Sometimes little things can make a world of difference. Offering materials and programs that are easily accessible for employees shows that your organization is interested in their well-being and is available to assist them as they start the journey to freedom from tobacco use. Here are some ideas that you can easily offer employees.

Literature

• Provide free smoking cessation brochures in public areas so employees can help themselves.

• Use the employee newsletter and the intranet to communicate the importance of quitting smoking, as well as the resources and benefits available to employees. Place quit smoking messages in EOBs, payroll stuffers and other vehicles that go to employees. Put up posters and use table tents in lunch rooms. The articles, tip sheets, posters and other items in the “Tools” section of this site are available for your use.

• Provide self-help materials for employees interested in quitting, such as self-help guides, audiotapes, and video programs. An example is the American Lung Association book, Seven Steps to a Smoke-free Life (www.lungusa.org/pub/seven/seven_intro.html)

Events, seminars and lunch-and-learn sessions

• Invite guest speakers from the community to come talk with employees about the importance of becoming tobacco-free.

• Check into services provided by your ValueOptions Employee Assistance Program. These include on-site trainings and educational materials for all employees, as well as one-to-one behavioral counseling for help developing a tobacco cessation program customized to an individual’s needs.

• Develop an incentive system to promote attendance and participation in tobacco cessation programs. Your benefit program may support this by contributing extra health care dollars in a flexible spending account, for example, for those who participate in such programming. Give employees a prize and a certificate. Consider (after obtaining employee permission) publicizing success stories and photos in the company newsletter.

• Sponsor an on-site support group for those attempting to quit or those who have recently quit. Consider whether you will use a trained facilitator. Nicotine Anonymous (NA), a 12-step program based on the format of Alcoholics Anonymous, provides guidelines for starting an NA group at work at www.nicotine-anonymous.org.
  
  
• Conduct a brief one-session seminar to attract “fence-straddlers” and offer refreshments or a free lunch. Invite an employee who is a former smoker to speak.

• Sponsor a special event that focuses exclusively on tobacco cessation. Examples include health fairs, New Year’s resolution events, or the Great American Smokeout, which is sponsored nationally by the American Cancer Society on the third Thursday in November. More people quit on this day than any other day of the year. Contact the Cancer Society for ideas and materials, www.cancer.org.

• Sponsor subsidized on-site or community-based tobacco cessation classes or counseling. Consider opening the classes to spouses and other family members, especially teenagers. Check your local listing for classes provided by:

• The American Lung Association
• Hospitals
• State, City or County health departments
• The American Heart Association
• The American Cancer Society

Be sure to review materials and assess instructor credentials.

Internet

• Direct employees to the ValueOptions Achieve Solutions Web site to find information on tobacco use and cessation: www.achievesolutions.net.

• Prescreen and recommend public Web sites that provide information, counseling, and support for smoking cessation. Consider providing time during the workday to look for tobacco cessation information. Examples of such sites include:

• Boston University School of Public Health/QuitNet, www.quitnet.com/
• Canadian Cancer Society, www.cancer.ca
• Group Health Cooperative for Consumers, www.quittobacco.org
• Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Quit Wizard, www.trytostop.org
• Tobacco Information and Prevention Source, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/tobacco
• The Quit Smoking Company, www.quitsmokingsupport.com
• U.S. Public Health Service’s consumer guide, “ You Can Quit Smoking,” http://surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/conspack.html
• Tobacco Control Research Branch of the National Cancer Institute, www.smokefree.gov
• American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org
• American Heart Association, www.heart.org
• American Lung Association, www.lungusa.org

Resources within your organization

• Train existing on-site medical personnel (occupational health nurses, physician’s assistants, physicians) in tobacco cessation and in referral to available resources. Develop a referral form, and make it a policy to ask about and counsel on tobacco cessation at every visit. Provide medical staff with self-help materials to dispense.

• Train internal health promotion, wellness and fitness personnel to ask about tobacco use and to refer employees to tobacco cessation services and benefits. Make sure your external service providers also have access to information about tobacco cessation coverage, services and vendors so that they can provide appropriate referrals to your employees.

• Consider providing tobacco cessation programs and aids at no cost to employees in order to maximize participation, as a part of your health care and wellness benefits plan.

• Sponsor a confidential health risk appraisal (HRA). HRAs are health questionnaires, sometimes accompanied by physical health tests, that provide employees with an assessment of their health risks and education on ways to improve their health and reduce their health risks. Tobacco cessation is a key part of virtually all HRAs. HRAs can be used by employers to develop an aggregate profile (no employee names are used) of the percentage of tobacco users in a population. For information on HRAs, contact your health partner(s).