Company wellness is evolving.
Early efforts to develop healthful worksites focused on safety at the worksite and injury prevention for employees.
More lately, health promotion programs are designed to assist staff to choose healthier behaviours like being more physically active or quitting tobacco use.
Campaigns to increase awareness, educational sessions to increase knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for workers to make healthful choices are often included.
This approach is taken because the worksite is a good way to reach individuals , since most adult Americans spend a large part of their day at work.
While safety and lifestyle programs are two aspects that contribute to the health of workforce, employee wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.
How the workplace affects health.
Increasingly, it is recognized that the worksite itself has a powerful affect on people ’s health. When people are satisfied with their job, they’re more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed.
Stress has a large impact on worker mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity.
Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the company overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.
The underlying idea is that corporations must genuinely care about the well-being of their employees.
Organizations today who want to attract and keep good employees have leaders who understand the connection between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that employee wellness is a organization strategy.
Their executive management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving personnel in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance work and home life.
Businesss know that workers are looking for jobs that pay well, have good benefits, are interesting, and include great safety and health programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more important than ever for businesses to enhance job satisfaction and ensure that workers enjoy being on the job.
Company wellness benefits both businesss and workforce.
Just how does company health promotion benefit the corporation?
A health promotion program can help a corporation to –
• Attract and keep employees;
• reduce the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;
• reduce the effects of a stressful worksite;
• reduce health costs or keep them contained; and
• improve morale by creating a happy, supportive environment.
Exactly how does corporate wellness benefit employees?
Staff Members of corporations that have a wellness program are likely to have –
• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to improve their health;
• A better (less stressful) worksite;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and well-being;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productivity and effectiveness at work;
• decreased personal health care costs; and
• A more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.
Both companys and workers have a responsibility for creating a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the company is expected to provide an environment that authorizes workers to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the organization’s success.
Employee health promotion is more than a “lunch and learn” program. It is about developing a “people first” approach to doing corporation.
It is about taking care of personnel, establishing a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep personnel healthy and happy at work.
A good wellness program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellness.
