A study of 50 employees of two research and development organizations sought to determine why certain employees became stuck in a career role and the strategies they used to combat the problem and successfully pursue new careers. Determined that companies need to adopt better career planning programs for employees to minimize the problems of…

The continuing surge of women into the work force and the tendency for women to remain on the job throughout pregnancy and to return to work within months after delivery have led companies to initiate and place increasing importance on prenatal health promotion. Such programs have been found to improve employees' prospects for healthy pregnancies…

Company policies and programs aimed at reducing smoking among employees have a number of other important benefits to employees and the company alike. Limiting or banning smoking helps create a safe and healthy workplace and may reduce direct health care costs, health and life insurance costs, employee absenteeism, costs associated with maintaining…

Increasing numbers of small businesses are providing wellness activities for their employees. By instituting wellness programs, small businesses can improve employee morale, engender a commitment from employees, enhance the feeling of "family" among employees, improve worker productivity, and contain health care costs. Wellness programs are…

Companies are promoting employee leadership and decision making in their worksite wellness programs for the following reasons: to make the best use of limited resources, to increase programs' chances for success by fostering employee ownership of program plans, to help integrate positive health and safety features into workplace policies and…

Alcohol and drug abuse have serious physical, psychological, and social consequences, and employees who abuse alcohol and/or drugs ultimately reduce their companies' profits. Employee substance abuse leads to reduced productivity as well as to increased absenteeism, health care and health insurance costs, and liability claims against employers of…

This paper focuses on participation of labor unions in health promotion and health promotion programs. It begins by discussing labor unions' impact on today's work force. An overview of unions' historical concern for worker health serves as an introduction to consideration of the labor movement's current involvement in employee health. A look at…

Cited as the largest single cause of lost work time and on-the-job fatalities for U.S. workers, motor vehicle crashes cause major nonrecoverable losses for U.S. businesses. Workplace programs to encourage employees to wear safety belts can thus help employers reduce traffic accident-related losses of work time and can substantially reduce the…

Four areas--health benefits, occupational safety and health, prevention and wellness, and human resource development--have contributed significantly to enhancing worker health. The "healthy corporation" is both a goal and a comprehensive attitude about organizational life and about the factors the affect organizational health and, ultimately,…

The use of incentives by businesses is a well-accepted pattern of management-employee collaboration. Increasingly, U.S. businesses are using incentives to encourage employees to stay healthy. Research in the field of behavior modification indicates that positive reinforcement, negative consequences and restrictions, and feedback have great…

This paper on designing and implementing a stress management program in the workplace begins by defining stress. A brief overview of the relationship of stress to health and personal style follows. The subsequent discussion of the relationship between stress and work focuses on these topics: work contributes to stress; stress affects work…

As is the case with other worksite wellness programs, company-sponsored nutrition programs have been expanding both in numbers and in depth. Besides offering a convenient health-enhancing benefit to employees, worksite nutrition programs benefit business by preventing several costly nutrition-related health problems, enhancing employees' overall…

Company-sponsored wellness programs are particularly important for older employees inasmuch as they are at greater risk of disease and disability than are their younger counterparts and their health care and health insurance costs are generally higher. As the cost of retirement benefits rises, wellness programs for retirees are becoming…

When employees develop cancer, businesses bear not only the direct medical costs of the disease, but also the indirect costs associated with lost work time, disability payments, loss of a trained employee, and retraining. Research has confirmed that aggressive prevention and screening programs can be, and indeed are, effective in limiting the…

Because sedentary living creates health consequences that ultimately affect employees' productivity, many companies are sponsoring worksite physical fitness programs for their employees. The cost-effectiveness of such programs and the resulting reduction in employees' absenteeism rates and medical and health care costs have been well documented.…