A fascinating article in the Rocky Mount Telegram talked about how earlier this week at a seminar in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, experts got together to discuss the benefits of healthy workers. These experts talked about how employee wellness programs increase productivity and keep employees healthy, which also means health care costs paid by businesses are kept low.

Benefits of healthy workers include decreased days of calling in sick and higher productivity and efficiency, and healthy workers can even keep health insurance premiums at bay.

Still, to get the benefits of healthy workers, these employee wellness programs need to be implemented successfully. And what’s very important, noted the experts at the seminar, is that there be incentives that make participation appealing to the employees. While this may sound expensive, it actually doesn’t have to be, said the experts. Incentives can be something as simple as a gift card or a T-shirt.

Other ways to make an employee wellness program successful in order to see the benefits of healthy workers include:

• Offering an ergonomically efficient workplace that reduces the risk of employee injuries
• Encouraging workers to take the stairs by painting the steps
• Creating an environment that encourages exercising while taking a break
• Tracking workers’ steps with a pedometer, then raffling off prizes monthly for people who take a certain amount of steps

An expert on the panel remarked that employee wellness programs typically help keep health insurance premiums reasonable. Another expert suggested to keep in mind that you should try to make employee wellness programs fun, and change up what you’re doing in order to find what works.

The benefits of healthy workers are undeniably valuable to businesses as well as employees. If you’d like to start offering an employee wellness program at your business, contact EmployeeWellnessUSA today to get started with an evaluation of your business. You will also get a free wellness proposal to assist you in your approval efforts.

Worker wellness is in the spotlight more and more as businesses are starting to see the benefits of helping their workers adopt healthier lifestyles, says a recent article in the Press and Sun-Bulletin. Seeing just how much of an asset physically and mentally healthy employees are to a successful company, businesses are implementing worker wellness programs.

From providing an in-office gym with treadmills and weight equipment, to encouraging enrollment in weight-loss programs, companies are seeing improvements in worker wellness. For instance, the amount of times employees call in sick has gone down. Ultimately, the businesses implementing worker wellness programs are trying to improve their bottom line. Stressed-out, tired, sick employees can hurt their bottom line. But successful worker wellness programs can help keep workers healthy and happy.

The article mentions the metrics involved in running a successful worker wellness program. There are seven total benchmarks, according to the Wellness Councils of America. Those seven are:

• Cohesive wellness teams
• Senior-level support
• Data to drive a results-oriented wellness initiative
• An operating plan each year
• An environment that’s both supportive and health-promoting
• Appropriate interventions
• Program outcomes that are carefully evaluated

For worker wellness programs, the Wellness Councils of America recommend keeping in mind these seven benchmarks to help make the program successful. The goal, of course, is to have workers be the best they can be.

Many businesses are drawn to worker wellness programs because they provide a return on an investment. You can bet worker wellness programs are attractive to businesses, especially when they improve worker performance and cut down on workers calling in sick as well as disability and workers’ compensation claims. Additionally, having a worker wellness program is a way for an employer to show workers that they are genuinely concerned about their health.

The article concludes that an essential part of a successful worker wellness program is that there’s support from the management along with supportive — not aggressive — communication.

Worker Wellness Programs: Get Started

Interested in starting up a worker wellness program at your business? Get started by finding out more from Employee Wellness USA. We have years of experience developing worker wellness programs for major corporations, and we even offer free wellness proposals.