Businesses who are interested in helping their employees stop smoking will find that their overall business is healthier including their bottom line. There are many reasons why employers will want to help their employees stop smoking. Employees who smoke are found to take more sick days, take longer breaks (resulting in lower productivity) and have been shown to have more on the job accidents. In addition businesses who help their employees stop smoking will find that they face lower healthcare costs that are becoming increasingly difficult to manage.Best of all businesses that care about the health of their employees have a better corporate image and show enhanced job satisfaction among their workforce.
Some businesses have more resources than others and can offer more comprehensive smoking cessation support. However, there are still a variety of ways that employers can help their employees quit smoking and any workplace that offers smoking cessation activities shows a commitment to employee health and wellness. This can result in better employee retention and increased morale in the workplace. Here are some proven strategies that can make cessation activities in the workplace more successful:
- Use an integrated approach that includes non-smoking policies, health benefit plans, and cessation information and activities. The most successful smoking cessation programs attack the problem from several fronts.By establishing non-smoking policies you help insure that all employees (smoking and non smoking alike) can work in a safe and healthy environment. In addition health benefit plans coupled with smoking cessation information and activities have been shown to have a high degree of success in helping employees to stop smoking.
- Ensure that there is broad representation by involving staff and management, different departments, union representatives, and both smokers, ex-smokers and non-smokers. Many smoking cessation efforts work best with a “trickle down” approach.Involving management in an active way that can help give some weight behind the smoking cessation programs that are going on in the workplace.
- Subsidize quit-smoking medications. Most of these medications are fairly cost effective.Many of the companies that have taken this step have found them to be highly successful in helping employees to stop smoking. When these medications become more affordable more smokers are willing to try them.
- Understand that quitting is a process. An effective smoking cessation program allows employees to participate in activities and access quit-smoking medications as often as they need to make the various quit attempts.This can be as often is necessary to stay smoke-free for good.
- Remove as many barriers as possible from the smoking cessation program that involve participating in activities such as cost, location and time. If you can make it as easy as possible for employees to be involved you will have a much higher degree of success.
- Tailor the smoking cessation program to your workplace, taking into consideration the needs of your employees, including accommodating shift workers and making sure written materials are language-appropriate. You should also focus on activities and elements of a smoking cessation program that are based on the demographics of your workforce.These demographics will include: age, gender and ethnicity.
- Extend cessation benefits and activities to spouses and family members. It can be helpful and very meaningful to employees if you extend the smoking cessation program to extended family members.
- Take a long-term approach. The most successful smoking cessation programs understand that this is not a short-term program with a short-term result.Long-term results and long-term benefits occur when an employer understands that it may take some time to achieve the desired result of a smoker-free workplace.