By Brent Delveaux and Queenie Yeung
There is no question that having healthy employees is advantageous to any organization as it leads to fewer absences, lower drug and disability claims but how do you assess how healthy your employees are? Once you find out, what do you do with the information?
Many insurance companies have confidential online questionnaires called Health Risk Assessments that employees can take. All questions are related to individuals’ health behaviors and they pinpoint areas of possible improvement with an action plan laid out at the end of the test. This is a great tool but there is usually little motivation for employees to take this assessment because many of us know what it is going to tell us – eat more vegetables, do more exercise, sleep more, etc…
This is where you as the employer can step in! You can encourage employees or even incentivize them to take this quick test as this is your opportunity to improve their health and thus the overall healthiness of your workplace. Individual data will not be available to you but if enough individuals within your organization take the assessment, you can obtain aggregate data that will help focus your wellness plans. You can create programs to encourage physical activity for the entire company such as walking challenges and incentivize winners who walk the most in a period of time as measured by a pedometer. A byproduct of this would be a strengthened work culture.
Health Risk Assessments can provide a lot of useful information; you can target your employees’ health and wellness needs and it will help you get the most bang for your buck out of your employee assistance and wellness programs.
If you want to launch a Health Risk Assessment campaign at your company or want some ideas, contact us; we would be happy to help!
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