Employee wellbeing is worth it: 4 good reasons for employers to invest
It’s a disturbing trend: Americans seem to be getting less healthy with every passing year. According to the Economist, health premiums in America have more than doubled in the past decade. The proportion of adults who are clinically obese more than doubled between 1980 and 2010, to over 30%. This year, healthcare spending hit historically high levels as a share of GDP, and according to government projections, annual health spending is expected to grow an average of 5.8% during the period of 2014…
4 business lessons from Eastern philosophy
Once in a while, someone will ask us about the name of our company, LifeDojo, and they’ll want to know: What’s a Dojo, anyway? “Dojo" is a Japanese term that literally means, “The place of the way.” Typically, it refers to a place or room where Japanese martial arts are practiced - a place of intense focus, mindfulness and learning. In one branch of Eastern Philosophy, the term describes the rooms or halls where monks engage in meditation. Many of us…
How to Harness the Underutilized Power of Intrinsic Motivation
If you’ve ever been offered a bonus for hitting a certain number of sales or promised yourself a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream for sweating on the StairMaster, you understand the power of extrinsic motivation. Using an external reward to promote a desired behavior works well for getting people to try something new or complete a one-off task. But it definitely has its limitations. Take corporate wellness programs, for instance. Most are structured to provide incentives that encourage participation. If…
Topics: employee engagement, intrinsic, motivation, wellbeing, wellness
How Workplace Wellbeing Can Help Retain Top Talent
This article originally appeared in Recruiting Blogs. The cost of healthcare benefits can make as big of a dent in a recruiter’s level of happiness as it does in the company budget. Anytime you have to make benefits decisions, the associated costs can keep you up at night. But you also have to remember your responsibility to the company to attract top talent from a limited pool of qualified candidates. Trying to offer current and potential employees great benefits with…
To Be Effective, Wellness Programs Should Be Inclusive
This article originally appeared in SHRM Benefits blog. Wellness programs are a rising trend in the corporate world. One Society for Human Resource Management wellness survey indicated that in this year alone, 70 percent of businesses are offering some kind of general wellness program, 46 percent are providing health/lifestyle coaching, and 40 percent are providing programs for chronic health problems. Spending in this arena has also gone up. According to Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health, employers spent about $430…
Topics: employee engagement, employee wellness
Resilience: The Key To Lasting Employee Wellbeing
Resilience has become the fastest growing wellness focus in corporate America this year. According to a recent survey from Buck Consultants at Xerox, 22% of companies already have resilience programs and 28% are planning to offer them soon. Why? Resilience, the ability to bounce back from challenges or persevere despite setbacks, may be the secret to long-term success. Resilience predicts success more accurately than IQ or conscientiousness, as described in a TED talk by Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth. Researchers at the University of…
Topics: employee wellness, mental health, resilience
NEWS: LifeDojo corporate wellness research study reveals significant improvements in employee health, job satisfaction
Corporate wellness firm LifeDojo Inc., together with client partner Komoto Healthcare, have announced the results of a 6-month wellness program study. The program, led by Danielle Colayco, PharmD, MS, Director of Health Outcomes & Value Strategy at Komoto Healthcare, achieved significant increases across a number of metrics, including 85% of employees sticking with their chosen health habits for the entire 90 day program, 1 in 3 employees losing more than 2% of their body weight, and a 40% increase in…
Topics: corporate wellness, employee wellness, news
Stress: The Badge of Honor That’s Harming Your Staff
This article was originally published in Talent Zoo. If you were to ask employees anywhere on the globe whether or not they enjoy being stressed, chances are pretty good you would get a hard “no” across the board. Even if they were to ignore the various studies pointing to the negative effects of stress on the body, you could still probably boil most people’s answers down to a simple “stress sucks.” Despite this, in many workplaces — especially ones where competition is held…
Topics: employee wellness, privacy, tips, trust
The Threat That May Be Stunting the Success of Your Wellness Program
You’ve developed your wellness program rollout plan, sent out the emails, and put up the posters to promote it. Your wellness program is finally off the ground and running — with one problem. No matter how great your program offering is, you sadly may still end up being met with minimal sign-ups and a low participation rate. What could possibly be missing? Trust. The American Psychological Association’s 2014 Work and Well-Being Survey found that one-third of employees don’t believe their employers are 100…
Topics: employee wellness, privacy, tips, trust
Don’t Get Duped: How to Navigate Diet Science
This article was originally published in Bright Hub. Do you have friends who bounce from fad diet to fad diet but rarely see results? Most of us do. Sometimes, it’s hard to blame them — especially when the media makes it difficult for us to separate the tried-and-true eating habits from the fly-by-night fads. Just look at the Atkins diet, which suggests a drastic reduction in carbs. So drastic that early iterations of the diet resulted in nutritional deficiencies or…
Topics: healthy eating, science
