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Educating Business Leaders on Designing a Health-Workplace Environment to Promote Health, Safety

and Well-Being 143rd APHA Annual Meeting| Chicago, IL

November 4, 2015

Who We Are

• Nonprofit Initiative from the University of Colorado School of Public Health– Launched in July 2013

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• Mission: To advise, certify and connect businesses to help them improve the health, safety and well-being of employers, employees, families and their communities.

How it Works

• A Focus on Small Businesses– Our economy is driven by small businesses!

• Over 125,000 small businesses in Colorado (20 – 499 employees), representing over 1 million employees (over 50% of the private sector jobs)

– Historically these organizations have not had the resources or the support to implement worksite wellness programs

• Use the Integration of Health and Safety– An evidence-based framework adopted from

CDC, World Health Organization and Total Worker Health (NIOSH) models

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Why the Workplace?

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92% of Adults

work 40hours or more per

week

Building the Business Case!

• Improve employee health outcomes• Reduce work-related injuries and illnesses and their

associated costs• Improve productivity

– Reduce absenteeism and presenteeism

• Employee retention and attracting high quality new hires

• Improve corporate culture• Enhance morale• Improve job safety• Improve job performance

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What is workplace wellness?

Pillars of Wellness

Social Physical

Mental & Emotional Financial

Investing in a balanced

portfolio

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Creating the Building Blocks for Wellness

Leadership Resources Assessing Needs

Goals & Priorities

Integrate Systems

Employee Engagement

Communication Evaluation

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Healthy Business Certification

Scores on 8 Benchmarks

Education Tool

Immediate Feedback Tailored Solutions

Certified Healthy Business Certified Healthy

Business PartnerCertified Healthy Business Leader

Leadership commitment

Designated wellness champion

Conducted an employee needs assessment

Developed wellness and safety goals

Communicate to employees

Evaluated how to improve activities, participation and impact

Create Policies for Health & Safety

Demonstrate employee engagement

Established comprehensive wellness and safety programs

Tailored programs to reach all employees

Share information with families

Measured outcomes

Demonstrate innovation

Collect and track health outcome data

Actively promote health, wellness and safety in the community

Apply for Kick-

Start

Work with an expert

advisor to create your

healthy business

action plan

Get connected to

your neighborhood

resources

Learn from certified healthy

businesses on what works

Whole Healt

h

Employees (demographics, health equity)

Community Geographic Region

Industry

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Capacity Building

Hands-On Approach

Research-Based

Educational Mission for Sustainability

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Health Links

Impact

• 214 businesses• 11 Regions • 30 Counties

• 150+ Preferred Vendors

• 263 People Trained

Thank you! If you have more questions about the training session please contact a member from our Health Links Team

contact@healthlinkscolorado.org

303.724.7814

Go to healthlinkscolorado.org and apply for advising and certification today!

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Resources• Comprehensive worksite wellness information for all organizations:

CDC National Healthy Worksite Program:http://www.cdc.gov/nationalhealthyworksite/index.htm

• Comprehensive worksite wellness information (designed for state and federal government but has resources for all organizations): CDC National Healthier Worksite Initiative:http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/hwi/index.htm

• Integration of NIOSH and workplace health promotion, with comprehensive resources:Total Worker Health:http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/TWH/

• General guide, resources, and framework:CDC Worksite Health Promotion:http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/

Resources• Evidence-based interventions specific to workplace:

The Guide to Community Preventive Services:http://www.thecommunityguide.org/worksite/index.html

• Assessment tool, and program ideas:CDC Worksite Health Scorecard Manual: http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/pubs/docs/HSC_Manual.pdf

• Comprehensive evidence-based resources on a variety of workplace wellness topics: http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/pdfs/wh-resources.pdf

• Wellness information targeting hospitals:Healthy Hospital Choices:http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/hwi/docs/HealthyHospBkWeb.pdf