Serve Up a Healthier You

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Serve Up a Healthier You
North Carolina Child Nutrition Services Staff
Wellness Toolkit
N.C. Nutrition Education and Training Program
Nutrition Services Branch N.C. Division of
Public Health
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Serve Up a Healthier You

• Staff wellness toolkit tailored for Child
  Nutrition professionals in North Carolina
• Developed with input from focus groups and
  surveys and guidance from a diverse advisory
  committee
• Offers resources and strategies for eating smart,
  moving more and living healthy

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Need Why is there a need for staff wellness?

• Poor nutrition and physical inactivity have a
  significant health and economic impact
• The number of adults who are overweight or obese
  has increased
• An unhealthy lifestyle increases the risk of
  weight gain and many chronic diseases such as
  heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers
• Employees spend a significant part of each day at
  work
• Obesity and its related health conditions are
  responsible for much of the increase in health
  care spending by employers
• Obesity and chronic disease can also decrease
  productivity and increase absenteeism

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Yield What are the benefits of staff wellness?

• Effective employee wellness programs offer direct
  and indirect benefits, including promotion of a
  healthy work environment and support of staff in
  taking steps to protect or improve their health
• A review of published research showed an average
  3.50 to 1.00 savings-to-cost ratio in reduced
  absenteeism and health care costs

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Yield What are the benefits of staff wellness?

• Healthier employees
• Reduced health care costs
• Decreased absenteeism
• Increased presenteeism
• Enhanced productivity
• Reduced workers compensation and disability
  management claims costs
• Increased employee satisfaction and morale
• Reduced employee turnover

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Ingredients What should a staff wellness
initiative include?

• Comprehensive Worksite Health Promotion Program
  Five Key Elements
• Health education focusing on skill development
  and lifestyle behavior change
• Supportive social and physical work environment,
  with established norms for healthy behavior and
  policies that promote health and reduce disease
  risk
• Integration into the organizations
  administrative structure
• Related programs, such as safety and employee
  assistance programs
• Screening programs, linked to medical service
  delivery to ensure follow-up and appropriate
  treatment as necessary and to encourage adherence

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Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Employees Its a
shared responsibility

• Wellness programs that focus solely on behavior
  change lack sustainability
• To achieve a lasting impact on employee health,
  the work environment and culture must change
• Worksite policies must clearly define the
  expectation regarding health behavior
• Supportive social and physical environment
  enables employees to make the healthy choice
• Policies and changes in the work environment
  influence individual behavior at work, which may
  lead to change outside of work and at home

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Commit and Support
• Gaining and maintaining commitment and support
  from all levels of administration or management
  is critical to success
• Wellness initiatives must become an integral part
  of the culture
• Wellness must become a mutual goal for employer
  and employees

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Role of Administration
• Create a supportive work environment and
  implement policies or practices that make
  adopting healthy behaviors the easy choice for
  employees
• Provide the wellness committee with the resources
  needed to develop and implement effective
  programs
• Approve and set parameters for employee
  participation in wellness activities
• Ensure staff have access to health care and
  employee assistance programs
• Demonstrate support by participating in wellness
  activities
• Set an example by taking steps toward a healthy
  lifestyle

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Organize
• Establishing, supporting and maintaining a
  wellness committee provides opportunities to
• create a healthy worksite
• model healthy behaviors for students and the
  community
• foster collaboration
• build healthy lines of communication among staff
  from all levels

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Role of the Wellness Committee
• Plan, develop and implement group and individual
  activities to support employees who want to adopt
  healthy behaviors
• Gain support for the wellness program from
  co-workers and encourage participation
• Promote programs, policies or practices and
  environments that support healthy living
• Evaluate results of wellness programming,
  activities, policies and practices

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Organize
• Diverse representation from all levels encourages
  input, involvement and shared ownership of the
  program by employees
• Size of the wellness committee depends on the
  size of the Child Nutrition program and goals and
  activities of the wellness initiative
• Revitalize the committee by rotating members and
  roles and responsibilities within the committee

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Assess
• Worksite assessment should be completed as a
  starting point
• an analysis of the current worksite environment
  and policies
• a survey or other mechanism for employee input
• collection and examination of any existing data
  that may be helpful in decision-making
• Assessment results identify strengths and areas
  for improvement and serve as a baseline for
  evaluation

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Protect
• HIPAA Privacy Rule assure that individuals
  health info is properly protected while allowing
  the flow of health data needed to provide and
  promote quality health care and protect the
  publics health
• GINA restricts the ability of employers and
  insurers to collect and disclose genetic info,
  including family history
• No financial incentive can be offered for
  completion of a health risk appraisal (HRA), if
  the HRA contains questions about family medical
  history

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• HIPAA Employee Wellness Program Nondiscrimination
  Requirements
• Total reward for all the plans wellness programs
  that require satisfaction of a standard related
  to a health factor is limited
• Program must be reasonably designed to promote
  health and prevent disease
• Program must give individuals eligible to
  participate the opportunity to qualify for the
  reward at least once per year
• Reward must be available to all similarly
  situated individuals
• Plan must disclose availability of a reasonable
  alternative standard

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Protect
• N.C. Office of State Personnel provides
  foundation for state entities to develop
  activities and modify work environments and
  policies to support the health and well-being of
  state employees
• Participation in wellness activities is voluntary
• Injury that occurs during non-pay status is not
  compensable
• Safety and maintenance guidelines for wellness
  areas should be developed
• Employees should sign a wellness activity
  liability acknowledgement
• Employees should be informed of all wellness
  policies

