Employee Wellness Blog

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:

Life gets busy.

As a result, our mental health often gets put on the back burner as it’s an unseen and easily forgotten aspect of health.

May is Mental Health Month, a perfect time to check in on your employees’ mental health status. It’s not necessarily an easy topic to discuss, but starting the conversation can lessen the stigma while providing education.

Sadly, less than half of working adults feel employers support employee well-being, a recent American Psychological Association survey revealed.

That lack of support can be devastating to employees, especially when you consider 1 in 5 Americans are dealing with mental illness.

If you want your employees to feel supported, here are six ways to focus on employee mental health:

With the warmer weather comes sunny skies and more outdoor activities.

It also means an increased chance of sunburn. 

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, a perfect time to remind employees that this most widely-diagnosed cancer is also the most preventable. Most skin cancers are caused by ultraviolet (UV) exposure, which comes from the sun, tanning booths, and sunlamps.

One in 5 Americans will be diagnosed in their lifetime with skin cancer, and between 7,000-8,000 people die from melanoma every year.

Luckily, most skin cancers are curable when caught early.

Share with your employees the importance of annual dermatology skin scans along with wearing daily sunscreen. You can also spread the word on how to spot early skin cancer warning signs.   

Here’s a look at valuable information to share with your employees this month:

Want to live to be 100?

It’s possible.

There are several “Blue Zones” around the world where longevity isn’t uncommon.

These areas prioritize healthy living, making it easier for residents to make healthy choices. This includes places like Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California.

What if you could do that for your own employees and workplace?

In this article, we share the nine Blue Zones “secrets” of living a long, healthy life, and how you can bring those elements right into your workplace.

May is the perfect month to develop your company’s wellness program if you haven’t already done so. 

If you have a wellness program, rev it up by celebrating Global Employee Health and Fitness Month (GEHFM). This month-long celebration is a national observance of fitness and health in the workplace. 

Join in with other workplaces around the country. Here’s a look at the numbers: 

• 28,575 participants 
• 38 states participating
• 72 cities participating
• 6,621 companies & organizations participating

Below, we share how you can get your employees involved with four different weekly activities, and a celebration at the end of the month to wrap it up.