Have I Been Wrong On Wellness?

I think the thing that is required is some subtle persuasion and assistance to staff to promote a healthy lifestyle. Get company canteens to serve healthier food, make low fat or low sugar items cheaper than the high fat high sugar items. Do a deal with a local gym and offer staff reduce rate membership. If you try to aggressively promote healthy living the only exercise the workforce will get is raising a finger at the company and saying "its my private life - stay out of it". If you give them the chance to save money and actively promote healthy food and drink by reducing prices then you offer staff the chance to make the healthy choice for themselves but with a big helping of persusion from the company to go for the cheaper healthier choice.

Remember you cath more bees with honey than with vinegar

Posted: Apr 28, 2008 5:20 AM

At one company I worked for that tried to promote a heathly lifestyle the efforts were mixed. Helping pay for a health club membership and getting the cafeteria to add some healthy choices was great. (Notice that they added something and did not take away something they decided was unhealthy). Asking health professionals in to give a presentation on different topics was fine too. When they decided that you MUST participate in their program to get a decent rate on your health insurance co-pay they went too far. Part of this was filling out a form each quarter to swear you were doing things to try to get healthier such as exercising and eating right. If people did half of what they claimed to we could have fielded an olympic team.

I recently read that one company found out workers were lying about not smoking to get the better rates for health care. What did they expect?

Posted: Apr 28, 2008 11:38 AM

A company that promotes healthy living with various programs likes those mentioned in other comments is a start and yes it does require employee intervention (and a decision). I commend companies for adding these initiatives to their employee programs.

But, there is another area in which a company needs to focus if they are truly going to move to a healthy environment for their employees and that is around the work balance. Companies that expect their employees to sit at a computer screen for 8, 10, 12 hours a day are ignoring the physical damage being caused on the employee's spine, hips, neck and eyes. With longer hours and shorter deadlines the employee stress level (and weight) has increased astronomically which can cause damage to the stomach, heart, and nerves, etc. A company culture that condones working through lunch is reducing rather than increasing productivity.

I strongly believe in the health and wellness programs that companies provide but without work balance, these healthy lifestyle programs are only lip service.




Posted: Apr 30, 2008 9:49 AM