Why Employers Need To Care About Employee Health

What are employers doing in order to provide their employees with healthier workplaces and to provide them with safe workplaces? Having a healthy and safe workplace is one of the best ways to prevent workplace injuries and also accidents.Looking after the health of your employees will give you a productive staff and one that actually focuses on health. A healthy and productive workplace can provide you with thousands of extra dollars a year. Employees that are ill will end up taking time off work and they not only decrease the productivity for the company but they have a huge impact on the stress level of other employees as they are forced to try and make up the extra work for their sick coworkers. High amounts of stress will lead to a decrease in the immune system, making your healthy employees now susceptible to illnesses. Introducing a healthy workplace strategy can decrease the sickness levels in the office and lead to a happier and more productive workplace.

A workplace wellness program needs to focus not only on the physical health of your staff but also needs to include mental health and emotional health as well. It is a wise idea to have a program that addresses needs like mental health topics and to bring in HR individuals that will aid in assisting your employees that are struggling with it. This helps to drive the company forward to success and can really improve motivation as employees can see in many ways how important they are to the organization. Hold classes that discuss mental health as it is a great way to raise awareness about it but to really help your other employees learn about mental health issues and how to cope with them among their coworkers but even among their family members.

Some organizations will kick off a program with a 5K run/walk for charity. It is a great way to bring out families to the event, which really makes the employees feel loyal to the organization. A run walk is a fun way to say "we are ready to focus on employee health" and to get your staff excited about the new health and fitness program you are launching. Here are some other popular ways to launch a new exercise and health program:
- Create a lunchtime walking group
- Bring in an Xbox Kinect or Wii Fit to the break room that your employees can use
- Yoga classes or fitness classes in the morning or even during work hours
Having some of these extra things help to show the employees how important they are to the company but also how much the company really cares about their health.

A health assessment is a great way to find out what type of things you need to raise awareness about. Stress is one of the health problems that many employers do not pay attention to and do not really understand until they start to see their employee's performance diminish and watch them struggle. Employees that are under a great deal of stress will end up dealing with issues like illnesses and burnout. Stress causes the immune system to breakdown and makes it harder to be at your optimum health.

Before you launch a wellness program in your office you need to talk to your employees and find out what type of things they want to see. Some employees may lean more toward the classes where others appreciate having gym memberships and other things. Listening to your employees will help you to understand more about your staff's health needs but it also helps you to create an effective program that your employees will actually use.