The benefits of an office "biggest loser" type contest

Employers today are noticing that health care costs are rising and are due in large part to unhealthy employees. Unhealthy employees are driving costs up with overuse on medical claims and visits to the doctor or emergency room. Employers are also seeing the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. Along with lower health care costs, companies are noticing that when employees are healthy productivity increases and stress decreases. So if employers see it then how do we get our employees to see it too? What are some ways to promote a healthier lifestyle? Many companies have tried on technique that seems to get most employees motivated and excited about being healthy; an office "biggest loser" type contest. There are many benefits and advantages to an office "biggest loser" type contest approach, but like everything else there are also some disadvantages.

Steps for creating a healthier workplace today

The average American person spends over half of their lifetime working in an office or some other professional work place environment. Your employees are valuable to the success of your business and should be valuable to you. They should be treated with the same respect your give your family; after all, they are your work family. There are obvious benefits to a healthy workplace such as personal and social. But there is also evidence that safe and healthy work places are more productive and cost you less money. Positive atmospheres create fewer accidents and injuries. So why wouldn't you want to create a healthy workplace with all these benefits? You do, so here are some steps to creating a healthier workplace today.

How to help your employees be healthier

As health care costs continue to rise employers are beginning to ask themselves "is there more we can do to promote healthy with our employees?" And the answer to that question is undoubtedly "yes" there is more you can do. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle in the workplace is the best place to start. Employees across America work about 2000 hours a year. Health and Wellness among employees is directly related to the quality and quantity of productivity within a company. Your company, we can then say might thrive on your employees. How well will it function if they are not healthy? Poorly is right, if that. You may find your company out of business if you don't get a hold on this right now.

Chronic disease is becoming a growing epidemic and has been correlated with obesity. More than two thirds of the American population is overweight or obese. And excess body weight increases the risk of developing a chronic disease. The increasing rate of obesity is largely due to poor nutrition and lack of adequate physical exercise. With most people spending a large part of their lives at work, we have the opportunity to address those issues and encourage them to live healthy. Most of your employees would like to be healthier; they would like to go and work out; they'd like to eat better; they just haven't been properly motivated. In order to do this you must practice what you preach. Here are some ways to help your employees be healthier.

How to cut total health costs for your business

In case you haven't noticed, health care costs keep rising and it is killing profits for many small businesses. Some businesses have even been forced to drop coverage all together because the prices have gone up so drastically. So how do we health costs down for our business and still make sure our employees are covered? Below are some suggestions on how to cut total health costs for your business and not leave employees hanging out to dry.



• Look at the business health plan you have purchased. The thing that makes the biggest difference in the cost of a health plan is what and how it covers medical bills in case of an emergency. Look first to see what the policy is on this particular are. You will also want to look at changes to plans by raising deductibles or linking employee co-pays more directly to the type of treatment they are receiving.


•  Encourage your employees to stay within a network. Look for doctors and health care providers that are within the company's network.

How to cut the costs of lost productivity from unhealthy employees

The success of a company depends largely on the quality of its service or product and how well their employees perform their job. When employees come to work ill, or stay at home and miss important days, productivity is compromised and you lose money. So how do you cut the costs of lost productivity from unhealthy employees? The answer is simple right, maintain healthy employees. With a number of different employees and a number of different colds, virus's and germs out there, it makes it difficult to control how healthy an employee is. Believe it or not you can help; bottom line is a healthy employee is a productive employee.

Acknowledge Bad Habits & Educate
Because most of the cost from unhealthy employees is lost productivity we need to figure out a way to help employees see that their habits are costing the company money and bad for themselves. Educating employees is the first step in gaining back lost productivity and helping them change their habits. Everyone has some sort of bad habit they need to kick whether it is smoking, junk food, or not exercising. Habits control the way employees perform duties at work and those habits can lead to lost productivity and a poor health. Think about holding some healthy living classes that touch on some basic healthy living topics; good nutrition, regular exercise, smoking and other abusive substance, diabetes, etc. These are all things that plague the workplace whether you like it or not, and in order to spark a change you have to address the problems.

How to cut costs of sick leave

Have you noticed a pattern in when your employees tend to call in sick? Believe me, you are not the only company that has a problem with employees using their sick leave more during the summer and holidays. Studies have actually shown that you're right and worker absences are increasing. And you are also well aware that as employees call in "sick" it costs you money; directly and indirectly. An unscheduled absenteeism can cost you on average about $600 per employee a year. Now I have your attention don't I. $600 per employee is a lot of money whether you are large or small company. And that $600 does not even include the indirect costs for such things as overtime pay for other employees, hiring temps, lost sales, lower productivity, and missed deadlines. So how, as business owners do you cut the costs of sick leave? Here are some suggestions on how to cut costs of sick leave.

How to cut costs of health insurance

I don't know about you, but the trend with our health care costs seems to be increasing each year. Doctor's visits, or rather co-payments are becoming outrageous to keep premiums down, and a visit to the Emergency room can run from $100 to $500 (and that's the low end). Employees are definitely taking the brunt of rising health care but is there anything we can do about it? Yes as a matter of fact there are things you can do to keep your health care costs down. Being educated is the first and foremost way to know exactly what you are paying and if you should really be paying for it. Education is the best tool you have in keeping your healthcare costs down. There are however some other things you can do to help and teach you how to cut costs of health insurance.

How to account for health insurance costs, and make it affordable

The costs of healthcare are ever increasing and everyone knows it. This has left many Americans struggling to pay for medical bills such as hospital and doctor visits. With such high premiums employees are complaining that they can't afford to pay them anymore and millions are left with no medical coverage at all. So do we account for health insurance costs and make it affordable?

