June 18, 2012 | Barb Carr

8 Great Reasons to Promote a Wellness Program at Your Company

This summer, a group of us here at System Improvements are participating in an 8-week workplace health challenge, (thanks to System Improvement’s awesome Controller and wellness organizer, Cherie Larson).

We accumulate daily points in the challenge when we are dedicated to healthy habits like:  encouraging a teammate; drinking 64 ounces of water; not eating after 9 p.m.; eating fruits and vegetables; avoiding sugary treats; keeping a food journal; and exercising daily.

We are now headed into Week 5 and I can’t lie, it’s involved some hard work, but the benefits have outweighed the struggle by far.  Participants have reported enjoying a wide range of benefits including:  more energy, lower cholesterol, better sleep, fun workplace camaraderie, pounds lost, positive influence of family members, and, most importantly, a chance to develop good habits for a lifetime of better health.

Promoting wellness among your employees:

1. Promotes wellness values at your workplace.

2. Helps employees feel healthier, and in turn, happier.

3. Helps everyone cope with work-life issues that affect performance.

4. Opens the mind to creative solutions by reducing stress.

5. Decreases absenteeism.

6. Decreases turnover rates.

7. Decreases healthcare costs, (A 2010 review by Harvard researchers, published in the Journal Health Affairs, concluded that medical costs fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent).

8. Encourages higher productivity among employees (and increased profits!).

Last weekend, Judy Potok (our public course coordinator) and I participated in a 4.2 mile greenway run in Oak Ridge, Tennessee that not only gave us lots of points for our wellness challenge and moved us forward in our personal goals, but also raised money for new benches along the greenway trail.  One step toward wellness leads to multiple positives!

Need ideas to get started?  View “101 Low Cost Ideas for Worksite Wellness” published by the New York State Department of Health by clicking here.

With planning and thought, you too can encourage better health among employees by introducing wellness ideas into your workplace.

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