Global Employee Health & Fitness Month – Promote Health & Wellness in your Workplace
Global Employee Health & Fitness Month – Promoting Promote Health and Wellness in your Workplace
May is Global Employee health and fitness Month, an international initiative that prioritizes health and fitness in the workplace.
It’s the time of the year when organizations can help their employees live healthy lifestyles. This is an important because employers, whether they know it or not, can have a significant influence on their employee’s habits. Effectively promoting and encouraging healthy living through workplace initiatives and incentives is beneficial for both employees and employers.
Benefits of a Healthy and Fit Workforce
Employers should pay attention to Global Employee Health and Fitness Month because it does more than benefit individual employees (which is a huge benefit in itself). Instilling positive health habits in employees can impact the organization a whole.
Healthy employees are:
More productive
Happier, less stressed & more engaged
Have a higher rate of retention
A study found that when employees eat healthy foods, they are 25% more likely to have higher job performance, and when employees exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes, they are 15% more likely to have a higher job performance (source: Businessnewsweekdail.com).
Organizations with healthy employees:
Experience less absenteeism
Higher productivity
Lower medical claims.
Better attraction and retention
The same study found that when workers exercise and eat healthy foods, absenteeism was 27% lower, and the performance of healthy employees was 11% higher than their overweight peers.
Encouraging people at your organization to lead healthy lifestyles benefits both sides of the business.
Activities to Help your Employees Get (and Stay) Healthy:
Healthtrax can work with you to design a Corporate Partnership program that works for you and your employees – discounted memberships, wellness programs and more.
Wellness Seminars - A Healthtrax staff member can schedule an on-site visit to your Company to talk about healthy living.
Work with Healthtrax to offer employees a special discounted corporate membership plan to the fitness center.
Promote “walking” meetings where you walk around the building instead of gathering in meeting rooms.
Host a luncheon with healthy food options.
Send a monthly newsletter filled with wellness information that will motivate your employees to maintain healthy habits.
Encourage employees to park a few spaces farther away each day or to use the steps instead of the elevator.
Host an annual health fair- Healthtrax can design a fair for your employees with blood pressure screenings and body composition analysis, review results and offer relevant health education literature and information.
Stock your cafeteria with healthy snacks.
Document a high-level executive or leader’s transformation to living a healthier lifestyle.
Provide information sessions that educate employees on the benefits of their insurance (such as free check-ups, preventative care, etc.).
Offer programs or initiatives to help employees quit smoking.
Provide information that reminds employees that health is not just about the body, it’s also about the mind.
Offer on-site mini massages or HydroMassage plans for employees to help decrease stress.
Healthtrax can offer a yoga class (either at Healthtrax or on-site) to teach employees how to use their breath to reduce stress.
Perform on-site stress tests and health screenings. The InBody570 located at all of our Healthtrax locations is a non-invasive full body scan that provides accurate and detailed body composition analysis in minutes.
Provide on-site exercise classes, yoga sessions, or fitness classes. Healthtrax Group Fitness Directors can help you determine the best options for your employees.
Build an in-office library of healthy cookbooks and books about wellness for mind and body.
Participate in an organization-sponsored 5K walk or run.
Make health and wellness a part of your corporate philosophy.
As you plan these initiatives and activities, keep something important in mind. Employee health and fitness should not just be a priority in May, it’s an important initiative that you should promote year-round. So also look for ways to implement these habits and activities throughout the year.
Contact Healthtrax today and let us help design a corporate wellness plan that will help get and keep your employees healthy.