Kicking the smoking habit
The truth about smoking is that it is dangerous for your health, your family member's health, and it is expensive. If you smoke one pack of cigarettes a day and it costs you about $3.50 a pack, you will spend $1,277.50 a year on cigarettes. This money should go toward other things like a vacation, or even as a small investment in your children's education. Almost every smoker knows the health consequences of smoking, but somehow they simply cannot seem to quit their smoking habit. Most people know that smoking is bad for their health, sets a poor example for their children, causes them to lose friends, and decreases the value of their assets. If you are tired of throwing away money and your health to the cancer stick, here are some tips to help you kick the smoking habit.
Inspiring employees to participate in wellness programs
Since smoking and obesity lead to higher health insurance costs for employers, some employers have started offering wellness programs. Wellness programs encourage employees to start living an active, healthier lifestyle and to give up their personal choices that are impacting the company. Employers lose about $13 billion dollars on employees that are overweight and cause the health insurance costs to rise along with the cost to pay for their time off and lost production costs. Smokers are no different from obese workers because they tend to take about 7 more sick days a year and have weakened immune systems due the carbon monoxide they breathe in. Some of the common health problems smokers and obese individuals face include the following:
Inexpensive ways to promote employee health
Developing an effective illness prevention program within the workplace can be an inexpensive asset to your company and an effective means to protecting the bottom line in business. Not only does an illness prevention program take into consideration the hazards that exist and how to correct them, it also includes a wellness program that can change the environment of the workplace with positive strides.
Increasing healthcare awareness to reduce costs
Health care awareness may be a new business trend, but its one of the most important trends that has hit a growing population of chronically unhealthy Americans. The slowing economy has cost thousands of people their jobs and even more a loss in benefits, including health insurance and sick leave.
Incorporating walking into your wellness program
Several small and large companies have started wellness programs to help their employees get in shape to reduce their health care costs. Wellness programs are designed to improve the overall health of a company and to increase production costs. It makes sense to invest in exercise as it can help to increase lung capacity and keep the heart healthy.
Improving employee health
With growing costs of health insurance and economic challenges facing many companies, big and small, in the United States, improving employee health is a major concern in the workplace. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, presentee-ism, or coming to work sick, is happening more often as economic insecurity sets in and the demands of the workplace increase.
How weight loss impacts your bottom line
It is no question that America has a problem with obesity. About 40-50 percent of all Americans are overweight and most of them are considered obese. Obesity raises health insurance costs and costs employers $13 billion yearly in lost production costs, workers comp, and production costs. To combat obesity, several companies have started to fight back. Companies deserve to receive 100 percent out of every employee they have on staff. They deserve to make money on the people they have invested their time and money into.
How to get your employees to quit smoking
If you have employees that smoke, you already know that your health insurance plan will bump up into a higher-risk category. The health insurance premiums will be substantially higher than if you were to have non-smoking employees. To combat this amount, some employers are asking their smoking staff members to front the bill of higher insurance. If you want your employees to quit smoking, here is what you can do:
How smoking raises insurance costs
Smoking causes a lot of health complications and can lead to premature death. Individuals that smoke are twice as likely to visit the doctor more and they take 2 times the amount of sick days as non-smoking employees. People have heard that smoking and obesity are the reasons why health insurance costs are higher. This statement is not only true, it can also be said of other types of insurance like dental, life, and home owners insurance.
How smoking impacts your job
Smoking impacts more than just your health, it can affect almost every aspect of your life. If you own a home or a car and you have smoked in it, it automatically depreciates in value. You may have taken good care of the home or car, but you won't be able to make as much money when you sell it because you smoked in it. This is because getting the smell of cigarette smoke out of carpet and other areas is extremely difficult. Even if someone has a professional cleaner come in and deep-clean everything, the smell may still be there. Some people have even had to rip out sheetrock just to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke. Now what about your job? Smoking has a big impact on your job.
How overweight employees hurt their employers
Healthcare costs are constantly rising and your overweight employees are one of the biggest reasons why you may be forces to pay outlandish health insurance premiums. There aren't too many options when it comes to reducing health care costs, but one thing you can do is implement wellness programs to encourage your overweight employees to drop some weight. Overweight employees tend to have more health problems than other people and they visit the doctor more frequently. Obesity is a problem and most people don't take it seriously. Obesity increases your risk for cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular diseases. Since overweight employers are at risk for so many problems, insurance companies cannot afford to pay for all of the treatments they need. This is why employers are being forced to pick up the bill.
How much money do smokers costs employers?
Smoking is dangerous, we have heard that for years, yet millions of Americans continue to smoke despite all the serious health consequences. Smoking raises health insurance costs, life insurance costs, rental and home insurance costs, car insurance costs, and even dental insurance costs. So with all of the additional amount people will pay for smoking, why do they do it? One of the main reasons why is because they are addicted to it. Nicotine and other chemicals found in cigarettes will addict people to the point that they cannot survive without it.
How much money do employers lose on smokers?
Having smokers on your staff will cost you more money. How much more money, that all depends on how many staff members you have and the insurance company you work with. Here are some of the costs that will go up when you have employees that smoke:
How mental health illness impacts the healthcare costs of employers
Many employers are now recognizing that mental health illness and just are devastating to the workplace as those of physical illness, like diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. Mental health illnesses lead to decreased work productivity, which in turn raises costs for employers. By acknowledging mental health illnesses and offering employees help with mental health illnesses, employers are in turn helping increasing the productivity within their workplaces.
How exercise benefits employees and employers
A good diet and exercise program can help someone go from a 38 inch waist to a size 30 in about 3 months. There are tons of fad diets and exercise programs out there that all claim to know how to help people lose weight and "get the body you always dreamed of". It seems like more and more employers are jumping on board with the wellness program idea to promote exercise in the office.
