HR TECH OUTLOOK8 MAY 2019Wellness. The dictionary definition of wellness is "the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal." As individuals, and as companies, we tend to think of wellness as physical wellness - being in good shape, exercising, eating right. But it is much more than that. According to Gallup, employees who rank high on the five elements of well-being - purpose, social, financial, community and physical - outperform other employees across several areas, and cost the company less money in healthcare costs and turnover, and are 81 percent less likely to seek a new employer in the next year.As organizations, we have a responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees while they are at work. But, we should go a step further. Offering a wellness program - even a very simple one - not only is the right thing to do, it makes solid business sense. Employee engagement, well-being, and job performance are closely tied. If you are not paying attention to the well-being of your employees, you may be missing an opportunity to foster engagement and improve performance. When I started working at The Granite Group three years ago, we were facing escalating healthcare costs for a myriad of reasons - but largely because of unhealthy employee habits. We had offered biometrics for several years but had not done a deep dive into the data. So, we decided to work toward creating a culture of wellness. This was not easy in our industry, which does not have a stellar reputation for healthy habits (we are a wholesaler of plumbing, heating, cooling, water and propane supplies.) With 35 locations and 500 employees across six states and an HR team of three, we were able to create a Tracie Sponenberg, SVP HR, The Granite GroupInvesting in Employee WellnessMakes GoodBusinessSenseByTracie SponenbergIn My Opinion
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