January 2010

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Healthy Worksite Tools

Through Worksite Thought Starters, Free & Clear provides specific tips on how to revamp your employee worksite to improve the health of your workforce.

THOUGHT STARTER #6

Offer Health Screenings and Employee Education

The beginning of the New Year is a time when most people are refining their goals and planning for a healthier year ahead. As an employer who offers health coverage to your employees, it is in your best interest to offer support in the identification and prevention of disease and disability – and what better time to offer onsite health screenings to your employees than the start of the year? This thought starter presents expert advice on how to offer onsite screenings as well as ideas for how to provide health and safety education to your employees.

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Winter Tips for Employee Health

It's time to warm up! When temperatures are frigid, it’s likely that you and your employees are looking for ways to get warm. Do so by increasing physical activity outside, and by encouraging social support and coworker bonds through volunteer work.

Five Winter Tips from the Free & Clear Team:

Organize an employee winter sports day and go skiing, sledding, or snowshoeing. In a warm climate? Find an ice skating rink!
Subsidize employee memberships to local gyms.
Encourage social support and comaraderie by reaching out to volunteer at a local shelter or kids' club.
Publish links to seasonal outdoor activities in internal emails and newsletters.
Remind employees to dress appropriately for the winter weather.

Give Your Employees the Confidence of an Olympic Athlete

Professional athletes like those on this year's U.S. ski team possess something that individuals need when trying to quit tobacco, lose weight, and make other long-term health changes: confidence. In the world of tobacco cessation counseling, this kind of confidence is known as self-efficacy. The more a person believes in himself, the more likely he is to be successful.

Read Quit Coach Janice Milliman's story about her "5 keys to confidence," which she employs when speaking with tobacco users, encouraging them to take the courageous steps they need to change their lives.

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Mind & Body Coach Profile

Certainly, choosing healthy foods (and the right amounts of those healthy foods!) and being physically active are fundamental skills to weight management. But more importantly, it’s about learning to use our thoughts to our success, rather than to our detriment. – Jess, Mind & Body Coach

Mind & Body Coach Jess shares her personal story of health and fitness, what she's learned along the way, and why she's inspired by each participant story that she hears.

View full profile (link)

Clear Insights White Paper

Through Clear Insights, Free & Clear educates and motivates employers, health plans, and government agencies by sharing best practices for achieving sustainable health behavior change to reduce the risk of chronic disease.

Worksite Walkability Tool

Helping your workforce to increase their daily physical activity will not only improve their health, but also their concentration and productivity. This Worksite Walkability Tool will walk you through questions that will help you determine the safety, ease, and ambience of areas surrounding your worksite that can contribute to whether your employees feel comfortable and safe walking to and from your building. Register to download (PDF)

Clear Insights Webinar

Clear Insights webinars educate and motivate employers, health plans and government agencies by sharing best practices for achieving sustainable health behavior change to reduce the risk of chronic disease.

Extreme Makeover: HR Edition: Strategies for Increasing Physical Activity in the Workplace

In this presentation, Beth Shepard, clinical exercise physiologist, health educator, wellness coach, and strategic partner in the development of the Mind & Body Program, shares best practices for revamping your worksite’s environment to reduce sedentary behavior and to encourage employees to take the initiative to increase their daily physical activity. Register & watch now (FLV)

FEATURED BLOG POST:

Seeds of Change Project Creates Visual Symbol of Lives Changed by Free & Clear

Written by Jennifer Pech-Cinnamon, Operations Program Administrator, Clinical & Behavioral Sciences: View blog entry

Free & Clear's blog provides company news and specialized commentary on what's new in the wellness industry.

Question: Our team loves organizing lunch meetings and other events around food. This causes a lot of our employees to overeat or unknowingly eat more calories than they had anticipated! Do you have any advice?

Answer: One of the best things you can do to start with is to educate your staff -- especially those who place catering orders. Make sure everyone is on board with what consitutes a nutritious meal or snack. You can also draft healthy food policies (these work great for revamping cafeterias and vending machines as well). Once everyone is on the same page, it will be easier to make sure that only healthy foods are ordered and offered during gatherings. For more ideas, check out our Healthy Worksite Thought Starter #10, Healthy Meetings and Events.

Sandi Kaplan is Free & Clear’s Associate Director of Clinical Development and Support.

Testimonial

Participant Quit for Life

Yes I am still absolutely smoke free and absolutely loving it...I changed to a healthy diet and lost those few extra pounds I gained from not smoking. More importantly, during the last 30 days my doctor decreased my thyroid medication and as of two weeks ago she took me off of my blood pressure medicine...I can't say thanks enough for your program.

– Alberta Faye Powell

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December 2009

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