The Other Side of Corporate Wellness.

Corporate wellness is important to the U.S.’s workforce. There’s certainly room for wellness programs. Nevertheless, some groups don’t support wellness programs in the workplace. Here are two common reasons why -

Corporate Wellnes and Privacy Rights

Privacy rights seem to be the primary opposition to wellness programs. Some individuals  believe that businesss have no right to tell staff members to eat healthy or lose twenty pounds.

This opinion seems to be made stronger by the hundreds of corporations seeking the help of law firms to begin more assertive wellness programs. What a person does with his/her body is definitely a privacy issue.

Nonetheless, wellness programs were initiated to be encouraging ways to help employees get fit by offering incentives and free health programs. When corporate wellness is brought back to its original mission and participation was not monitored or mandatory, there would be far less privacy issues.

Corporate Wellness -  Incentives or Penalties

Consequences rarely motivate someone like incentives do. Groups opposing wellness programs are citing that some businesses are threatening unhealthful workers with consequences for not participating or succeeding in their wellness program.

An example of such a case is a corporation based in Indianapolis that began deducting $10.00 from each paycheck for every worker with a Body Mass Index (BMI) above 29.9 because not enough employees were utilizing the corporation’s wellness program.

Staff Members are much more likely to participate in wellness programs when there are incentives such as cash bonuses, time off work or free products rather than the threats of consequences.

Although both of these reasons are exact ones to oppose wellness programs, both issues can easily be resolved by bringing corporate wellness back to its main mission.

These programs were not meant to invade privacy or punish unhealthy individuals, and the majority does not. They were and are meant to be a benefit to both the business and worker.

By encouraging and supporting program participants, companies will likely experience success.