Archive - 2008

There’s nothing more important than ensuring that your health is good. You could be a millionaire who owns a mansion and five cars, but if your health is bad, what’s the point? But, more importantly is the necessity for your employees to have health insurance. If you hire someone who is supposed to be the best at what they do, but they’re sick a lot, is that honestly a good investment? No. But, do you want to lose their specialty because of that? No.

That’s why it’s important that employers offer their employees health insurance. Now, there are different ways in which you can do it. You can offer it through your company, or you can give incentives to your employees to get Individual Health Insurance. One thing that companies have done is help pay for the health insurance that their employees get, but not pay for it all since that can get expensive. This helps both the employer and the employee. The employer becomes competitive and therefore can get the best possible employees.

Offering health insurance is an expensive investment to try and get the best employees. If you can find a way to offer it without losing so much of your profit, such as Individual Health Insurance, it can definitely be a strong method in which to gain the best of the best. And, there’s nothing more rewarding than knowing that the people who work for you are strong and in the best of health because they can now afford to get the necessary health insurance.

You only improve what you measure. Health and fitness assessmants are an excellent way to ensure your employees are getting results. An effective wellness program should start by creating a baseline followed by periodic measurements to demonstrate progress as employees and their families move to a healthier lifestyle.

Do you know if the programs you have in place actually produces results?

Which programs are successful? How do you know?

Acknowledge changes in health and fitness levels and hold employees accountable for their lifestyle choices

A place where you can find other health realted resources

Collectively coordinate and challenge employees to incorporate and Practice healthy lifestyle choices.

Full-time employees spend more waking hours together as coworkers than they do with their families. Take advantage of this by creating a fun, motivating, and inspirational work environment that promotes health and fitness.

What is the cultural attitude of your company toward health and fitness?

Do your employees encourage and support one another in their efforts to get fit?

Does your company have any collective health and fitness goals?

The Health Initiative Project follows a systematic approach to wellness that incorporates a series of coordinated newsletters, seminars, health assessments, and group activities specifically designed to respond to your employees’ need for information and action to improve their lives.

Our Road Map To Wellness
Connect - Review health care plan status
Communicate - Inform and enlighten employees and their families about current health care status and need for improvement
Coach - Educate and empower employees to make proper lifestyle choices

Wellness initiatives can take many forms. Health fairs, exercise classes, cholesterol screenings, educational workshops, blood pressure testings, smoking cessation programs, brown-bag lunch seminars, and more.

The missing element in most of these activities is accountability.

How do you know employees will actually change their behavior?

How do you know employees will actually achieve the desired/necessary results?

Wellness Programs Work

The Health Initiative Project designs and implements comprehensive, systematic, and engaging wellness programs that improve employee health, wellness, and productivity to help reduce the ever-increasing health care costs that can negatively affect a businesses bottom line.

For years progressive companies like General Mills, Coors Brewing Company, Motorola, and Pfizer have been providing employees with wellness programs that have been shown to improve employee health, increase productivity, and yield a significant return on investment.

Over the past two years health care costs have risen nearly 30% and the Wall Street Journal projects another 11% increase for 2005.

Many of the cost increases can be attributed to chronic diseases and conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

Fortunately, many of the costly symptoms and consequences associated with these diseases can be significantly reduced with the right lifestyle choices.

You have many choices as you consider your company's health care costs.

Ask yourself:

Employees want to be partners. Let your employees know what is happening and why. When employees understand the impact of rising health care costs, they become partners in cost control.

Do your employees and their families understand what is happening in the health care marketplace?

Do they understand how their health and medical expenses impact company and employee cost?

Do they understand how the companies health care "experience" determines the future costs and availability of their health care?

Make sure your employees are collectively working together