Education: The Employee Wellness Necessity

The way that companies are scrambling these days to cut costs in order to ensure their survival makes it seem like the whole corporate world is crashing down. This is obviously not the case, however employers are looking for any avenue possible to increase their bottom line.

One of the main costs to a company is health care, and that is  based upon employee wellness. So if employee wellness is increased, then healthcare cost is decreased.. It sounds simple, right? Unfortunately human beings are creatures of habit, and so their bad habits are difficult to break.

In addition, it is difficult to see these “poor health” habits developing because many of the symptoms of these habits are not like “flu symptoms” where they are easily caught; habits that form like smoking and poor diet are those that are dfficult to see and are costly to employee health and the company.

Due to this, it is not simply enough to build a gym for the employees or have a B-12 shot day implemented. What is necessary is to have a comprehensive system for employees. This is most easily done through implementing a Corporate wellness program.

A good corporate wellness program will not only asses the employee and implement a program, it will educate the employee. In order for the employees to full make a change they have to understand what they are doing wrong, and how to fix it.

Many employees may not do a program if it is handed to them. They need to learn to make their own changes, and by learning how to do so, they can slowly change their own minds. This will cause them to change their own habits.In addition when employees are self-motivated, they are more likely to stay with the changes. This makes habits long term and is the key to changing the wellness environment in a company!

Therefore, a thorough program will be able to provide education programs on the “silent bad habits” that increase costs. There is no magic list of issues, for each companies has their own weak spots. However these education programs can have to do with anything with smoking cessation to poor posture while sitting in a chair.In addition, this educational information can also be given in the form of newsletters, magazines, or health expos. Any method of getting information that you think will reach your employees effectively will work.

Once people see what they are doing wrong, and how it negatively affects them, they will want to change. For they want to protect their most important asset which is their health. This in turn increases your bottom line! So implement education as part of your wellness today!