific needs.  

Coaches set attainable objectives, act as a mentor and a support system, and use techniques that are most suitable for each specific individual.  

There are many effective methods to reduce stress, and stress management coaches can help you to achieve your objectives to make yourself happier and healthier.  

How Controlling Stress Improves Your Health

When person are faced with chronic stress it begins to cause physical symptoms which could range in severity.  Chronic stress can weaken the immune system, consequently making the individual more susceptible to colds and the flu in addition to more serious medical problems like heart disease and diabetes.  

Wellness might also suffer due to the fact that the maintenance of healthy habits is often diminished in priority in the presence of stress.  There are many helpful techniques that a stress management coach can help you create to protect your health from the dangers of excessive stress.  

Take Control

Stress may be as detrimental to individual health as a poor diet or even tobacco use when it is out of control.  Managing stress is an achievable goal and will certainly be a reality with the help of a professional.  

With a stress management coach individuals may work to accept that stress and take action to manage it.  Learning to effectively deal with stress will improve current daily life and protect your wellness in the future.  

Do you find it challenging to stay excited when attempting to make changes to your health? Are you aware that changes should be made in your daily life but you do not know where to begin?

Wellness coaches are trained experts who work with you individually to help you reach your wellness objectives by developing and starting personal wellness programs.  

They motivate, guide, and support you to reach sustainable behavioral changes by offering creative wellness solutions.  

Wellness coaches provide individually designed programs to meet your unique needs by focusing on physical, mental, and emotional health.  

They help you become proactive in your life by eliminating unhealthful behaviors and making wellness a priority.  

Advantages of Wellness Coaching for Your Employees

Staff Members can benefit  greatly from wellness coaching in a selection of ways.  Wellness coaching is one aspect of a wellness program that can help individuals decrease major health risks in their lives by changing high risk behaviors.  

Some of the many reasons why staff members work with wellness coaches are to get in shape, lose weight, reduce stress, quit tobacco use, and develop balance in their lives. Wellness coaches assist individuals with current medical problems in addition to preventing future wellness issues.  

Because each program that a wellness coach creates is unique to suit the needs of the customer, they can make sure that it’ll be a program that is right for them.

A lot of busy workers may feel that they do not have the time to spend working individually with a coach so these wellness professionals offer coaching sessions in a variety of ways.  

While electronic coaching through the use of e-mails and instant messaging has become a well-liked method due to its convenience, telephone and face-to-face interactions may also be used.  

Employees have the ability to achieve their wellness objectives and improve their health and well being through the assistance of their wellness coach.

Advantages of Wellness Coaching for the Company

The overall benefits of wellness coaching for a corporation are remarkable.  Worker high risk behaviors like tobacco use and obesity cost companies millions of dollars every year.  

These high risk behaviors often cause preventable illness and keep employees from coming to work. Wellness coaches guide, support, hold clients accountable, and ensure that they receive continued motivation to help them achieve their wellness objectives and eliminate unhealthful behaviors in their lives.  

By beginning wellness programs and using wellness coaching in their organizations, corporations reduce the risk of preventable disease in their organizations.  

This improves the overall health of staff members, reduces healthcare and insurance costs, reduces absenteeism, and ultimately enhances performance and productivity.  

When workers experience the advantages of higher levels wellness in their lives it causes an improvement in job attitude, energy, and morale.  

Businesses that utilize wellness coaching for their workers experience the benefits of higher productivity.

Hiring a health coach will affect your life in more ways than you can imagine. the advantages of hiring a health coach are so great that even the largest companies in the world are getting in on the action.

But before you get began, you owe it to yourself to consider the ways that your life will change. After all, anytime that you are faced with a major life change you should really consider everything that is going to be brought to the forefront.

There are three main ways that a health coach will affect your life. of course, everybody is different, but typically these details will come into play.

And the good thing is that they are all advantageous to your life in one way or the next. In other words, hiring a health coach is not something that will have a negative impact on your lifestyle.

A health coach will help you to take the way that you look and feel to the next level. Not only will this help with the way that individuals  perceive you, but it’ll also do a lot for your inner emotions as well.

When you look better and feel good about what you are doing, this is going to show in the way that you act as well as the way that you see yourself. All in all, a health coach will allow you to gain more self esteem than you ever thought possible.

You only have one life, so making the most of it is important. A health coach will make certain that you’re doing what’s best to help you live a long and healthy life.

This might  be the largest impact that a health coach has on the way that you live. After all, when minor changes in your lifestyle can help you to live healthier and longer you’d be a fool to pass this by.

In most cases, working with a health coach will change the way that you see the world around you. Do not forget, not only do they take great pride in shaping your body but the same thing holds true when it comes to your mental state.

Not everybody may be a model, but everybody can feel good about themselves. With a health coach, you will realize the good that is within in addition to the good in others.  

A health coach can and will affect your life from day one. If you are looking for a positive influence to shape your mind and body and also help you to live healthy, a health coach is right for you.

How can a health coach help me? This is a question that many people  ask themselves time and time again. After all, the thought of having somebody to help reach your goals has to be somewhat appealing, right?

But with that in mind, until you know what a health coach can do for you, you will probably never move forward with hiring one. Luckily, with a bit of research and soul searching you will be able to determine the benefits of working with a health coach.

Ordinarily speaking, the most basic way that a health coach can help is by helping you in reaching your health and exercise related goals. While it’s easy for individuals  to set goals, when it comes to actually carrying out the work to reach them things can get a bit more difficult.

This is where a health coach can come into play. They will be able to assess your objectives, let you know if they are feasible, and then work with you every step of the way. This way, you won’t be on your own when times get tough and you feel like throwing in the towel.

Now that you know the general details, the next thing is to consider the more in depth areas in which a health coach can assist you. as you can imagine, a health coach devotes most of their time to coaching others as far as their physical and sometimes mental health is concerned.

A lot of people  decide to hire a health coach because they need simple help in getting their body back in shape. After all, as you start to get older and time gets tight, keeping in shape is not always the easiest thing to do.

This is especially true when you spend the majority of your time at work and/or with your family. But luckily, a health coach can work with you either in person, on the phone, or even online. This makes it easy to get the assistance that you need without really changing your lifestyle.

One thing that you need to know about hiring a health coach is that they will work with any type of customer. If you think that your problem is too simple, you are wrong. and in the same thought, there’s no issue that is too big either.

The fact of the matter is that a health coach takes great pride in assisting whoever who needs it. So before you pass this opportunity by, rememberthat no matter what you are up against you will qualify for help.

To find out exactly what a health coach can do for you, touch base with one of them to discuss your situation. From there, you’ll have a much better feel for how to move forward.