Corporate Wellness Incentive Plans

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 staff members.

More recently, programs are designed to assist  staff members to choose healthier behaviors like being more physically active or quitting smoking. Campaigns to increase awareness, educational sessions to increase knowledge, opportunities to acquire 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 spend a big part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are 2 aspects that contribute to the health of workers, 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 understood that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more beneficial 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 productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified 5 components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the company overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that businesses must truly are concerned about the wellbeing of their staff members.

Corporations today who want to attract and retain great workers have leaders who be aware of the connection between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a business plan.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving workers in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance work and home life.

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

How does workplace wellness profit the corporation?

A workplace wellness initiative can help a company to:

• attract and keep workers;
• lower the costs of disability, prescriptions, and absenteeism;
• decrease the effects of a stressful workplace;
• lower health costs or keep them contained; and
• better morale by organizing a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Employee Health Promotion Programs Advance staff members?

employees of employers that have a Company Health Promotion Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to better their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellbeing;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productivity 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 planning a healthy workplace. Workers are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the company is expected to provide 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 creating a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of workers, adopting a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep workers healthy and happy at work. A good Worksite Wellness Program has an influence on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being.