Corporate Health Promotion Programs start and end with individual health. Individuals, after all, are able to make decisions about maintaining and / or improving their health and wellbeing. Employee Corporate Health Promotion Programs must therefore provide the tools and resources needed to assist and motivate individuals to actively participate in the program.

Individual health is only one part of beginning employee Corporate Health Promotion Programs. Below you’ll find some things to assist you in your efforts to establish a healthy atmosphere for you and your coworkers.

Encouraging Your Employer to Start an Corporate Health Promotion Program

This is the first step in beginning a Corporate Health Promotion Program. In recent times more and more organizations are beginning to see the value of promoting and supporting the health of their employees. Partnership for Prevention, a nonprofit organization, has released a sourcebook called “Healthy Workforce 2010″ (http://www.wellnessproposals.com/pdfs/tool_kits/healthy_workforce_2010.pdf). This sourcebook is an excellent resource containing information on:
• Benefits of Corporate Health Promotion Programs
• Suggestions on where to start
• Tools like surveys and evaluation forms

These resources are for both organizations and employees to lead the development and determine the effectiveness of their new Corporate Health Promotion Program. Offer it to your employer as a place to start or read it yourself and present your ideas.

Taking Part in Corporate Health Promotion Programs

Once you have an employee Corporate Health Promotion Program established, participating fully in all aspects of the program is important. Many of us know that we need to more actively engage in Corporate Health Promotion Programs to improve our health, yet have difficulty finding and taking the time to do so. These simple steps can jumpstart your participation in an employee Corporate Health Promotion Program:
• Examine the offerings that interest you and that you need for health improvement.
• Schedule time to go to the seminar or service.
• Actively following through with recommendations from the program.
• Make a decision now to improve your health. You will feel better today and tomorrow and the next day for actively moving towards wellness.

Here is a list of potential Corporate Health Promotion Programs that might be available to you at work:
• ergonomic evaluations and training classes
• lactation rooms and classes
• prenatal education
• quiet rooms for relaxation
• stress management programs
• fitness facilities
• chair massage
• nutrition education
• worksite primary healthcare services
• child care facility or resources and referral service
• tobacco cessation programs parenting classes
• elder care resource and referral service
• cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose screening programs
• flu shots
• weight management programs
• healthcare consumerism programs
• work/life programs
• wellness coach / health coach programs
• mobile mammography

More information to follow in my next posting about Employee Corporate Health Promotion Programs