Worksite Wellness: A State Health Agency Perspective on Policies and Programs that Improve the Health of Employees and Show a Return on Investment

Background:  State and local health agencies can demonstrate the effectiveness of evidence-based worksite wellness programs by implementing them internally as well as working with businesses. The North Dakota Department of Health approaches worksite wellness as a tool to increase productivity, retention, and improve the health of their employees as well as employees from businesses that they work with.  The State Health Official saw the value in implementing an evidence-based program and made the decision to go through an official worksite wellness accreditation program.

Objective:  The purpose of engaging businesses with worksite wellness is to improve the health and wellbeing of their employees while also showing a return on investment.  The purpose of the evaluation with the Department of Health was to use a quality improvement process to identify areas for improvement as well as areas that they are implementing evidence-based and best practice interventions. It was an opportunity to compare the infrastructure, capacity, policies, and programs within the agency.

Methods: The North Dakota Department of Health worked with the Department of Commerce to provide technical assistance to various businesses in the state..

Results: Vaccination rates and retention have improved and absenteeism rates have decreased from the initiatives for both the Department of Health and private businesses.  Final results of the evaluation will be available soon.

Discussion/Conclusions: State and local public health can engage with private businesses to improve employee health outcomes as well as save on costs.