To be blunt, you cause stress where you work. As a leader, as a coworker and even as a subordinate. You cause someone stress where you work.

Just to be clear, that’s okay! It’s perfectly normal to cause stress at work because work can be a stressful place. Something you do—whether it’s completing a task, asking a question or joining a project—will likely cause stress for someone else.  That’s because many work roles are interdependent, and many projects are impacted by multiple people.

The problem with stress, though, is that it makes tough situations even more difficult. Stress in the workplace can damage relationships, but it can also negatively impact mental and physical health. In stressful situations, productivity takes a hit and problems become much more difficult to solve.

Some healthy choices come with almost instant benefits. Whether it’s doing something to ease some stress, develop relationships, or even start a healthy shift inside your body, those things are the building blocks for healthy habits.

So even if building up strong habits seems intimidating, there is reason to get started on your health journey today! You’ll be surprised how much better your tomorrow feels if you just get going.

There are two primary types of flu virus that circulate each year and cause the office epidemics you’ve come to dread—Influenza A and Influenza B. Experts and flu shot creators have come up with a variety of options to help the public avoid both types of the flu.

The two primary umbrellas under which those options fall are trivalent and quadrivalent vaccines. Trivalent flu vaccine protects against three strains of the flu—the two Influenza A strains predicted to circulate most and the one Influenza B strain predicted to circulate most.

Quadrivalent vaccine protects against four strains of the flu—the two Influenza A strains predicted to circulate most and the two Influenza B strains predicted to circulate most. Essentially quadrivalent flu shots offer the same coverage as trivalent plus coverage against one more strain of Influenza B. Obviously that’s a bit wider coverage, and therefore a bit better protection.

Your body deserves to be healthy. It wants to be healthy, and it craves being healthy. That’s why you feel better when you’re in good health.

That’s just a simple fact about how we’re made as humans. No matter your health status—overweight, underweight, inactive, too active, stressed or bored—your body wants to be healthy. It’s true for every single person.

So why do you keep pushing employee wellness as a solution to a problem, or a punishment for bad behavior?

At the core, your wellness program is all about healthy behavior change. You want your employees to shift their behaviors from things that harm their health to things that can improve their health.

But in order to effectively change behaviors, you need to understand how they’re changed. Scientists have been studying what goes into behavior change for years—because that’s how decisions can be made to encourage healthy populations.

We looked through that science, and picked out some important elements for your wellness program. You can check out the science behind healthy behavior change by downloading our new guide right here.

We’ve all been there. Things at work can get stressful. The stress escalates those situations until things start to feel out of control and you’re slowing losing your grip.

Those situations can continue to heighten your stress levels—and we all know how harmful that can be for your mental and physical health. It can even damage your workplace relationships, which is one factor contributing to the insolvability of the problem you’re facing. Couple those relational strains with the fact that nobody is thinking clearly, and you’ve gotten yourself into quite a mess.

In the moment, you might not be sure which way to turn, or how to make progress. It can easily start to feel like you’re just stuck.

Are you planning to host a biometric screening during the summer? If so, there are a few things you might want to be prepared for.

Each season offers its own unique challenges when it comes to hosting wellness events. In all honesty, though, there is no bad time for a biometric screening. It’s always a good idea to get the conversation about health started in your office.

Something things you might run into during the summer season…

One of the huge challenges in any wellness program is addressing the mindset that wellness is a punishment. Many people view health and wellness as something they need to suffer through. But that’s just not true. Wellness is not a punishment. In fact, it’s the ultimate reward for your body.

A big contributing factor to this punishment mindset is all of the restrictions we associate with a healthy lifestyle.

Everyone loves summer, right?! It’s a time to get outside, relax and spend time taking part in all sorts of adventures.

The summer season can even come with some awesome health benefits. Largely due to the weather, people are much more active in the summer than they are in the colder months of the year. People are walking, biking, running and even doing more leisurely activities like gardening.

So how can there be health hazards associated with this usually-healthy season? The truth is every season comes with unique challenges. The best way to avoid the health hazards of any given season is to be aware that they exist.

A wellness portal is an online tool you can use to implement, manage and track your wellness program. Your portal can be what you make of it, depending on the details of your program.

A wellness portal might include incentive tracking, challenges and check-ins, educational material and employee health records. Housing these types of wellness program features in an online portal can be a great option for you and your program.