There’s no simpler way to put it– companies that have healthy employees will be more productive. This is because the less sick days a person takes, the more work they will be able to get done, no matter what field they work in. For this reason, companies can benefit from incentivizing their employees for being healthy and taking fewer sick days. Below are a few ways in which companies can provide health benefits and incentives.
Have a Meditation/Yoga Space
Mental health is just as important as physical health. This is true even when it comes to productivity. After all, an employee is likely to get less work completed if they are stressed out. One way to help employees to relax, or at least encourage them to relax, is to set up a clean and calming place where they can practice yoga, meditation, or just sit in a quiet place during their breaks.
In fact, people who practice meditation are more likely to be able to focus. They may also feel more energized after practicing meditation. People who have anxiety can also reduce their symptoms by practicing meditation on a regular basis.
Schedule Nutritionist Appointments
If a company thinks their employees could use some education or advice when it comes to their diet, hiring a nutritionist for a day, whether to talk to employees one-on-one or to give a lecture, can be helpful. If a nutritionist gives a lecture, then he or she will likely talk about different healthy foods, diets, and supplement pills or powders. If they do talk about supplements, there will be information on the good effects and bad side effects a pill or powder might have.
For example, he or she might talk about thrive side effects if they endorse that company.
Hiring a nutritionist to talk to employees individually would work best if it was optional for employees to do. Some people, especially people who are visibly unhealthy or under- or overweight, may be offended if they are required to talk to a nutritionist, even if everyone else has to do it. Instead, companies would do well to encourage employees to talk to the nutritionist by promoting it as a free service that would otherwise cost X amount of dollars.
As a bonus, having a nutritionist talk to employees individually can help him or her give the employees more personalized nutrition plans, which can boost their health more than a general lecture and advice can.
Have “No Accident” Incentives
Sometimes, the best way to incentivize an employee is to use cold hard cash. Giving employees bonuses after going so many days without a workplace accident is a great way to motivate them to be safer. You can give out personal bonuses when a single person goes a certain amount of time without getting into an accident or you can do a company-wide incentive and give everyone a bonus when the whole company goes so long without having an accident.
Hire a Wellness Program Leader
Lastly, if you have tried just about everything to incentivize your employees to be healthier and safer and nothing seems to be working, then it might just be time to hire a wellness program leader to give a lecture to your company. A wellness program leader is a professional who has varied experience with helping groups and companies figure out which incentives company employees will respond best to. These leaders are a great resource, if for no other reason than simply because every company and its employees are different and will respond to some incentives better than others. In addition, when it is time to incentivize employees, the wellness program leader can help to determine who gets the incentive and even help to give it out.
The Overall Point
If your company is looking for a way to encourage its employees to be healthier–both for their own sake and the sake of the company– it can be helpful to adopt some of these practices. These may seem like big changes to make, but they can make an even bigger healthy impact in the long-run.
