Stanford University educates their employees for wellness

Prestigious Stanford University has begun a new wellness program for their employees called BeWell@Stanford.This is an incentive based program that is based on their employees becoming educated about their own health and what they can do to improve it. The goal of the BeWell@Stanford Incentive Program is to motivate and reward employees for taking action to improve their health. While this program is fairly new it has gone into effect for all Stanford employees. BeWell@Stanford includes three steps to healthy living:

1. The employee completes the confidential online Stanford Health and Lifestyle Assessment (SHALA). SHALA is also known as the Stanford Health and Lifestyle Assessment.This is a confidential online health survey and takes about 20 minutes to complete. The answers provide the basis for the five reports the employee will receive. The SHALA reports:
   • Help the employee link their current lifestyle behaviors to their risk for certain chronic diseases.
   • Outlines the employees risk for type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other health issues.
   • Provide the employee with health behavior targets to reduce their risk and improve their health.
   • Gives the employee strategies to reach their health goals.
   After completion the employee then receives:
   • Receive 5 personalized reports that help them to understand the connection between current lifestyle behavior and risks for certain diseases
   • Readiness for change incentive-$150 reward
2. The employee then schedules and attends a SHALA interpretation workshop that will help them: Understand their results Set applicable goals Develop a wellness plan to meet their specific goals
3. The employee can then take action following their interpretation workshop. The following tools are then available:
   • A free fitness assessment
   • Participation in two free personal training buddy sessions
   • They can register for only $20 for Spring quarter Health improvement program (HIP) and Physical Education, Recreation, and Wellness (PER&W) group fitness classes
   • Join a BeWell@Stanford community to help them achieve their goals.

   It is important to note that family members are encouraged to participate by taking SHALA, attending an interpretation workshop, and registering for classes at the reduced class fee. However they are not eligible for the $150 reward, or the free fitness assessment and personal training sessions.

BeWell@Stanford is heavily education based because the purpose of the employee incentive program is to encourage employees to better manage their health. It was developed on the principle that before you can work on improving your health; you need to determine if you have any health risks by taking the health assessment. Further education (the workshops) were developed in order to meaning to the assessment.This also helps employees to know how to best utilize the health promotion programs and activities available on campus.

The BeWell@Stanford program has developed a Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors program.Employees are asked to commit to at least 2 of the following for a minimum of 6 months. These can be new behaviors or behaviors that the employee will continue to engage in.These behaviors are:

• Avoid tobacco products


• Eat at least 5 servings of vegetables and fruit per day


• Engage in a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity per week; moderate activity equates to a perceived exertion of 5-6 and vigorous activity equates to 7-8 on a 10 point scale


• Engage in a relaxation activity at least once a week


• Use alternative transportation at least 2 days per week (walk, bike, take train, take bus or carpool)


• Other healthy behavior that promote healthy employees

One of the easiest things about the BeWell@Stanford program is that most of the program can be easily accessed online. In addition the University works to keep the information confidential and data is stored on the secure and confidential Stanford School of Medicine servers that follow all the University security guidelines.