The WellRight Blog

Ahh…retirement. When we picture our future without an alarm clock, what does it look like? Maybe it looks like a beachfront condo or a camper on the open road. Maybe it looks like volunteering or picking up a new hobby.

However your employees envision their retirement, you want them to be as prepared as possible to enjoy it. But you know that designing a comfortable retirement isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are finances to plan, health issues to manage, days to fill.

Luckily, employees have you—and your wellness program—to help them prepare. Here’s what they should do … and how you can help.

It’s cliche, but true: Gym memberships skyrocket in January, as resolution-makers swear this is the year they’ll get in shape.

And yet by May, nearly 80 percent of new gym members will have stopped going. And by the end of the year, fewer than 10 percent will have felt like they kept their resolution.

As an employer, can you help things be different this year?

The term “carrot and stick” comes from farmers dangling a carrot in front of animals to encourage them to make forward progress. But while farmers rarely let the hard-working animals get the carrot, today’s employers know better.

Instead, they understand that to encourage positive change—like participation in biometric screening—they need to offer the “carrots” employees can actually earn and enjoy.

Wellness is more than a single blood pressure reading or the number of miles we logged last week on our Fitbit. Instead, wellness is a complex connection of systems, with each one affecting the next.

Because of this, companies who take a siloed approach to employee wellness, focusing solely on nutrition or fitness, do themselves—and their employees—a huge disservice.

But imagine what could be accomplished when an employer helps their employees not just eat well and better manage health conditions, but also plan for retirement or college, teach stress management and coping strategies, and develop social groups to keep employees feeling connected.

It’s that Sunday-evening feeling of sickening dread. It’s knowing that no matter what you do at work, it’ll never be enough. It’s taking a day off, only to end up fielding work calls and emails all day long.

“Burned out,” like “depressed,” is a term that is often casually thrown around. And like depression, trueburnout—a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion—can be surprisingly common and completely debilitating.

Imagine being in a high-pressure profession in which you’re encouraged to put other people’s well-being above your own, are required to have a near-perfect success rate, and any mistakes you make could literally kill someone. And if the stress gets to be too much, you’re expected to push it aside and get on with your day.

This experience is the reality for many physicians.

Taking care of ourselves during the busy holiday season is frequently overshadowed by decorating the house, baking sweets and treats, selecting the perfect gifts, attending party after party, and taking the perfect holiday card photo.

But if we don’t take the time and effort to care for our overall wellness, we may not be able to enjoy the season. So, where do we start?

There’s a commonly held belief that married couples often end up resembling each other as they age. As it turns out, this may be true. Researchers who have studied married couples report spouses’ similar facial features are due to the decades of emotions they’ve shared.

But facial features aren’t the only things we share with those we are close to.

We often take on the attitudes, behaviors, and emotions of the people we surround ourselves with in both our personal and professional lives—and this can have a profound effect on our health and wellness.

Heart disease. Prescription drug and alcohol abuse. Smoking. Not only are these on the CDC’s top 10 list of public health concerns, they’re also top-of-mind issues for employers, too.

After all, employers shoulder much of the financial and business costs for the employees and family members affected by these health issues. And yet, employers are also in a position of great influence over these problems.

What better opportunity to foster a healthier population than by focusing on where adults spend most of their waking hours: the workplace?

When Heather Reimer turned 40, she did everything right.

Just as her health provider had recommended, Heather dutifully went to get her first mammogram. After receiving a notification that everything was clear (meaning, cancer-free), she didn’t give her mammogram another thought.

Later that year, she opted to get a whole-breast ultrasound to earn points for her employer’s wellness program.