Health and wellness marketing strategies are a great place to start when dealing with toxic work environments and disability. With over 30 years as an Occupational Health Nurse in Ontario, I thought that toxic environments were slowly fading but, to my dismay, not so much. While we continue to struggle with increasing awareness around mental health issues in the workplace, reducing our workplace injuries and managing our absenteeism, a toxic workplace negatively feeds the souls of many employees and management teams alike. It has the ability to seep into our minds, our hearts and our bodies. And voila, disease ensues.
As a holistic or health practitioner, this is where you come in. I think as individual practitioners we all have the ability to affect change in a big way, if, we can be visible in front of large groups of people. I believe a great place to start is with a corporation, rather than promoting health and wellness, one person at a time, that walks into your small business practice. Let’s go where the people are; many people. Let’s use health and wellness marketing strategies to get a contract with a corporate client. I can help you do this, and do it well!
Health and Wellness Marketing Strategies
You can help employees manage the toxicity of some work environments, not by siding with them (although silently we sometimes do), but to offer solutions not only to the employee to manage their psychological well-being, but to effect change on a larger scale with the organization itself. An outside valued perspective is much needed to impact change. Be that change agent while you offer health and wellness options with a corporation.
For an employee, I often wonder why they would stay?
Unfortunately, I see people stay for years and years in a job they once loved, with a company they now hate, and in the end, I hear the company is this, and the company is that, and yet these employees remain for decades with the same, actually, growing toxic work environment. The employees stay because of the benefits, the pension and the pay, but as a health practitioner, your health and wellness marketing strategies can effectively assist an organization to make changes, for the health of the organization and its people.Â
At some point, the toxic environment breeds toxic workers but instead of being a part of the solution to clean up the organization, those employees can no longer see clearly, and they too, become a part of the problem. If the company they are working for drains them of their energy; if all they do is complain; if they hate the thought of Monday mornings and only look forward to Fridays, they should quit because that pension they are sticking around for, isn’t worth a penny if they’ve just wasted decades in a work environment that is eating away at them. It’s going to make them sick! It’s time for them to move on.
The cost of disability in Canada is on the increase. We don’t want them to play a part in their early arrival at illness. There is too much life to live; too much work to do; too many good times yet to be had. We need everyone’s help in turning this toxic work environments into great organizations, and this is where you come in! Join in the movement to promote health in the workplace.
What are organizations doing to manage this toxic environment and the rising costs of disability?
I know what most companies are doing!Â
They are managing disability claims reactively. With all the extra hours, extra duties, repetitive overload of work and expectations, surprisingly to some organizations, their employees are becoming ill and are accessing the short-term disability plan. It’s no surprise to me, but it seems to be a ‘sore spot’ for many organizations. How do I know this? It’s the thousands and thousands of dollars still being spent to reactively manage rising absenteeism costs, that I continue to see after 30 years. Disability management programs continue to be the high price ticket program that is going to make a difference. But does it?
I get it! Many companies have made hundreds of thousands of re-structuring, downsizing, rightsizing – whatever you want to call it, decisions over the past 30 years of my career. Yes, I know why they’ve done this, but usually it’s at the expense of someone, and more likely at the expense of many, and then there is a disbelief that they need to hire one or more disability management personnel to add to the already high costs of absenteeism. I believe we need to join forces and plan health and wellness marketing strategies, so that every employer has, at minimum, with one health or holistic provider, onsite, to promote health, in order to avoid disability. This is you and me, and your colleagues.
My Hope
Before my career is over, I would really love to work with an organization that is progressive in their thinking. I want one employer to believe that health & wellness, well executed in the workplace is the answer to their rising costs, and not second to managing their employee’s illness after they have already gone off work. ‘We’ll get to health and wellness, after we control our disability costs’ - I hear if often. It’s the same story I’ve been hearing for years about mental health. Well folks, the numbers are glaring, and I’ve been having these conversations for over 30 years, that mental health was and unfortunately now is, a large percentage of disabilities.
We need to get ahead of these rising costs, and it has been long overdue. I want as many small business practitioners to elevate their health and wellness marketing strategies to address workplace health. Are you with me? Book a chat if you want to be a pioneer in promoting health in your community.
I hope as Health & Wellness practitioners, you can be at the forefront of this global change that we all need, to reduce the levels of disability and absenteeism in our companies.
Schedule a chat to find out more.
Lucie Fournier, Founder of Fournier Coaching
Certified Success Coach
Schedule a complimentary chat with me to learn more about how to get more clients, with our Attracting Corporate Clients online training and coaching program.
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