Dear Employees Everywhere,

Hi. We’re TotalWellness. And we want you to know that you are just fine.

A lot of the talk about health these days—especially in the workplace—has become scary and overwhelming.  You’re constantly bombarded with messages telling you that:

Healthy relationships at work can make a world of difference in the productivity, efficiency and well-being of your employees. It’s been shown that having a network of positive work relationships helps employees to:

Part of loving yourself is respecting yourself enough to maintain your health. Sticking with the theme of love for the month, maintaining your overall health also means focusing on heart health. Many heart illnesses can be monitored as they progress, and hopefully changed with positive lifestyle choices.

“Sitting Disease” is becoming more and more of an issue in our society. This new health issue has arisen as people spend more and more time sitting and developing a sedentary lifestyle. According to Mayo Clinic, 50-70% of people sit at least 6 hours per day, and 20-35% of people spend over 4 hours every day watching TV. This shows us that the sitting disease is spreading between home and work and can quickly and easily infect your workforce.

The Bad News

Many people are jumping on the wearable wellness technology bandwagon, but not everyone knows how to make the most out of these devices.

This lack of understanding is even more pronounced in the context of employee wellness programs, where the potential benefits of wearables may not be fully realized.

February is the month of love in our culture. Love is a matter of the heart. It only makes sense then, that February is American Heart Month. American Heart Month is sponsored by the American Heart Association, and is meant to be a time set aside to focus on heart health. Heart Month is an excellent time to take a look into the effects of cardiovascular disease, and what you can do to maintain a healthy heart.

When it comes to your employee wellness program, participation and engagement are not the same thing. It’s important to distinguish between the two because the first might boost numbers, but the second will ultimately determine your success.

Do you extend your employee wellness program beyond your biometric screening? Odds are, you get aggregate results from your screening vendor. If you don’t analyze and act on those results, you aren’t taking steps to improve the health of your employees. If you aren’t trying to improve the health of your employees, your wellness program isn’t going to have the effect you’d like.

The cat is out of the bag about the flu shot. As you have probably seen, this year the effectiveness of the flu shot is not quite up to par because of a mutated flu strain that seems to be circulating. That’s not to say, however, that the flu shot is worthless!

Last week we hosted the first webinar, “How to Use Positive Messages to Inspire + Motivate Employees,” of our new 2015 series. Our very own Kenton Hicks, National Account Executive, spent some time going over trends, truths and tips on positivity in the workplace. If you couldn’t make it, here’s what you missed!