Based on extensive research experience with employee assistance programs, ethical issues concerning employee assistance and wellness/health promotion programs are considered at three levels: (1) the individual level, (2) the organizational level, and (3) the interorganizational level. (Author/CH)

This document consists of a series of tables that display data derived from a survey of 33 companies that provide employer supported caregiver programs for the elderly. The tables outline the following information: (1) factors enhancing employer-supported eldercare development; (2) factors inhibiting employer-supported eldercare development; (3)…

Presents a matrix that suggests that workplace health promotion and employee assistance programs may represent employer involvement in areas over which they have no legitimate control. (JOW)

In planning for the 1989-90 academic year, Hazard Community College's Employee Professional Development Committee recommended and gained approval for a wellness program that would assist all employees in reducing stress and becoming more physically fit. Similar to fitness programs in the business sector, the wellness program utilized community…

The continuing surge of women into the work force and the tendency for women to remain on the job throughout pregnancy and to return to work within months after delivery have led companies to initiate and place increasing importance on prenatal health promotion. Such programs have been found to improve employees' prospects for healthy pregnancies…

Company policies and programs aimed at reducing smoking among employees have a number of other important benefits to employees and the company alike. Limiting or banning smoking helps create a safe and healthy workplace and may reduce direct health care costs, health and life insurance costs, employee absenteeism, costs associated with maintaining…

Increasing numbers of small businesses are providing wellness activities for their employees. By instituting wellness programs, small businesses can improve employee morale, engender a commitment from employees, enhance the feeling of "family" among employees, improve worker productivity, and contain health care costs. Wellness programs are…

Companies are promoting employee leadership and decision making in their worksite wellness programs for the following reasons: to make the best use of limited resources, to increase programs' chances for success by fostering employee ownership of program plans, to help integrate positive health and safety features into workplace policies and…

Reviews literature on worksite fitness and health promotion programs. Examines their impact on employees and the sponsoring organization. Discusses beneficial effects such as increased fitness, and reduction in health care costs, risk factors of heart disease, absenteeism, and turnover. Addresses issues related to participation rates, program…

This training guide is intended to increase the understanding and skills of Head Start managers and directors to: (1) identify the ways in which employee health affects the organization's effectiveness; (2) design training programs that encourage employees to improve their own health; (3) understand how the organization contributes to the overall…

In April 1988 a survey was conducted by a Board Committee on Substance Abuse to study illegal drug and alcohol abuse policies and procedures at Illinois community colleges. Of the 39 community college districts surveyed, 36 had policies, guidelines, or procedures addressing substance abuse; the remaining 3 districts had plans to adopt them in the…

Alcohol and drug abuse have serious physical, psychological, and social consequences, and employees who abuse alcohol and/or drugs ultimately reduce their companies' profits. Employee substance abuse leads to reduced productivity as well as to increased absenteeism, health care and health insurance costs, and liability claims against employers of…

This paper focuses on participation of labor unions in health promotion and health promotion programs. It begins by discussing labor unions' impact on today's work force. An overview of unions' historical concern for worker health serves as an introduction to consideration of the labor movement's current involvement in employee health. A look at…

Cited as the largest single cause of lost work time and on-the-job fatalities for U.S. workers, motor vehicle crashes cause major nonrecoverable losses for U.S. businesses. Workplace programs to encourage employees to wear safety belts can thus help employers reduce traffic accident-related losses of work time and can substantially reduce the…

Four areas--health benefits, occupational safety and health, prevention and wellness, and human resource development--have contributed significantly to enhancing worker health. The "healthy corporation" is both a goal and a comprehensive attitude about organizational life and about the factors the affect organizational health and, ultimately,…