There’s more to health than what we can visually observe. We can’t truly know if our colleagues and employees are healthy just by looking at them, nor by the number of sick days they take.
Employee health can be a difficult topic, too. Other than the cursory “How are you today?” in the office, an individual’s health is very personal and businesses may not want to interfere unless illness is causing significant problems at work – such as excessive time off or an inability to perform.
The problem is that many indicators of poor health have become normalized, so we become almost blind to them. These include:
- Tiredness
- Lack of motivation
- Physical weakness
- Brain fog and energy slumps
Not only can all of these have a significant impact on your business, they’re also all symptoms of poor metabolic health. Just 12% of Americans are considered to be metabolically healthy, so unless you’ve somehow hired exclusively from the 12%, the odds are that at least some of your employees are metabolically unhealthy. If you’re wondering what that means for you financially, in 2019, American businesses lost $500 billion just in sick days.
Fortunately, promoting workplace health has gained popularity in recent years, and many companies offer employees ways to improve their health – from on-site fitness classes and free gym memberships to healthier snacks and standing desks. This is a great start, but it’s a health equivalent of a bandaid because most people will be making their usual unhealthy decisions outside of work.
To really make a lasting difference to your employees’ health, education is key.
Why you should promote heart health in the workplace
Heart disease is a ruthless killer. It’s responsible for a quarter of all deaths in America every year, taking 655,000 people.
That’s not just older people either; almost 7% of Americans over the age of 20 have coronary heart disease.
This also has a financial impact too, to the tune of almost $220 billion each year. Plus, a third of people diagnosed with heart failure quit their jobs.
Put it all together and between lost productivity, higher health insurance premiums, sick days, and employees who quit, you can quickly start to see how promoting heart health in the workplace doesn’t just help to keep people safer, it makes financial sense as well.
A focus on heart disease prevention
Good business owners care about the health of their employees beyond the impact it can have on their bottom line, and in addition to that, there are clear financial benefits of promoting a heart healthy workplace.
But what happens at 5pm?
Your staff can enjoy the free fruit and walking meetings at work, but without adequate education on lifestyle choices the odds are that most will continue to make poor decisions when they’re at home.
I’ve mentioned before that many of the patients on my operating table were unaware that their dietary and lifestyle choices had an impact on their heart health. Had they known otherwise, many would have made different decisions. The good news is that there are steps that people can take to help with heart disease prevention, such as:
- Exercising
- Quitting smoking
- Managing stress
- Adopting a heart healthy diet
Unfortunately though, there can be a lot of confusion. One day you’re told to avoid carbohydrates, the next day you’re told to make grains a staple of your diet.
This is why I offer coaching for employers: to provide heart health training in the workplace. Education gives your employees the information they need to make healthier choices all the time, not just while they’re at work.
As a result, more people can make informed decisions not just in the office but also at home where those choices have a ripple effect on their family and friends.
Heart health training
If improving employee health is important to you, I recommend you consider my group coaching program. It has one goal: to boost the health, happiness, and productivity of employees.
The program lasts for 3 or 6 months and teaches your team:
- What metabolic health is
- How they can assess their current levels
- How to optimize their health