It has often been common thought that worksite wellness programs are only suitable for large businesses or corporate settings. How can this be true when there are almost 30 million businesses in the United States, and 99.9% of these are small businesses employing more than 60 million adults? (Small Business Association Office of Advocacy) Thankfully, a recent study may put this thought to rest once and for all.
Faculty from the Department of Health Science, College of Life Sciences, Brigham Young University, along with additional researchers in the field, completed three years of wellness participation and risk data at Lincoln Industries, a small business that supplies products requiring high-performance metal finishing. Lincoln Industries employed 279 workers between 2007 and 2009 throughout the time the study was completed. This size company is very comparable to many of the businesses across the state of Iowa where our primary market is contained.
Lincoln Industries created their worksite wellness program to “promote better physical fitness and diet so company employees would not follow national increasing trends in the rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and health care costs”. (Merrill, Aldana, Vyhlidal, Howe, & Anderson, 2011) In addition, the company states that the positives go beyond physical benefits in also working to achieve a greater level of employee satisfaction and sense of community. This program has been previously evaluated and was found to decrease trends in tobacco use, worker’s compensation costs, and demonstrates relatively stable health care costs compared to rising costs across the nation.
This time around, their programming was based on annual screenings and three primary activities. These three activities were titled “Mark Your Miles”, “Wellness Wednesday”, and “Wellbucks” events. Many of these activities were held during normal business hours to increase participation rates. For instance the “Wellness Wednesday” program was put in place to promote better nutrition, men’s and women’s health, smoking cessation, and physical activity. The key to this activity, however, was that it took place each Wednesday during the workday.
These, and many other methods, allowed Lincoln Industries to attain a high level of participation in their comprehensive wellness program. Methods, such as, committed leadership, effective program design, and the proper use of incentives lead to significant improvements in blood pressure, body fat, flexibility, and body weight across time at their company. It is also important to note that the major improvements in risk at the jobsite were seen among those with the highest baseline values and older employees.
The article lists the following conclusions in reference to this study:
“This small business was able to improve the health of the entire workforce population by integrating wellness deeply into their culture and operations. Replication of this program in other small business settings could have a large impact on public health…to the extent other small businesses can create a similar wellness program, health and related benefits are likely to result.” (Merrill 2011)
Original Article:
Merrill, R.M., Aldana, S.G., Vyhlidal, T.P, Howe, G., Anderson, D.R., & Whitmer, W.R. (2011). The impact of worksite wellness in a small business setting. JOEM, 53(2), 127-131.
♦If you are interested in starting a Wellness Program at your business, please call or email Lauren Brown at 319-266-3842 ext. 302 or brownlr@ihs.org♦
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