August 26, 2022
More and more companies and organisations are beginning to recognise the value of employee health.
As society as a whole becomes more and more sick, with chronic conditions on the rise and overall well-being declining year by year, savvy managers are beginning to recognise that employee wellness is vitally important.
But how can a manager incentivise better health without micromanaging their employees’ lifestyle?
No one wants to have to submit a list of what they ate this week to their employer.
On the other hand, no one wants to be unhealthy, tired and miserable.
So perhaps a better question is, how can a company encourage employees to seek better habits and improve their health, without seeming controlling and intrusive?
Enter the new health heroes of the workforce: workplace wellbeing keynote speakers.
When companies hold a corporate event centred around workplace wellbeing, and hire an excellent wellness keynote speaker, the results can verge on the miraculous. The unique combination of inspiration, education and motivation offered in the keynote address, combined with the content of the workshops and symposiums that follow, can be truly life-changing for employees.
Any workplace wellbeing keynote speaker will tell you that once employees have a taste of success in taking charge of their own health, corporate incentives become secondary to the reward of real vitality and the euphoria of feeling true health for the first time.
There’s no need for a company to try to punish “bad” behaviours. All they have to do is provide the education and a context for employees to work together on building some momentum toward better health habits.
Once employees are encouraging each other to improve their diet and teaming up for outdoor exercise, a widespread momentum toward better health will begin to build.
Initiatives like rewards for meeting health benchmarks can help get even more employees involved, but workplace wellness keynote speakers focus on education and positive peer pressure as the main drivers for improving employee health.
Investing in employee health is an investment that pays off over and over again.
As your employees take control of their lifestyle, the impacts on their productivity begin to multiply.
Controlling and reversing chronic conditions means fewer doctor’s visits, reduced reliance on pharmaceuticals (and by extension, fewer side effects–many of which may reduce productivity.)
A healthy body can significantly improve cognition and focus, leading to great increases in productivity and creativity.
Workplace wellbeing speakers have seen this happen over and over again. Companies that were floundering, with high employee turnover and dwindling productivity, saw all of their metrics begin to improve as their employees found freedom from poor health and created habits that improved their health and lives.
Many people have tried multiple times in their lives to improve their daily health habits, only to fall off the wagon and return to their unhealthy ways.
What prevents the wellness trend from just going to the wayside a few weeks after the motivation that was inspired by the corporate event?
This is where the experience of keynote speakers comes in.
They know that they aren’t just speaking to individuals in your company. They are aware that, in order for a widespread change to occur, they need to inspire whole teams to enact lifestyle changes together.
When one person decides to embark on a health journey all on their own, they often do fail. The inertia of their peers overwhelms the momentum they are trying to create.
Before they are able to lock in their new habits, the people around them start trying to pull them back into their old ways. Offers of baked goods, invitations to the bar, and encouragement to watch a game instead of hitting the gym will quickly break down their resolve, and before they know it, they are back in their old patterns that so recently they saw as destructive.
Compare this to the company-wide change that a keynote speaker can inspire.
As whole teams join forces to overcome bad habits, something wonderful happens.
Friendly accountability replaces social invitations to reenter the world of vice. Workplace snacks are crafted with health and vitality in mind, and invitations to a restaurant with a new high-protein, whole-food menu replace invitations to a fast-food place or a pub.
Keynote speakers leverage peer pressure, turning it from an enemy to improvement to its greatest ally.
If these changes sound like exactly what your company needs, hire a workplace wellness keynote speaker to bring your company on board with new health initiatives. Their expertise and experience will combine to make change possible.
While incentives can be useful, a speaker addresses the core of the issue, motivation and education. They inspire a genuine desire for better health by showing your team what's possible. This creates a cultural shift that lasts far longer than the appeal of a simple reward, a concept often highlighted in resources from Lessons from Leading Wor.
When your employees feel healthy and energetic, their work improves dramatically. Better health leads to enhanced cognitive function, greater focus, and increased creativity. It also means fewer sick days and a more positive, engaged atmosphere, all of which contribute to a stronger bottom line.
A key strategy used by effective speakers is to foster team-wide change. When colleagues support each other in building healthy habits, a powerful accountability network is formed. This collective momentum helps ensure the positive changes continue long after the event has finished.
The goal is to empower, not control. A skilled workplace wellbeing speaker frames health as a positive opportunity for personal growth. By focusing on education and inspiration, you encourage employees to take charge of their own wellbeing without feeling micromanaged.
