Business Sense to Promote Health and Wellness

What is wellness in the workplace? Welfare to work is a broad term for programs and initiatives in the workplace that support the health, safety and welfare of your employees, and often their families as well. Organizational well-being is a business strategy and can be extremely beneficial for both companies and employees, by offering short-and long-term return on investment. Studies show Canadian corporate wellness programs returned $ 1.95 - $ 3.75 per employee per dollar spent!

Companies that implement wellness programs in the workplace see significant benefits for their company, including:

• improving the health of employees
• Reduction of stress and stress-related disorders
• employee morale more
• Increased productivity of the workforce
• less absenteeism and fewer sick days
• lower costs of health benefits
• The minor disability claims in the short term and long-term

He has business sense to promote health and wellness in the workplace ... and wellness programs is not necessary to break the bank to be effective. One of the first steps in developing an effective strategy for the well being of your organization is to implement a thorough evaluation of the well-being at work. Conduct an effective risk assessment for health and environmental scanning to help organizations with specific objectives, realistic goals to improve the health and welfare of your workplace and, ultimately, reduce costs and improve productivity.

Employee Wellness Programs

Organizations can offer a variety of initiatives for the health and welfare to meet their budget and assist employees in learning and development of healthy lifestyle behaviors. Here are some suggestions for the most common health and wellness challenges organizations face today.

Programs of stress management: stress is a common problem in today's workers and its impact on health and productivity can be devastating. Stress-related disorders cost Canadian businesses of employees an estimated $ 12 billion per year (Vanier Institute of the Family). To reduce stress and improve mental health and resilience, consider offering workshops and stress management lunch and learns how to educate staff about stress and to teach ways to reduce and effectively cope with stress. If your budget allows, offering an employee and family assistance program provides a great way to support the issues of stress for employees, both at work and at home.

Physical activity programs: Employee fitness has a direct impact on a company's bottom line. The health risks of inactivity are premature death, heart disease, obesity, hypertension, adult-onset diabetes, osteoporosis, stroke, depression, colon cancer and premature death. To support fitness in the workplace, some organizations offer on-site fitness facilities and programming. If your company does not have a gym on site, it is still possible to offer programs of walking group, yoga classes in a meeting room, stretch breaks, and encourage employees to be active all day.

Healthy Eating Programs: We are what we eat ... and employees who eat fatty, sugary foods low in nutrients are not going to have the energy and stamina to be productive all day. Poor eating also contributes to a number of illnesses and diseases. As an employer, you can encourage healthy eating, offering and promoting nutritious food choices in your coffee and vending machines. Offer snacks at meetings? Avoid unhealthy snacks and is standard, and offer healthier options.

Health promotion and disease prevention: a safe way to reduce costs your company is to promote disease prevention. If your company's health risk assessment shows a high number of employees who smoke, are diabetic or take heart medicine, to address these challenges through wellness programming. Offer resources to the health of employees and materials, smoking cessation programs and health screening services.