The U.S. industry is promoting a healthier workplace among businesses. This essentially has become part of the ethical code of many companies. However, it’s not enough to give your employees medical insurance and be done with it. More companies are now developing programs to keep employees at the peak of their physical and mental health.
Millennials comprise the majority of the workforce today. It’s been known that they spend most of their time at work creating a career for themselves. The overtime work these millennials are giving to the economy is great, but it’s certainly taking a toll on their health. So it’s important to have a program that watches over these people who are giving hundreds of hours of their time to your company.
Overtime Incentives
Companies are watching out for the health of their employees who do a lot of overtime work through overtime incentives. The most common nowadays are cash incentives, but experts believe that this is exacerbating the problem. The positive reward of cash seems to push more people to enable this unhealthy ecosystem. What’s better than cash incentives, then?
An alternative is to give employees a mix of cash incentives and free hours when they do overtime. For example, a person that accumulates 24 hours of overtime work in a month can have a paid day off. It’s a much better system and one that gives employees the chance to stay off at work and look out for themselves.
Another alternative is giving your employees a spa day off after accumulating the necessary hours for it. There are many alternatives to cash incentives, so be creative out there.
Giving Them Access to Life Coaches
The stress of a job and building a career can be a mental health problem for most workers. This can lead them to develop nasty habits such as alcohol and drug dependency, which can be detrimental to your employees’ health. Therefore, it’s important that you can give them access to life coaches so that they won’t develop these habits.
One growing problem is alcohol dependency. About 14 million Americans have an alcohol dependency, and they struggle to get better without professional help. Moreover, the unhealthy negative loop that stress gives them only makes alcohol more alluring to them. Life coaches can certainly help with this growing problem.
There are many life coaches out there that partner with various companies. For instance, there are life coaches who help others with their alcohol treatment program. Such programs have been known to decrease workplace alcoholism and promote healthier alternatives for coping.
Having life coaches in your workplace will help you monitor the mental state of your employees and even help them grow their careers a lot faster.
Partner With Local Gyms
Millennials love going to gyms when compared to previous generations. It’s estimated that millennials work out at least thrice a week to stay fit and healthy. However, gym memberships are taking a chunk of their overall budget every month. This is why you should consider partnering with local gyms to help decrease their costs every month.
There are many reasons why you should partner with a local gym. First, it can help promote physical health in your workplace by giving people discounts on their free membership. Second, the gym can also hold seminars regarding physical fitness at your workplace. All of these can promote overall physical health and can bring more employees into such a path.
Some employees only need a push to get into working out, which might be the push they need to live a much healthier life.
Better Leadership
Lastly, let’s talk about becoming a better leader. Most employees leave their jobs because of an unhealthy relationship with their manager or boss. For most of these employees, their stress comes entirely from such a relationship. If you want your employees to stay mentally healthy, you must become a better leader.
A better leader does not demand. It’s someone that works alongside people to reach a certain goal. It’s someone who’s understanding about people’s predicament. It’s someone who can be their friend.
Companies with better leaders have highly functioning employees. These employees are challenged, but they enjoy it instead of getting stress out by it. Generally, a good leader can alleviate the stress of any task and make it an experience instead.
A healthy workplace is no longer all about medical insurance. That’s one of them, but it’s mandated by law to give employees insurance nowadays. A healthy workplace now is the one that implements our suggestions above and even more. These companies work above and beyond for their employees’ health and not just merely for their safety.