As a major component of the Greater Flint Health Coalition’s County Health Rankings Action Plan, workplace wellness initiatives are promoted to offer a significant area of opportunity to address and improve health behaviors. The GFHC’s Workplace Wellness Subcommittee seeks to coordinate and assist with the implementation of workplace wellness programs across all community employment sectors, while facilitating an annual schedule of community and employer-based wellness activities and challenges in collaboration with the GFHC’s Commit to Fit! campaign.
The long-term goals of the Workplace Wellness Subcommittee include:
- Increase physical activity rates, improve diets, and promote overall wellness to decrease obese/overweight prevalence in the long-term;
- Increase the number of Genesee County / Flint employers offering regular Workplace Wellness programming to its employees.
The rationale for workplace wellness is well documented. With unhealthy lifestyles and modifiable risk factors accounting for 25% of employee healthcare expenditures, employers are uniquely positioned to benefit from improvement in health behaviors. Effectively implemented workplace wellness programs provide benefits to both employees and employers through improved health outcomes and reduced medical costs. Statistically, meta-analyses reviewing up to 72 articles have concluded that health promotion programs achieve an average return-on-investment (ROI) of $1.49 to $3.48 per $1.00 invested with employer cost-savings being demonstrated within 3-5 years of program implementation.
The most effective workplace interventions include various components such as: a health risk assessment, health education and promotion programs, individual nutrition and smoking cessation classes, financial incentives or discounts for employees, and campaigns/competitions to increase fitness activities and healthy lifestyles.
To support the implementation of effective workplace wellness programs, Commit to Fit! has created a free, Employer-Based Comprehensive Wellness Toolkit. This Toolkit can be found under the program links section of this page. Local businesses can also apply to become a Certified Healthy Workplace through the Commit to Fit! program. Applications for certification can be found on commit2fit.com.
To learn more about the Workplace Wellness Subcommittee contact the GFHC by email at gfhc@flint.org or by phone at 810.232.2228