Do smoking cessation programs really work?

Millions of dollars have been spent on smoking cessation programs. Employers are trying everything they can to get their smoking employees to finally quit smoking because they are raising the healthcare costs for their entire company. Since there are so many smoking cessation programs out there, it makes one wonder, "do smoking cessation programs really work?"

Do incentives really work?

Business and their managers are constantly searching for ways to create a positive working environment that motivates employees to accomplish company objectives at optimal levels of productivity. Monetary incentives in the workplace are a $27 billion industry that reveals a shifting trend towards rewarding employees with something other than time off. We will look at both options and how they affect the workplace both positively and negatively.

Develop a smoke free workplace

Developing a smoke free workplace is one of the most effective ways to encourage employees to quit smoking. The process of putting a smoke free policy in place is more involved than simply adding a policy to file or book. Putting a smoke free policy in place is also designed to provide assistance to those who want to quit smoking. If you are going to require someone to start following a rule, you also need to put the steps in place to help that person to be able to abide by your new policy.

Dealing with the overweight employee

Overweight employees cost their employers millions of dollars in lost production costs and healthcare costs. To combat this, some employers have begun charging their employees more money for being overweight. This is one effective approach to get employees to lose weight. Another approach is to implement a wellness program that focuses on improving employee health.

Are unhealthy employees costing you money?

As a business owner, you understand that most of your decisions are driven by your bottom line. You base your decisions on whether or not you will see a return on your investment. It is for this reason that some companies do not see the value in allocating the time and resources to create an employee wellness program or even make the effort to provide employee wellness information. There are business owners who simply see employee health as a personal matter that should be dealt with away from the office. More experienced business owners, however, realize that ignoring employee health could be costing you money. Money that you could easily save with a relatively small investment of time and resources. Consequently, making the effort to care more for the well-being of your employees can have positive results that far surpass the money that you spend to keep health promotion programs running.

Workplace Wellness Benefits

Workplace wellness programs hold many benefits, some of which are measurable in dollars and cents and some of which are not. Here are some of the major benefits a workplace wellness program can have for you and your employees.

Benefits to Employees

The most measurable benefit to employees is the decreased financial burden on their families because of health related issues. Healthcare costs are lower for employees when they are healthy, they don't have to go to the doctor nearly as often resulting in less money put into their healthcare, less claims on their insurance, and therefore lower costs of premiums for those with good health. When your workplace encourages healthy living and provides a convenient time and place for fitness, nutrition, and stress management, it doesn't just affect you, but your family as well. When dad or mom is taking care of themselves, they can take better care of their family.

What is Workplace Wellness?

Is your employees' health important to you? It certainly should be. Where would you or your company be without the people who make it run? You can improve your employees' health, morale, and loyalty in one simple investment, and your returns on that investment are hard to measure because of how great they could be. That investment is a workplace wellness program.

In its most basic definition, workplace wellness is creating a work environment that is healthy for your employees and encouraging healthy activity, eating, and education to improve your employees' overall health. Employers commit to making their company a healthy workplace and encourage employees to participate in a healthy lifestyle program in and outside of work. Wellness programs can include increasing employee awareness of their health factors and health topics, implementing behavioral change programs, and establishing company policies that focus on health-related objectives.

Vital Elements of a Workplace Wellness Program

Workplace wellness is an important focus of every employer who values their employees. Wellness programs are typically tailored to the needs of an employer's workforce, but there are basic elements that should be included in anyone's workplace wellness program. Those elements are:

• Health Awareness and Education
• Preventative Education
• Nutrition and Healthy Diet
• Weight Loss
• Fitness
• Stress Management
• Help and Support to Stop Smoking
• Counseling

Use Your Insurance Incentives

Building a workplace wellness program is an investment. It is going to cost you a little bit up front if you are going to get it right and have it work to your advantage and to the advantage of your employees. One way to offset the costs of building a workplace wellness program is to use the incentive programs your insurance already has in place to motivate employees to levels of greater health and health awareness.

Insurance companies are also facing higher costs and lower profit margins because of the number of people who are no longer purchasing insurance. They are trying to lower the cost of insurance so more people can afford to purchase it. One way they are going about it is to offer group plan member certain incentives if they are focused on health related goals. Incentive programs include wellness markers incentives, smoking cessation incentives, preventive care incentives, disease control incentives, and weight management incentives. Here's how to build your workplace wellness program around the incentives being offered by insurance providers.

HP focuses on training their employees for wellness

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is taking a high intensity training approach to help their employees understand the benefits of utilizing their employee wellness program. HP employee wellness has grown out of wanting to protect their employees' health, safety and wellness (HSW). HP feels that they have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment for their people, and they recognize that employees are most productive when they are healthy.

HP employee wellness managers work to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses. The employee wellness programs raise awareness of health issues and encourage employees to adopt healthy lifestyles. Safety programs then aim to minimize hazards and are tailored to specific work environments. Health, Safety and Wellness programs are used as a part of a comprehensive environmental, health and safety (EHS) management system that meets or exceeds applicable regulatory requirements globally. The system is aligned with the internationally recognized Occupational Health and Safety Assessment.

The Cost of Incentives

No one can deny that health insurance is expensive. People can no longer meet the price of the rising cost of health insurance so more and more people are uninsured. Insurance providers are losing business, but are they making more money off the business they are keeping? The fact that they are offering employers and employees of group plans incentives to keep them insured should tell us this isn't the case. Some of the incentives they are offering can greatly benefit those persons who maintain a healthy lifestyle, while others are to encourage those with high risk health to take control of their health and make positive changes. Some of the incentive programs work hand in hand with workplace wellness programs and others are the vitally needed resources of at risk employees to light a fire of change under them. Here are some of the incentives insurance providers are offering:

The Big Five Workplace Wellness Mistakes

Workplace wellness is a great way to improve your bottom line, but your efforts could fall flat if you make any or a combination of the big five workplace wellness mistakes.

#5: Inability to Elicit the Support of Upper Management - 38% Failure Rate

Your employees need a strong example to follow and they look to the upper management team as their guides. If your upper management isn't interested in improving their health, it is a rare occasion when anyone else is either.

Ways to avoid this mistake: The best way to avoid making this mistake is to commit your upper management team to support your workplace wellness initiative before it is put in place. Have at least one of your upper management team as part of your wellness committee. Upper management should at the very least encourage employees to take responsibility for their own health.

The Real Cost of Healthcare

Health insurance is not cheap. The cost to insure even a single adult has risen drastically in the last decade. A family of four now costs more to fully insure than the average family makes. Employers are no better when it comes to how much they have to pay to insure their employees. Health insurance costs are rising twice as fast as inflation and the amount people are actually making is not rising to meet the demand.

Prevention Rather Than Cure

Your company's budget for health insurance is getting tighter which means either layoffs or you'll have to find a new insurance provider. Rather than let go of valuable assets like your employees, do some research in the health insurance market. You may be surprised to find that health insurance providers are offering discounts for workplace wellness, preventive care, and health education.

Illness Costs You but Good Health is Free

When employees get sick, it costs your company money. Even if each of your employees take one unscheduled sick day, the loss of productivity could be phenomenal. How are employee sick days affecting your bottom line and what can you do about it? Although the numbers may be different for your unique situation, the principals are the same. Illness cost you money while employees in good health generate money.