Posted by Health Handouts | Posted in Health Handouts, Health Tips | Posted on 10-08-2009
Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.
Early efforts to set up healthy workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury prevention for workers.
More recently, programs are designed to help staff members to choose healthier behaviors like being more physically active or stopping smoking. Campaigns to increase awareness, educational sessions to broaden knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for staff members to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a great way to reach people, since most adult Canadians invest a big part of their day at work.
While safety and lifestyle programs are two aspects that contribute to the health of staff members, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.
How the workplace affects health.
Increasingly, it is recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more advantageous and tend to be healthier. When workers feel that the environment at work is harmful, they feel stressed. Stress has a sizable effect on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity.
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 employers must genuinely are concerned about the wellbeing of their employees.
Organizations today who want to attract and keep great employees have leaders who be aware of the association between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a company strategy. 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 pay well, have good benefits, are interesting, and include great health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more valuable than ever for companies to enhance job satisfaction and make sure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.
How does workplace wellness profit the corporation?
A workplace wellness plan can help a employer to:
• attract and keep employees;
• lower the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;
• lower the effects of a stressful workplace;
• cut health costs or keep them contained; and
• improve morale by creating a happy, supportive environment.
How Do Corporate Wellness Programs Profit staff members?
staff members of businesses that have a Company 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 productivity and performance at work;
• reduced personal health care costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.
Both employers and employees have a responsibility for creating a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the company is expected to offer an environment that allows employees to maintain good 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 planning a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of staff members, starting a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep staff members healthy and happy at work. A great Workplace Health Promotion Program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.