Employee Health Promotion Program: Small Steps

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Posted by Employee Wellness | Posted in Employee Wellness Survey | Posted on 13-02-2009

Why use small steps toward behavior change?

Small steps give members immediate feedback on the changes they make towards better health. Measuring these small steps is also an excellent way to collect interim Employee Health Promotion Program effectiveness information.

Employee Health Promotion Program small steps make a big difference

Small steps for Employee Health Promotion Program members
• Walk to work.
• Use fat free milk instead of whole milk.
• Each day think of two things you are grateful for.
• Do sit-ups while you watch TV.
• Drink water before a meal.
• Take 10 deep breaths to relieve tension.
• Eat half your dessert.
• Skip second helpings and buffets.

Measuring small Employee Health Promotion Program steps
• Use short pre- and mid-point surveys to ask:
• How many glasses of water do you drink a day?
• How often you do eat fast food?
• How often do you skip a meal?
• How often do you engage in physical activity?
• How many servings of fruits and vegetables do you eat each day?

Use the results to show members how their health behaviors are changing for the better.

• Ask members to rate their health status and/or stress levels before and after an intervention.
• Add up individual (or team) steps and mark the progress on a map towards a far away destination.
• Be creative! Do not rely only on weight loss, BMI, or cholesterol tests as health status progress indicators or behavior change feedback.

Wise words for taking small Employee Health Promotion Program steps
 
• The first wealth is health. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
• We are what we repeatedly do. (Aristotle)
• The victory is not always to the swift, but to those who keep moving. (CDC)
• There are 1440 minutes in every day…schedule 30 of them for physical activity. (CDC)

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Comments (1)

Also adding support programs for smoking cessation and other addictions. ‘Raise the Bottom’ this book I just read discusses the importance of a healthy workplace from a managerial standpoint. If your staff is not mentally and physically healthy your whole business could collapse.

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