Business isn’t business as usual any more. Getting the job done has moved from placing a stern supervisor on factory workers to make sure workers remain on their feet and keep their hands busy throughout the working period. Businesses have grown to appreciate the need to care for the health and fitness of their employees. Employers are signing up for wellness programs to ensure healthy, happy and productive employees.
The Benefit is yours
Keeping your workers healthy and in the right frame of mind are essential to the achievement of business goals; short term and long term. For this reason, businesses invest in the health and recreational needs of their staff. The cost is definitely not money thrown away. The benefit often comes back to the business – the investor –in many forms including higher productivity. A healthy mind lives in a healthy body.
Workers Want to Be Cared for First
Employers want workers to show care and deep concern or sense of attachment to what they do at work. They want their workers to smile and show genuine care towards customers to improve customer relationships and eventually grow sales. To be able to work effectively and passionately, people want to feel cared for by their employer and then they can translate it into genuine care towards customers and every other activity they engage in at work.
Positive Attitude
In an HBR article, when people reported participating in a wellness program, they noted greater satisfaction with the activities offered, they perceived themselves as healthier and more productive at work and they had a more positive attitude toward their employer.
Prevent, Rather Than Cure
Why wait till you are hit with the blow of key staff not being able to come to work due to poor health, resulting from lack of exercise, stress, poor ergonomics, and a couple of reasons that could have avoided in the first place simply by investing in wellness programs. Productivity can suffer immensely before you are able to replace such a staff or before he resumes work.
In Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and other African countries, the practice of employers making such facilities available to staff in-house or through third-party providers for free or at highly discounted prices is becoming popular. Big businesses who are often the ones investing wellness of their staff are reaping great returns from such investments and small businesses should take a cue, no matter how small a budget you assign to it. It can take several forms depending on your budget and could be as cost-effective as a Saturday morning exercise on the compound of your business with great music.
Health is money, Happiness is gold.