Corporate Wellness BlogCorporate wellness and employee wellness blog

It is clear to virtually every American (especially those of us in business) that healthcare costs are skyrocketing out of control. No one doubts that either the market will solve the problem OR the government will impose one on us. Managed care has failed from either a cost containment or quality of care perspective. Companies have reached the point where the cost of providing health insurance is almost as burdensome as government regulation. It’s time for some new thinking on healthcare and its impact on business and vice versa. “Corporate wellness” as an operational perspective instead of merely window dressing is one way to deal effectively with rising healthcare costs.

The Insurance Problem

The first step in correcting the problem is to realize that an employee’s health is their own responsibility. Expecting employers to provide unlimited health insurance coverage is simply unrealistic and unreasonable. It’s time for employers (on a broad scale) to reconsider their role in providing health insurance coverage. Instead of providing complete coverage for all employees through group plans, companies should begin to shift the burden of health coverage to those covered.

Here’s the approach. Provide catastrophic health insurance as a group benefit to all employees with a large enough deductible (say $5000 per employee) to make the cost affordable for the company. Then, allow employees to buy their own health insurance policies (based on their own needs) and pay for them through payroll deduction with pre-tax earnings. There are numerous insurance companies that sell individual plans on this basis. Everybody wins. Employees can tailor their coverage to their own needs and circumstances using their own doctors. Companies win by stopping the endless cycle of rising costs and ever-changing plans. And when individuals become responsible for the cost of their own insurance, they become more attentive to their own health. Besides, if an employee is interested in working for you ONLY because your company offers great insurance benefits aren’t they telling you they’re going to cost you more money in the future?

Develop a “Wellness Culture”

Our current “sickness culture” perpetuates the healthcare crisis and hastens the demise of market-based solutions. By sickness culture, I mean our focus on health problems instead of on having a healthy workplace and performance culture.

So, what would a “wellness culture” look like? First, instead of paid sick days, employees might be rewarded at year’s end with an attendance bonus. Employees would be reimbursed for successful completion of smoking cessation and weight-loss programs. Companies would invest in corporate memberships at local health clubs so every employee can participate. Employees would be offered in-house wellness programs on a variety of issues ranging from ergonomics to stress management. Finally, companies would commit to hiring and retaining healthy employees. Simply put, healthy employees cost less and are more productive than unhealthy ones. Applicants should be screened for health habits and practices that limit their productivity and increase the likelihood of future expense. While this may seem harsh, it rewards those employees whose personal lifestyle and habits ensure the best Return on Investment by the company committing to hire, train and pay them.

Be open to “alternative and complementary” approaches

Studies published in major medical journals reveal that individuals who use “alternative and complementary” health modalities (including chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga and massage) are generally healthier, better educated, take fewer medications and miss fewer days from work than the average American. Since these individuals look for ways to stay healthy without drugs and surgery, they end up being a net benefit in terms of attendance and productivity. Old prejudices in this area should be discarded in order for companies to improve productivity and increase profitability

Conclusion

Healthcare costs are increasing at a staggering pace. Managed care is an abysmal failure. Companies are buckling under the pressure of providing health coverage to their employees. American competitiveness in the market is sagging. These times call for extraordinary solutions. It’s time for American companies to consider some out-of-the-box solutions to the healthcare crisis. Corporate wellness is an approach that is timely, achievable and reasonable given the alternatives. All options should be considered while we still have a chance.

What Exactly is Corporate Wellness?

The other day someone asked me “What exactly is corporate wellness?” It occurred to me that many people might not know and be curious about just what exactly corporate wellness entails, why does it matter and how can your organization achieve it?

Why Corporate Wellness Matters:

If you own a business or work for a business, which includes most people, then corporate wellness affects you. According to the US Department of Labor, people spend 7.6 hours a day working. This translates to approximately 48% of our waking hours being spent at work. Given this, the environment in which we work can have a profound effect on the rest of our lives and on our general sense of well being. Wellness is fundamental to being a healthy high performer and having a successful organization.

What is Wellness?

