Personal Success Coach Shows How To Improve Corporate Good Health With Employee Weight Loss
Released
on: January 14, 2009, 2:38 am
Press Release Author: Eva Jenkins, VIPInnovations
Industry: Human Resources
Press Release Summary: Eva Jenkins is helping businesses stay healthy...one employee
at a time. The respected business consultant and personal success coach shows that
workers who trim pounds may also reduce their weight on the corporate bottom line.
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Press Release Body: Eva Jenkins has found a new intersection for personal and
professional success: weight loss. The respected business consultant and personal
coach believes that corporate support for employee weight-loss programs can pay off
in bottom line savings. “There’s no denying the strong link between obesity and
workers' compensation claims, so bottom-line conscious companies must take note,”
she observes. “So work-based programs designed to make employees healthier can give
a booster shot to a business and inoculate it against rising healthcare costs.”
A Better Way to “Insure” Employee Health
Healthcare and insurance costs remain at the center of the economic and political
debate, especially in light of recession worries. “If you pay health insurance for
your employees, obesity is affecting your bottom line,” says Jenkins. “It has a
direct relation to your economic health and smart businesses are finding that
investing in a little preventive medicine can pay off with significant savings.”
Healthcare and insurance costs remain at the center of the economic and political
debate, especially in light of recession worries. “If you pay health insurance for
your employees, obesity is affecting your bottom line,” says Jenkins. “It has a
direct relation to your economic health and smart businesses are finding that
investing in a little preventive medicine can pay off with significant savings.”
According to a recent study out of Duke University Medical Center, obese employees
cost companies more money than their fit counterparts—in lost workdays, higher
medical costs, and more workers' compensation claims. “The researchers found that
obese workers filed twice as many workers' compensations claims as workers who fell
within the recommended BMI range,” reports Jenkins. “Those claims translated into
medical costs that were seven times higher ($51,019 per 100 employees.)”
An article in The Wall Street Journal reported that an obese employee costs General
Motors approximately $1,500 more in health services each year compared to an
employee who is height-weight proportionate. “If you apply the national average for
obesity (approximately 25%) to the company’s active workforce and their dependents,
GM is spending nearly $1.4 billion more in healthcare costs each year than it would
if all its employees were fit and trim,” says Jenkins.
The Chicago Tribune reports that per-worker healthcare costs increase by more than
80% in the past 8 years. Given the alarming rise in obesity in American workers and
the relationship between weight and a wide range of diseases and illnesses, “it’s
not hard to connect the dots and see that it’s in the interest of businesses to help
their employees maintain their weight.”
Healthy Teams Win
Jenkins is an advocate of team effort. “No one can fully achieve their dreams
alone. Not people and not companies.” She is a strong advocate for onsite weight
loss support groups led by an experienced facilitator who can also provide
one-on-one counseling to individuals.
Jenkins notes that team wellness efforts should include everyone in the corporate
hierarchy. "When managers and supervisors share in the fight to lose weight and
stay healthy themselves, they send a powerful message up and down the line. “Weight
loss efforts create tremendous bonding,” says Jenkins. “Everyone feels like they’re
part of the same team, working hard to support one another’s success.”
The magic, reports Jenkins, is that “the spirit of shared success spills over into
other business functions.”
A Permanent Framework
Jenkins is quick to point out that her approach to employee health goes far beyond
calorie restriction and exercise. “As a personal success coach, my job is to help
each person clarify and refine what he or she wants out of life,” says Jenkins.
Clarity, however, is just the first step.
“Creating a plan is how the journey to success begins, but it’s a series of small
steps that actually get you there,” observes Jenkins. “Unfortunately, many people
simply run out of steam.” The antidote is a consistent, continuing framework of
support, and the workplace provides an ideal setting.
“Learning opportunities about health and wellness that are presented as an integral
part of business life send an important message to employees.
Additionally, weight management sessions offer equal parts of inspiration and
accountability. “A regularly scheduled Office Wellness Check makes it harder for
team members to ignore excess weight, so they’re more likely to be ‘nudged’ into
taking action and literally trimming the fat..”
Building Dreams
“To become reality, a dream house needs to be designed, engineered, and constructed
with an eye towards maintenance and longevity,” observes Jenkins. “The same is true
for a dream life.” She believes that a blueprint for weight-loss that includes
support in the workplace will yield positive results on all fronts.
Web Site: http://www.vipinnovations.com
Contact Details: VIPInnovations
15620 Ryder Cup Drive - #203
Haymarket, VA 20169
Tele:(571)247-5830
knowledge@vipinnovations.com
http://www.vipinnovations.com
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