Cost vs. success of corporate wellness initiatives

Lifestyle changes and health and wellness programs are no longer programs for the vain or cautious. They are programs required to meet a global concern for deaths related to lifestyle behaviors. In review of one health issue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on body mass index (BMI), one-third of working-age Americans are overweight and another third are obese, which amounts to rising medical and work-loss costs of approximately $13 billion per year. Actionable determinants of health must focus on behavioral and cognitive psychology to best improve national health rankings.

A health promotion program is responsible for implementing policies and programs that enhance the conditions within which healthy development takes place. Through action founded on the principles of the population and health, program design addresses the determinants of health and facilitates successful movement through life stages.

Corporate programs address the health issues of employees’ lifestyles, through information and education. The workplace directly influences the physical, mental, economic and social well-being of workers and in turn the health of their families, communities and society. It offers an ideal setting and infrastructure to support the promotion of health of a large audience, as the health of workers is also affected by non-work related factors.

The concept of the health promoting workplace has become increasing relevant as more private and public organizations recognize that future success in a globalizing market place can only be achieved with a healthy, qualified and motivated workforce. A healthy workplace can ensure a flexible and dynamic balance between customers needs employee performance, which can assist and organization to effectively compete.

Corporate health promotion is an investment in human capital and productivity. Employees in optimal physical and psychological health are more likely to be on the job and performing well. They also are more likely to be attracted to, remain with and value a company that obviously values them. Health and productivity management is based on the concept that an “at risk” workforce is a business liability with direct and hidden costs impacting productivity. Thus, an essential component of productivity management is managing employee health.

A psychologically healthy workplace fosters employee health and well-being while enhancing organizational performance and productivity. However, with limited opportunities to prove to organizational leaders the long-term benefits of health promotion programs and in today’s economic downturn, those same leaders are seeking every available method for immediate cost reductions. The corporate health promotion program will result in lost support and incentive for most employees, unless individuals have gained personal insight into their personal actions.

Most emotional and behavioral reactions are learned. Therefore, bringing into a health promotion program behavioral and cognitive therapy are logical pieces to assist employees to unlearn their negative responses to their respective issues, with or without long-term corporate support. Thus, the return-on-investment, corporate leaders seek will be much more visible.

Finding tailored wellness tools designed to bring your mind, body, spirit and emotions into balance may sound complicated, time consuming and/or costly. However, whether struggling with a long term misdiagnosed illness, excess weight, hormonal imbalances, and fatigue or simply reaching toward a new level of fitness these types of tools are designed to bring people back into balance and forward a person into a higher possible level of health and wellness.

Measurement of specific behaviors involved in weight management is essential to accepting the behavior change process. The results indicate that the strategy measures show promise as reliable and valid indicators of behavior that could be useful in the evaluation of behavioral interventions.

The cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways to promote and maintain good health are essential to long-term sustainable life-style changes. Examples of health promotion outcomes would include improved health knowledge and motivation concerning healthy lifestyles, and knowledge of where to go and what to do to gain access to health and other support. Health promotion outcomes reflect modification to those personal, social and environmental factors which are a means to improving people’s control and thereby changing the determinants of health.

In a study of participants over 16 weeks and body composition variables (BMI, % of body fat, etc.), and blood lipid values, along with physical activity levels were measured pre-and post study. Participants assigned to the intervention group attended group sessions using curriculum based on the new elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for obesity in addition to many elements of standard behavioral treatment for obesity, included self-monitoring, realistic goal-setting and cognitive restructuring, as applied to behavior and attitudinal change (relevant to increased physical activity, food choices, and body image). Results indicated that obesity-related risk factors negatively impact quality of life and survival in this population without incorporation of cognitive-behavioral therapy and suggests that a cognitive behavioral weight management intervention emphasizing increased physical activity and diet modification promote significant weight loss and favorably alter body composition and blood lipid profiles among overweight and obese breast cancer survivors, while improving overall quality of life.

How one makes the journey to a healthy lifestyle is really about the ability to gain support along the way. Whether the issue is to lose weight and be healthy, quit drugs, alcohol, smoking, or other negative behaviors there are few that can genuinely design a personal strategy and adhere to it without initial, perhaps even multiple failures. Seeking professional assistance to provide insight into areas of self that has been either ignored or deliberately denied could save frustration, money, and time. Therefore, corporate health and wellness initiatives certainly should be no different if sustainability of results and inevitable lowered health/medical utilization is the corporate goal. Many companies have Employee Assistant Programs (EAP’s) and adding an adjunct cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) could provide the component needed to gain true success in a corporate health/wellness program.