Wellness is defined by the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual status of each person; i.e. a healthy body, an alert mind, a balanced emotional nature and an inner essential presence. One’s behavior is a manifestation of her wellness at that given moment. On an organizational level wellness is measured by examining these manifestations of behavior as they relate to such dimensions as motivation, communication, leadership styles, conflict management, morale, inclusion, and how well individuals work together.

What Does a Corporate Wellness Consultant Do?

By measuring and helping to change behavior, corporate wellness consultants enable individuals to review and enhance their strengths and potential to grow, innovate, and excel in performance. Any dysfunctional (unwell) behavior such as bullying, aggression, ineffective communication, poor leadership, and symptoms such as anxiety, poor team work, lack of confidence, and low morale are addressed. Through their interventions, corporate wellness consultants contribute to the creation of a healthy, successful, high performing corporate culture.

Corporate Wellness Affects Your Bottom Line:

The costs of poor corporate health are great, both financially and emotionally. Corporate health and unhealthiness commonly manifest in the areas of:

1) Leadership

2) Communication

3) Team Work

4) Conflict Management

5) Morale

Leadership:

Healthy effective leadership can decrease organizational erosion caused by conflict and poor communication and steer an organization toward its Vision of Success.

Unhealthy and ineffective leadership can create serious consequences such as:
· Reduced productivity

· Increased supervision overhead

· Excessive employee turnover

· Increased stress

· Low morale

· Decreased customer satisfaction

· Damaged management credibility and distrust

Communication:

A reduction in productivity of those in conflict is one of the more serious consequences of unhealthy communication. A 25% loss of productivity e.g. doing things to get out of the area of conflict or tension reduces an average work-week to fewer than 20 hours. One of the key foundations of any successful workplace is being able to use healthy and effective communication.

Healthy communication can help people:

· Receive and share information better

· Define and understand goals

· Avoid the negative effects of conflict and confusion

· Build rapport and enhance relationships

· Promote self-confidence

· Have a positive overall effect on the working environment

Team Work:

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision…the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” (Andrew Carnegie) Unfortunately unhealthy corporations do not understand how to develop an effective working team. This is often reflected in a lack of productivity and in high levels of conflict.

Conflict Management:

The monetary as well as the emotional costs of conflict are great. Unfortunately many unhealthy organizations suffer chronic patterns of unresolved conflict that are costly and often symptomatic of serious organizational dysfunction. Some experts believe that unresolved conflict represents the largest “reducible cost” in many businesses.

Addressing conflict and creating a harmonious work environment should be viewed as an important element in achieving organizational well being, effectiveness, and enhancing productivity.

Morale:

Low morale, a common symptom of poor organizational health, due to stress and other issues can destroy your business. In fact according to the American Institute of Stress (2004), stress and burnout-related absenteeism, tardiness, low productivity, and job turnover cost American companies over $300 billion annually.

So What Does a Healthy Corporation Look Like?

A healthy corporation has a healthy “high performance” culture.
Healthy high performers:

· Have genuine positive attitudes and high motivational levels

· Bring all of themselves to work and give their best

· Communicate clearly, cooperate and encourage team members, and know how to resolve conflicts

· Display a high degree of wellness and performance especially under pressure

· Stand up for their own views but never trample others; they are innovative because they recognize that their human capacity to perform is great.

Research shows that healthy high performers have a significant influence on an organization’s success. Addressing corporate well being as it is manifested in the areas above will lead to the creation of a healthy high performance culture. Healthy corporations create healthy high performing workers. Having high performers just makes good business sense.

There is nothing new about the idea of a group retreat. The family vacation may be the original of all retreats. This vacation was an opportunity to get away from distractions of a hectic life and enjoy the group time for bonding and experiential activities. Today, these same principles that directed the family vacation retreat, can and are utilized for many different corporate and recreational groups. An opportunity to bring a core group together, outside of the standard setting, having time for team building and to focus on an individual or group of challenges can be very powerful.

