Health is a significant concern for employers nowadays. Recent studies have shown that almost one in two Americans now lives with chronic conditions, and this number will only grow as our population ages. With the current Covid pandemic still ongoing, it has never been more critical for employers to focus on employee wellness.
The key to an employer wellness program is to create a culture of health within your organization. Here are some tips for developing an employer wellness program that will help you keep your employees healthy and happy.
Why Is Employee Wellness Important
The majority of employees in the US are on some prescription medication. The cost of these drugs is skyrocketing, and the rate of addiction is also on the rise.
If you offer health insurance coverage to your workforce, it will be more expensive than ever before with the new Covid pandemic taking place. By providing wellness benefits to your employees, you will save money and reduce your workers’ number of sick days. Take a look at these statistics:
- Illness-related lost productivity costs US employers $530 billion.
- A family plan’s average health care cost was $22,000 in 2021. That number will continue to rise as long as people get sick and require medical attention.
Make Sure Employees Have The Right Tools and Protection Equipment.
One of the essential parts of an employer wellness program is ensuring that your employees have the right tools and protective equipment to keep them healthy.
Chronic conditions are just as prevalent among low-income workers as high-income workers. This is because high-income workers are more likely to have access to better healthcare, which means they’re less likely to develop chronic conditions than low-wage earners.
To mitigate this problem, you should ensure all of your employees have access to affordable healthcare. You should also ensure your organization provides all the necessary protective gear for nonhazardous work, like safety glasses, face protection, and earplugs.
You can also use an app like MyWellnessFinder to help your employees better manage their health. This app will track their fitness, diet, sleep quality, medications, health history, and more. All data collected by the app is securely stored on HIPAA compliant servers and can only be accessed with a password-protected account.
Provide Healthy Food, Snacks, and Drinks
One of the best ways to ensure your employees live a healthy lifestyle is to offer them healthy food options. For example, you may want to consider stocking up on fresh fruit, deli sandwiches loaded with veggies, and bottled water. You can submit your employee’s healthy snacks and drinks, too.
Enforce Lunchbreaks
There’s nothing worse than being at the end of a long day and realizing that you still have hours left before you can go home. Your body is tired, but you know that you’ll be less productive if you stop working to take a break when you get back to work.
This is why employers need to make sure their workers take lunch breaks. If your employees aren’t taking these well-deserved breaks, they’ll likely be more stressed out, which will make them less productive when they return to work. If an employee can’t afford to take time off during the day for their lunch break, employers might do well to offer “lunchtime” shifts where employees work from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM or 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM and only take a 30-minute break in between, so they can still leave at a reasonable hour.
Encourage Vacation Time
As much as we all love to think employees love their jobs, it’s essential they take time away from them. Research suggests that employees who take vacations are happier, more productive, and healthier. Encourage your employees to take at least two weeks of paid vacation time each year. You can also offer incentives for those who use their allotted time off.
Set Up Mental Health Resources
Mental health resources include things like counseling and coaching and wellness programs that help people live healthier lives through activities like meditation. Employers can also provide access to mental health books and resources to educate themselves about mental health issues they may be facing.
It’s also essential for employers to have an employee assistance program (EAP) or other mental health services in place if they want to help keep their workforce healthy and happy. The EAP should be easily accessible to employees at any time, day or night. Employees should feel comfortable using the EAP when they need it without fear of being judged or penalized by their employer because of their use of the service.