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Plan
• An action plan serves as a road map
• Point A Identify areas to work on
• Point B Behavior change
• Point C Culture change in the LEA, Child
  Nutrition program and schools
• Short term goals should focus on individual or
  group strategies
• Long-term goals should focus on environment or
  policy strategies

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Communicate
• Recruit Child Nutrition employees talents to
  market the wellness initiative
• Child Nutrition program and administration should
  convey both their concern for the health of
  employees and their commitment to wellness
• Everyone should be informed of the wellness
  initiative name and mission
• A kickoff event can promote awareness and
  excitement
• Wellness committee members and fellow employees
  can champion the wellness initiative with
  one-on-one promotion

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Act
• Worksite wellness activities afford employees the
  opportunity to practice and adopt strategies for
  healthy lifestyle behavior
• Honor interests, suggestions and requests of
  employees in planning
• Offer a variety of programming to accommodate the
  abilities and educational and social preferences
  of employees
• Consider different schedules of Child Nutrition
  staff when planning
• Select accessible location and provide an
  address, directions and contact

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Role of the Employee
• Participate in wellness activities
• Adopt healthier behaviors
• Encourage and support co-workers
• Talk with Administration and the Wellness
  Committee about what is needed to support healthy
  behaviors

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Resource
• Seek resources and support from within the LEA,
  schools or community
• School nurses, Counselors or Physical Education
  and coaching staff
• Trained and credentialed professionals in the
  community
• Medical facility
• County Cooperative Extension, Parks and
  Recreation, or YMCA
• Businesses or gyms
• School Nutrition Association of North Carolina
  districts or chapters

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Review How should a staff wellness initiative be
evaluated?

• Document
• Wellness events and activities should be
  documented
• Documentation helps in
• recording what has been accomplished
• evaluating strategies
• implementing and adapting the action plan
• communicating successes to administration,
  employees, and others

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Review How should a staff wellness initiative be
evaluated?

• Evaluate
• Process measures - Modify programming and
  activities to better meet employee needs
• Participation numbers, employee satisfaction,
  tracking of environment and policy changes
• Impact measures - Measure whether employees
  attitudes, behaviors and health indicators have
  changed as a result
• Pre/post tests or quizzes, eating and activity
  logs, aggregate employee health data, comparison
  of program costs and return on investment

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Success How should achievement be recognized?

• Celebrate
• Employees should be recognized for their
  participation in the wellness initiative and for
  progress made
• LEA and school administration should be notified
  of employee participation
• Achievements can be celebrated at the local or
  state level through the use of school or
  community media, success stories, certificate
  presentations, or submission for awards

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Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Employees Its a
shared responsibility

• Successful wellness programs promote a healthy
  work environment and encourage staff in taking
  steps to protect or improve their health
• Serve Up a Healthier You offers resources and
  guidance, ingredients and recipe, to yield an
  effective wellness program
• Healthy workplaces, healthy employees, and
  healthy communities are a shared responsibility

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Serve Up a Healthier You Toolkit Resources

• How-To Guide/Planning
• Assessment/Evaluation
• Environment/Policy Change
• Education/Mini-Lessons
• Activities/Challenges
• Handouts/Newsletters
• Promotion/Marketing/Recognition

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Recipe Where should a staff wellness initiative
start?

• Planning
• How-to-Guide
• CDC Cost Calculator
• OSP Worksite Wellness Policy
• OSP Activity Liability Form
• Wellness Action Plan Template

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Assessment/Evaluation
• Environment and Policy Survey
• Employee Interest Survey
• Wellness Activity Evaluation
• Wellness Initiative Evaluation
• Employee Wellness Evaluation

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Environment/Policy Change
• Motivational Posters

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Environment/Policy Change
• Sample Healthy Foods Policy
• Sample Physical Activity Policy

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Environment/Policy Change
• Guidelines for Healthy Foods and Beverages and a
  Guide to Making Physical Activity a Part of
  Meetings, Gatherings and Events
• Businesses Leading the Way in Support of
  Breastfeeding
• Bring Fresh Produce to Your Setting
• A Guide to Stairwell Initiatives

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Education Mini-Lessons

• Ingredients
• Introduction to Staff Wellness
• Mini-Lessons Objectives Chart
• Sample Timeline
• References/Resources
• Mini-Lessons

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Education My Recipe for Health

• Ingredients
• Summary - Key take away messages
• Resources
• Activities - Ways to actively reinforce the
  concepts of the mini-lesson

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Activities/Challenges
• Activity Planning Worksheet
• Ten Minute Challenge
• Stress Less Challenge
• Smart Fuel Challenge
• Fruits and Vegetables Challenge
• Solving the Puzzle of Moving More
• Scavenger Hunt
• Guide to Creating Walking Maps

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Handouts/Newsletters
• National Nutrition Month Handouts
• Newsletters

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Communicate/Promote
• Mini-Lesson Activity Flier
• Mini-Lessons Certificate
• Superintendent Letter
• Principal Letter
• Press Release Template

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Production How should staff wellness be
implemented?

• Communicate/Promote
• Promotional Posters

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Child Nutrition professionals play a vital role
in school wellness and have an opportunity to set
a healthy example for students, other school
staff, and families.