If heading up a team building retreat, you will want to do all you can to ensure every bit of scheduled activity provides for the utmost ability for all participants to focus and accomplish their goals. To do this there is more to be done than the simple scheduling of space and ensuring meals are available for retreat group participants. What activities will you provide to give them mental downtime? How will they workout the kinks from the days activities, sitting through presentations and brainstorming meetings? You will want to assist them in staying mentally and physically fresh. This is best done when utilizing the skills of a fitness professional.

5 Reasons for Adding Wellness to Your Group Retreat

1. Physical activity has been shown to increase brain function. A fitness professional, depending upon their specialty, may be able to provide cardiovascular activities, resistance training opportunities, yoga for flexibility sessions, boot camps, tai chi, or a combination of fitness formats to keep the blood flowing to all parts of the body including the brain.
2. Providing morning and afternoon classes for the corporate retreat group will offer an excellent opening and closing to daily activities. To start the day with a little physical activity is not only good for the body but it will also mentally prepare the mind for the upcoming business activities. Closing the day with a bit more physical or mind/body activity allows for a separation of the days activities and initiates the mental relaxation that is beneficial for being ready and capable of quality focused activity the next day.
3. You will show the retreat participants you care about them as much as you do about the targeted retreat business activities. You can even go as far as a dual purpose and offer multiple educational classes as part of a wellness retreat or yoga retreat in addition to your designed corporate retreat. Multiple studies have shown the positive link of a healthy workforce and reduced employee absenteeism.
4. You may choose to utilize the intensity of the incorporated workout sessions as team building opportunities. Yoga and boot camp programs are well suited for taxing not only the body, but also the mind. Encourage your team to work together to meet a common health & fitness goal.
5. Finally, various forms of wellness retreats are occurring every day. Your group will have an excitement leading up to their event as they look forward to the somewhat exotic wellness schedule. This alone will not only increase likely participation, but it will also increase the overall moral of the group.

Take your corporate, recreational, family reunion, or whatever the reason, retreat to the next level. Keep participants refreshed, enlightened, and appreciative with the assistance of a fitness professional. Personal Trainers, Yoga Instructors, Group Fitness Instructors, or those with combinations of skills are available throughout North America. Utilizing a single source company can easily assist you in finding a fitness professional that will best fit your needs. The Fit Pro will be a valuable piece of your retreat meeting and exceeding all the business goals your retreat was designed to meet.

Is Your Corporate Wellness Program Floundering?

Companies are instituting corporate wellness programs, often with mixed results. The idea behind a corporate wellness program is actually quite solid: these programs are opportunities for employees to get the help they need to prevent illness.

The general idea of a corporate wellness program is that since as many as 80% of illnesses can be avoided with some preventative care, more attention to corporate fitness can improve productivity, reduce company costs, and can result in happier employees.

While some corporate wellness programs seem to be doing just fine, they are the minority. Some studies have suggested that only about 1 out of 9 corporate wellness programs are seen as successful. This means that many corporate wellness programs are costing money but not producing desired results.

In fact, some employers report that expensive employee exercise and employee wellness programs are used by only a tiny minority of employees
- usually those employees who are already fit. Many companies that have invested in a corporate wellness program find that their workers are as unhealthy as ever!

What is behind this alarming trend in corporate wellness programs? Research by Golding Corporate Wellness, Inc
(http://www.corporate-wellness-mistakes.com/) has revealed specific factors that lead to unsuccessful corporate wellness programs:

1. Not investing in corporate wellness programs. Even today, many companies simply do not pay enough attention to worksite wellness to institute a corporate wellness program. The first step to a successful corporate wellness program, then, is to create a solid one. GCW, Inc. can help if you are having trouble getting started.

2. Investing only in employee exercise facilities. Many companies mistakenly assume that building employee exercise rooms or getting employee gym memberships means a corporate wellness program. This is not the case.
The key to corporate wellness programs is to have a whole-health approach that makes it easy for employees to get fit and stay healthy. Your corporate wellness program should appeal to all workers, not just to the athletic. This means setting up programs that are attractive to employees and it means doing research ahead of time to find out which corporate wellness programs may appeal to the company’s employees.

