Improving employee productivity demands science, not just words of encouragement from the boss.
First let’s discuss our body’s aspired state…. – physiological homeostasis.
The body’s continual attempt to maintain a constant internal environment, what I call our inner ecosystem. Maintaining this stable ecosystem requires constant monitoring and adjustments as conditions change. Our environment, food choices, physical activity, sleep, exposure to physiological stressors, oxidative stressors all impact the body’s ability to achieve physiological homeostasis.
2012 Brigham Young University, 20,000 Employees.
Those who didn’t believe their workplace would support them in becoming healthier were more likely to have a drop in productivity.
The first 4 were of no surprise to me – As a proud science geek, my specialty is working with employees on the reduction of oxidative stress. These first 4 are all productivity zappers as they all contribute to oxidative stress (OS) and chronic inflammation. Not only are they productivity zappers, inflammation is the root of all of our chronic illnesses, most notably: cancer, heart disease, depression, frailty………OS is also the #1 reason for premature aging.
But the 5th point – those who didn’t believe their workplace would support them in becoming healthier were more likely to have a drop in productivity – there is a call to action for effective wellness programs.
Oxidative Stress: The imbalance between the production of free radicals in the body and the ability of the body to neutralize / detoxify their harmful effects with antioxidants. ….In other words – the body’s inability to achieve physiological homeostasis.
Antioxidants: neutralize free radicals either by providing the extra electron needed to make the pair, or by breaking down the free radical molecule to render it harmless. Making good food choices is an excellent source of antioxidants.
It is really ironic that oxygen, an element indispensable for life can under certain situations have several harmful and damaging effects on the human body. Oxygen is vital, yet it has a dark side. Oxygen free radicals occur just by breathing but excessive amounts of these free radicals occur when we are exposed to oxidative stress.
And unfortunately – the antidote to OS, well, we just don’t provide this quite as regularly to our body as we should.
Physiological stress is the cause of “stress”. Its not running late with the report you were supposed to get to the boss. Its the effect on your body from stressing over that report, that matters. The better equipped our body is to handle stress, from a physiological standpoint, the better off we are to weather the daily storms that inevitably cross our paths. The more adept we are at handling physiological stress, the better we are at focusing, being productive to weather the storm.
Another way to look at this is acute stress vs. chronic stress.
Acute stress – yes – getting that report in on time. However, continuous acute stressors, combined with a compromised biology to handle stress can lead to chronic stress.
Chronic stress happens when the body cannot achieve homeostasis from the many OS, and can leave our body’s stress response continually in overdrive, and can continue to erode our function right down to our DNA.
This is just the effects on the brain. Can we see why productivity is a physiological issue? As much as an employee is told to step up a notch – we have to take a look inside, examine how productivity is being compromised by a struggling physiology.
Risk analytics with a wearable device…..who ever dreamed! Wearable devices have come a very long way from the $5 pedometer – but hey – they gave us a great start – a thirst to develop better technology to get active and monitor our health.
Employee risk analytics allows us to investigate and identify variables, here health risks, that jeopardize our employees’ health, therefore, compromising productivity, engagement……….With the help of the analytics, we can design & help employees implement focused, targeted, sustainable measures to reduce the risk, improve their health and the health of the company.
Physicians and insurance companies are using Predictive Analytics…..Predictive analytics (PA) uses technology and statistical methods to search through massive amounts of information, analyzing it to predict outcomes for individual patients. Predictions are made for individuals, not for groups. In our scenario, we want easily obtained, yet scientific accuracy to help our employees identify any potential health risks.
It is NEVER for us to diagnose – however, if we can provide accurate data to our health care professionals, it can go a very long way.
Biomarkers are the most objective, quantifiable medical signs modern laboratory science allows us to measure reproducibly.
Body temperature is an accepted biomarker for fever. Blood pressure is used to determine the risk of stroke, heart disease, and a neon light for the potential for the development of disease. Cholesterol, triglycerides are biomarkers and risk indicators for coronary and vascular disease, and C-reactive protein (CRP) is a marker for inflammation, a precursor to all of our chronic illnesses.
The chronic illnesses I’ve included in this chart – as yes, they are health threats on their own, can also lead to other chronic illnesses. These biomarkers together provide important bioparameters to our health, and when monitored can provide vital data for our own predictive risk analytics. We can encourage dialogue with health care professionals, help our employees become their own health advocate, design programs around these bioparameters, and yes of course improve the health of our company.
Getting real data, is a preemptive attack against disease.
Now you have real risk data, and a real proactive, based in science, wellness solution. We are now encouraging our employees, with real time data, to seek help from their medical professionals, and are going to provide them the tools and education, motivation & inspiration needed to adopt better lifestyle choices and habits.
The Human Cloud at Work Study, amongst many other studies shows us the value of wearable technology in the workplace. Wearing wearable technology increases productivity, and plays a major role in the business environment. The wearable technology revolution is here to stay for a number of years.
According to eMarketer, nearly 40 million U.S. adults over 18 used wearable technology in 2015 — a jump of 57.7 percent over 2014. The usage of wearables is projected to hit 81.7 million adults by 2018.
ABI Research: 13 million wearable devices will be integrated into corporate wellness plans over the next five years. Wearables are perceived to offer encouragement to work toward better health, without appearing to be a requirement, and apparently, 44 percent of U.S. workers are already wearing them to work.
PwC study: 49% of respondents believe that the use of wearables in the workplace will help improve efficiency and increase productivity of employees. 67% of respondents expect that the company is willing to allocate some of its budget to purchase wearables that will support productivity.
We have to make our dollars stretch. Combining employee health analytics, incentives, wellness programs, increasing engagement, health & productivity, employee satisfaction & loyalty, coaching…..all for less than cost of the wearable device.
Employers are dedicated to providing organization and structure to their company’s day to day operations, and to creating a positive work environment for employees. We have to stop with rear view wellness solutions, especially as employee demographics evolve. With the right wearable technology we can provide for proactive health and chronic illness management, necessitated by the diversity of our workforce. Wearable technology as incentives combined with customized wellness programs offers an endless goldmine of opportunities for employee engagement, increased productivity, and enhanced safety.
Our chosen wearable technology also features germanium plates. Research is showing us germanium can counteract the multiple attacks our body receives daily from our environment contributing to oxidative stress, including removing toxins, strengthening the immune system, increasing circulation, oxygenation and restoring ionic balance.
Best In Corporate Health programs have incentives, HRA, CCA, wellness program, coaching, health challenges, reporting, sustainability, access to coaches experts in their field… all built into one clean, smooth package. Revolutionize your wellness solutions.
The cost of smoking – very few actually crunch the numbers so Micah Berman has done it for you. You will say – time to implement an quit smoking program.
A June 2013 study by our guest Professor Micah Berman of Ohio State U reveals the costs of employees who smoke is far greater than estimated by the CDC years ago. The average cost burden of a smoker to the employer is approaching $6,000/year greater than a never smoked employee. Professor Berman’s data is crucial to companies considering implementing a smoking cessation program. Professor Berman will be delving into the data with us, and discussing the legalities & intricacies of encouraging smoking cessation programs, or choosing to not hire employees that smoke.
SO I know this could start a brawl – but it does beg the question – why would companies hire smokers? – yes it is an addiction – but it is still a voluntary behavior. Businesses are increasingly adopting smoking related policies, everyone of us knows the challenge of meeting budgets….so I think we can all understand why this is such an important study with profound impact.
Best In Corporate Health….quit smoking part of our corporate wellness programs. Let us look after employee wellness!