Workplace Wellness Programs, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Workplace wellness involves any healthy promotion program in the workplace. The promotion can include an activity or a policy adopted by the organization with the desire of supporting a healthy culture in the workplace and improving the health outcomes of the work force. Health promotion is a process that enables employees to increase control over their health. Health promotion can also be conducted out of the workplace. Workplace wellness programs include policies adopted by an organizational, which are meant to facilitate the health of employees and may use incentives to improve participation of employees. Workplace wellness has evolved to encompass the creation of a healthy culture within organizations (O’Donnell, 2001).

Literature review

Over the past few years, the issue of chronic diseases has increased, and lifestyle diseases have affected the productivity of employees across organizations. Essentially, some categories of behavior contribute to these lifestyle diseases. These are poor nutrition, substance abuse, and inactivity. These issues are the main causes of chronic diseases and result in cases of heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, and other conditions that can affect employee performance. These issues affect performance because the quality of life of employees is adversely affected by the condition. The costs of treating chronic diseases also influence the economy. Furthermore, chronic diseases does not only affect older people but can also affect working age adults, and this affects the economy as the productivity of these working individuals ids affected. This, therefore, necessitates the need to adopt measures that aim at improving wellness at the workplace to ensure employee productivity (Madsen, 2003).

There is also an increasing interest among employees for wellness within the workplace. With the increase in the rate of chronic diseases, employees feel that workplace wellness is crucial in preventing these conditions. Employers are also concerned that the costs of covering complications that affect employees can be reduced by adoption of workplace wellness. Employee poor health habits can cause significant challenges in providing healthcare coverage.

To reduce the costs of health care costs, it becomes imperative to adopt workplace wellness among employees. These programs aim at preventing the onset of diseases, diagnosing, and treating these diseases. Promotion of healthy practices relates to prevention of diseases as it aims at attaining improved health through change of behavior. Workplace wellness is effective as it takes an advantage of the employer’s access to the employee, this will enhance various interventions with respect to their welfare.

The Affordable Care Act has also contributed to the desire to implement workplace wellness programs. The Act makes provisions for promoting health care programs and engagement in activities that improve wellness. The Act provides technical assistance for the Center for Disease Control and provides resources and tools for employers to plan and conduct evaluations. Additionally other organizations provide funding to organizations which have programs that aim at improving the wellness of employees. The Act also raises the allowed limit for rewards offered through group health plans for participants in wellness programs. This provision provides employers an advantage in rewarding participants of group health programs. Moreover, the Affordable Care Act embraces preventive and wellness practices aimed at reducing the occurrence of chronic diseases and providing recommendations on preventive measures (Koh & Sebelius, 2010).

Relationship between wellness and workplace

The workplace setting has a powerful effect on the wellness of people. When there is job satisfaction, people are more productive and are likely to be healthier. On the other hand, when the work environment is negative people are likely to be stressed. Stress can seriously affect the individual’s physical and mental health and their general productivity. There are several components of a workplace culture, which can affect the wellness of an employee. The underlying principle in the productivity of employees is workplace wellness. It is imperative for accompany to adopt workplace wellness programs if they intend to retain their employees. This connection between wellness and the workplace is essential in employee satisfaction and as such must be incorporated into the organization’s strategy. Employees seek for jobs that have considerable benefits, are enjoyable, and provide excellent health benefits. It is, therefore, essential for organizations to improve job satisfaction but also ensure that their employees enjoy the job. The concept of workplace wellness meets both the employer and the employee’s benefits (Kirk & Brown, 2003).

Components of workplace wellness programs

Several components must be present in any workplace wellness program. These components include health education, which should focus on development of skills and change of lifestyle behavior. This should include dissemination of information and building awareness tailored to the needs and interests of employees. The program should also have supportive physical and social environments and include the expectations of the organization concerning healthy behaviors and the realization of policies that support wellness and reduce diseases. The integration of this program into the structure and the culture of the organization is also essential as well as linking programs related to each other. It is also relevant to provide these programs within the worksite to ensure follow up when necessary. Other additional components that are vital to workplace wellness programs are providing support for behavior change, and any necessary follow up and treatment, and providing evaluation processes that help enhance the efficiency and the effectiveness of the program.

Framework

Workplace wellness programs, such as nutrition and physical activities, can exist as a workplace health program or part of a wider range of objectives such as stress management and weight loss. A comprehensive framework for workplace intervention programs includes environmental changes and policy, behavioral and social approaches and informational messages. Environmental change and policy approaches are intended to make the choice of healthy living easier. These programs target the entire workforce by modifying organizational or physical structures. These may include improving access to healthy foods and improving the opportunities to engage in physical activities. Strategies that relate to the organizations policies involve changing procedures and rules for employees such as offering insurance benefits or allowing breaks. Educational and informational strategies try to develop knowledge necessary to make informed decisions on healthy living. These strategies facilitate the adaptation of favorable behavior for wellness. Examples of these strategies include information provided on the company’s pamphlets or posters. On the other hand, behavioral and social strategies try to change behavior indirectly by focusing on cognition responsible for moderating behavior changes. These strategies may adopt counseling, skill building, use of incentives and rewards to reinforce change and inclusion.

Benefits

The bottom line of workplace wellness programs is that healthier employees tend to be more productive and happier with their jobs. Workplace wellness programs offer information to employees and provide healthy incentives. Employees are exceptionally valuable to an organization and their wellness should be appreciated. The benefits of wellness programs to employers are clear, and they provide the organization a strategic advantage by making investments that tend to lower their expenses in the end. More productive employees and reduced health care expenses, as well as reduced rates of non-attendance and improved retention rates, are some benefits the employer gets from a workplace wellness program. Many individuals have issues with their health at one time or another. These problems vary greatly according to individuals and include issues like unhealthy eating habits, drug abuse, and healthy issues of even social problems. These issues can affect the quality of life of an individual but using the right program can bring positive change.

Conclusion

Workplace wellness programs do not benefit the employer only but also improves the employee’s quality of life. Workplace wellness programs can bring positive change to an employee’s health and wellbeing while improving the productivity of the employee. Some intervention programs need motivation to be effective and workplace wellness programs can provide the individual with a motivating environment to complete a program. The workplace environment provides the notion of comradeship with co-workers, which can provide the right motivation. Interaction with co-workers can provide encouragement when required. Workplace wellness programs are very effective for employees since an individual is part of a team (Berry, Mirabito & Baun, 2010).

Reference list

Berry, L. L., Mirabito, A. M., & Baun, W. B. (2010). What’s the hard return on employee wellness programs. Harvard business review, 88(12), 104-112.

Kirk, A. K., & Brown, D. F. (2003). Employee assistance programs: A review of the management of stress and wellbeing through workplace counselling and consulting. Australian psychologist, 38(2), 138-143.

Koh, H. K., & Sebelius, K. G. (2010). Promoting prevention through the affordable care act. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(14), 1296-1299.

Madsen, S. R. (2003). Wellness in the workplace: Preparing employees for change. The Organization Development Journal, 20(5).

O’Donnell, M. P. (Ed.). (2001). Health promotion in the workplace. CengageBrain. com.