How to get employees to lose weight

Everybody it seems makes the same New Year's resolution, which is to lose weight, but for some reason studies show that after a month or so people tend to forget about that resolution so they end up not losing the weight that they originally set out to lose. And the bad news is what this means is that there are more obese people in the United States, which in turn means more obese employees that are being hired. As an employer you should be aware of the fact that obese employees can cost you around 80% more than what you are currently paying in health care costs each year. Not to mention the fact that the tab for obesity cost American companies $56 billion in the year 200 and since obesity is on the rise the cost is just going to continue to climb.

If you haven't adopted any kind of wellness program for your company than here are some reasons why you should consider getting your employees to lose weight or maintain their current weight:

• Obese employees have more workers' compensation claims than other employees
• Obese employees have higher medical bills because they have more health problems and most of those health problems can be related to the fact that they are obese
• They miss more work than other employees because they are sick more often or have complications that stem from their being obese.
• Insurance rates are constantly on the rise, some years insurance costs are going up by at least 10%, which ends up costing the company money. By having healthier employees you can cut your costs and save money, how much you save depends on how many employees you have working for you. But larger companies have actually saved over $30 million a year just by implementing wellness programs for their employees to participate in.

Here are some things that you might want to tell your employees to try and convince them that they might want to start living healthier by losing weight or maintaining their current weight.

• About 65% of adults are either overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And because so many people are considered overweight or obese they are at a higher risk of suffering from serious ailments, such as heart attacks, diabetes, cancer, etc. And according to the health insurance industry we know that over 70% of those types of conditions are preventable.

• In ten years people are going to be spending $1 for every $5 spent on health care costs alone, this includes co-pays, insurance premiums and any other kind of health care costs, which is going to be up from $1 out of every $6 spent now.
• And the overall cost of health insurance is going to rise at a rate of 6.4% EACH YEAR. And this means more of the money that your employees are earning is going to go towards their health insurance premiums. So it isn't just the business that is going to be effected by rising health insurance costs, but the employees as well.
• According to a recent analysis of the Industrial Physical Capability Services, Inc database, 39% of people hired in 2007 were obese compared to only 29% in 2000. Basically if this trend continues, 34% increase in just 7 years, what we will end up with is 1 in 2 new employees who are obese by the year 2012.
• Employees who were considered "normal weight" went from 34% in 200 to only 24% in 2007, meaning the amount of people who were considered normal weight has actually decreased in recent years.
• Perhaps what is the most surprising is that according to this analysis it is actually the younger employees who are getting fatter faster. And the biggest problem with that is that since it is the younger group that is gaining the weight faster than the older group the claims for obesity related diseases are going to be getting paid for a longer period of time.
• What that means for businesses is that they are going to be spending at least 80% more for health care costs each year. For example a company who employs 500 people will end up spending nearly $1 million more in health care costs in 2010 compared to what they paid in 2005.

Here are some ideas from a health consultant that you as an employer can do to help get your employees started on losing weight:

• Be inclusive - don't just single out the obese people in your company because studies actually show this will alienate those people and progress won't be made. But what you want to do is to choose a wellness program that has an emphasize on lifestyle change rather than on losing weight or starting to exercise. You want to make sure that the wellness program talks about the benefits people will receive from eating healthier, starting to exercise, and any other lifestyle change that they will make. But another great thing about including everybody is that even the people who are already eating healthy and exercising the wellness program will help them continue to keep up the good work and stay at a healthy body weight.
• Be honest - when talking to people about the costs of excess weight and the illnesses that can come along with it you are going to want to be honest with them. You are going to want to tell them that it is difficult to provide higher wages and better benefits when you are already paying so much for health costs on illnesses that could be prevented. This should be done when you are first starting off your wellness program and it has been shown through numerous studies that people respond better to this kind of honesty when you do it face to face because it shows that you actually care about them and not just about how much money your company is losing.

• Be prepared for a long term commitment - this entire process is going to take time and for some employees it is going to take even longer because it has been medically proven that not everybody loses weight at the same pace. So you are going to want to stand by your employees the entire way, not just get them started and then let them sink or swim on their own. By committing for the long term you will be able to help them stay focused on their goals and your company goals, which is to have everybody healthy and happy.
• Offer incentives - what you choose to offer your employees is going to depend on your company, if you choose to offer anything at all. But numerous studies have been done and it has been shown that paying your employees cash to lose weight is actually the best incentive that you can give your employees, even if it's only $1 a pound. But some other things that you can offer is discounted insurance premiums for people who sign up for Weight Watchers or other weight loss programs, offering group party for the department that loses the most weight, etc.
• Get your employees excited about good nutrition - to do this you can actually create a bulletin board that is used for healthy recipes. This will allow people to share good recipes with each other and will allow your employees to try out new foods that sound interesting. You can also host potlucks at work so that people can share the recipes that they have found. But one thing that you as an employer need to do is to make sure that you remove all of the junk food from the vending machines and replace them with healthier snacks.
• Teach employees the basics of managing body weight - like all other types of programs educating your employees about what they should be doing and what they shouldn't be doing is going to go a long way in helping them to stay healthy after they have reached their goal. But one thing that you want to do is to make sure that all of your employees are included because you don't want the people who are considered normal weight to become a statistic. The key things to remember is that in order to achieve a healthy body weight they need to eat a moderate, nutritious diet and exercise on a regular basis.
• Foster and encourage exercise groups - exercising on a regular basis is a key part to losing weight. It has been proven that in order to effectively lose weight and keep it off you need to have an effective exercise program in place. And numerous studies have shown that it is easier to exercise with a partner than to do it by yourself, not to mention that people will continue the routine longer than if they were faced with it on their own.