Getting Started

Healthy employees tend to be more productive, are off work due to illness less often and typically require less from the health care benefits provider—three top reasons employers are drawn to worksite wellness programs. Although a comprehensive wellness program should be the goal, most employers start out small and build the program along the way. Comprehensive programs require more resources but also provide more benefit. 

 Knowing where to begin and what will be involved can become an obstacle to creating a healthy workforce. The "Fast Guide" is a concise reference guide to assist you in getting started. Beginning with six small steps, your company can customize a wellness program that best suits your employees.

Wellness programs will vary from business to business based on the needs of both the employees and the company. This Worksite Wellness Toolkit can help you get a program started at your worksite and assist you with many of the details as your program evolves. Click here to Download Acrobat Reader for free.

Strategies for Success

MEDSTAT and the American Productivity and Quality Center identified the following effective strategies of successful programs:

• Health promotion and productivity programs are aligned with business strategies 
• A leader or champion is present for the program
• Team members are enthusiastic about developing and championing the health and productivity program
• Senior management buy into the program, with appropriate resources allocated
• Business operations managers are key members of the team
• Wellness and health promotion staff members are heavily involved, supporting a healthy company culture
• Research and outcomes projects are set up to demonstrate the link between productivity and health
• A corporate consensus exists that improving the quality of work life will improve productivity and cost savings will result.

There are many small steps you can take that are simple to implement but lead to significant change. Here are a few quick ways to get started.