Employee Health and Wellness

Employee Health Promotion Programs: A Long-Term Committment

“Employee Health Promotion Programs” – what does that phrase mean to you? To many of us, it evokes an array of ambivalent thoughts — the gym membership we barely used, the nagging ankle injury from last year’s organization picnic, the backaches, the bratwurst we had for lunch, the love handles and of course, the fad diets that failed us or that we failed. Usually, Employee Health Promotion Programs is a guilt trigger that causes us to feel remorse about our bodies and the health management we know we should be doing for them.

The sad fact is that we live in a society where our survival is dependent on sitting at a desk, not hunting game, picking berries and sprinting away from wolves. We also live in such luxury, nutritionally, that we can gain weight steadily without being wealthy. Cardiovascular disease, obesity and bad nutrition cause most of the heath issues that weigh down employee attendance and erode a company’s productivity.

It’s ironic that the poorest societies in the world – the ones furthest from the conveniences of modern life – often have the fittest, most physically hardy members. And as for the animal kingdom — don’t look there for commiseration. In the wild, it is extremely rare to find an animal that suffers from our kind of wellness issues.

Prescription Medication dependency degrades Health and Wellness

It doesn’t help that United States citizens are descending into a deadly love affair with drugs — and drug testing won’t help you with these drugs.

For example, Greg Critser’s book Generation RX details how United States citizens spend about $180 billion dollars on Prescription Medications each year, with the estimated 2011 tally at a whopping $414 billion. The average number of Prescription Medications per American in 2004 stood at twelve.

Twelve! That means that your average employee is taking 14, 18, or even more than 20 medications in an attempt to improve their Health and Wellness.

Is this effective, though? Critser is not convinced that the prescription drugs help United States health. In fact, he points out a bevy of negative consequences for America’s legal prescription drug addition, which include prescription drug interactions, liver damage, and the legions of people who now depend on prescription drugs to deal with ordinary trials and stresses.

An employer has the potential to improve Health

It’s not all bad news, though. Occupational Health Screening and Biometric Testings and well-designed Employee Health Promotion Programs can help you fight the downward spiral for you and your workforce. In fact, good Employee Health Promotion Programs – like a strong walking Employee Health Promotion Programs initiative – can literally save lives and reduce the symptoms that cause staff members to turn to prescription drugs in the first place.