How To Make Your Workforce Healthier

A healthy workforce means a happy and productive workforce. If you own a business, it’s always wise to try and promote healthy lifestyle choices in the workplace. Here are some simple ways you can make your workforce healthier this spring.

Diet
Diet is a good place to start if you’re looking to increase efficiency and boost health. To do a job properly, your body needs fuel. Provide your workforce with a canteen that offers nutritious meals, rather than a vending machine full of candy and chips. A healthy, filling meal will enable your workers to focus on their work throughout the day. Install a water cooler and encourage set lunchtimes. Often, when people are rushing to meet deadlines, they end up grabbing something to eat at their desk or grazing all day on unhealthy snacks.

Posture
Back pain is one of the most common work-related ailments and often, it is caused by poor posture. Provide your workforce with information and advice about maintaining good posture. Invest in ergonomic, adjustable chairs, which provide support for the entire spine.

Office Cleanliness
If you have large office space with lots of people working at the same time, there is a risk of infections and germs flying around. If one person catches a cold, it can spread like wildfire. Although it’s impossible to prevent many illnesses, hiring janitorial companies may help. Arrange for professional cleaners to visit on a regular basis. This will ensure that your office looks bright and fresh and help to keep illnesses at bay.

Exercise
You may not have time in the day to give your employees a break to go and work out, but you can encourage physical activity. You could create a gym in the basement or offer discounted membership to a local sports center. You could set up sports teams or try and drum up interest in a charity run, for example. Try and get people moving. Exercise boosts your mental and physical health. Playing sport also encourages teamwork and teambuilding.

Stress Management
Stress affects most of us at some point. It’s usually possible to cope with mild stress, but severe stress can be damaging. If your employees are stressed out, this is likely to impact the quality of their work and their well being. Try and promote a positive working environment and adopt an open door policy. Let employees know that you’re there to help if they are struggling. Consider flexible working hours and try and share the workload if one person has got a lot on their plate. You may also wish to consider adding benefits to your employment package. Examples include massage and aromatherapy treatment.

Health is something that should always be a priority, even in the workplace. At the end of the day, you want your employees to work to the best of their ability and they can’t do this is if they’re not healthy and happy. Follow these simple tips to reduce the risk of work-related illnesses. You’ll find that making even minor changes will make an incredible difference.