Health Coaching

Health coaching, in my opinion, is one of the most effective programs you can offer employees as part of any worksite health promotion program. We think of coaches as being an leader for our sports teams or musical performances but rarely do we think about a coach for our health outside of a physician.

Health, or wellness coaching, is quite a new paradigm among worksite wellness programs but is gaining greater demand with society's current health crisis. It's popularity will continue to increase as corporate America becomes more aware of the impact it can have on employees' overall health.

Health coaching is a confidential partnership between the employee and a certified health coach. Coaches focus on helping participants understand their health risks appraisals, medical screenings results, and provide them assistance in making lifestyle changes. Coaching delivers motivation, discipline, knowledge, and accountability for every participant looking to acquire better health.

In-person coaching is the best form if available but telephonic coaching allows sessions to be scheduled at a time and place that is most convenient for participants. With the technology we have today, the internet allows us to use email, voice chat, and conferences calls to conduct coaching sessions.

I am an online fitness coach with Team Beachbody. If you are looking for an opportunity to help others get fit and healthy, earn an income, from home let me know by completing the interest form from this site.

When to Offer Health Coaching

The best time to offer your employees coaching session is following implementation of health risk appraisals and health screenings. During this time, employees will be receiving an abundant amount of information related to their health and wellness. For anyone, this information can be quite overwhelming and offering an individual to help them sift through the data and give them direction is smart.

For employees with few risk factors, one coaching session might be enough. For those with 3 or more health risk factors, I recommend a coaching session once a month or at least once a quarter depending on your wellness budget. It is important to keep the healthy people healthy and it is even more important to help high risk employees reduce their risk.

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Frequent coaching sessions will help benefit those high risk employees. I also recommend that as part of your wellness program you have a coaching hotline or internet access to a coach if someone has questions in-between sessions.

Employers should allow for employees to participate in their wellness coaching sessions during work hours if at all possible. After work, employees often get busy with family and other activities so allow 20-30 minutes during their workday is much more effective.

Finding Qualified Health Coaches

Coaches should be experienced health and wellness professionals, certified personal trainers, nurses, dietitians, and health educators.

Wellness coaches are versed in many areas including:

Nutrition
Physical Activity
Weight management
Stress Management
Life Skills
Tobacco Cessation

There are tons of wellness coaching companies available to help provide you with this service. I recommend WellCoaches or Ceridian Health Solutions, and Wellsource, Inc as I have had experiences with all of these companies and they seem to do a great job. Also check out HealthCoachTraining.net for more more information about becoming a certified health coach.

The only downside to using a third-party administrator for these services is that they can be quite costly. If you can find a local health/wellness coach, registered dietitian, or certified health professional to offer these services for you it could save you some money but be sure they are knowledgeable in their area and have done this line of work before.