How To Motivate Your Employees To Become Healthier And More Productive
Dr. Paul Lanthois
September 21, 2008
Statistics on bigger companies indicate that the savings can be almost $5 for every dollar spent on making workers healthier. Virtually everyone that I have asked has told me that they want to be healthy but wanting to be healthy and taking action are two different things. 18 years of clinical experience tells me the sad truth that for the vast majority of people, becoming healthy isn´t motivation enough for someone to take action. So how can you get your employees motivated enough so that they take action to become healthier?
Many corporate wellness programs recommend providing financial incentives and subsidising health club memberships. Others suggest creating a healthier work environment that makes healthier lifestyle choices more convenient and accessible.
For your employees to take advantage of these services they need to have an internal drive and motivation and many people already possess this within their psyche.
When encouraging and motivating anyone to do anything it seems you need to communicate the benefit for them. If that benefit is important to them, then they will do anything to obtain that benefit. A couple of years ago, while attending a book launch, a universally desired benefit to a healthier lifestyle hit me between the eyes.
I went to a book launch by Erica Angyal, the consultant nutritionist to Miss Universe in Japan. She was talking about her beauty program for more radiant and youthful skin.
Many of you may be asking, "What would I be doing at a beauty book launch?"
What interested me was that her approach wasn´t about what beauty products and treatments to use, it was about what dietary and lifestyle habits can encourage better looking skin and she had proof to back up her claims. She told of a study by Professor Mark Wahlqvist showed that lifestyle factors such as your diet can significantly affect the appearance of wrinkling and ageing of the skin (1).
And what´s more her dietary recommendations were remarkably similar to what I had been recommending to my patients to improve their energy and vitality and to reduce pain and inflammation.
But the key to her message was motivation.
There is a primal desire for physical beauty deeply ingrained in the human psyche. The flush of our cheeks and a subtle glow of our skin send out a subconscious signal of youth, fertility/virility and vitality and they´re a marker of attraction to others. Looking good is always good for business because, like it or not we do create impressions because of how we look.
Our society worships beauty and youth like no other time in history. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year in the form of cosmetics and skincare products in the hope that we would look better. But the outer layers of skin that we apply cosmetics and skincare products to is DEAD. That´s right, all these lotions and potions do is clump dead skin cells together and help it reflect light to give the appearance of younger looking skin.
Your skin is the largest organ of your body and, like all other glands and organs, the health of your skin is determined by the health of your lifestyle.
So the best way to improve your glow and radiance of your skin is by adopting a healthier lifestyle such as in our The Work Life Balance Foundations "Looking Good Feeling Good" Programs. If your employees are more conservative you may prefer to call it a ´Health and Wellness program´. You may to choose to call it a ´Looking Younger, Feeling Younger Program´ or a ´Health and Beauty Program´ depending on the needs and desires of your team.
Think about it for a moment…
What would be your staff participation and motivation for a ´Corporate Health Program´ as opposed to a ´Looking Younger, Feeling Younger Program´?
They are the same programs that produce the same benefits but the latter more effectively communicates the benefits.
To The Work Life Balance Foundation it is all about encouraging participation in a healthy lifestyle and that is best achieved when you appeal to your employees´ desires. Our society´s obsession with how we look can be used to everyone´s advantage by encouraging greater compliance and persistence in a ´Looking Good, Feeling Good´ program which also happens to improve their overall health and energy.
When your employees look good, they feel better in themselves (and by the way, they will be a lot healthier). That alone will help reduce stress levels. But knowing that their company helps to assist them look good and feel good is a great way to foster loyalty amongst your team.
References
1) Wahlqvist, Mark, et al., ´Skin Wrinkling: Can Food Make A Difference?´ Journal of the American College Of Nutrition, vol. 20. no.1, Feb 2001, pp.71-80
Many corporate wellness programs recommend providing financial incentives and subsidising health club memberships. Others suggest creating a healthier work environment that makes healthier lifestyle choices more convenient and accessible.
For your employees to take advantage of these services they need to have an internal drive and motivation and many people already possess this within their psyche.
When encouraging and motivating anyone to do anything it seems you need to communicate the benefit for them. If that benefit is important to them, then they will do anything to obtain that benefit. A couple of years ago, while attending a book launch, a universally desired benefit to a healthier lifestyle hit me between the eyes.
I went to a book launch by Erica Angyal, the consultant nutritionist to Miss Universe in Japan. She was talking about her beauty program for more radiant and youthful skin.
Many of you may be asking, "What would I be doing at a beauty book launch?"
What interested me was that her approach wasn´t about what beauty products and treatments to use, it was about what dietary and lifestyle habits can encourage better looking skin and she had proof to back up her claims. She told of a study by Professor Mark Wahlqvist showed that lifestyle factors such as your diet can significantly affect the appearance of wrinkling and ageing of the skin (1).
And what´s more her dietary recommendations were remarkably similar to what I had been recommending to my patients to improve their energy and vitality and to reduce pain and inflammation.
But the key to her message was motivation.
There is a primal desire for physical beauty deeply ingrained in the human psyche. The flush of our cheeks and a subtle glow of our skin send out a subconscious signal of youth, fertility/virility and vitality and they´re a marker of attraction to others. Looking good is always good for business because, like it or not we do create impressions because of how we look.
Our society worships beauty and youth like no other time in history. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year in the form of cosmetics and skincare products in the hope that we would look better. But the outer layers of skin that we apply cosmetics and skincare products to is DEAD. That´s right, all these lotions and potions do is clump dead skin cells together and help it reflect light to give the appearance of younger looking skin.
Your skin is the largest organ of your body and, like all other glands and organs, the health of your skin is determined by the health of your lifestyle.
So the best way to improve your glow and radiance of your skin is by adopting a healthier lifestyle such as in our The Work Life Balance Foundations "Looking Good Feeling Good" Programs. If your employees are more conservative you may prefer to call it a ´Health and Wellness program´. You may to choose to call it a ´Looking Younger, Feeling Younger Program´ or a ´Health and Beauty Program´ depending on the needs and desires of your team.
Think about it for a moment…
What would be your staff participation and motivation for a ´Corporate Health Program´ as opposed to a ´Looking Younger, Feeling Younger Program´?
They are the same programs that produce the same benefits but the latter more effectively communicates the benefits.
To The Work Life Balance Foundation it is all about encouraging participation in a healthy lifestyle and that is best achieved when you appeal to your employees´ desires. Our society´s obsession with how we look can be used to everyone´s advantage by encouraging greater compliance and persistence in a ´Looking Good, Feeling Good´ program which also happens to improve their overall health and energy.
When your employees look good, they feel better in themselves (and by the way, they will be a lot healthier). That alone will help reduce stress levels. But knowing that their company helps to assist them look good and feel good is a great way to foster loyalty amongst your team.
References
1) Wahlqvist, Mark, et al., ´Skin Wrinkling: Can Food Make A Difference?´ Journal of the American College Of Nutrition, vol. 20. no.1, Feb 2001, pp.71-80
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