6 Ideas to Strengthen Your Wellness Program

Wellness programs have evolved over the past few years and companies looking to improve employee health while lowering health care costs should consider what’s new in wellness in order to make their programs even stronger.

Organizations that have successfully discovered the benefits of wellness programs are taking a fresh approach and updating not just the benefits offered to employees but the implementation of these programs.

Overall Well-being
While many plans focus on fitness and nutrition, employers are expanding initiatives to help employees with overall well-being – from mental and emotional health to financial fitness, sleep, and work-life balance. Offering programs that address the whole person is a key component to improving employee health and reducing medical claims.

Individualized Wellness Options
The more successful health and wellness programs recognize that employees are individuals and have different needs, challenges and motivations. When introducing a new component of a wellness plan, employers should consider offering a variety of options within each workshop, activity and program. This can be achieved through the use of individualized menu planners, fitness trackers, online and real-time coaches, text messages and reminder apps, access to online live chats for questions and answers, and personalized employee portals on the company’s health and wellness web site.

Incentives – Offer the Carrot
Rewards, rather than penalties, work best to incentivize employees to participate in wellness programs – and rewarding employees for participation or meeting goals can be very effective. Incentives don't need to be costly to drive engagement. Employers can offer a reduction in health premiums, gift cards or a raffle ticket for a trip to all who complete a program (a weekend in New York City, anyone?).

Fitness Anywhere
Finding time to exercise is always a challenge. Encouraging employees with opportunities to increase physical activity during traditional work hours provides flexibility – and may be just what your employees need. Fitness trackers are a great way to encourage employees to take steps at work or during lunch breaks. Competitions and challenges are always good motivators to increase employee participation in fitness. 

Biometric Screenings
A comprehensive wellness program should include biometric screenings in addition to programs on nutrition, fitness and mental/emotional health. Employers who use biometric screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI and other health risks can successfully lower overall health care costs. When screenings are paired with a wellness coach, employees have the tools and support needed to make healthy lifestyle changes.

Coaching and Online Resources
Implementing one-on-one coaching to complement your online wellness resources can help meet all the needs of your employees. Providing a range of resources and tools, and ways to access them, is the best way to ensure that your employees will engage in your program. Offering telephonic coaching or email support from coaches as well as online seminars, videos and articles allows employees to access health information at times that are convenient to them, no matter where they may be.

Wellness Workdays is at the forefront of the latest trends in worksite wellness and uses all of these tools, and more, to help employees make healthy lifestyle changes. Contact us to find out how we can help your employees live healthier lives.

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Visit Wellness Workdays for more information about our worksite wellness programs.

The Upside of Text Messages

How often do you say “just text me”? In our plugged-in world, communicating through text message is the new normal. Many stores have even jumped on the texting bandwagon and use text messages to alert customers about upcoming sales. The opportunities to communicate through text message are seemingly endless. A new study of a texting intervention sought to determine whether texting could help people increase their activity and lead healthier lives.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, included 48 men and women ages 18-69 years old. All of the participants had risk factors for heart disease. The participants’ baseline activity was established during week one with activity trackers. The study was then conducted in two phases.

In the first phase, the participants were randomly assigned to either unblinded or blinded activity tracking. Unblinded tracking allowed participants to see their activity data through a smartphone interface, while the blinded trackers were unable to see their activity data. In phase two, the unblinded participants were randomly assigned into one of two groups, smart texts versus no smart texts (the control). The smart texts group received coaching text messages three times per day, while the control group did not receive coaching text messages. The “smart texts” incorporated the patients name and personal details to provide encouragement based on their current level of activity. All participants had a goal of 10,000 steps per day.

The phase one data revealed no significant difference in steps between the unblinded trackers and blinded trackers. The phase two data, however, demonstrated a significant difference between participants receiving smart texts compared to those who did not. Overall, those who received text messages walked an average of 2,534 more steps per day than those who did not receive a text message. Additionally, 81 percent of those receiving text messages reached their 10,000-steps-a-day goal, compared with only 44 percent of those not receiving text messages.

Bottom Line: While the market for activity trackers has grown, people may need more than an activity tracker to stay motivated to move more. Evidence has shown that text messages can help patients remember to take medications, stop smoking and request help at the first sign of medical problems. Text messaging may also prove to be a useful tool to inspire and motivate people to lead healthier lives through increased physical activity. 

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Visit Wellness Workdays for more information about our worksite wellness programs.