I always feel lucky to meet any entrepreneur. I felt this way even before I decided to try my hand at business. Entrepreneurs have a vision that they think has value but they have no idea if they will find customers to fund what is essentially their passion project. Its understandable, I think, when owners of companies have to put employees on a back burner. Of course many employers take pride in all the things they offer. And some employers offer all they can.

I think as an employer you try your hardest to stay as objective as possible. After all there are laws that dictate the things and the kinds of interactions you are supposed to have with an employee. There are laws about the hours they work and all the other human resource things. But as time goes by. And especially after a big project, when everybody pulled their weight. Their begins to develop bonds between everyone in a company. In short you begin to really care about each other.

So what happens when a family member gets sick? I’m sorry I meant employee. (wink) This is something that I personally experienced, when a coworker who I had worked with suddenly became sick and soon after passed away.

The knee jerk reaction is to talk about health and death with the people that you care about. The jerk part of is when you begin to try to give everyone around you health advice. I say this from experience. It might feel good to give someone some information which they might not know. The person may even thank you for the nice thought. The part that hurts is the fact that most of the time advice giving is not sufficient for someone to make a healthy behavioral change.

As a health coach I am uniquely trained to help people make health changes. I do this by helping people envision a better life for themselves and help them to make it real. We do this by looking at what has helped them in the past. When its appropriate and only after asking permission, do I ever educate a person about healthy diets or other behaviors. I do this in part because it might not be appropriate for the persons stage of change.

Being kind and talking to people you care about are great things to practice in good times and in bad. However if you really want to do everything you can for your employees, try seeking the services of a health coach. Here are 5 reasons why:

1. To reduce sick time. It goes without saying that when someone is being helped to create a healthy lifestyle for them selves that they will most likely have much fewer sick days. The return on investment could be easily seen with this alone.
2. To increase focus and productivity. Many people suffer from low energy. Great evidence for this in the proliferation of a market for caffeinated drinks. As a result for many the first request when seeking coaching is, can you help me increase my feeling of having the energy to the things that I love to do. Clients often have ideas on how to increase energy and I help facilitate the change they often wanted to do in the past but could not.
3. To increase happiness in the employees home and work life. If a health problem is getting in the way of being a fully productive part of the team, jobs understandably get to be the opposite of fun. Part of happiness is being in the moment. Often when clients need help changing a health behavior we end up needing to increasing their mindfulness which is the ability to be calm and appreciative of your thoughts and feelings while minimizing obstructive thoughts. In this way you increase the happiness of your employees on a moment by moment basis.
4. To reduce health insurance costs. I am reluctantly adding this here only because I’m unfamiliar with health insurance policies. If health insurance is affected by the health of the population seeking it then it stands to reason that the healthier population costs should be reduced. Speak to a insurance professional.
5. To increase enjoyment of life. You may feel that as an employer you have little to do with the personal lives of your employees. But imagine that you were instrumental in increasing joy in the world is something that would feel really good. If a person is able to live a healthier and fuller life then the joy the person felt would be at least equal to or more than the joy they feel why working in your company.

I truly respect and am humbled if someone is reading this and actually considering the life of someone who works for them. You are thinking about something you aren’t required to think about. You cant help to be a dreamer of the possibility for a better world. A trait that also makes you a great business person. You want something better for the people that you care about. You often try to spread health in any way that you can. Hiring a health coach could be a part of your solution. Please call me to discuss your unique needs.