Over recent months I have been thinking more and more about the importance of our staff and keeping them at work and productive on a daily basis. Being the managing director of a small business, when a staff member call in sick, it can throw the whole day’s operations into chaos. Being a small team, means we rely heavily on each staff member being a work and being productive.

For this reason FitSense Australia has released the Small Biz Program. It is a workplace health and wellness program that is specifically aimed at helping small businesses improve their health and wellness of their staff. It is a comprehensive program but it is offered in a manner that will suit the budgets of the small business.

As part of this program, FitSense Australia plans to work closely with small businesses to get the best out of their staff and out of their business. As with our larger clients, the aim of the program is to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, increased motivation and ultimately increase the financial health of the company.

In follow-up to a previous post about President Obama considering the implementation of a workplace health and wellness program for US federal government employees, a US senator has recently proposed that tax incentives be given to employers who implement comprehensive wellness programs.

If this is being considered in the US, then surely it is a consideration for the Australian government as well. Unhealthy employees are a much greater burden on the health care system than their healthier colleagues. If employers are encouraged to assist employees improve their health, then not only will it be of benefit for the company, but the government will also get an cost saving.

However, there are several issues associated with such a plan. One of the main ones being, what would actually be considered a workplace wellness program? Is gym membership enough? Or what about fruit being delivered to work? While such activities may be considered workplace wellness initiatives, by themselves they are not enough to improve the health of the workforce.

I am sure many debates around this topic will continue in the years to come. I look forward to seeing the outcome.

Ever wondered what some of the ‘big names’ are doing when it comes to the health of their staff?

Well here are some of the key stats which some Americian organisations have released.

Johnson & Johnson

• 8% reduction in smoking (only 4% of the workforce now smoke)
• 8% reduction in high blood pressure (only 6% of workforce now have high BP)
• 13% reduction in high cholesterol levels (now only 6% of the workforce)

Microsoft

• offers personalised health goals, an obesity program and free meals at work

Safeway

• 74% particaption rate (pretty impressive given the 30,000 eligable staff)
• offers staff free health assessments, gym memberships and a health hotline
• offers incentives for staff to implement good health behaviours

It is important to note that some of these changes took many years, but not only do the improvements continue to occur, the health of the workforce is now at a very impressive level.

The health of employees is continually getting more attention from governments around the world. Mid-may saw Barack Obama’s spokesman say “As a result of many successful program at businesses across the country, workers have become more engaged in their own health, productivity is increasing, absenteeism is dropping, and employers are passing some of their health care savings to their workers”. 

Obama felt these programs were so successful, that his government is investigating the best approach to implementing a workplace health program for US federal employees.

In Australia, several state governments have launched government-funded workplace health programs for the private sector. This was initially started by the states but more recently, the commonwealth government has distributed funds to all states and territories for similar activities. While it is still early days, it will be of interest to see how this unrolls. There is no doubt that using government funds to implement effective workplace health programs will be a successful way of improving the health of our nation. 

When your company goes to invest in a new service it is always nice to be able to try the service before investing the money and time into it. At FitSense Australia we are very technology driven and therefore use a number of software programs to assist us in our day to day work. The ability to try these programs before investing in them has been very beneficial in allowing us to get the best fitting software for our company. However, this is ‘try before you buy’ approach is very difficult to do with a corporate health service.

Therefore FitSense Australia has launched our free health assessment campaign. We are now offering three 45-minute health assessments to any organisation looking at implementing a health and wellness program, or wanting to improve their current program. This allows you to experience the high quality, and benefits of our service, prior to deciding on your workplace health provider.

At FitSense Australia, we pride ourselves on the quality of our service, and the benefits we offer our clients. That is why we are offering the free health assessments, because we are confident you will like the experience and want to offer the assessments to all your staff.

To register for the free health assessments, click here.

Health coaching is a great term used to describe a service where a health expert assists an individual to improve their health. Similar to a sports coach who works with an athlete to improve their performance, the health coach works with an individual to develop suitable health goals, an appropriate action plan to achieve these goals and then assists the individual work towards these goals.

FitSense Australia provides health coaching as part of our LifeCheck Health Assessments, however a more comprehensive health coaching service is also available. This involves a 30-60 minute one-on-one session with an exercise physiologist.

Not only does this provide the individual with support from a professional, it also provides motivation and scientifically based assistance to achieve the goals.

However, as with any new trend, there are also a lot of so-called Health Coaches out there with very little background or qualification in this area. A health coach is a very beneficial type of assistance if you wish to improve your health, however pick carefully. If you want health coaching for your company or organisation, contact FitSense.