3. Having a corporate wellness program that does not provide education. Any corporate wellness regimen should include easy access to information.
Employees should know all about the benefits of corporate wellness programs, should know how to exercise and should have all the information they need to make healthy decisions on the job and at home. This part of corporate wellness programs can even include workplace safety information.

If your corporate wellness program is not working, it is the approach and not the corporate fitness philosophy itself that may be to blame. A few simple changes may be all it takes to start seeing some smiles at the office!

Businesses across America are discovering something that athletes have known for many years–massage improves performance. Not just athletic performance, but performance in general.

Most people have a pretty good idea about the health benefits of a massage on a massage table in a spa. But you may not know about chair massage.

Seated chair massages can reduce stress, fatigue and pain. They also can improve function of the immune system, improves a depressive state, and increase a person’s ability to concentrate. Seated chair massage has been shown to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation while simultaneously enhancing employee alertness.

Physicians and health care providers have now come to the conclusion that there is a correlation between stress and disease and stress related ailments are the main cause of productivity decline in the workplace. More than half of all employee absence can be attributed to stress induced high blood pressure, headache, and even chronic pain. Massage as a stress management tool fits well into the corporate world’s business leaders.

Major corporations including the Ford Motor Company, American Airlines, and Bank of America are enjoying the benefits of on-site seated, fully-clothed chair massage. They are finding that massage optimizes employee performance and mental alterness. But you don’t have to be a major corporation to benefit from a seated chair massage. If you have one employee or many, all will benefit from a seated chair massage.

What have sickness, recuperation, rest, mindset, humour, energy and diet got to do with
companies? These are terms applicable in physical wellness but they are equally relevant
in the context of corporate wellness.

Turnaround has become increasingly important, given the financial crisis that hit Asia in
1997, the financial scandals plaguing the Western corporate giants and the emergence of
the economies in China and India. In some instances, the businesses appear relatively
healthy, though they are experiencing declining market share, increasing costs, losing
competitiveness and plummeting revenues. Hence, a major crisis is brewing and will hit
any time when the interest rate increases or the economy goes into recession.

Unfortunately, most troubled companies do not survive the turbulence in the marketplace.
The average life expectancy of a multinational company is about 40 to 50 years. Many
companies die prematurely. Some companies experience poor health with office politics,
egos and bureaucracy stifling human creativity, enthusiasm and commitment. Many of
these ailing companies suffer from a toxic corporate climate which urgently need to be
detoxified, while others are genetically flawed and are thus unable to handle changes in
the marketplace.

For centuries, we have been searching for the elixir of longevity. Today, the wellness and
health industry worldwide is the one of the fastest growing businesses, and it is expected
to grow exponentially to one trillion dollars in a few years’ time. Essentially, the role of
the doctor should be one of promoting wellness instead of merely concentrating on curing
the patient after he is inflicted with an ailment.

In a similar vein, companies are also seeking the same goal, that is corporate wellness.
Corporate wellness is becoming one of the greatest and most powerful terms of the
corporate dictionary. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most misunderstood. “Corporate
wellness” is not merely referring to physical and mental health programs for the
corporate executives.

The term “corporate wellness” depicts the desired state of excellent corporate physical and mental health. And it should be an actively sought-after goal.

“Corporate wellness” is the total well being and complete integration of body, mind and spirit – the realization that everything the corporate does, its strategy, leadership, mindset, culture, values has an effect on its well being. The term “corporate wellness” is used in this context to include the use of modern and alternative medicine.

Modern or Western medicine seeks to treat the symptoms such as poor productivity. The
remedy is surgery or downsizing. Alternative or Eastern medicine treats the root cause of
the corporate woes. The cause of the poor productivity is perhaps due to its dysfunctional
corporate culture. Beyond disease-free medicines, Corporate wellness also seeks for new excellent levels of corporate health such as how to improve the attitude, mindset and soul of the company.

