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The disruption, trauma, and stressors brought by COVID-19 have increased recognition and normalization of workforce mental health needs. Objective: Given the importance of mental health and well-being assessments to employers' efforts to optimize employee health and well-being, this paper reviews mental health assessments that have utility in the workplace. Data Source: A review of publicly available mental health and well-being assessments was conducted with a primary focus on burnout, general mental health and well-being, loneliness, psychological safety, resilience, and stress. Inclusion Criteria: Assessments had to be validated for adult populations; available in English as a stand-alone tool; have utility in an employer setting; and not have a primary purpose of diagnosing a mental health condition. Data Extraction: All assessments were reviewed by a minimum of two expert reviewers to document number of questions, subscales, fee structure, international use, translations available, scoring/reporting, respondent (ie, employee or organization), and the target of the assessment (ie, mental health domain and organizational or individual level assessments. Data Synthesis & Results: Sixty-six assessments across the six focus areas met inclusion criteria, enabling employers to select assessments that meet their self-identified measurement needs. Conclusion: This review provides employers with resources that can help them understand their workforce's mental health and well-being status across multiple domains, which can serve as a needs assessment, facilitate strategic planning of mental health and well-being initiatives, and optimize evaluation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the benefits of physical activity on brain health and emphasizes the importance of integrating physical activity promotion into workplace health promotion efforts. Regular physical activity has positive effects on mental health and cognitive function, and it can reduce the risk of cognitive decline. The article highlights the relationship between physical activity and brain health, including its impact on anxiety, depression, cognition, dementia, and other neurological conditions. It also suggests strategies for integrating physical activity into worksite health promotion, such as policy and systems changes, benchmarking, and scorecards. The article concludes by calling for further research to provide specific physical activity prescriptions for improving cognition and reducing the risk of neurological conditions. [Extracted from the article]

One large employer surveyed their employees; with greater than 90% response, employees most frequently describe returning to an office as i ' I pointless'. Employers are concerned with employees' well-being, work culture, employee burnout, and retention. In response to COVID-19, many employers have offered increased flexibility for where employees work, including remote (an employee's workstation is at home) and hybrid work (an employee works both at the employer worksite and remotely, on pre-determined schedules). [Extracted from the article]

Hybrid environments and remote work are shifting how employees in more sedentary positions work during the day and how employers can offer opportunities for employees to be physically active. Additionally, organizations with a higher proportion of employees working from home reported their physical work environment to be less likely to support physical activity by providing amenities such as onsite fitness centers, walking trails, and standing desks.[20] A person's employment industry determines how and when they work. Keywords: physical activity; exercise; workplace wellness; workplace physical activity; remote work; technology; activity tracking; exercise is medicine; community partnerships EN physical activity exercise workplace wellness workplace physical activity remote work technology activity tracking exercise is medicine community partnerships 723 730 8 06/06/23 20230601 NES 230601 Introduction How and where we do our work is changing in the United States across industry, government, and non-profit sectors. These employees may get more of their physical activity at work (ie, occupational physical activity) vs in leisure time, so workplace health promotion programs should prioritize the safety of their physical activity and adjust for other health and well-being priorities like work-life balance. [Extracted from the article]

Recent industry surveys indicate that a majority of employers are offering health and well-being (HWB) programs to their employees,[1],[2] but the reasons for offering them have changed over time. Metrics which are directly related can be positioned most proximal to the central key metric while indirectly related metrics might be positioned in the outer periphery and linked to the more proximal metrics to indicate how their influence is realized. Executive leaders are likely to be interested in business performance and financial impact metrics, but it is important to demonstrate how leading process indicators such as program utilization and satisfaction rates as well as health outcomes influence these metrics. The Value Demonstration Dashboard organizes the meaningful metrics into a narrative about how the metrics are related to one another and link the HWB initiative to broader organizational goals. [Extracted from the article]

Most employers understand the importance of measuring and evaluating their health and well-being initiatives. As consultants, researchers, and practitioners working in the workplace wellness field for decades, we've often observed organizations that are benefits and data rich but information poor. In a concise manner, the dashboard data should be able to identify and support key messages about the value the organization is realizing as a result of its investment in workforce HWB. Consider the data you will need, identify the ease of obtaining the data, the level of detail that will be available, and associated data use rights. The data included in the Well-Being Dashboard is not dynamic, but rather an annual snapshot representing HRA data for the University of Iowa. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: This study tested relationships between health and well-being best practices and 3 types of outcomes.Design: A cross-sectional design used data from the HERO Scorecard Benchmark Database.Setting: Data were voluntarily provided by employers who submitted web-based survey responses.Sample: Analyses were limited to 812 organizations that completed the HERO Scorecard between January 12, 2015 and October 2, 2017.Measures: Independent variables included organizational and leadership support, program comprehensiveness, program integration, and incentives. Dependent variables included participation rates, health and medical cost impact, and perceptions of organizational support.Analysis: Three structural equation models were developed to investigate the relationships among study variables.Results: Model sample size varied based on organizationally reported outcomes. All models fit the data well (comparative fit index > 0.96). Organizational and leadership support was the strongest predictor (P < .05) of participation (n = 276 organizations), impact (n = 160 organizations), and perceived organizational support (n = 143 organizations). Incentives predicted participation in health assessment and biometric screening (P < .05). Program comprehensiveness and program integration were not significant predictors (P > .05) in any of the models.Conclusion: Organizational and leadership support practices are essential to produce participation, health and medical cost impact, and perceptions of organizational support. While incentives influence participation, they are likely insufficient to yield downstream outcomes. The overall study design limits the ability to make causal inferences from the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]