Worksite Wellness

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Just as the history of man can be categorized into phases (commonly referred to as ages), so too can the history of worksite wellness. This article examines four phases in the history of worksite wellness programs.

The history presented here only applies if, like me, you believe that wellness consists of integrated multiple dimensions. If however, you believe that worksite wellness is only about physical health, then you will see the historical timeline presented here as being much shorter.

Phase 1: The Recreation Phase

The earliest reported incidence of wellness being practiced in the workplace dates back to 1897 at the Pullman Company near Chicago, Illinois. In an effort to accommodate their labor needs and the needs of rural individuals …show more content…
PepsiCo began their renowned employee fitness program in the late 1950's. PepsiCo was followed in the 1960's by Sentry Insurance, Rockwell International, Xerox Corporation, American Can and NASA launching employee fitness programs.

The 1970's saw a continued emphasis on fitness related programs with the creation of employee fitness programs by Kimberly-Clark and Mesa Petroleum. Also impacting the field was the passage, by Congress, in 1970 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the continued expansion of Employee Assistance Programs beyond its original focus on alcoholism into a more broad brush approach. The term wellness was also introduced into the lexicon and mainstream. Building on the work of Dr. Halbert Dunn in the 1960's, an informal network of physicians and psychologists in the 1970's began creating comprehensive, multi-dimensional models of wellness, wellness assessment tools, and actively wrote and spoke about their concept of …show more content…
The combination of increased attention to cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases, along with escalating employer related healthcare costs resulted in the 1980"s worksite wellness programs becoming more focused on and aligned with the pathogenesis model of medicine. This resulted in increased attention being given to employee health promotion, along with an emphasis on health risk reduction and individual responsibility for health. As a result, health education, health risk assessments, biometric screenings and individual behavior change initiatives became the core programming found within worksite wellness programs. In order to substantiate their impact on employer healthcare costs, ROI (return-on-investment) measurement became the most common way of evaluating worksite wellness program
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