Employee Wellness Blog

Are you tired of seeing employees eating at their desks or alone during lunch hour?

It may be time to start offering lunch and learn trainings.  

Lunch and learns are customizable, informal, short training sessions held during typical lunch times. Utilize lunch and learns to offer short training sessions throughout the year — as often as once a week or once a month — to bring your team together.

Regularly scheduled lunch and learns can help boost morale and develop employee skills when done in a relaxed atmosphere instead of an uptight “meeting” setting. It’s also a perfect time for wellness committees to distribute valuable information to a captive audience in an informal setting.

Ready to get started? Here’s how:

Summer traveling and outdoor camping season is here. That means warmer weather that welcomes bugs that bite.

Throughout the summer months when bugs are more active, it’s important for everyone — especially pregnant women — to take the appropriate measures to avoid bug bites.

Insect bites can cause serious health issues and in some cases, be fatal. Remind employees how to stay safe from insect-borne diseases by sharing facts and protection tips.

This post will cover the health consequences of not taking caution along with the best ways to take precaution while enjoying the summer’s best outdoor events.

Summer has arrived and so have the heat waves.

While it’s the best time of year to enjoy the great outdoors, it’s also important to remember the effect of high temperatures on the human body.

Knowing how to protect yourself and your family from summer hazards like extreme heat can save you a trip to the emergency room, or worse. Among all weather-related hazards, extreme heat waves are often the deadliest, according to Ready.gov.

Luckily, heat-related injuries and death are preventable.

By learning and spreading the word about extreme heat dangers and prevention measures, you can save potentially save a life.

Here’s a look at the basics of heat health:

In the United States alone, 8 million people have PTSD.

PTSD, which stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, isn’t just limited to war veterans, either.

The disorder impacts those who have been involved in traumatic events like car accidents, natural disasters, sexual assaults, and other life-altering situations.

June is PTSD Awareness Month. More specifically, June 27 is PTSD Awareness Day.

While most people have a general idea of what it is, some employers are unsure of how to approach the sensitive topic.

Here’s a look at what PTSD is and how to help employees dealing with it:

Summer is here.

If you plan to spend any length of time enjoying the great outdoors — including the endless water activities — you’ll want to be in shape.

While being fit might mean looking fantastic in a bathing suit, it also means you’ll have better health, strength, and stamina to do the summer activities you love most.

Scared by the thought of working out? Never fear.

Even if you’ve never touched a dumbbell in your life, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming to get started working out. The biggest key is to take it slow and skip the crash diets.

This post will offer basic tips for getting in shape including finding consistency, starting slow, doing physical activity you love, and more.

Here we highlight seven exercise tips for beginners:

So you want to eat healthier, eh?

Luckily, you don’t need to follow a trend or diet to focus on healthy eating for your daily life. It all boils down to listening to your body’s needs by fueling it with food that makes you feel energized and well. Studies show diets rich in nuts, fish, fruits, and veggies are best.

Sound expensive? It’s actually not.

Eating healthy on a budget isn’t impossible. In fact, a Harvard School of Public Health research found a healthy vs. unhealthy diet costs just $1.50 more per day.

The cost of diet-related chronic diseases — such as diabetes — is much higher.

If eating healthy seems overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be. While there’s a lot of information (and misinformation) out there, sometimes keeping it simple is best. Start small, and then figure out what works best for your lifestyle.

To make it easy, here are 13 ways to eat healthier in your daily life: 

How often do you think about your brain health?

Unless you have memory issues or other brain injuries, it’s probably not too high on your list of health concerns.

June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, an opportunity to learn more about the importance of brain health and how to prevent dementia naturally.

An estimated 5.8 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, a type of dementia that causes issues with memory, thinking, and behavior. Symptoms usually start out slowly, but progressively get worse.

Luckily, there are ways to protect your brain.

Studies have shown that certain food choices, regular activity, and memory exercises can help protect people from developing Alzheimer's.

This post will focus on overall brain health, including what foods to eat and memory-stimulating activities to keep the brain sharp for years to come.

Ready for your employees to play it safe?

June is National Safety Month and a perfect opportunity to promote safety in the workplace. The most common workplace injuries include overexertion, slips, trips, and falls, and dangerous contact with equipment.

A look at safety numbers in the workplace:

• Every 7 seconds, an employee is injured at work
• In 2017, 104,000,000 production hours were lost due to injury
• 5,147 workers died on the job in 2017
• 25.6% of all workplace injuries are falls or trips

According to the National Safety Council, the most common injuries keeping workers at home include sprains, strains, pain, cuts, and lacerations. Keep your employees safe by conducting proper safety trainings, keeping safe work spaces, and educating them weekly.

Luckily, education can start at any time.

Here’s a look at 30 days of safety topics to share with your employees this month:

When Friday rolls around and your employees walk out the door, let them.

That means encouraging them to refrain from work for the entire weekend.

No calls. No emails. No paperwork.

Employees who can truly break away from work will feel refreshed come Monday.

A National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report of collective overtime studies sums it up best: “Overtime was associated with poorer perceived general health, increased injury rates, more illnesses, or increased mortality.”

Studies show workers who treated their weekends like a vacation were more likely to return to work happier on Monday. As an employer, it’s wise to encourage your employees to not work weekends and actively celebrate their time off.

When your team is overworked and stressed, it shows up personally, professionally, and physically.

Here’s a deeper look at why encouraging employees to unplug over the weekend is a must:

You’ve hired good employees, so how do you keep them?

By treating them well.

Decent pay rates and bonuses are important, but it’s also paramount for people to enjoy their work environment and feel appreciated.

Hiring talent is just the beginning of your relationship with your employees. Treat them with respect from the start, and they’ll be more productive and stay longer.

Employers don’t have to offer extravagant displays of appreciation, either. While those are nice, it’s the simple thank you cards or little office changes employees notice most.

Here are 15 ideas of ways to treat your employees well: