Much like living a healthy lifestyle, a wellness program is never a finished project. It takes dedication and ongoing commitment to keep your program thriving. There are always areas for improvement and opportunity. A wellness program should adjust over time to continually complement employees’ needs, changes, and successes.

As an HR professional, you have a strong voice in your company’s wellness program. You have the power to strengthen and implement positive change in your employees’ journey towards a healthier lifestyle. Assessing your wellness program identifies any areas of weakness and opens up room for improvement. Be sure to ask these five essential questions to improve your wellness program:

You’ve probably heard all the dangers of sitting for a majority of the day. It’s a huge risk faced by today’s working folks because we tend to be tied to a computer desk all day long.

People throw solutions to sitting disease around all the time. Everyone thinks they know how to fight what a sedentary lifestyle does to their bodies.

Some of those solutions might seem like a great idea. But a lot of times, they don’t come without an expensive cost. One awesome, effective and costly solution is the standing desk.

For small businesses, having a worksite wellness program is no longer an added bonus. Small business owners are adopting wellness programs to reduce health insurance costs, recruit and retain employees, and create a healthy workforce.

The good news, is you don’t need millions upon millions of dollars set aside in a wellness budget. All it takes to be successful in wellness is to tailor what you’re doing to what your employees need.

In our new ebook for worksite wellness professionals at small companies, Wellness Essentials for Small Businesses, we take a look at the logistics of a solid employee wellness program. 

The breakroom is where your employees go to re-charge throughout the day. Even if they don’t spend a significant amount of time in that room, it’s still a re-charging, rejuvenating space.

That’s because your breakroom houses all the things your employees need to take powerful breaks throughout the day. It’s where everyone goes to get coffee or water. It houses people’s lunches or snacks. And in some offices, it’s even a place to restock on supplies.

Creating healthy break time for your employees is one way you can empower their healthy decisions throughout the day. Make each of your employees’ experiences in the breakroom a positive, healthy experience.

Nobody will argue the fact that employee engagement is important. What they will argue, though, is how you can go about boosting employee engagement in your workplace and in your wellness program.

There has been lots of research done, and there are lots of recommendations and best practices for building up an engaged workforce. When it comes to wellness, we think in order to learn which engagement best practices are truly best, you need to know just how engaged (or unengaged) your workforce is.

Ah…the age-old question. What can you do in your wellness program to be successful? It’s been asked time and again—some might even think it’s a trick question.

When it comes to wellness, we think there’s one thing you need to do to have success. It’s surprisingly easy. All you need to do is to just get started.

We’ve all been there. The afternoon rolls around. You’re trying to get things done, but your mind and body just won’t cooperate.

You’re tired. You’re restless. And you just can’t focus.

We like to call that the afternoon slump. It’s when you’ve been working steadily all day long, but you’re not quite sure if you can push through the last couple hours of your workday.

Starting a wellness program—or majorly changing your current program—can be overwhelming and scary. Your best reference might be the wellness programs of huge companies like Google or Camelbak. Those companies are doing great things! But they have the resources to back up those crazy wellness perks.

Happy fall, y’all!

Crisp, cool weather is back. And along with it, all of our favorite fall activities. Being a Nebraska-based company, we love our football. But we know we’re not the only ones! For so many people, fall means football season.

For a lot of those people, football season means tailgate season. There’s nothing like gathering with loved ones to eat great food and enjoy awesome weather before cheering on your favorite team.

You can keep your employee wellness program relevant by choosing wellness activities that tie into the things people enjoy each season. Tailgating is already on everyone’s minds. So jump on in and host a healthy tailgate.

Today, it seems like health trends and fads spread faster than we can actually think about them. Before you can look at the details, the latest diet has swept across your Facebook and Pinterest pages. As a result, health fads can become a widespread practice before anyone has even stopped to think about whether or not they work—and in some cases whether or not they’re safe.

That’s because some of the health trends that sweep our nation are hard to think about. Some are confusing and complex. They can even be a little manipulative at times. And they’re all cluttered with emotional cues and calls-to-action that seem appealing, but also easy.