06/ 18/ 2004
by Maggie Flynn
You might think that the health habits of your employees are not of concern to you. Think again. While it’s wise to avoid interfering with your staffs’ personal lives, as their employer, their health is your business. An employee who consistently misses work or comes in unable to perform up to his or her full potential costs you money. A cold or flu can spread through the whole office and wipe everyone with a low immune system out for a week or more. And with health-care costs steadily climbing, you’ll be doing both yourself and your employees a favor by encouraging healthy habits in the office.
Here are a few ways you can start:
Encourage healthy eating
Eating well boosts the immune system and gives employees the energy they need to get through their workday.
Do you have vending machines in the office? If so, are they stocked with potato chips and glazed donuts? This kind of food is not only bad for your employees, it’s bad for business. While empty-calorie filled snack foods will give workers an initial energy boost, it won’t last long and might even leave them feeling more depleted and less able to do their jobs than before. Talk to your vending company about putting in snacks that pack some nutritional punch as well, such as granola bars and trail mixes.
If you don’t have one already, spring for an office refrigerator so that employees can bring healthy lunches and snacks to work. Post a food guide pyramid (http://www.eatright.org/Public/NutritionInformation/92_fgp.cfm) on the refrigerator so that your employees may think twice about using the fridge to store junk foods.
What your employees drink is just as important as what they eat. Put a sign next to the water cooler reminding them that experts suggest eight glasses of water a day are needed for optimal health. Keep a variety of teas on hand, which have more health benefits and less caffeine than coffee. If you have a soda machine, make sure it is stocked with juices and water as well.
Encourage an active lifestyle
Getting proper exercise is just as important as eating right for health and well-being. Exercise contributes to everything from maintaining healthy weight to stress relief to how well a person sleeps at night. There are several ways you can encourage your employees to stay active.
Paying for or contributing to a gym membership is a nice perk for your employees, and one of the best ways to keep them healthy. If that doesn’t fit into your budget right now, your business could join a corporate volleyball or softball league.
You could also hold your own company fitness competition. For example, interested employees could buy pedometers, which are step-counting machines that start as low as 20 dollars, and you could hold a contest to see who accumulates the most mileage in one week or month. Buy gift certificates for the winning person or team. These types of activities not only break up the monotony of the workday, they will encourage your employees to keep up fitness activities, such as running or hiking, away from the office as well.
Create a supportive environment
Many of your employees may be trying to shed unhealthy habits, and while you don’t want to pry, there are many ways you can help employees out. For example, to help staff members quit smoking, announce that your business will be observing the Great American Smokeout, which the American Cancer Society holds every November. Suggest that employees who want to use that day to quit could form a support group to help each other keep on track.
Just make sure employees realize that while you wish to encourage an environment for positive change, you do not mean to single anyone out for their unhealthy habits. Stress that all health-and-fitness related activities are completely optional. And now for the hard part: to create a healthy office, you might have to re-examine some of your own habits. Do you grab fast food for lunch every day? Bring in a salad instead. Have a ten-cup-a-day coffee habit? Gradually cut down to a cup or two in the morning, and then switch to water (or tea for a light boost) throughout the rest of the day. Lead your employees by example, and you’ll be on your way to improving the well-being -- not to mention the performance and productivity -- of your company.
