For those of you who've been following our blog series on corporate wellness, we hope you've enjoyed it. Here are links to part 1, part 2, and part 3.
And below, you'll find our final tips and strategies for creating an engaging corporate health program.
1. Build a gym or offer gym/club memberships. Building a gym on-site is an investment, but if you have a large organization, it's a smart one to make. For smaller companies, offering to pay for gym or Y memberships is a great way to promote wellness.
2. Invest in ergonomic furniture. Lower back pain is the number one cause of disability worldwide. Spending hours slumped over our desks at work certainly contributes to this startling statistic, which is why investing in furniture that helps support the back (in addition to other parts of the body) is a wise investment.
Another smart innovation to consider: walking desks. Reports show how our sedentary lifestyles and the hours we spend sitting on our posteriors at work are slowly killing us.
3. Offer flex schedules, opportunities to work from home, volunteer days, and sick time that actually means something. As long as the work gets done efficiently and accurately, when and where it's completed doesn't really matter, right? Consider allowing employees to create their own schedules (within reason, of course) and watch them flourish. Studies show that telecommuting and flex time decrease work-life conflict, and that's a good thing for employees and employers.
Another idea along these lines has to do with volunteering. Give employees a paid day or two a year to volunteer. Not only does this boost employee morale, but it also helps the larger community as well. A win-win for everyone.
And, finally, do NOT guilt employees into showing up for work when they're truly sick. Make this a company-wide policy and ensure that all managers enforce it.
4. Implement a formal corporate wellness program. This is something near and dear to our hearts, since it's one of the hallmark programs we offer at Total Access Medical. You can find a wide variety of models on the market today, but our programs work like this: You can choose from plans that cater to self-insured companies, fully insured companies, and executives.
These plans offer the benefits of corporate wellness through comprehensive exams and on-call physicians to cater to the employees’ needs. By coordinating yearly exams and vaccinations for the whole staff, you can encourage improvements in the wellness of your employees. And yes—we can coordinate the all-important flu shot clinics.
Are you interested in having all of our corporate wellness tips and strategies in one place? Download our complete ebook: 12 Ways to Foster Wellness in the Workplace.
