What is Corporate Wellness?

Corporate wellness is evolving.

Early efforts to create healthful workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury avoidance for workers.

More recently, programs are designed to assist staff members to pick healthier behaviours like being more physically active or quitting tobacco use.

Campaigns to increase awareness, educational sessions to increase knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for workers to make healthy choices are often included.

This approach is taken because the workplace is a good way to reach people , since most adult American Citizens spend a big part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are two aspects that contribute to the health of workers, corporate wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace affects health.

Increasingly, it’s recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on individuals ’s health. When individuals  are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When staff members feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed.

Stress has a large impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the organization overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.

The underlying idea is that corporations must genuinely care about the wellness of their workers.

Companies today who want to attract and keep good employees have leaders who understand the connection between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that corporate wellness is a business strategy.  

Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving workers in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance work and home life.

Companys know that staff members are looking for jobs that pay well, have good benefits, are fascinating, and include excellent health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more important than ever for corporations to enhance job satisfaction and ensure that staff members enjoy being on the job.

Corporate wellness benefits both corporations and workers.

How does corporate wellness benefit the employer?

A wellness program can help a corporation to -

• attract and keep employees;

• reduce the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;

• reduce the effects of a stressful workplace;

• reduce health care costs or keep them contained; and

• improve morale by creating a happy, supportive environment.

How does corporate wellness benefit employees?

Employees of businesses that have a wellness program are likely to have -

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to improve their health;

• a better (less stressful) workplace;

• increased protection from injury;

• improved health and well-being;

• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;

• increased productivity and effectiveness at work;

• reduced personal health care costs; and

• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both companys and employees have a responsibility for creating a healthful workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the company is expected to provide an environment that allows employees to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the corporation’s success.

Corporate wellness is more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about developing a “people  first” approach to doing corporation.

It’s about taking care of workers, establishing a positive work environment, and compensating attention to the factors that keep workers healthful and happy at work.

A good wellness program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being.