Keeping Your Employees Healthy:
When one of your employees becomes sick, it can greatly affect everyone's group health insurance. Many group health insurance companies have been known to cancel a group's coverage when one member became ill. In order to avoid this, you will need to take steps to ensure that your employee's are as healthy as possible.
Although you cannot control an employee's environment out of the office, you can take steps to improve their environment at work and provide ways for them to stay in tip-top immune shape.
First, it is a good idea to offer some sort of paid sick benefit. Many people cannot afford to miss a day of work, and by coming in, they put other employees at risk. The money that you spend offering a paid sick day is not much when you put into perspective what several ill employees can do to an office. In addition to putting everyone else at risk, a sick employee is further weakening themselves and will not be able to do their work properly. The time they spend sick can greatly increase if they are forcing themselves to go to work.
Next, it is important to foster a clean, germ free environment. This means providing your employees with alcohol gel or hand wash that will reduce the spreading of germs throughout an office. This is especially important around shared equipment. There are several different types of antiseptic wipes that can be used on copiers and phone equipment that the majority of your office may use.
You can also keep your office environment healthy by frequently cleaning shared bathrooms and common areas. Break rooms are a great place for bacteria to harbor, particularly if the area is kept dirty or has old food lying about.
Start instituting cleanliness procedures in your office during cold and flu season and then carry them out throughout the year. If you have a cleaning service, you can step up efforts to remove garbage and keep restrooms clean. If you do not, try to involve your employees in keeping their own areas clean. For example, they can be responsible for removing the trash from their office or cubicle at the end of each workday.
After taking these steps, it is important to follow additional guidelines during cold and flu season. Try to make it easy for your employees to get a flu shot, if they can take one. This added immunity can help keep them healthy and reduce the amount of sick time. If they need to get this shot during business hours, do not make it difficult to leave.
Try to offer healthy alternatives in your break room, such as snacks or juices that contain vitamin C, which can be helpful in preventing illness, such as colds or flu. If you have a snack machine, try to stock it with alternatives to chips and candy bars, such as granola or other healthy foods. This will help keep your employees in better shape physically and can provide natural ways towards staying healthy.
Encouraging healthy habits at work often results in workers maintaining these habits in their homes. When you start small, the ripple effect can be that your employees start to take a notice in their health and preventing illness. The more that you can do to educate your employees on how to stay healthy will assist you in keeping your office running smoothly, no matter what time of year it is.