12/09/2022
The modern workforce is concerned with living a healthy lifestyle. More than two-thirds of U.S. workers count calories and watch what they eat, and many are actively looking for ways to exercise during the workday. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of adults in the workforce who have fitness goals, use fitness trackers and apps to monitor their progress, keep food diaries, and sign up for gym memberships through their employers.
However, corporate wellness programs lag behind in addressing employee nutrition as an intervention for reducing risk factors for chronic disease and promoting a healthy lifestyle in general.
Corporate wellness initiatives, such as wellness programs, can help your employees live healthier lives while also lowering the cost of their medical care. Health screenings, health education, financial incentives, and health coaching are just a few of the many activities that can be included in health and wellness programs.
Programs can be held at your workplace, through your health insurance company, or by a third-party wellness program. When selecting a program, look for one that is adaptable and simple to use. It should be customizable to meet the needs of your employees and include data analysis and tracking. Select a program that has a proven track record of success.
Wellness programs that offer coaching and support can improve the health of employees, which can lower health care costs and make employees more productive.
As an employer, you can encourage employees to make healthier eating choices simply by making those choices the default at work. If your employees are eating at the office, make nutritious food the easiest choice by providing:
If you have a cafeteria, make healthy food the most prominent and accessible (think: eye-level shelves and menu boards). If your employees are ordering delivery, make healthy food the default. If you’re providing food at meetings or social events, make healthy food the default.
Make the office a place that promotes physical activity, encourages movement, and has plenty of places to sit and stand. If you have a fitness program, make sure the office has equipment for all types of activities.
This can include:
If you don’t have a fitness program, there are many ways to encourage physical activity in the office.
You can hold:
This will help you meet the needs of your diverse workforce and keep track of data so that you can use it to plan for future actions. You can also take steps to make it easier to walk or bike to work.
Many employees track their diet and calories, but fewer track their exercise and activity. Track your employees’ exercise habits in a simple, easy-to-use program. If your company offers a health and wellness program with a tracking feature, use it.
Some popular apps include Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, and Fitbit. You can also track your exercise and activity on paper and keep it private. Create an easy-to-use log that you can mark when you exercise, walk, or bike. Mark the amount of time spent exercising and the kind of exercise.
Provide one-on-one or group nutrition education. This could be a nutrition coach or a nutritionist coming in-house once or twice a month.
It could also be:
Another way to offer nutrition coaching is to partner with a nearby nutrition store. A lot of the time, nutrition stores work with businesses to offer one-on-one coaching, group education sessions, or both.
Make it easier for your employees to fit more physical activity into their workday by offering a choice of activities.
This could include:
Offer access to facilities in the area or a nearby town or city.
This could include access to:
Provide access to wellness tools, such as pedometers or fitness apps. This could include nutrition apps as well.
Offer fresh, healthy, and nutritious food at the office. To get more healthy food into the workplace, offices around the United States have started to bring fresh fruits and vegetables into the office. If you have a cafeteria, you might want to get a service that delivers fresh fruit and vegetables or set up a salad bar.
If you have an on-site kitchen, add fresh fruits and vegetables to your menus. If you don’t have a cafeteria, talk to your building management about hosting a salad bar or a produce delivery service on site. You can also bring in fresh produce for special events or bring in a fruit or vegetable bowl.
Offer wellness programs that appeal to your employees. You can survey your employees to find out what wellness programs they want to use. Another way to find out what programs they want is to review the data from your current health and wellness programs. Look at which programs are being used and which ones aren’t.
If you have a wellness program in place, be sure it offers a variety of programs that appeal to your employees. If you don’t have a program in place, consider starting with one of these .
To get more of your employees involved and interested in wellness programs, it’s important to make healthy food easy to find, give them chances to be active, and offer wellness programs that they find interesting.
By taking these steps, you’ll be well on your way to getting more of your employees engaged in healthier lifestyles.
