Nutrition Know-how. Do your employees really know how to eat well?

If your employees are like most Americans, they probably think they eat better than they actually do. A recent survey by Consumer Reports showed that 90 percent of Americans think their diet is healthy, yet according to a recent Centers for Disease Control report, less than one-third of Americans manage to consume even two servings of fruits and vegetables per day! The goal is 5-9 servings each day!


Do your employees claim to know everything they need to know about nutrition? Have them take the Consumer Reports quiz. If they do alright on that one, have them try this one from Center for Science in the Public Interest so they can rate their own diet.  If your employees are interested in nutrition, try a few of these ideas from some of our clients:
- Set up a pot-luck healthy lunch
- Organize a "Salad Spinner" where each employee chooses a different salad ingredient to bring in (i.e. baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, etc.)
- Invite a Registered Dietitian to present a "Super Foods" or "Diet Myths and Facts" seminar 
- Offer  the "Nutrition Price Is Right" or "Nutrition Jeopardy" game in your cafeteria
- Incorporate some healthy resources and links in your newsletters and on your intranet site
- Evaluate your cafeteria, vending and meeting options


Good luck! As a Registered Dietitian, this topic is near and dear to me. Let me know what you do to promote nutrition at your workplace.

Days off and massages, exotic trips, oh my! Worksite wellness incentives

It is always interesting to read about successful worksite wellness programs and so I found this article on incentives, "Gym facilities, rewards, trips 'perk up' workplaces" very interesting. The article talks about a number of different companies and what incentives they have used to motivate employees to adopt healthier lifestyle habits. Several of the companies offered incentives to employees for participating in wellness activities whereas others offered rewards for actual behavior change. The range of incentives offered include discounted gym memberships, lower co-pays, paid days off, trips to exotic locations, free massages and/ or personal training as well as discounts on insurance premiums.

In my experience, an incentive program must first consider the "personality" of the organization as well as the history of wellness at the organization. A well structured program starts out with rewards which are relatively easy to earn (i.e. an employee must attend a screening and/or complete a personal health assessment) and become more progressively difficult, yet still attainable, over time. For instance, some of our clients that offer our Olympic Circle program provide incentives for employees who participate in a combination of onsite or web-based programs, including our 12-week wellness challenges or our popular productivity seminars as well as those who achieve or strive for health related goals. For instance, those employees who are able to lose weight or complete a smoking cessation program earn similar rewards to those who maintain a healthy weight or are already non-smokers.

The overarching goal, of course, for any health professional managing a worksite wellness program, is to offer these extrinsic motivators or incentives to employees and then have these new behaviors (physical activity and healthy eating, for example) become intrinsic so that employees want to continue them regardless of whether there is an incentive.

When designing the program, be sure to use your needs and interest surveys and personal health assessments for specifics on what behaviors employees are looking to change or adopt. Good luck!

Does your company have the right plan for wellness? Follow these steps.

As wellness becomes more respected as a means of moderating health care costs, more and more employers are looking to develop, launch and execute wellness programs. As any wellness professional would agree, this is great news! A recent national survey conducted by The Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA) found than 90 percent of businesses they surveyed, currently offer some form of wellness programming. Hooray!

The not so great news, according to the survey, is that these programs are not as strong as they could be.  A strong and successful wellness program must be carefully planned before it is executed. Unfortunately, according to this survey, over 90 percent of these businesses are simply offering activity-centered programs with little thought to the strategy necessary to promote the right results. These programs typically involve interventions, such as yoga, or Weight Watchers@Work, with little planning, strategy or evaluation measures included. In my experience, some companies claiming to offer wellness programs have the right intentions but the execution is not complete. Furthermore, when companies say they are offering wellness but aren’t reaping the rewards, they incorrectly believe that wellness programs don’t work.

In addition to setting up a long- and short-term strategy, this plan MUST be supported by an innate culture of wellness in the workplace. A company, for instance, with a plethora of unhealthy food in the cafeteria or vending machines which provide options that are high in fat, salt and sugar may make it more difficult for employees to achieve true lifestyle changes. 

Another hallmark of a strong and a positive result-generating wellness program is that it is data driven. In this case, the rationale, activities and the benchmarks are all evidence based using data derived from health care costs and EAP utilization, for example. Furthermore, evaluation methods must be set up in the beginning stages to be sure that results are evaluated and measured.

Developing a strong wellness program is better for employees (and the employer!) than the sporadic plans that are offered at so many companies, but they require clear intention and planning.  To design strategic initiatives, which best enhance employees' health and help employers manage health care costs, consider utilizing the following 7 criteria, offered by WELCOA and supported by research as effective in promoting appropriate behavior change and cost avoidance: 

1. Capture senior level support

2. Create a cohesive wellness team

3. Collect data

4. Craft an operating plan

5. Choose appropriate interventions

6. Create supportive environments

7. Carefully evaluate outcomes

We've seen these steps work for our clients and we are sure they can work for you! For more information on WELCOA’s Seven Benchmarks of Success visit

http://www.welcoa.org/wellworkplace/index.php?category=16 or our website at www.wellnessworkdays.com .