Sunday, September 29, 2013

For A Better Workplace You Need Fitter Employees

By George Dodson


Most of us work because we have to make a living somehow. We get employment in various jobs. A few of these jobs involve working in offices and others outside. Mostly you can find nine to five timing. Some work in the day, some work at night. Irrespective of the job conditions and timing it is an accepted fact that the health of the employee is very important factor.

Is spending on health a cost effective option?

An example is the multnational Amway, which employs 3900 locals. The company says that for every dollar it spends on fitness for employees, it gets two dollars back in savings. What is the justification for this? One visible result was that the medical claim of the persons who took part in the fitness program went down by 8 percent. Many of them become slimmer and fitter. One woman who works for Amway lost 85 pounds in 18 months. She has more energy than ever and that definitely translates to a quality work atmosphere for both her and the company. It is an recognised fact that such workforce oriented fitness program take as long as three years to start giving returns. This is because of the time taken by people to change their habits.

On the reverse side of things, those employees how do not participate in some sort of program to improve their health up their healthy costs by close to 23 percent.

Another company, Flexco, located in Illinois, has established a program to encourage employees to eat better and exercise. Because the program was so successful, this Grand Rapids company was able to move to a high-deductible health program cutting annual premium costs by $100,000. The bottom line is that this program is very effective. In addition, the company helps pay the employee deductibles.

As an incentive, the employees earn wellness points when they join this program. This will help them reduce their expenditure on health costs by about 850 dollars. This is an important insensitive in getting employees to buy in to the program. It also helps that the employee is volunteering to get in the program rather than being forced to get in.

This program can be incorporated in the overall strategy of the firm. This would benefit the company in many ways. They have healthy people who are willing to stay healthy and combine that with the goals of the company. Furthermore, it also enhances the working atmosphere of the company.

Often employees are unhappy when they are asked to undergo tests for this, but it often helps to diagnose certain deceases before they become bad.

These two examples show that it makes a lot of sense to encourage employees to stay healthy, whether you do it through the company or you encourage them to do it on their own. Some companies even offer free membership to their employees in fitness centers and health groups. Healthier employees is an essential part of making a business profitable and successful. This also makes the workplace more congenial.




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