According to the Wellness Council of America, employers benefit by reducing sick leave by an average of 26.78 percent and reducing health care costs by 26 percent. For every dollar spent on health and wellness programs, the company gains roughly $5.81 dollars back.

Employees also benefit beyond experiencing fewer health problems. Fifty-nine percent of employees reported having more energy and getting more work done; while 51 percent said they work harder once a wellness program is in place. A wellness program is also an incentive to keep employees at the company longer, since most workers today expect employee wellness plans to be offered at their company.

To increase participation, companies are offering incentives and rewards to employees who get on the health bandwagon. And a cash reward isn’t always the best way to encourage participation. Gift cards, access to healthy foods, and other non-cash incentives get the most feedback from employees.

How to Start Your Wellness Program

Workout at Work
It’s important to encourage physical activity during the day. If you follow this blog or own a standing desk, you’re well aware of how sitting all day is bad for your health. Working out at the gym isn’t doing your body any favors if you’re in a chair for nine hours. So turn your sedentary office into an active workspace that increases flexibility. Consider stand up meetings, walking during lunch, and encourage workers to take the stairs. If you’re on a budget and not every employee can use a standing desk, even bringing in one or two provides another option to increase movement.

Educate Employees
Provide a nurse hotline where employees can call in and discuss their health concerns. It’s a more private outlet that workers can use to get one-on-one education from a health professional. Another option is to bring in doctors or speakers to give info sessions on everything from eating habits to general health and wellness practices. Offer an incentive to employees who choose to attend (maybe a free nutritious lunch during the seminar?).

Provide Stress Management
We’ve posted quite a bit on stress management lately, since it’s typically the number one cause of employee absenteeism and poor health. Stress has been linked to heart disease, lack of sleep and high blood pressure. Beyond poor health, it lowers worker satisfaction and decreases productivity. In your employee wellness plan, provide a stress management program for workers. Bringing in outside councilors or psychologists can give guidance and tools on stress management to improve worker health.

Offer Healthy Choices
Sometimes working through lunch is inevitable, so employers can take this as an opportunity to provide healthy food choices at the office. Offer nuts, trail mix and fresh fruit instead of a traditional vending machine. And replace sodas with water and juice. If your company has a cafeteria, switch up the menu to focus on items that encourage better nutrition, like lots of vegetable sides or a salad bar.

Employee wellness plans don’t have to be expensive or completely change your office, but showing employees that you care about their health is important. And it’s even more important that executives participate, to lead by example.

The post Employee Wellness Plans Benefit Managers and Workers appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

You can perform these poses at the office, but if you want to avoid strange looks from your boss, they’re really easy to do in your home.

One move is the standard Downward Facing Dog, which is used to decrease anxiety and increase your hand and wrist strength (it’s great for constantly typing hands!).

If you’re really feeling inspired, check out these other poses from the Huffington Post, here. These are also geared toward relieving a long day behind a desk.

Try these out after work today and tell us what you think!

[Infographic Via]

The post Yoga Poses to Lessen the Effects of a Desk Job appeared first on Xdesk Blog.

Stand up and start walking toward better health.

The title of this post might seem a bit confusing. Walking? Right now? But I am reading this post!

Well, if that was your immediate reaction, let me let you in on a little secret: You can be walking right now, staring at your computer monitor, or even typing along in the comment box below, all with the magical help of a treadmill desk.

But why should you be walking at work with a Xdesk Fit? After all, you go to the gym, you exercise, you eat pretty well, right? Studies show that even with regular exercise, if you’re sitting at work all day, you are not as healthy as you should be.

Here are some more reasons to get up and start walking with a treadmill desk:

1) You’re designed for it. The human body is designed to be actively walking most of the day. And when we deprive our bodies of walking, they suffer. The evidence is seen in back, neck, and shoulder pains, becoming overweight, vision problems, and general weakening of the body.

2) Walking is one of the healthiest ways to exercise. Walking is a low impact workout for your whole body, just like biking, yoga or golfing. They won’t take a toll on your joints like running, soccer, and cross training might (Believe me, I am a living testament to what can happen to joints after too much high impact work!).

3) Walking is good for your cardiovascular system. The cardiovascular system is comprised of the heart, veins, and blood vessels, and if you don’t strengthen these organs (i.e. by sitting around all day), you are more prone to diseases and health issues. Walking is wonderful for strengthening our heart, veins, and blood vessels, and it does so easily.

4) Walking boosts your metabolism. Lots of types of exercise will increase your muscle mass and decrease fat, but walking has the added benefit of increasing your metabolism very consistently. Walk regularly, keep moving, stay active, and your body will be a fat-burning machine—even when you are stationary!

5) Walking strengthens your immune system. Walking helps increase the number of macrophages, the cells that attack bacteria, and the number of immune cells circulating throughout the body. In short: walk more, get sick less.

6) Walking is a great stress reliever. Think about a time when you were stressed out at work and you were stuck sitting at your desk—you practically feel like you’re going to boil over! The best thing you can do is get out and take a walk, but sometimes you just can’t escape the office. With a treadmill desk, you can relieve your stress and stay on task (but then get outside and get some fresh air when you can—we weren’t designed to be cooped up all day!).

7) Walking will make you live longer. Yes, the Big Reason to walk. Turns out walking and low impact exercises is one of the factors that constantly pops up in societies around the world that live the longest, healthiest lives. They don’t kill themselves in the gym, they don’t do marathons—they walk and do consistent, low impact exercises. It is a part of their lives.

So if you aren’t walking while reading this, I recommend that you order your own treadmill desk immediately. And while you’re waiting for it to arrive, you can start implementing walking more throughout your workday by:

1) Take walking meetings

2) Walk to your co-workers’ offices, rather than send emails

3) Walk up the stairs to work

4) Park further away from work

5) Walk to lunch

6) Walk around the office when you’re feeling tired

7) Walk to work.

In short, just walk.

How do you implement walking and movement throughout your day? Do you use a treadmill desk?

The post Why You Should be WALKING Right Now appeared first on Xdesk Blog.