Employee health promotion is imperative that you the United States’s workforce. There’s definitely room for health promotion programs. However, some groups do not support health promotion programs in the workplace. Here are two common reasons why -
Corporate Wellnes and Privacy Rights
Privacy rights seem to be the main opposition to wellness programs. Some people believe that employers have no right to tell workers to eat healthful or lose twenty pounds.
This opinion seems to be made stronger by the hundreds of corporations seeking the help of law firms to begin more assertive wellness programs. What a person does with his/her body is certainly a privacy issue.
Notwithstanding, wellness programs were initiated to be encouraging ways to help staff get fit by offering incentives and free health programs. If corporate wellness is brought back to its original mission and participation wasn’t monitored or mandatory, there would be far less privacy issues.
Corporate Health Promotion – Incentives or Penalties
Consequences rarely motivate someone like incentives do. Groups opposing health promotion programs are citing that some businesses are threatening unhealthful workers with consequences for not participating or succeeding in their health promotion program.
An example of such a case is a company based in Indianapolis that began deducting $10.00 from each paycheck for every employee with a Body Mass Index above 29.9 because not enough workers were utilizing the organization’s health promotion program.
Workers are much more likely to take part in wellness programs when there are incentives such as cash bonuses, time off work or free products rather than the threats of consequences.
While both of these reasons are accurate ones to oppose health promotion programs, both issues can easily be resolved by bringing corporate health promotion back to its primary mission.
These programs were not meant to invade privacy or punish unhealthy person, and the majority does not. They were and are meant to be a benefit to both the employer and staff member.
By encouraging and supporting health promotion program participants, businesses will likely experience success.


