The Northeast Human Resources Association (NEHRA) is out with a story regarding the 10 Steps to a Healthier Employee Population in 2009. Just in time for the new year, this list gives great tips for getting healthier employees by promoting employee wellness next year.

The article points out the three major benefits of employee wellness. Cost savings is the first benefit, and the NEHRA says employee wellness can simply lead to an improved bottom line, with companies experiencing savings a variety of ways. The next major benefit of an employee wellness program is fewer missed days of work. With obesity able to cause or worsen things like cancer, heart disease, mental illness and stroke, the NEHRA says it’s costing workplaces in lost productivity — to the tune of $1.1 trillion. A lot of this cost, says the NEHRA, can be avoided. Lastly, the story notes that the third major benefit of employee wellness is happier employees. A happy, healthy worker is less likely to seek out a new job, plus they feel better about work.

Those employers who are interested in implementing employee wellness programs and seeing healthier employees in 2009 are encouraged to take action to make it happen. The NEHRA has a few tips for doing this, like providing a monthly newspaper or recipe, starting a walking group and bringing fitness to them. They also advise creating a monthly theme, where guest speakers and seminars could happen that would relate to that theme.

2009 will be here before you know it, so waste no time if you’re thinking about implementing an employee wellness program at your business. Employee wellness programs not only improve a business’ bottom line, but they can improve employee morale, boost productivity and help corporations save money. At the same time, there are benefits to the employees. It’s really a win-win situation for everybody.

To get a free wellness proposal for your company and find out more, don’t hesitate to contact Employee Wellness USA. An investment in employee wellness is one that can truly pay off.

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.