2/2014
by Scott Levy
Read this blog to lose 10 pounds immediately with no diet or exercise required!
Sounds like it could actually be an ad you see online, doesn’t it? With all of the absurd marketing of pills and other quick fix health and weight remedies, it’s sometimes hard to sort through the junk to find valuable content. Yet employee health and wellness is a big concern for employers, including Jabian. For example, studies have shown that on average for every one dollar spent on worker medical/pharmacy costs, employers absorb two to three dollars of health-related productivity costs.
As one of the leaders of our internal health & wellness initiative, I recently had the opportunity to attend the award ceremony for Atlanta’s Healthiest Employers. I was intrigued by some of the data presented in the keynote address by Dr. Casey Chosewood, MD, of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) at the CDC. The health of employees outside the office truly impacts their performance inside the office and should be a concern for all employers. Our American workforce is getting increasingly older and increasingly sicker – and it’s increasingly expensive!
Most of all though, I was proud of our own H&W initiative that is helping our employees get to know their own health picture better, to grow their knowledge about health and wellness, and to thrive both at work and in their own personal time.
– We’ve created a library of books on a wide array of health and wellness topics (from diets to sleeping better to improving quality time with family) for employees to borrow and read.
– We’re bringing in speakers to educate our employees on various topics ranging from cholesterol to nutrition to fitness.
– We’re campaigning to ensure all employees take advantage of our free wellness appointments offered through our insurance.
– We’ll be competing against each other in fitness competitions.
– We’ll be providing accountability to each other in reaching our wellness goals and rewarding those who achieve their goals.
– Most of all, we’re bringing the conversation to the forefront – at work and at home.
At Jabian, we believe that being healthy and happy employees makes us better employees. And our employee-led council is helping pave the way. That’s what we’re doing. What about you?
(For some more intense reading, and citations for the claims above, you can check out this Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine article)