Is your wellness programme working for you?

Corporate Wellness is a buzz phrase that most companies are aware of, and more and more companies are beginning to introduce wellness services for their staff. The success of these programmes vary enormously. A successful wellness programme is one that is measureable, where the improved health status of employees is recorded and the related improvement in productivity and reduced absenteeism can be measured.

There is also a tendency in companies to shop around and get various wellness service providers to do different things within the company; the result is that there is no connection between these services, no follow up or follow through, and therefore no measureable results.

To have one wellness company, such as Physicorp, take care of all your corporate wellness needs makes a lot of sense, because we can then link all the services and ensure that the correct interventions are applied to each person and their results monitored to ensure improved health. As an example of how well this works, I would like to tell you about one company where we have recently recorded extremely good results from the wellness interventions which we introduced.

We did the first medicals in the company in March 2009. We will look at just a few key factors which govern their health status. The results then were as follows:

• Blood Pressure: 52% of staff had blood pressure over the accepted levels 
• Cholesterol: 47% had raised cholesterol 
• Overweight: 54% had body fat over the acceptable levels for their age, height and gender.

During the year following the medicals, we offered the following interventions; employees had a choice of whether to participate or not.

Weight Management – Healthy Eating

Nutrition Talk Our nutritionist spent a few hours with the staff, talking about healthy eating, discussing problems with them, giving them advice on their particular needs, and providing them with recipes and tips for following a healhty eating plan.
One-on-one consultations After the talk, a group of staff members elected to arrange one on one monthly consultations with our nutritionist. She went into the company once a month to weigh them, provide them with eating plans, and follow up on their progress.

Cardiovascular Health

Cardiovascular Health Talk One of the medical experts who works with us, spent a few hours discussing cardiovascular health with the staff, how to take care of your heart, and answering questions and talking about problems that staff were experiencing in their daily lives.

HIV/AIDS Testing and Counselling

HIV/Aids Talk Our doctor spent an hour talking about HIV/Aids, informing staff of what is happening in the medical field, the situation in the country at present and answering questions, before he did the HIV testing on staff who elected to participate in this segment of the programme, with follow-up counselling.

Exercise and Healthy Lifestyle

Living a Healthy Lifestyle Adrian and Ashley Galliard, the owners of Physicorp, spent a lunchtime talking to the staff about making healthy lifestyle choices, planning for their future and caring for the health and wellness of their families, and the importance of exercise.
One on one fitness consultations Following on a very well received talk, two of our trainers then offered one on one consultations with staff members who elected to meet with them. Referring to their medical results, the trainers provided each staff member with a personalised training programme, followed by body composition assessments the following month, to measure their progress. This process was repeated throughout the year, with programmes being adjusted according to assessment results achieved.

In March 2010 we did follow up medicals for the staff at this company. The results were astounding! The results are below. For the sake of this exercise, we devided the group into those who had elected to have the interventions, and those who did not, but could follow the suggestions on the reports which we gave them last year, if they wished. Here are some of their results:

In the case of this particular company, the cardiac risk percentage of the first group, who did not have interventions, came down by an average of 0.51%. The group that had interventions had a reduction in their cardiac risk percentage of an average of 6%! In the case of one executive, who previously suffered with heigh blood pressure, cholesterol and obesity, his cardiac risk percentage came down by 11%! The company also reports a marked reduction in absenteeism, improved productivity and a huge improvement in morale!

We feel that these results are an example of what can be achieved with a well integrated wellness programme. Physicorp tailor makes all interventions and wellness programmes to each company's particular requirements.

Why not give us a call to set up a meeting so that we can show you what we can do to improve the health and wellness of your company?

Call Linda on 011 7282466 –
let us start empowering your executives and employees to live healthier, happier and more productive lives!