TY - JOUR
T1 - Promoting health and wellness in the workplace
T2 - A unique opportunity to establish primary and extended secondary cardiovascular risk reduction programs
AU - Arena, Ross
AU - Guazzi, Marco
AU - Briggs, Paige D.
AU - Cahalin, Lawrence P.
AU - Myers, Jonathan
AU - Kaminsky, Leonard A.
AU - Forman, Daniel E.
AU - Cipriano, Gerson
AU - Borghi-Silva, Audrey
AU - Babu, Abraham Samuel
AU - Lavie, Carl J.
N1 - Funding Information:
To optimize the likelihood of success, an institution should commit to the development and maintenance of a structured worksite health and wellness program. 79 Perhaps one of the most important first steps is ensuring that organizational leadership strongly supports worksite health and wellness. 78,90,91 This may involve an organization critically analyzing and potentially changing values, beliefs, and practices/policies to ensure a firm commitment to optimizing the health and wellness of its employees. 78 The Health Enhancement Research Organization has developed an employee health management scorecard allowing an organization to assess their baseline health and wellness culture and to assess change in status once a new program is initiated. 92 A worksite health and wellness pledge is provided in the Supplemental Figure (available online at http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org ), serving as an example of a way organizational leadership can express strong support for worksite health and wellness initiatives. Once strong support for worksite health and wellness by organizational leadership is ensured, a committee should be formed to plan and oversee implementation of the program. The group of individuals selected to serve in this capacity may have various backgrounds, but all should have a strong commitment to health and wellness, both in their own lives and in the lives of their coworkers. Composition of the committee is also an important consideration, with care taken to ensure that all key organizational stakeholders are represented. Stakeholder buy-in and support is fundamentally important to the success of the program. Committee members can be obtained by either a call for volunteers or through a nomination process, the latter ideally being led by senior leadership. Note that the nomination process may send a stronger message of leadership support for health and wellness and, thus, lead to a greater sense of commitment by committee members. In larger organizations, with more than 300 employees, the committee will be composed of members with more specializations across the various organizational divisions and departments. It is to the benefit of the program to develop committee role nominations based on the specializations. 79 Most often, most committee members will be employees of the organization. However, opening one or more committee positions to individuals in the community, particularly if they have a unique expertise in health and wellness or CV risk reduction, is worth strong consideration if feasible. Soliciting worksite health and wellness committee members from the community may be particularly relevant for organizations whose normal business operations are not particularly relevant to health and wellness. In some instances, particularly if financial resources are available, key members of a worksite health and wellness committee may be hired for the sole purpose of running/working in such a program. The size of a worksite health and wellness committee varies, although a recommended range is 10 to 18 members. 79 A program manager should be hired or a chair nominated to lead the committee and oversee the implementation and execution of agreed on strategic initiatives. Ideally, the program manager or committee chair should hold a leadership position in the organization and have an excellent understanding of the organization's culture, structure, and function. Initially, the committee should embark on examining the baseline health and wellness needs of the employees. This may be achieved through a variety of methods, including online/paper surveys and town hall meetings. Using established health metrics, such as the AHA's Life's Simple 7, 85 allows for the development of a survey that captures key health information. Once an accurate depiction of the health and wellness needs and interests of the organization has been captured, the committee should develop mission and vision statements that are consistent with the organization's culture and broadly address employee needs. Sample mission and vision statements are listed in Table 4 . Subsequently, short- and long-term goals should be established through a strategic planning process. Ideally, these goals should be objective and measureable and have the ability to reach the broadest number of employees. If feasible, the committee should secure fiduciary support from key leaders in the organization. Obtaining funding directly correlates with stakeholder buy-in and long-term program success. If the organization does not have funds available to support health and wellness initiatives, committee volunteers may offset the financial costs by seeking foundation support or grant opportunities. The allocation of financial resources should again be directed toward initiatives deemed to have the highest impact with the broadest reach. Collection of outcomes data is vital to demonstrating program efficacy to organizational leadership and to modifying future health and wellness initiatives as organizational needs and interests change over time.
PY - 2013/1/1
Y1 - 2013/1/1
N2 - Given the burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD), increasing the prevalence of healthy lifestyle choices is a global imperative. Currently, cardiac rehabilitation programs are a primary way that modifiable risk factors are addressed in the secondary prevention setting after a cardiovascular (CV) event/diagnosis. Even so, there is wide consensus that primary prevention of CVD is an effective and worthwhile pursuit. Moreover, continual engagement with individuals who have already been diagnosed as having CVD would be beneficial. Implementing health and wellness programs in the workplace allows for the opportunity to continually engage a group of individuals with the intent of effecting a positive and sustainable change in lifestyle choices. Current evidence indicates that health and wellness programs in the workplace provide numerous benefits with respect to altering CV risk factor profiles in apparently healthy individuals and in those at high risk for or already diagnosed as having CVD. This review presents the current body of evidence demonstrating the efficacy of worksite health and wellness programs and discusses key considerations for the development and implementation of such programs, whose primary intent is to reduce the incidence and prevalence of CVD and to prevent subsequent CV events. Supporting evidence for this review was obtained from PubMed, with no date limitations, using the following search terms: worksite health and wellness, employee health and wellness, employee health risk assessments, and return on investment. The choice of references to include in this review was based on study quality and relevance.
AB - Given the burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD), increasing the prevalence of healthy lifestyle choices is a global imperative. Currently, cardiac rehabilitation programs are a primary way that modifiable risk factors are addressed in the secondary prevention setting after a cardiovascular (CV) event/diagnosis. Even so, there is wide consensus that primary prevention of CVD is an effective and worthwhile pursuit. Moreover, continual engagement with individuals who have already been diagnosed as having CVD would be beneficial. Implementing health and wellness programs in the workplace allows for the opportunity to continually engage a group of individuals with the intent of effecting a positive and sustainable change in lifestyle choices. Current evidence indicates that health and wellness programs in the workplace provide numerous benefits with respect to altering CV risk factor profiles in apparently healthy individuals and in those at high risk for or already diagnosed as having CVD. This review presents the current body of evidence demonstrating the efficacy of worksite health and wellness programs and discusses key considerations for the development and implementation of such programs, whose primary intent is to reduce the incidence and prevalence of CVD and to prevent subsequent CV events. Supporting evidence for this review was obtained from PubMed, with no date limitations, using the following search terms: worksite health and wellness, employee health and wellness, employee health risk assessments, and return on investment. The choice of references to include in this review was based on study quality and relevance.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84880238430
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84880238430#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1016/j.mayocp.2013.03.002
DO - 10.1016/j.mayocp.2013.03.002
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84880238430
SN - 0025-6196
VL - 88
SP - 605
EP - 617
JO - Mayo Clinic Proceedings
JF - Mayo Clinic Proceedings
IS - 6
ER -
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being