Washington Workplaces Promote Wellness

According to The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s Employee Health Benefits: 2006 Annual Survey in 2006, employer based health care premiums increased at an average of more than 7 percent (and small employers with less than 24 workers experienced increases of more than 10 percent). With health care costs rising so quickly, many businesses and organizations are finding creative ways to help employees become healthier—hoping that in the long run this will translate into lower health care costs.

For many Washington businesses and organizations, wellness programs were formed in the 1980’s but then became defunct during the 1990’s. With the turn of the millennium, health and wellness have regained the attention of politicians, business owners and the public.

In Washington state, the Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign is working to create a new constituency for health through the involvement of government, businesses, organizations, schools and individuals. Through fun competitions around health, like the Governor’s Health Bowl, the Healthiest State Campaign offers a unique — and free — platform for employee wellness.

At the Washington Health Foundation’s (WHF) 2007 Annual Meeting, breakout sessions allowed different sectors (i.e., businesses, health care professionals, non-profits, schools, etc.) to share what they are doing to participate in the Healthiest State Campaign. Many have used the campaign and its tools to revive employee wellness programs, or as a catalyst to create a new employee wellness program.

The following organizations allowed WHF to interview their employee wellness program director, and each had great ideas and tips to share for how to get started with an employee wellness program:

Many of the above businesses and organizations presented information on their wellness programs at WHF’s Annual Meeting on May 18, 2007. They, along with other present, also gave WHF suggestions for how it might provide additional, easily accessible resources to help employee wellness programs be successful.

In response to their comments and suggestions, WHF has now added a “Campaign Resources” section on the Participating Organization home page at www.HealthiestState.org. This new section is accessible to the Healthiest State Campaign’s contact person for your organization, and has many resources including:

Downloadable Healthiest State Campaign logos.
Customizable newsletter articles.
Downloadable health tips.
Downloadable posters.
Information on what other agencies, businesses and organizations are doing (such as those above).
Tips and ideas for starting an employee wellness program.

If your business or organization is just beginning to develop a workplace wellness program, consider using the 2007 Governor’s Health Bowl or the 2007 Healthiest Business Challenge (both run September 18 – November 1, 2007) as a focal point to get started.

Healthy employees are happy and more productive. And helping your employees get healthy is as easy as starting a wellness program with support from both organizational leadership and individual employees.

Already gotten started? Contact the Washington Health Foundation (HealthiestState@whf.org), we’d love to hear what you are doing and to add a summary about your workplace to our website.

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