Increased work production from healthier employees

Most employers are always looking for a way to increase their employees' productivity. Well, it has been proven that healthier employees have increased work production. This article talks a little more about increase work production from healthier employees.

Who are healthier employees?
There is not necessarily a list of specific criteria that an employee has to fall under in order to be considered a healthy employee. But there are a few things that can help an employer identify their healthy employees. An employee who does not smoke, has a body weight that is at a healthy level for their height, makes decent food choices, and exercises could definitely be considered a healthy employee.

Less time off

It just makes sense to say that healthy employees take less time off compared to unhealthy employees. Obviously a healthy employee would take fewer sick leave than an employee who felt poorly or is injured. But it is also true that healthy employees-employees who are at a healthy weight, do not smoke, etc-take less time off than employees who are overweight and who do smoke (though people may not consider these employees "sick").

When an employee takes less time off it will usually mean they are more productive. If an employee takes sick leave, they leave their employer or their manager in a tight spot. Someone has to do their work for the day (or days) since they are not there to complete it. Many times other employees have to fill in and they in turn may be less productive that day if they are not able to complete all of their tasks because of the extra work load. And someone new who has to be trained for the job is likely to be less productive as well since they will be learning and may not be as skilled.

Mental clarity

A healthy employee has increased mental clarity when compared to their smoking and/or overweight counterparts. This increase in mental clarity leads to healthy employees being more productive. And not only are healthy employees with increased mental clarity more productive, they also end up with better quality in their performances.

Morale

Healthier employees tend also to be happier employees. And happy employees are more likely to be productive as well. Luckily for employers, happiness is contagious. When healthy, happy employees come to work, they spread their happiness as well as their productiveness.

How to get employees healthy

Because healthy employees have increased work productivity, it is important that employers know how to encourage their employees to get healthy. There several different things employers can do to get their employees healthy to help increase their work production.

Creating an office wellness program is perhaps one of the best ways for employers to encourage their employees to be healthy. Employee wellness programs can teach employees how to live a healthier lifestyle through incorporating diet and exercise into their lives.

Many employee wellness programs will perform tests-such as a blood sugar test, a physical fitness test, and a cholesterol test-on the employees. The information will then be used to evaluate the employee's physical fitness, their nutrition knowledge, and the employee's health in general. After an evaluation, a nutrition and exercise specialist will be able to tailor a diet and an exercise program specifically for each employee that participates in the employee wellness program.

If an employer does not want to create or is not able to fund an employee wellness program, there are other options for them to use to help encourage their employees to live a healthier lifestyle. For example, something as simple as switching the junk food in the office vending machines to healthier food options can promote some healthy lifestyle changes in employees.