It’s not just healthcare costs that rise as a result of unhealthy employee behaviors. For example, how about the millions of lost workdays each year and billions in costs for drug and alcohol abuse? Should employers address such conduct? In an interview with BLR® editors, expert Lisa Ballentine said it’s just “responsible management” to do so.
Take, for example, problem relationships, including inappropriate conduct, abuse, harmful social influences (which can encourage drug or alcohol abuse or illegal activities), and obsessive relationships.
What can wellness-based thinking do about that kind of off-duty conduct? A first step is to create a policy that prohibits dating between supervisors and their immediate subordinates.
Where an employee experiences domestic violence with a partner from outside the workplace, direct the abused person to available community resources, and provide an employee assistance program that offers counseling to such victims.
Corporate wellness programs show great ROI. And they are win-win—employees feel better and are more productive, and employers reap the benefits. Even small improvements make a difference. Test drive Workplace Wellness with no cost or risk.
In addition, Ballentine advised employers to have policies designed to protect proprietary information and require confidentiality of company information. These policies can help keep employees safe, and may also avoid problems if an employee is dating someone from one of the employer’s competitors.
Ballentine also addressed dangerous off-duty activities—such as hunting or target shooting, piloting private planes, riding motorbikes or off-road vehicles, and other risky behaviors. Ballentine recalled the motorcycle accident that sidelined Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in June 2006. In fact, Roethlisberger refused to wear a helmet, despite lectures from his coach, and the accident caused head injuries. What can employers do?
The idea of providing valued athletes with special life insurance policies—after agreement to avoid dangerous activities—has now spread to key corporate employees. In exchange for the company-paid policies, top managers can be asked to sign employment contracts in which they agree to avoid participating in dangerous sports.
Special life insurance programs are another option to consider for your wellness program. Meanwhile, how is your wellness program doing in general? Not so hot or not at all? Well-structured and well-run wellness programs generate ROI of up to 300 percent—music to management’s ears! But the key words are well-structured and well-run. Poorly structured programs just spin their wheels—no health benefit and no positive ROI, either.
Many readers have told us that BLR’s comprehensive guidebook, Workplace Wellness: Healthy Employees, Healthy Families, Healthy ROI has helped them get programs up and running that achieve wellness objectives with a great ROI, while avoiding the legal hassles that, these days, seem to accompany any worthwhile venture in HR.
Wellness—NO downside! Impressive ROI, so management’s happy. Better health and employees are happy. And that means HR is happy. BLR’s Workplace Wellness is the key to developing your workplace wellness program.
It’s a comprehensive guide that takes you step-by-step through setting up a program, from convincing management all the way through to creating and implementing a workable plan for your workplace. The guide also includes a vast collection of ready-to-use forms, handouts, and checklists that both structure your program and provide the metrics to prove its effectiveness to management’s satisfaction.
If you’d like to examine Workplace Wellness: Healthy Employees, Healthy Families, Healthy ROI on a no-cost, no-obligation basis for 30 days, we can arrange for you to do so. Let us know and we’ll be happy to set it up.
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While an interesting article, I believe a little more research could have been done for examples of dangerous off-duty activities. Hunting and and especially target shooting will not rank in the top 10 of dangerous activities. This also gets into a philosphy of being so risk averse, people essentially stagnate or become couch potatoes. There is something to be said for living life fully, which includes certain elements of acceptable risk.