Tobacco Cessation

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Create a tobacco-free workplace

Tobacco isn’t just bad for your employees’ health — it can also affect the health of your business. Creating a tobacco-free campus policy is a proven way to invest in the health of your employees and protect your bottom line. With the right resources, you can help employees kick the tobacco habit and embrace a healthy lifestyle.

DID YOU KNOW

One employee who smokes can cost you $5,816 a year.

This includes added medical costs, absenteeism, lost productivity, and other expenses.

— Berman et al. tobaccocontrol.bmj.com, June 3, 2013.

Take the first step to a tobacco-free workplace

With our Tobacco-Free Campus Toolkit, you get resources to make your work environment tobacco free and improve the health of your employees and your business. The full interactive toolkit is available for download below.

Step 1: Assess

Form your tobacco-free campus committee.

What to do

Get commitment from leadership.
Recruit employees and form a tobacco-free committee that will oversee your program.
Set a kickoff date for your policy implementation.
Gather baseline data on your employees for comparison after program implementation.
Some ideas:
- tobacco rates
- absenteeism/sick days
- employee morale and attitudes about working for your company

Tools and resources

Find data to support your plan at the National Business Group on Health’s “Tobacco: The Business of Quitting” website external link.
Learn how to form your own wellness committee with our Wellness Committee Toolkit.

TIP Involve your legal team and any union or employee representatives early in the planning process.

Create your own free surveys with SurveyMonkey external link or Google external link.
Use our employee interest survey to gauge employee interest in wellness programs.
Have your employees take Kaiser Permanente’s Total Health Assessment external link.¹

Contact your Kaiser Permanente representative for information.

Step 2: Plan

Steps

Create your tobacco-free campus policy.
Have leadership announce your program.
Create an environment that supports your plan.
Create employee communications.

What to do

Write your tobacco-free campus policy statement.
Consult with legal counsel as necessary.
Plan incentives. Consider gift cards or merchandise, as well as a group award/celebration after successfully implementing your program.
Send communication from CEO to managers, supervisors, and labor-management representatives announcing your tobacco-free program.
Announce kickoff date to employees.
Identify facility needs to accommodate necessary signage.
Make a plan for redesigning/repurposing smoking areas.
Order or create signs that display positive tobacco-free messaging to post around campus and on doors and entrances.
Create communications for your tobacco-free program. Be sure to include positive, supportive messages and a variety of collateral types:
- posters/banners
- fliers
- emails
- newsletter articles
- paycheck stuffers/letters
- fact sheets/Q&As

TIP Share details about your timeline, the phasing out of designated smoking areas, and tobacco cessation resources.

TIP If you have an incentive plan, be sure to mention it.

Tools and resources

Sample tobacco-free campus policy statement
Maximize motivation by implementing your program in conjunction with a national event or holiday, like the Great American Smokeout. external link
TIP Engage employees by offering opportunities for them to get involved at different stages of implementation.
TIP Let employees know that you’ll be supporting their efforts as they prepare to quit tobacco.
TIP Include team members from across the company on your tobacco-free committee.
Tobacco-free facility signs external link from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
TIP Remove outdoor receptacles and replace with plants.
TIP Redesign smoking areas into healthy break areas.
TIP Consider nontraditional places for displaying communications:
- parking lots
- lobbies and exits
- elevators
kp.org/quitsmoking external link offers support information, local class and workshop schedules, and access to these tools and calculators:
Wellness Coaching by Phone gives employees individualized support and step-by-step action plans to quit tobacco.² Promote it with this flier.
The American Cancer Society quiz tool external link helps smokers see the impact of their habit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers Q&As and other communication materials external link.

Step 3: Engage

Steps

Launch your promotion and publicity campaign.
Kickoff your program.

What to do

Send frequent communications about your program to your employees.
Promote cessation resources to your employees, their families, business colleagues, and the community.
Educate managers about enforcing the no-tobacco policy.
Train security employees to enforce your policy.
Announce program start.
Post facility signs.
Enforce your policy.

Tools and resources

Tobacco cessation promotional materials
Kaiser Permanente’s on-site “Quit Tobacco” class is available for a fee.
HealthMedia® Breathe® external link, an online smoking cessation program, is available at no cost to Kaiser Permanente members and to nonmembers for a fee.³
Wellness Coaching by Phone gives employees individualized support and step-by-step action plans to quit tobacco.⁴ Promote it with this flier external link.
Tobacco-free program kickoff announcement

TIP Help prevent relapse with ongoing communications, resources, and support.

Step 4: Measure

Steps

Evaluate success (short-term)
Evaluate success (long-term)

What to do

Gather data to compare to the baseline data you recorded at the beginning of your program.
Get employee feedback with a follow-up survey.
Send congratulatory messages from top-level management.
Send a thank-you communication to employees acknowledging their role in your program’s success.
Gather data to compare to the baseline data you recorded at the beginning of your program and the data you collected three months after your kickoff.
Send another congratulatory message from top-level management.

Tools and resources

Create your own free surveys with SurveyMonkey external link or Google external link.

TIP In addition to asking about the new policy, ask for evaluations of resources and classes, as well as any personal success stories.

Get started with the Tobacco-Free Campus Toolkit

Download the Toolkit

Additional resources

< Previous topic: Sleep Management

Next topic: Weight Management >

¹Available at no cost to Kaiser Permanente members or for a fee for nonmembers.
²See note 1.
³These value-added services are extra services provided by entities other than Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc. (KFHP-MAS), and are neither offered nor guaranteed under any KFHP-MAS contract. These entities may change or discontinue offering these services at any time. KFHP-MAS disclaims any liability for the services provided by these entities.
⁴See note 1.
Information may have changed since publication.

Tobacco Cessation

Create a tobacco-free workplace

DID YOU KNOW

Take the first step to a tobacco-free workplace

Step 1: Assess

Step 2: Plan

Step 3: Engage

Step 4: Measure

Get started with the Tobacco-Free Campus Toolkit

Additional resources

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