Causes of Rising Health Costs
Despite what many people may think or believe, the cause of rising healthcare costs is not a problem driven by the baby boom generation, or the high costs of prescription drugs, malpractice litigation, or defensive medicine. They have played minor roles in the increase, but the major is believed to be our wealth. As Americans, we are richer than any other nation in the world and with that statement, we Americans spend much more than any other nation. The problem with that is that we are spending too much; well above what we should be, and we are reaping the effects in our health care costs. We pay our doctor's and hospitals much more than other nations do, and we rely heavily on specialists who use expensive technological machines and who charge millions of dollars to perform surgical and medical procedures. Insurance incentives encourage doctors and patients to use expensive medical services, and our insurance providers usually eat up most of the costs.

How overweight employees can cost your business money

In the hustle and bustle of busy Americans, the idea of eating fast food is becoming a popular epidemic. We have done just about everything we can to make things "conveniently easy" for us. Remote controls, drive up windows, and how many times have you driven around a parking lot just to find a closer spot? Americans no doubt have become lazy and their poor eating habits and lifestyles are evident from the way we look. But obesity doesn't play a part in the business world does it? You might be surprised at how overweight employees can cost your business money.

Obesity Costs
There are three major areas of concern for businesses when if comes to losing money and overweight employees. The first is worker's compensation, and the second is absent employees, and the third is health care.

Cost versus benefit of providing health insurance to employees

Health insurance is continuously on the rise and its costing employers and their employees money. Some companies have completely done away with offering any type of health care for their employees because it is costing them way too much. But some might argue that in doing away with health insurance for employees, it is taking away valuable employees and in fact losing money. What is the cost versus benefit of providing health insurance to employees? Let's take a closer look.

Benefits to providing health insurance for employees
Since employer sponsored health insurance is a voluntary provided benefit it can only be maintained if the employer believes that there is a reason to offer employees the benefits of health insurance. Most companies in order to offer a health insurance plan need to know that it has positive effects on the employees and it will be worth the money they are spending. Although health insurance may run employers extra money there are some huge benefits to offering your employees a health plan.

Can you send an employee home from work, unpaid, if they are sick?

Between the rising costs of health care and employees not wanting to lose pay for staying home sick some believe to think that companies have placed themselves at greater risk. Is it really that helpful for sick employees to come in to work just so they don't miss a day of pay? And as employers can you send an employee home from work, unpaid, if they are sick?

Advantages of having sick employees at work

• Well, some would say that there are none, but as employers we realize that when someone calls in sick, you need to find someone to fill their place and get the work done or productivity is compromised. If they come into work sick, at least you don't have to spend the time hiring a temp.
• The biggest issue about employees not coming into work is that productivity is decreased, and as a business owner you understand full the effects that can have on sales. A decrease in productivity means a decrease in sales which means can cause delays in the entire company. You can see how maybe having an employee come to work sick might not be so bad.

Benefits of offering incentives to employees for healthier lifestyle choices

More and more companies today understand the benefits of creating a healthy workplace and encouraging their employees to make healthier lifestyle choices. Considering the average American spends 2000 hours a year at work feeling underpaid and underappreciated, the need for health becomes a major issue. So as the owner of a company, what are the benefits of offering incentives to employees for healthier lifestyle choices?

How to Encourage Change
A healthy culture is one where the entire body or workforce experiences the need and commitment for a change to health and wellness. Bottom line, if you don't have the commitment from everyone, it's not going to be successful. All levels, employees and employers need to commit to the change in order for your company to succeed. It is extremely important for your upper management to make the commitment and actually "walk the walk" if you know what I mean. It is one thing to say you will do it; it is another to actually do it. Make sure you have good leaders who will follow through with the plan, as employees will follow their example. Employees need to understand that their habit outside the workplace will greatly affect the way they perform inside the workplace. The first step in change is understanding. If an employee has been up all night and comes to work the next day exhausted, they compromise their own safety as well as others around them.

Are your employee smoke breaks costing you money?

If the threat of cancer has not convinced you to stop smoking, then maybe the idea of losing your job will. Not only is it expensive for you to smoke, but it would seem that it is also costing your employer more money than they'd like it to. Smokers pay more for insurance, lost money on resale values of cars and homes, spend extra on dry cleaning, teeth cleaning, and earn and receive less in pension and social security. Not only can it keep you from being hired; it can also get you fired. Many companies today will ask potential employers when filling out applications to answer the question "Do you smoke?" Does it seem fair? Well, if it costing the company money then yes it is fair. Are your employee smoke breaks costing you money?

Why it is important to encourage employee health

As employers we should be aware of the fact that sick employees can actually end up costing our businesses money each year. But the thing that most employers don't realize is that if they actually encourage employee health that will help to cut down on the amount of sick employees you have each year and in the long run can actually save you money. So in actuality it is actually very important for you to encourage employee health because it will led to healthier employees, which means a stable work force, a healthy staff and more money for your company in the long run because of better production. But the problem isn't why you should encourage employee health the actual problem is what can you do to encourage employee health.

Who should get health benefits?

No matter who you are you have probably heard all about the fact that there are so many people out there who do not have health insurance, basically that the United States is in a health insurance crisis because not enough people are actually insured. The truth of the matter is that this is a serious problem but even though there are so many uninsured people how do you know if you are a part of the problem or a part of the solution. One way to tell if you are a part of the problem or the solution is to look at the type of business you are running and to see if you offer your employees affordable health insurance. But another way to tell if you are being part of the problem or the solution is what you intend to do in the future for your employees in regards to health care.