Corporate Wellness

Nutrition plays an important role in your health and wellness. A heart-healthy diet can help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease, while a nutrient-rich diet can help keep your immune system strong and help you reduce the symptoms of disease. Incorporating balanced nutrition can help ensure that you are consuming a diet that is both heart healthy and nutrient rich.

Balanced nutrition emphasizes a variety of choices from each food group, and is low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, salt, and added sugar.  To incorporate simple, balanced choices:

• Make half your grains whole. Eat at least three (3) servings of whole-grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice, or pasta every day. Look to see that grains such as wheat, rice, oats, or corn are referred to as "whole" in the list of ingredients.
• Vary your vegetables. Eat a variety of colorful vegetables.  Some of the best choices are broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, squash, and eggplant. 
• Focus on fruits. Choose a variety of fresh, frozen, canned, or dried fruits, rather than fruit juice, for most of your fruit choices.
• Choose calcium-rich foods. Get three (3) servings of low-fat or fat-free milk, yogurt or cheese every day. If you don't or can't consume milk, choose lactose-free milk products and calcium-fortified foods and beverages.
• Eat lean with protein.  Choose lean meats, fish and poultry. Then bake, broil, or grill your selection(s). Add variety by including plant-based proteins such as beans, lentils, peas, nuts, and seeds.
• Know the limits on fats, salt, and sugars. Choose fresh, whole foods while limiting the amount of foods high in saturated fat, trans fat, added salt and added sugar. 

By following these balanced recommendations most of the time, your nutrition and health will improve.

Viverae is a national provider of corporate health solutions.  We work with employees to educate them on the risk factors associated with nutrition and introduce concepts that can help them implement a balanced diet into their lifestyle at work and at home.

USDA Food Guide: Choose My Plate

It’s a documented fact that having a wellness program in place is a good business decision. Not only can the right wellness program help your employees lead healthier lives, it can save corporate dollars. But many companies are finding it difficult to have a successful program. Here are five reasons your corporate wellness program might not be living up to expectations:

1. Lack of resources. Your wellness program might get off to a roaring start, but if the back-up isn’t there, it will fall flat. Adequate funding, access to internal resources and staffing are necessary to help your program succeed.

• Funding - A successful corporate wellness program requires an investment in time, money, and relevant internal resources. Companies that make that investment find the returns to be exceptional after only two to four years. Viverae can specifically tailor your program to the needs of your employees, which will help determine how much funding is necessary to achieve your corporate health goals.

• Staffing - Employees need guidance to understand their wellness program requirements. Providing this guidance means giving access to information and people to whom they can go with questions. Your employees may not have the necessary skills to implement, communicate and manage the program on a day to day basis. A workplace wellness expert-be it an onsite director or dedicated account manager from your wellness provider - is a valuable asset and will insure that all aspects of your program are being effectively managed.

2. Lack of Interest. In order for any program to have a lasting impact, your employees need to be invested in improving their health. Employee participation can be fostered through communication and education. When employees fully understand how the program can benefit them, and what they have been asked to complete as part of the program, then they will have greater interest in participating. It is particularly important to identify and engage the high risk employees - those who smoke, are obese, or have other identifiable risk factors. The high risk employees will cost your company 3 to 5 times more than the average employee, so it’s beneficial to engage them in living a healthier lifestyle.

3. Lack of Support. Employees will be much more likely to participate in the wellness program if they see upper management actively participating in the same programs and healthy challenges. This can be accomplished by enlisting the support of your upper management team from the outset, clearly identifying their role in the promotion of the program and having at least one of them on your wellness committee.

4. Poor Planning. Maybe you started your program off with a bang, but noticed that the buzz quickly declined and employees ceased to participate. Changing unhealthy behaviors doesn’t happen overnight, and people need continuing reinforcement of the wellness program, including fun events, varied program components and onsite health options. Incentive design will play a significant role in the level of participation and success you achieve. Equal parts art and science, incentive programs should take into account your corporate culture and wellness goals including participation levels and health results.

5. Dependence on the Written Word. Most people have already heard that smoking is bad, vegetables are good, and they should exercise more. Having a newsletter or website link with this information can be helpful, but the reality is, many people won’t take the time to read or click. It’s important to have options for employees to speak to experts on implementing changes in their own lives. Health coaching, whether it is conducted over the phone or even through a secure email system will allow employee to ask health experts the questions that relate to their specific situation.

A successful corporate wellness program requires an adequate funding and resources, personnel to help plan and manage it, the support of corporate leadership and professional health experts, as well as periodic evaluation to make sure it’s continuing to meet your specific goals. These tips are effective for companies considering corporate wellness or those who are struggling to execute their current program.

Vivarae is a leading, national provider of corporate health solutions and can help design, implement and manage a worksite wellness program ideally suited to your company’s needs. Visit www.viverae.com for more information.