Recently, President Obama commended Safeway, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft for their workplace wellness practices. According to the President's Health Care Plan, he believes that "worksite interventions hold tremendous potential to influence health" and plans to "expand and reward those efforts."

Businesses who neglect to address employee health and safety suffer many negative consequences. Poor employee health can:

1. downgrade efficiency

2. weaken job performance

3. increase health care and disability leave costs

4. be hazardous to public safety.

5. lower morale and company loyalty

What are the benefits? To name a few:

1. increased business productivity.

2. prevention and early detection of injuries and life-threatening illnesses

3. effective treatment implementation for existing needs

If you demonstrate a lack of care about the well-being of people, your business will suffer the consequences. Businesses are not just about the bottom line. Businesses are about people too. If you neglect your employees, productivity decreases.When employees experience a company that respects and values them, clients receive the benefits as well.

Take it from IBM's Regional Director of Well-Being, Joyce Young, who reports $80 million in reduced health claims as a result of their company wellness efforts. Make a worthwhile investment in your business.

If you want a healthy business, you need healthy employees. Achieve this by implementing an employee health and wellness program.

The New America Foundation and the Congressional Mental Health Caucus (CHMC) recently cosponsored an event emphasizing workplace wellness programs. Their focus was the impact of employee wellness on the workplace and community. They also centered attention on the role of corporate wellness programs in:

1. preventing injury and disease;

2. achieving health equity; and

3. establishing social and physical environments that promote employee health.