Wellness

Commentary: Help time-crunched employers make the right decision.

A community with high well-being is one where citizens and employees are satisfied with their lifestyle and overall health. In this year’s Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, top honors go to Provo-Orem, Utah.

With more employers moving to consumer-driven health care plans and shifting more responsibility for health care and health risks on to workers, are wellness programs still relevant? Health leaders from IBM and Johnson & Johnson addressed that very question during the Institute for Health & Productivity Management’s annual global conference held in Orlando.

Employees in organizations with strong cultures of health spend more time working, work more carefully and concentrate better than employees at other organizations, according to research by the Integrated Benefits Institute.

Technology company Cerner lowers its health care costs through personalized mobile messaging.

At any given time in the United States, an estimated 1 in 10 adults report symptoms that would qualify for a depression diagnosis. For benefits professionals, navigating employee mental health can be tricky. Not all symptoms are noticeable, but a few hidden indicators can hinder overall productivity.

While it’s difficult to discuss your eventual death with those you love, it’s imperative to plan for it, not only for your sake, but for theirs. Employers can offer several voluntary benefits to help make this end-of-life planning and transition easier for their employees and the loved ones they leave behind.

With the Affordable Care Act expected to force employers to find more nimble ways to curb health care costs, Gov. Scott Walker has signed the “Healthy Jobs Act” into law, a new proposal that would offer tax credits to companies that provide workplace wellness programs.

When it comes to helping young adults avoid serious health problems later in life, assessing their personalities during routine medical exams could prove as useful as recording their family medical histories and smoking habits, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

A new wellness mindset is brewing at the Palmyra, Wisc. headquarters of Standard Process, a whole food supplements distributor established in 1929. The health organization is planning to open its doors to employers across the country that are looking to incorporate organic strategies to improve the health of employees by including the services of an onsite chiropractor.

The move by Los Angeles City Council this week to ban electronic cigarettes from restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other public spaces in the city leaves employers grappling with the issue of whether to develop policies to regulate their use in the workplace.

A new trend in employee coaching and assistance programs applies the principles of neuroscience to help employees reduce stress, quit smoking and become more focused and productive.

It's Facebook for your health: How new technologies are helping to drive employee behavior change, using employees' love of social media to help provide an encouraging and accountable environment to reach their health goals.

While millennials may likely be the most savvy generation when it comes to monitoring their health and tracking their progress towards health goals, employers will find that this group needs monetary motivation, finds a new survey.

When employers focus on incorporating financial education and other wellness programs into their company’s culture, it turns out increasing engagement – as well as having the right tools in place – is a shared goal among both conventional employers and unique businesses such as the NFL Players Association.

However employers’ decisions have been determined by the Affordable Care Act, the reasons to continue investing in employee health and productivity remain.

The University of Michigan has been fine-tuning its wellness champion network for over 20 years. Over that time, wellness champs have morphed in number and organizational role, but have always played “an important role for helping to develop our culture of health across the University," explains Karen Schmidt, associate director of wellness and health culture at the University of Michigan.

At Oracle’s first-ever HCM World conference, the technology company demonstrated its commitment to human resources customers, explaining its strategy for Modern HR in the Cloud, which is focused on meeting the needs of employees in a large, dispersed workforce.

A company with a strong culture of health is more likely to have happy, health-conscious employees than those businesses not promoting wellness, according to a new study’s findings.

Employees treasure their workplace benefits more than ever, yet employers are increasingly asking workers to shoulder more of the costs of providing those benefits, finds a new survey of benefit plan participants and employers.