What comes to mind when you think of the factors that affect employees’ health? Genetics? Money? Choices around eating and exercise? Smoking? Family and friends? Stress? What about broader forces like access to transportation, education, stable housing, quality medical care, or interaction with the criminal justice system?

Thinking about the big picture of what promotes or undermines health can help worksite wellness efforts reach and affect a broader range of employees. Specifically, what does your worksite wellness program do to help employees who have the hardest time being healthy and who, consequently, suffer higher rates of preventable disease?

Health@Work—and Hennepin County Public Health—encourage you to take a step back and think about how your worksite wellness program can take into account the societal and economic factors that influence your employees’ health.

Are you aware that Hennepin County does a survey every four years called SHAPE (Survey of the Health of All the Population and the Environment)? This survey gathers information on the health of Hennepin County residents and the factors that affect their health. From the data in the SHAPE 2018 Adult Data Book, we know that people with less education, unstable housing, and lower incomes report being in worse health and suffering more frequent mental distress. People of color in Hennepin County also report worse physical and mental health.

What can you as a worksite wellness coordinator do to counter the societal factors that lead to differences in health? Check out the ideas below to make sure good health is accessible to all of your employees. Not only is this the right thing to do, it saves lives, increases productivity, and decreases health care costs.

Tips for coordinators:

• Read this article by Linda Howard to gain a useful perspective on how worksite wellness programs can be more multiculturally competent and, thus, more effective.
• Educate yourself and your employees about unequal conditions for health in Minnesota through this series of short videos by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota.
• Invest in your worksite wellness teams’ professional development by registering for the September 18 HealthSource Solutions Midwest Health Promotion Conference. The morning keynote address will be given by past Health@Work featured speaker and Clockwork CEO Nancy Lyons. Health@Work staff will be leading two breakout sessions—one on happiness at work and one on professional development through an online book group.

Save the date – Mark your calendar to attend Health@Work’s fall networking breakfast on the morning of November 7 at the Maple Grove Community Center. This event will address health equity and recognize the 2019 Wellness by Design winners.                      

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Click here to read this month's E-tips for your employees: "Why is it so hard to be healthy?"

To share these E-tips with employees, you can:  

• Email the E-tips document to your staff as an attachment. 1) Click the link to download and save the E-tips to your computer. 2) Add your organization's logo in the bottom left corner. 3) Then send it as an email attachment to staff. 
• Print the document once you've added your organization's logo and post it in a common area in your workplace.
• Copy and paste the text into your organization's newsletter.

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