Healthy employees equal happy, productive employees and this year businesses across the country are making changes to ensure their employees have the best opportunities for health.
In fact, “93 percent of employers say that employee health is important to the bottom line; however, only 22 percent of small firms offer wellness programs,” according to one report commissioned by the National Small Business Association and Humana Inc.
Last month we talked about implementing “employee wellness programs” within your business and this month we want to take that a step further with a focus on healthy eating.
As Hippocrates once said “let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” While it may seem like there aren’t many things you can do to help your employees make smart choices about the foods they eat, we’ve put together a few tips to help get you started.
Foster a Healthy Environment
Healthy eating in the workplace starts with having the tools and space needed. To encourage employees to bring smart food choices, stock your office with a refrigerator, counter space and tables so that employees can prep and enjoy their food in the office. You may also want to provide tools such as a blender or toaster. And stock up the office with healthy snacks like fruits, nuts or protein bars.
Make Healthy Eating a Part of Your Day-to-day
To make healthy eating a habit, make it part of everything you do in the office. Hang informative posters, hand out fliers and when having a meeting bring water and fruits and vegetables instead of juices and pastries.
Kick off your healthy eating initiatives by dedicating a full day to the cause. Have each employee bring in his or her favorite healthy snack to share.
Encourage Mindful Eating
Provide your employees with handouts or bring in a speaker that can share what it means to participate in “mindful eating,” or really focusing on what you’re putting into your bodies – where does the food come from, what are the ingredients, what are the calorie contents, etc. By practicing mindful eating, you really start to make healthier choices each time you go for a snack or meal.
Provide Employees with Additional Resources
If you want to offer to take healthy eating to the next level, you can reward your employees with access to dieticians or gift cards to a health food store. Try using your BizX dollars to order from Irene’s Cuisine in California, which offers pre-made healthy meals delivered to your home or office or try ordering healthy beverage alternatives. If you are up in Washington then swing into Thrive Cafe and use your BizX card to get some healthy and delicious food on the go. Catering cleanses, delivery, dine and juice, meat eaters and vegans alike flock to Thrive.
Not only will fostering healthy eating help your employees save money on eating out at fast food, it will also help your employees have more energy and better overall attitudes at work and at home and will cut down on the number of sick days needed so that productivity remains number one within your workplace.
How have you helped your employees to achieve wellness this year, either through healthy eating or other healthy initiatives? Shoot us an email at help@bizx.com and maybe we’ll feature your tips in a future blog post!
Now that you have the healthy eating down, look into other ways that you can appreciate your employees.
