Next Generation Wellness At Work

Fact: Wellness programs benefit the bottom line. Motorola, for example, found that each dollar invested in wellness benefits returned $3.93 in health and disability cost savings. Next-Generation Wellness at Work tells how to get in on the action. A nuts-and-bolts, how-to guide for managers, it delivers the latest thinking on how to take full advantage of the benefits that wellness programs can offer both employees and companies. And the effort couldn't be more important. With the soaring cost of medical care and the increase in obesity and lifestyle-related illnesses, there is growing recognition that companies must build a culture of health and enable employees to become better guardians of their own well being. This book illustrates, in detail, exactly how to accomplish those goals. Good health saves in ways that go beyond smaller insurance premiums. It also has a direct relationship with employee productivity, making wellness a matter of high-level strategy. However, many workplace wellness programs are not as effective as they could be. They are not comprehensive, not long-term, and not marketed to the people who could benefit most. Wellness expert Stephenie Overman helps managers take practical steps to overcome these deficiencies and build successful workplace wellness programs that result in tangible, bottom-line benefits for organizations. And the book starts from the ground up, first by explaining how to take a company's temperature, get management buy-in, and design a program that fits a company's unique needs and situation. Building a program is one thing, but will they come? That's where Overman's expertise is essential: She shows how to motivate workers to take advantage of the program and reap its many benefits. And she explains how to partner with local health providers and integrate methods to promote psychological well being, two key ingredients for success. Not many corporate programs benefit both employees and the company equally, but a well-planned wellness initiative will boost the health and productivity of employees, leading to a happier—and more competitive—workplace.

Wellness is a concept that is changing in our modern age. In the past, it was enough to promote health and wellness in the workforce, while ignoring the real health concerns of the people that keep your business going. Today, companies are finding out that this has been a costly exercise in futility-health cannot be drugged into being. The wellness programs established by 21st century companies are failing. Wellness has become an illusion, and it is no longer alright to trick your mind into believing what is not true. Since the 1800's people in the US have been increasingly dying of chronic disease related causes. Modern medicine has focused so much on symptom alleviation that the causes of disease have become a secondary, even tertiary concern. Because of this culture of doping the human body into functioning, the United States has become the most medicated country in the world, with a health rank of an embarrassing 38. You cannot simply manage chronic health conditions with drugs anymore-it does not work.This has translated into a very heavy bottom line for companies that are faced with revamping their work based wellness programs. These programs, traditionally created for white collar workers only, ignored the importance of disease causes leading to widespread ill health in the workplace. The World Health Organization has named environmental toxin exposure, poor diet, and nutrition and lack of exercise as the leading causes of chronic disease. Nutrient depletions in the body result in a workforce that feels well, but this wellness is an illusion caused by modern medicine. Their underlying conditions only get worse with time. This eventually manifests in unwelcome problems that flip the traditional notion of 'wellness' on its head, having the reverse effect. Instead of a healthier workforce, the theory based programs that were once designed to reduce employee absenteeism, increase employee production and cut healthcare costs are increasing time off, reducing productivity and forcing costs to boom for companies in the US. These standard wellness programs do not address the causes of the individual employee's health conditions. As a result, they do not benefit from them in a real way. Because of this disconnect, and the need for a wellness program to help employees avoid expensive conditions like heart disease, cancer and stroke-a new kind of program has been devised. Our workplace wellness program focuses on evidence-based health for the individual, a new concept that is revolutionizing the way companies help their employees remain healthy for life. Wellness programs should reduce medical spending, by focusing on the nutrient depletions, unique circumstances and physical condition of the individual.The key to unlocking the mystery of a successful workplace wellness program is to begin with real health. This is the first evidence-based program of its kind to use modern medicine, nutrition, exercise and self-responsibility to keep your workforce healthy and happy. This book invites you to learn about a new way of implementing workplace wellness programs that will genuinely result in lower costs, and improved health for your employees. When your employees win, so do you and the time has come to align these two powerful needs for the benefit of your company, your workforce and the future.

This wide-ranging encyclopedia addresses our rapidly changing understanding of health and wellness, providing a collection of essays that are up-to-date and comprehensive in both scope and breadth. Encyclopedia of Wellness: From Açaí Berry to Yo-Yo Dieting offers expert advice to anyone seeking information on a condition or illness. More than that, however, this three-volume resource is a compendium of practical information on how to reduce poor health choices and live a healthy, active, vibrant life. A source of basic, easily understandable entries on health and wellness, the encyclopedia covers an extraordinarily broad array of health-related topics including acupuncture, art therapy, biofeedback, food additives, nutrition labels, organic foods, and workplace wellness. Bulimia is covered, as are depression, autism, cancer, and environmental hazards. Essays examine issues related to healthy living for the mind and the body, stressing the importance of the mind-body connection to good health. Information is also offered on practical concerns such as medical savings accounts, changes in medical insurance, and the U.S. health care system. Throughout, the encyclopedia presents knowledge gleaned from new research on treatment and especially on choices in nutrition and exercise.

This book is a reference for leading-edge managers and a comprehensive guide to the new work culture. The New Work Culture deals with organizational transformation challenges, perspectives on the new work environment, human resource development, and strategies to exercise leadership in high-tech corporations. This is an ideal resource providing a roadmap to the new work environment in the Information Society.

Are you interested in wellness at work, employee well-being, and how to keep employees productive, healthy, and happy? We are, too. The science of helping organizations grow their people resources in a way that helps the people grow while also aligning them with the organization so that as the people grow, the organization also grows is known as Organizational Development. Typically, this area is considered the arena of Industrial and Organizational Psychologists, but as we work to adapt our organizations to new generations of employees with different goals and priorities, this arena has grown in relevance to the everyday work that frontline people from CEOs, to HR managers, to "Shared Services" or "People" managers are doing. One Fortune 500 Company found that one employee program provided a staggering 1000% ROI. While extreme, this example demonstrates that strategic wellbeing programs that look at the overall needs of employees rather than focusing solely on health can deliver great returns. Is your organization capitalizing on this?Hi! We are Dr. Alice Vo Edwards and Dr. Arezou Harraf. You can read more about us and our work at the end of this book, but suffice to say, we have over 30 years of organizational development and HR management experience under our belts, and we want to help you help your organization thrive. This is not a fluff book that's going to talk about lots of touchy-feely stuff, get you excited, then leave you floundering - wondering how the hell to implement this cool stuff in your organization. This is not a cotton-candy book. This book is pure protein. We're going to help you exercise some mental muscle gaining an understanding of the overall process, and provide our proposed method for how you can create a plan that is based on science, focused on iterative evaluation, and being able to demonstrate return on investment for the time and money you put into developing it. If you already have workplace wellbeing plans in place, using our methods of planning and evaluating your current programs will also help you gain measurable, meaningful insights into your programs.This book is designed as an action-oriented instructional guide and workbook that can guide you, as the individual tasked with coming up with a plan for improvement for your organization. In it, yes, you will learn what other organizations have been doing, how it is scientifically valid and not just a waste of your company's money or a PR stunt, but you will also be walked through the process of identifying a business plan for what programs would be the best for you to try in your company, how to plan for success, how to evaluate how successful your program was, and how to report on the results so you look good, your program looks great, and you can add more and make it even better, next year.By the end of this book, you will: *Develop a better understanding of wellbeing*Understand organizational components that impact employees overall wellbeing*Understand different interventions that are useful in this realm*Learn how to measure and monitor employee wellbeing*Understand the strategic link between employee wellbeing and productivity*Learn to use the Well@WorkPlan(TM) Method