Become an Advocate for Employee Health

Caring for employee health and wellness should be a priority for all companies. Not only does it benefit your employees, but it creates a healthy, efficient working environment. Employees who are safe and have their basic needs met are more likely to be productive workers. If you show that you care about your workers, they will care about your business.

Support Injured Workers

Accidents can happen, even at the safest worksites. In 2020, over one million employees suffered work-related injuries that landed them in the emergency room. To reduce the cost to your company and to ensure that your workers receive adequate care following a workplace accident, you need a strong workers’ compensation plan. A workers’ compensation plan benefits your employees and helps your company. You spend less money on workplace accidents, reduce your risk of lawsuits and retain employees because you ensure they have adequate care.

A pharmacy benefits management plan is a critical part of your workers’ compensation program. Pharmacy benefits management companies, like myMatrixx, provide pharmacy services for workers’ compensation programs. For instance, a PBM may provide utilization management, formulary and network management, claims processing, specialty pharmacy care, delivery and physician outreach programs.

Offer Health Incentives

No one wants to show up to work when they aren’t feeling well. Employees who struggle with their health must take more time off and have difficulty focusing on productivity. Your company culture should embrace healthy living. Encourage your workers to put their health above everything else. The foundation for healthy living includes:

• Adequate sleep
• Nutritious food
• Physical activity

Consider bringing healthy snacks to the workplace or stocking the staff refrigerator with healthy food. In addition, consider offering gym memberships or incentives for your workers to stay active. When it comes to adequate sleep, be watchful of workers who work a lot of overtime or seem tired on the job. Consider hosting seminars to discuss how to balance work and health.

Treat Mental Health Seriously

Mental health is a part of your overall well-being. A positive company culture doesn’t stigmatize mental health. Instead, it encourages employees to care for their mental health in various ways. A negative workplace is contagious. When people are exposed to negativity day in and day out, they are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and low company morale. Employees shouldn’t wake up dreading a day at work. To cultivate a positive environment, train managers and supervisors to recognize signs of poor mental health in employees. In the past, mental health was mostly ignored at work. Reach out when you see an employee struggling to determine what you can do to help.

Offer mental health awareness training for all employees. When your company is willing to talk about mental health, employees will be more likely to open up when they struggle. You will have a more productive and efficient environment if you can care for your workers’ mental health.

Cultivate a Safe Environment

Safety for your employees starts wherever you are. Different industries have different safety standards. Ensure your business is current on all of OSHA’s safety regulations and standards for your industry. In addition, provide ample training for employees to reduce the risk of on-the-job injuries. Many serious injuries can happen due to simple, avoidable accidents.

Perform regular audits to ensure that workers are abiding by the safety standards put in place for them. One employee’s mistake could result in another person’s injury. For example, if you work on a construction site and one person hoists a bucket of material to a higher floor without regard to safety precautions, then drops the bucket, it could strike another person, resulting in serious injuries.

Be an Attentive Employer and Benefit From Healthy Employees

Attentive employers have healthier, more efficient employees. When you cultivate a safe environment for your staff, they will be more comfortable working for your company and are more likely to show company loyalty. To prioritize employee health, offer them the support necessary to thrive.