Promoting employee health and wellness simply makes good business sense. Every business knows how absenteeism and the spiraling cost of employee health care can eat up profits.
And there’s no denying that workers who are healthy and feel good are more productive than those who feel bad all the time. There’s even a term—“presenteeism”—for when employees are physically present but aren’t focused on their job due to physical or psychological problems (which are often linked to poor physical health).
MAKE THE WORKPLACE A HEALTHY PLACE
Smart companies encourage their workers to maintain their health and wellness through a variety of ways, such as providing financial support of health club memberships or offering employee insurance policies that encourage exercise and healthy lifestyle choices.
But health and wellness isn’t just something that companies should encourage employees to do during their off hours. Health and wellness can be integrated into the workplace itself.
Most companies can’t justify the cost (or don’t have the space) for indoor gyms. Fortunately, investing in outdoor fitness equipment is a less-expensive but effective option to provide employees a chance for mind-clearing exercise during working hours.
There’s plenty of outdoor fitness equipment designed to stretch and strengthen muscles and/or provide cardiovascular benefit, including:
- Pull-up stations
- Stretching stations
- Elliptical machines
- Arm presses
- Leg presses
- Torso benches.
Even indoors, you can promote health and wellness through devices such as treadmill desks and stability balls. Treadmill desks allow workers to set up the equipment they need for work (e.g., laptops, phones, and papers) on a desktop that’s attached to a treadmill. Most people keep the speed low so they can manage their work, but even at low speeds, people are burning calories and exercising their heart. A stability ball can be used in place of a chair at a regular desk. Sitting on the ball forces an employee to constantly adjust to keep in balance, which works muscles, improves posture, and helps blood circulation.
Working with an established distributor of health and wellness equipment, you can decide what equipment works best for your employees, your company space, and your budget.
INCENTIVE FOR INCENTIVES
The controversial Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which President Obama signed into law in 2010, has several provisions designed to support employer health and wellness programs.
Businesses with less than 100 full-time employees are eligible for grants for wellness programs, as long as the program is available to all employees and includes health-awareness education, incentives for changing unhealthy lifestyle choices, and strategies to persuade employees to participate.
Already employees have been able to offer a premium discount or rebate (or other financial reward) of up to 20% of the cost of coverage to employees who participate in wellness activities and meet certain health standards. The PPACA increases this incentive to 30%, with the possibility of an increase to 50%.
Regardless of how you feel about the politics or wisdom of the health care bill, it would be foolish not to take advantage of government incentives to do what you should do anyway—help employees take better care of themselves.
TAKEAWAY POINT
It’s a forward-looking business strategy to encourage employees to improve their health and wellness. This strategy lowers costs (e.g. health insurance premiums, Workers’ Compensation claims, reduced absenteeism) while raising productivity, employee self-pride, and company-wide morale. It’s a matter of motivation as well as opportunity. On-site exercise equipment should be included in any successful wellness program—giving employees an ideal opportunity to stay fit while also reducing stress and refocusing during the work day.
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