Health Promotion And Wellness

Corporate Wellness Plans that support employees and the environment that they work in have been shown to be a good ROI. Corporate Wellness Plans may be extensive and sometimes expensive. However, there are ways for small organizations to make positive changes at little or no cost.

Corporate Wellness Program: Nutrition Activities

Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

1. Provide healthy eating reminders and prompts to employees via multiple means (i.e. e-mail, posters, payroll stuffers, etc.).
2. Provide appealing, low-cost fruits and vegetables in vending machines and in the cafeteria.
3. Provide cookbooks, food preparation, and cooking classes for employees’ families.
4. Ensure workplace cafeterias follow healthy cooking practices and set nutritional standards for foods served that align with the United States Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
5. Provide healthy foods at meetings, conferences, and catered events.
6. Use point-of-decision prompts as a marketing technique to promote healthier choices.
7. Provide healthy cooking demonstrations that teach skills (i.e. fruit and vegetable selection and preparation).
8. Provide taste-testing opportunities at the worksite.
9. Provide employee-led campaigns, demonstrations or programs.
10. Provide local fruits and vegetables at the worksite (i.e. worksite farmer’s market or community-supported agriculture drop-off point).
11. Use competitive pricing (price non-nutritious foods in vending machines and cafeterias at higher prices).
12. Provide protected time and dedicated space away from the work area for breaks and lunch.
13. Make kitchen equipment available to employees.
14. Provide an opportunity for workplace gardening if possible.

Sweetened Beverage Consumption

1. Make water available throughout the day.
2. Provide appealing, low-cost healthful drink options in vending machines and the cafeteria.
3. Modify worksite vending contracts to raise the number of healthy options.
4. Price non-nutritious beverages at a higher cost.
5. Use point-of-decision prompts to promote healthier choices.

Portion Control

1. Label foods to show serving size and/or nutritional content.
2. Provide food models, food scales for weighing and pictures to help employees evaluate portion size.
3. Provide appropriate portion sizes at meetings, worksite events and in the cafeteria.

Breastfeeding

1. Support nursing mothers by providing them rooms for expressing milk in a secure and relaxed environment, a refrigerator for storage of breast milk, policies that support breast feeding, and lactation education programs.
2. Provide flexible scheduling and/or workplace or near-site child care to allow for milk expression during the workday.
3. Adopt alternative work options (i.e. teleworking, part-time, extended maternity) for breastfeeding mothers returning to work.
4. Educate personnel on the importance of supporting breastfeeding co-workers.

Television & Food Advertising

1. Place televisionss in non-eating areas of the worksite.
2. Limit food advertising in the cafeteria (i.e. print and other media).