Employer Wellness

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to establish healthy workplaces focused on safety at the workplace and injury prevention for employees.

More recently, programs are designed to assist  employees to choose healthier behaviors like being more physically active or quitting smoking. Campaigns to raise awareness, educational sessions to expand knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for employees to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach people, since most adult Canadians spend a large part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are 2 aspects that contribute to the health of workers, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace impacts health.

Increasingly, it is recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed. Stress has a large effect on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the employer overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that businesses must genuinely are concerned about the wellbeing of their staff members.

Businesses today who want to attract and retain great workers have leaders who understand the association between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a company plan.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving workers in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and offering support to balance work and home life.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that compensate well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include great health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more significant than ever for corporations to enhance job satisfaction and make sure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.

How does workplace wellness benefit the company?

A workplace wellness initiative can help a organization to:

• attract and keep employees;
• decrease the costs of disability, prescriptions, and absenteeism;
• reduce the effects of a stressful workplace;
• cut health expenditures or keep them contained; and
• better morale by organizing a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Company Health Promotion Programs Advance employees?

workers of corporations that have a Corporate Wellness Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to better their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellness;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased work rate and effectiveness at work;
• reduced personal healthcare expenditures; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health problems.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for creating a healthy workplace. Employees are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the corporation is expected to provide an environment that allows employees to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about creating a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of employees, implementing a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A good Workplace Health Promotion Program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being.