Health Handouts : What is a Company Wellness Program?

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 assist  staff members to choose healthier behaviors like increasing physical activity levels or quitting smoking. Campaigns to spread 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 good way to reach people, since most adult Canadians spend a sizable 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 employees feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed. Stress has a big impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the business overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that companies must truly care about the well-being of their staff members.

Organizations today who want to attract and retain good workers have leaders who be aware of the importance between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a organization 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 life at home and work.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that pay 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 businesses 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 initiative can help a business to:

• attract and keep employees;
• decrease the costs of disability, prescription drugs, and absenteeism;
• decrease the effects of a stressful workplace;
• decrease health expenditures or keep them contained; and
• better morale by creating a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Employee Wellness Programs Benefit employees?

employees of organizations that have a Corporate Wellness 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 productiveness and performance at work;
• reduced personal medical care costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for planning a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the business 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 creating a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of employees, adopting a beneficial work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A good Workplace Health Promotion Program has an influence on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.