Wellness Program Ideas

It doesn’t matter what you are watching or reading these days it is obvious that there is an obesity problem in the US. Open a magazine and you will find weight loss clinics, miracle pills and everything else under the sun to help. However, the true is, I never really paid much attention to it or wellness programs. I guess I thought that was an HR responsibility or just felt it was outside my control.

If you feel this way I think you will quickly reconsider and get involved. As I see it today, to avoid injuries healthy and happy employees are in the best position to support your safety efforts. What woke me up was a simply piece of promotional mail.

A company makes a retro fit support for wall mounted toilets commonly found in many industrial facilities. Many of those styles are rated for an estimated maximum of 300 pounds. With a growing American workforce and natural aging of these components they appear to be failing and causing injuries. That’s right we have outgrown the industrial toilet and now may need to consider a retro-fit kit to hold additional weight.

Wanting to make sure I had my facts right I did a quick internet search. Below are some of the titles:

• Broken Toilet Results in 1.2 million settlement with trump resorts
• City Toilet Collapses with man on
• Inmate sues jail after toilet collapses

So…I have now changed my mind and believe and feel a successful wellness program is critical to a safety programs success. Not just because of the above information. That is what got me thinking about it in a different way. There are many reasons a good wellness program supports healthy and happy employees which in turn can lead to less injuries.

Next steps for me……I am still thinking about it but think at a minimum safety incentive programs should include a wellness component. In addition, partnering and or leading a wellness effort may not be part of the typical job description for an Environmental Safety and Health professional today but I think it will in the near future. While I normally think of the health part more on the exposure to chemicals and other hygiene based programs it might be time to expand that to include wellness programs.

What do you think?

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