6 Steps to Implementing an Employee Health Program

Shira Litwack, LWMC, CNS, CPT

Medical Fitness Professional

Your personal & Corporate fitness coach

(416) 417-6353

Shira@fitfan4fun.com
Lifestyle Weight Management Coach, Trainer

Certified Nutritional Symptomatologist

6 Steps to Implementing an Employee Health Program

1)Know your people: This might sound painfully simple, but it is also painfully overlooked. THERE IS NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL HEALTH REMEDY. This is the #1 reason wellness dollars are wasted. You have to hire professionals who are addressing the issues faced by your employees.

2)Get your employees involved from the get go. Don’t make this a fait accompli presented to your employees. The employee program is for them, isn’t it? The more involved they are right from the formulation, the better the company’s return on investment.

3)Make fitness & nutrition an integral part of EVERY program. These provide the pivotal point to which every aspect of physical & mental wellness originate. Providing a gym is not providing fitness. Many people have some kind of special medical demand that merits attention. The fitness & nutrition aspect must be able to serve these employees as well.

4)Confidentiality & Privacy: From my experience as a corporate fitness provider, I have found this to be the most overlooked aspect of a corporate wellness program. There are many employees that try and avoid wellness programs because they need privacy..they do not feel secure in a public forum. These are often people who need quite a bit of health support, but they would rather fade away inconspicuously than feel they are subjected to peer scrutiny. Don’t let these employees get lost.

5)IMPLEMENTATION!!!! Please, no empty lunch and learns. This is what I call the Band Aid NOT solution to workplace wellness. It ends up being more costly because chances are you hired one of the corporate wellness groups that send people out to all talk and no action (expensive). Many of us already know what we “should” be doing. Where people fall short is on implementing the advice into their hectic lifestyle. The implementation phase is where you will really reap the benefits of your wellness dollars.

6)Follow up: From the development phase of the program, make sure there is a built in means to measure the success of your program and continue its reign within the company. Quick fixes are never fixes.

Your company has a heartbeat. We all know that our heartbeat is literally our life line. You know the best way for a strong corporate heartbeat is strong employee engagement. People who are healthy and happy will contribute much more to the success of the company. You invest in your employees, and your return on investment will be exponential.

Assessment all the way though followup does not have to be a cumbersome interruption to the flow of your company. There are many creative ways we can do this. But remember, employee contribution and involvement is key to the ultimate success of the program. You are implementing a corporate health program for success, not just to say you have one or you did it.

Camaraderie: I don’t think enough can be said for this right from those toddler play groups right through corporate life. Just here we call it team building. Having the gang join forces to help design and implement a corporate fitness program is FUN, motivating and gives a real sense of contribution to each other. As a customer, there is very little more frustrating than dealing with a company where one group does not know what the others are doing. Building this program cohesively helps build bonds, trust & collaboration. This helps build the perspective potential customers have of your company. Show a strong, united, cohesive face to your corporation.