Wellness Program Incentives

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

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

More recently, programs are designed to help  workers to choose healthier behaviors like increasing physical activity levels or stopping smoking. Campaigns to spread awareness, educational sessions to expand knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for workers to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach individuals, since most adult Canadians spend a big part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are two aspects that contribute to the health of employees, 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 agreed upon that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When people are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is detrimental, they feel stressed. Stress has a sizable impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified 5 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 organizations must truly care about the well-being of their workers.

Employers today who want to attract and keep good employees have leaders who understand the association between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a employer plan.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving employees in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance life at home and work.

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

How does workplace wellness advance the employer?

A workplace wellness plan can help a organization to:

• attract and keep staff members;
• cut the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;
• cut the effects of a stressful workplace;
• reduce health costs or keep them contained; and
• improve morale by planning a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Company Wellness Programs Benefit workers?

staff members of companies that have a Workplace Wellness Program are likely to have:

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

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for organizing a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in great health, and the employer is expected to provide an environment that allows employees to maintain great 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, establishing a beneficial work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A great Employee Health Promotion Program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.