We all do it. A donut from the break room here, a mid-morning snack there. It’s tough to continually fend off the treats that hinder our well-intentioned plans to live healthier.
Workplace wellness is a trending topic due to rising healthcare costs and increasingly less healthy employee populations. The cause-and-effect cycle of poor health and rising healthcare costs has caused employers to seek solutions that help pinpoint the overarching “problems” their employees face when it comes to their health.
Making changes in the workplace is one small way a company can help keep employees healthy and happy. The book, Nudge by Richard H. Thaler, is centered on improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness. The main message is simple, “make the better option the easiest one.”
On a recent trip to Google, I found they put this idea into practice and have seen real results simply by changing the way people snack. Shocking, right?
At Google, they place unhealthy snacking options (read: M&M’s) in opaque containers and healthier options, like nuts & dried fruit, in clear containers. This simple change caused employees to eat more of the healthy options and lead to employees consuming millions of fewer calories each month.
Making the healthiest option the easiest option is a simple change that can have significant effects on the health of the entire organization.
Our mission at ACAP Health is to help eradicate preventable diseases in the workplace and lower the associated healthcare costs for employers. We hope you will join us on Thursday, February 11th at 9:00 CST in the Dallas office Auditorium, as ACAP Health Chief Medical Officer, Tim Church, MD, PhD, MPH and I talk about engaging your employees in wellness initiatives that really have a measurable impact.
