Why take on workplace wellness?

As your workers' compensation insurer, SFM Companies is offering you a series of four emails with leadership ideas on employee health and wellness. We hope you find these ideas helpful in keeping your employees healthy and productive, and keeping your business costs down.

One of those costs is group healthcare.

$7,173 -- that's the median healthcare expense per employee, according to the National Business Group on Health.

But employers save $1.49 to $4.91 in health-related expenses for every dollar spent on employee wellness, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Besides saving healthcare costs, wellness programs improve employees' productivity and quality of life. They also help create a more desirable work environment.

Here are some planning steps to get started in developing a wellness program in your organization.

Get started, make wellness a priority

Make sure to have senior-level support. Commitment from the top is critical to sustaining your wellness initiative. Management must understand the benefits of the program and be willing to dedicate resources towards it. Managers who "walk the talk" will go a long way to having others participate.

Designate a wellness team. Include people who can help develop, implement and evaluate your program. This ensures ownership of the program and more innovative ideas. Your safety committee may double as your wellness team. Responsibilities often overlap.

Collect supporting data. Consider doing employee interest surveys and claims analysis. The results will help you determine the health activities to offer.

Develop a plan. Your program is more likely to succeed if it's linked to a company strategic initiative. A written plan will hold the team accountable to the goals and timeline.

Create a supportive culture. Provide employees with opportunities and rewards. This will look different for every organization. Examples may include having healthy food choices in vending machines, a no-smoking policy and flexible work schedules that allow workers to exercise.

A workplace that values health will reward health achievements and have a management team that models healthy behavior.

Choose appropriate wellness activities. Base activities on your employees' existing conditions and the style of your workplace--sedentary versus labor intensive.

For example, studies show that physical fitness levels among Americans are declining. Fitness levels significantly affect the quality and quantity of work performed. Also, less fit employees take longer to recover from an injury.

If you're noticing similar conditions among your employees, consider promoting fitness at work:

1. Introduce a workplace stretching program where employees gather at designated times during the workday to do group stretches. Use SFM's "Stretching works @ work" kit as your guide. Order yours now.
   
   
2. Promote exercising in small ways like using the stairs instead of the elevator. Give employees "50 ways to get active and stay active" as motivation to get started.

3. Establish a company event that promotes fitness. Like a Walk to Athens. SFM hosted this fitness event for its employees during the Olympics. Use it as a reference to make up your own event that employees can relate to.

Often times, those that need the most help with their health are the least likely to participate. Be creative and inclusive. As your program grows, more of those who most need it will join.

Celebrate even small successes. It may take time before employees buy into participating in wellness activities at work. Set a timeline. Promote a variety of wellness activities for say, a year. Then, evaluate participation and success. Set new goals and start again.

For more helpful resources, visit SFM's Wellness Works webpage.