Imagine a company with happy, healthy employees, who handle the daily stresses of their job with ease and equanimity. Many studies have shown a link between job satisfaction and health, and some of the signs that your organisation is suffering are: sickness, absence, employee turnover, little socialisation between employees, employees lunching at their desk (and you thought this meant they had high work ethics), no atmosphere, and low morale. (C. Cooper, 2006)

The key to better employee job satisfaction and a happier, healthier workplace is by leading people and leading your organisation in a way that promotes qualities of confidence, self esteem and health and proves to your employees that you have their interests as a part of your bottom line. Did you know that by utilising a Corporate Wellness program in your company you can expect not only better employee morale but you will have a higher performing organization and greater results.

It is a cause and effect solution in how human capital and other seemingly intangible assets are linked to create a process, that enhances customer and financial results. Can you afford not to bring in a Corporate Wellness Program and still expect your company to thrive?

Speak to any business manager and the answer is the same: retention is a key issue that effect business success. “Companies often invest heavily in recruitment and development, yet many aren’t taking the necessary steps to protect and retain that investment,” states a top business coach when broached on the subject. It is a well proven fact that businesses large and small benefit on multiple fronts when they introduce a Corporate health and fitness program into their workplace. Positive outcomes of employee and managerial health and fitness solution are:

• Reducing absenteeism and related costs
• Staff recruitment and retention
• Improving staff morale, motivation and productivity
• Lowering the risk of stress and musculoskeletal related litigation
• Can help as an integral part of your health and safety policy
• Helping employees cope with stress related problems
• Provide early intervention with diagnostic scanning

More and more managers are waking up to the benefits of workplace well being. It’s clear that if we take healthy people and place them in an unhealthy environment – no matter what degree of hardiness and resilience they may have to begin with – the unhealthy environment will create unhealthy individuals. Is that how you sometimes feel? You arrived there full of energy and now you are stressed up to the max… or perhaps just the thought of going into work makes you feel mentally or even physically ill?

The symptoms are often difficult to treat and easily misdiagnosed because they hide behind other primary disorders such as… chronic absenteeism, nagging colds and flu, mental and physical illness as well as a lingering sense of dissatisfaction around the workplace. More often now we here reports of employees suing their company for putting them under stress. In one extreme case a Telstra employee committed suicide due to work related pressures… Makes you cringe, doesn’t it?

Statistics reveal that the costs associated with loss of workplace well being can create a myriad of problems i.e. the occasional mental health day, or “sicky”, is more often than not used to address family responsibility, social outings, friends associations, etc. Ultimately faced with mounting pressure, some employees simply just leave, at more often than not inconvenient times, leaving a big mess for some other unfortunate employee to clean up.

A recent survey of 1,100 Australians found that 25% of workers consider themselves to be desk potatoes, while 21% are tied to their desks for six to eight hours without a chance to stretch their legs. The survey, conducted by recruitment firm Talent2, also found that 47% of workers believe employers have an obligation to encourage and even subsidise fitness at work. In 2003, 38 per cent of AMP’s employees participated in a health promotion activity. Of these, 98% found it beneficial and 68% were inspired to make a lifestyle change.

Popular programs can include: massage, yoga, pilates, nutrition, weight loss, smoking cessation, and exercise and can also include boot camps of various types to suit your organization. These program can build team cohesiveness, greater job satisfaction, and have wellness benefits that will eventuate in greater success for the entire company.

‘balancenoosa’ specialise in the preparation and administration of Corporate Massage, Pilates, Yoga and Corporate Fitness Programs. We are flexible with booking arrangements. We prefer to visit your premises and determine the optimal format for your session. We gauge factors such as the space available, lighting, number of participants and their skill level. Reward an entire team with pilates and massage, or energise a team with a fitness program and yoga. Perhaps a morning stretch class would do the trick?

One of our uniquely tailored ‘balancenoosa’ Corporate Wellness solutions will assist employees in dealing with the situation at hand i.e. the work load may remain the same, they will have more control of their emotions feelings and general well being. It’s the Supervisors or Manages job to make the work load manageable. It’s our job to ensure the people doing the job have a healthy mind set and the ability to complete the work and at the same time not becoming burnt out.