Health Leads To Greater Productivity

What can you do in order to generate greater productivity out of your staff? One way to work on getting your employees to focus on becoming productive is by taking the time to assess their health. Employee health can have a huge impact on their ability to perform their job duties. When an employee is overweight or not in good health, they are likely to take time off and commonly get sick more than their healthier co-workers. With healthcare costs increasing and many employers struggling to find ways to pay for healthcare, looking into creating an employee wellness program is one of the best things you can do in order to maintain their health and lower your costs.

A study done in 2009 shows that the health of your staff does have a large impact on their ability to effectively do their jobs. There is a term called "presenteeism" which describes productivity that is attributed to employees that are doing their job, but may be sick or for whatever reason they are not able to perform at full capacity. This has a direct impact on the productivity for your organization, making it difficult for you to be able to maintain higher production levels but also places a lot of stress on your other employees as they need to compensate for the employees that are unable to do their jobs correctly. What you may not realize is that the employees that are present but not able to do their job correctly actually have more of a financial drain on your organization than if they would go home and focus on getting healthy.

What are some of the employee health concerns that you need to look for? There are several that drain on your productivity but also drain on your organizations health care costs. Here are some of the conditions that you need to watch out for:
- Obesity, this may lead to high blood pressure and other heart problems
- Depression or other mental illnesses
- Anxiety
- Muscle pain, specially back and neck pain tend to reduce productivity
- Cancer

There are many other health costs to consider but many of the health issues that drive up your health care costs can be attributed to unhealthy lifestyles. From lack of exercise to unhealthy eating or ergonomics, your employees are typically their own worst enemy when it comes to their health. So what can an employer do in order to help their staff members get in shape?

Start by working on some things that you can control. While you cannot force your staff to eat healthier, you can encourage them to eat healthier by offering fresh fruit and healthier eating options in the vending machines or during staff meetings and other things. Offering them healthier choices can make it easier for them to focus on healthier eating in the workplace. Get rid of the vending machines that are filled with unhealthy foods and offer them healthier eating options. This will give them options when it comes to snacking in the workplace.

There are a number of companies out there that are offering wellness programs to their staff. These programs often provide compensation or other benefits to the employees that will participate in the program. Usually they will focus on weight loss but many of them really work on helping employees to understand their health and to look for ways in which they can start leading a healthier lifestyle. It may come from changing their eating habits or increasing their level of exercise. Quitting smoking is another common "get healthy" program that is part of a good employee wellness program.