Tag Archives: Corporate Wellness

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Why We Should all Care about Employee Wellness

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Happy National Employee Wellness Month! Did you even know that June is National Employee Wellness Month? More importantly, do you have a reason to care? The truth is that we all have a reason to care! Employee health and wellness has a direct impact on healthcare costs. And, it’s no secret that healthcare costs in America are soaring right now and cause a lot of controversy across company board rooms and government negotiations every day. According to nationalemployeewellnessmonth.com, “75% of these costs are driven by preventable and highly manageable chronic diseases like, heart disease, type II diabetes and some forms of cancer.”

Many companies and organizations have joined forces throughout the month of June to raise awareness for employee wellness. But, it can’t stop here. On June 30th, we can’t all forget about employee wellness until June 2014 rolls around. We’ve got to keep the momentum going!

How you ask? That’s exactly what we want to answer today. Here are a few tips for encouraging employee wellness in your organization beyond National Employee Wellness Month.

    • Participate: If your company has a wellness program in place, participate in the programs they offer. Join the wellness walks, participate in the webinars, compete in the challenges… Whatever they offer, take advantage!
    • Campaign: If your company doesn’t currently offer a wellness program, or you see a need for improvements in the wellness program, become an advocate for a stronger wellness program. NCES has many products designed to make workplace wellness easy in any workplace.
    • Get Started: Can’t find all the support that you’re looking for within your company? Odds are that you’re not alone. Get together with some co-workers and start a walking club, create a weight loss challenge or even host a wellness class. If your employer sees that you are interested, they’ll be more likely to get the program started for the entire company.

 

So, even though June is the official month for employee wellness, let’s keep the

Employee wellnessmomentum going! National Employee Wellness Month officially began in 2009. Since then, it’s gained great momentum year after year and has grown to have over 150 organizations with more than 65,000 employees supporting the cause. Get started promoting employee wellness in your workplace today. And, remember to become a 2014 supporter of National Employee Wellness Month. Visit www.NationalEmployeeWellnessMonth.com for more information and to become a supporter next year. For everything corporate wellness, take a second to browse the NCES Corporate Wellness section today!

 

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How do I Create an Engaging Corporate Wellness Plan?

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There are so many resources available today for creating a corporate wellness program. Some of them are free and some cost. But, regardless of price, how do you choose the most effective corporate wellness tools, activities and programs that will best fit your audience? Let’s face it; the key to a successful program is employee engagement. When you’re employees are engaged and getting healthy, then you know that you’ve created an effective, successful corporate wellness program.
So, how do you begin sifting through all the tools to find the ones that your employees will love? We’ve enlisted the help of our expert dietitian to share the top things that you should look for… and avoid, when creating your corporate wellness program.

  • Include useful tools: Online tools are great for employees with busy schedules. Because they can access them anytime anywhere, they are easy for employees to take advantage of. i.e.: NCES Virtual Learning Series
  • Incentives or giveaways: Nothing motivates like getting free stuff! NCES offers a full line of Incentive products that will work great for motivating your group.
  • Create something for them to follow: Creating an 8-12 week weight loss program that your employees can stick to will help gain interest. Many times, people just don’t know where to start. So, by giving them a plan designed by a professional, you’re giving them everything they need to get started. Need help getting started? NCES has created a free 2-week workout plan that you can use to get your program up and running.
  • Decorate the cafeteria: Does your workplace have an onsite cafeteria? If so, decorate it with posters, healthy meal choices and inspirational quotes that will help your employees think about making healthy choices.
  • Host a Health Fair: Provide an opportunity for your employees who are interested in getting or staying healthy to come get resources. Be sure to have plenty of handouts that your employees can take home and share with their family. Also, at your health fair, be sure to provide them some value for attending. For example, do free cholesterol screenings for everyone that attends and have a blood pressure machine available for employees to be proactive in determining the state of their health.
  • Create a monthly E-Newsletter: Providing helpful resources directly to your employee’s inbox is a great way to reach them. Most of the time, taking the time to create a resources like this is the toughest part. Our NCES Health Beat newsletter gives you 24 predesigned, customizable newsletters that ready for you to distribute to your audience.

Now that you know what types things to include in your newly developing corporate wellness plan, here are a few tips from the experts on what you want to avoid when you’re thinking about creating your corporate wellness program.

  • Avoid useless, overdone information: The internet is a vast tool full of resources on everything, including how to ‘get healthy’. Keep your program new and exciting so that your employees will be engaged.
  • Don’t answer all of their questions right off the bat: Leave them wanting more! If they want more, they’ll continue coming back. Plus, they’ll stay engaged in your program.
  • Don’t create a plan with no basis: Make sure that you have a firm understanding of what your employees want to see and be sure to provide those tools and resources in your program.
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How to Pitch your New Corporate Wellness Plan

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The first step to achieving any goal is deciding to accept the challenge. So, you’ve accepted the challenge and decided to tackle your company’s new corporate wellness plan. Or, you’ve been given no choice because your boss has decided that you’re going to be the person in charge of the new wellness initiative. What do you do next? How do you convince everyone in the company, both the budget makers and the employees who you’re creating the program for, that the program is worthwhile?

  1. Create an awesome presentation: Sell your audience on the program! Make them believe that they can’t live without it. Or, that you’re making getting healthy so easy, they’d be crazy not to participate. If you can engage them when you’re pitching the idea, it will be easier to engage them when you actually implement the plan.
  2. Bring some products: Whether you want to use exercise equipment, educational tools, online classes or a combination of everything, show your audience exactly what you’re going to be using to help them get healthy. If they can see what everything looks like, they’re much more likely to use it when you bring it in to the workplace.
  3. Provide some background statistics: Do your research and show them why a program like the one you’re proposing really does work. Whether you’re presenting to company execs and explaining to them why they should invest in this or to your employees who want to know why they should participate, show them how it has worked for others and how it can work for them too.
  4. Understand your company culture: Each company works a little different. So, take time to understand your company’s culture and what makes it tic. What will appeal to the company execs? What will appeal to a majority of your employees? Be sure to build a pitch that will appeal to all of their interests.

There you have it! These are our top tips for pitching your new corporate wellness program. Pitching a new program is never easy, especially when you’re asking for a budget to get the program off the ground. But, the benefits of a solid corporate wellness program are undeniable.

If you need help getting a presentation started, we’re always here to help! Let our experts help you create a presentation that will knock your boss’s socks off. Just email info@ncescatalog.com to get started today.

Not sure what types of products to include in your proposal? Our expert dietitian is offering her insight in our next blog on what products to include in your presentation, and what products to never include. So, stay tuned later this week! Or, let’s make it easy… subscribe to the NCES HealthBeat blog today to get updates right to your inbox! (You can find the subscribe button on the top, right hand side of this blog!)