So just how do you do it? You’re convinced that a well balanced work/personal lifestyle makes health sense for your employees, and financial sense for you. You just don’t know where to start. Take these 4 easy suggestions:
- Create a health-conscious corporate culture. For starters, replace junk food with health food. If you have a vending machine, replace the chocolate bar with a protein bar, and the bag of chips with a bag of trail mix or nuts. There are dozens of healthy – and tasty – alternatives out there. Just shop around. If you have a soda machine, replace high-sugar, caffeinated drinks with mineral water or decaffeinated iced-teas.
- Offer health incentives. Many organizations offer exercises programs for their staff. From discounts at the local gym, to Weight Watchers, to yoga or spinning classes, you can offer lost-cost, high-impact programs for your employees.
- Be flexible. Believe it or not, most employees have a life outside the office. Consider a flexible work-week or alternative working-hours, where feasible. Employees with children, or who live far from the office, will appreciate your accommodating their lifestyle. Perhaps 4 days of 10 hours can replace 5 days of 8. Or staying late on Thursdays allows them to leave early on Fridays. Be creative, but be sure to consult with a professional, as an alternative work schedule may have pay-related ramifications.
- Encourage vacation. Most employee accrue vacation, or personal days off. Everyone needs to recharge their batteries, so encourage your staff to take the vacation coming to them. They will come back re-energized and ready to get back to work.
These are few simple, but important, actions you can take to improve the overall well being of your staff, and workplace. Investing a few dollars now will save you bundles in health insurance premiums down the road.
One of the highest operating expenses for small business owners is the cost of employee benefits. One way to help contain costs is to offer a Wellness Program to your staff. Well documented research indicates that a well balanced lifestyle – including a proper diet, exercise and leisure time – leads to healthier and more productive employees. In turn, the employees’ medical utilization is reduced, and health premiums drop. Additionally, a healthy staff will have fewer sick days, be on time more often, and remain focused throughout the day.
The State Compensation Insurance Fund, or SCIF, the quasi-public San Francisco-based workers’ compensation insurer, announced a mid-year rate hike of 15%, effective July 1. While this may sound like bad news for a quarter of California’s employers who are covered by SCIF, the news could have been a lot worse – the 15% increase is significantly lower than the 27.1% increase recommended by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) earlier this year.
So you considered the alternatives, researched the law, reviewed the employees to be let go, and you do it. Now what? More often than not, the