The Great Workplace Toolbox

Self Assessment - Exercise - Perspectives - Examples - Back to the Toolbox

Self Assessment

1. Do you have a kitchen, lunchroom, cafeteria, vending machines, or other designated area where employees may choose or pay for snacks or meals?
   
2. If yes, what types of food/drink are made available to employees? Do the choices include food like fruits or vegetables? Are options like juice or diet soda also available?
   
3. Do you provide any type of education or information to employees about healthy eating habits?
   
4. Do you offer any incentives to employees to modify eating behaviors and live healthier lifestyles?

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Exercise: Your Personal Food Diary

Keep a diary of everything you eat over the next week. Be sure to track whether you ate at home, ate out, or ate at work. At the end of the week, review your entries. Are you surprised to see where you eat the healthiest? How do you think different food or drink choices at work would have influenced what you chose to eat? How much different would your diary look? What are three things you can do next week to ensure you're making healthier eating choices while at work?

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Perspectives
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in 2004, between 20% to 24% of Ohio's adult population was considered obese. A study conducted in 1998 by the Medical Expenditure Panel also estimated that obesity related illnesses accounted for over 9% (or nearly $80 billion dollars) of total medical costs in the United States. Diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke, respiratory problems, and some cancers can all be linked to obesity. While ongoing research is suggesting that in some cases obesity may be related to genetic predisposition, the leading cause is still personal behaviors - poor eating habits and minimal physical activity.

Soaring health insurance costs, increasing average life spans and an impending mass exodus of retiring baby-boomers on the near horizon, are all indications that costs will continue to rise, and employers are searching for any way to help gain some control over these expenses. Something as simple as enabling your employees to make healthier choices - in this case regarding what they eat - may be an effective option that could positively influence not only your employees' health, well-being, and productivity; but also positively influence your bottom line. Not only that, but by reducing your health care costs you may be able to better allocate resources into other initiatives that help develop your organization as a great place to work for top talent.

If the only options your employees have are vending machines full of unhealthy snacks or cafeterias that don't provide healthy meal choices - or, if you don't provide any food or drink at all - you may already be making their choice for them. That doesn't mean you necessarily have to get rid of all the candy and snacks in the office or the kitchen - but you may want to consider also providing alternate, healthier choices in the snack areas like fruits or nuts.

In addition, you may also want to consider making information available to employees about healthier eating habits - whether through handouts, newsletters, e-mail communications, or full blown health days - the more ammunition you can provide your employees about how and why to make better choices, the better able they will be to make those choices in the future.

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Examples

• Weather Leather established the "Weaver Canteen", a centralized snack station that features a wide range of snacks, lunch items and beverages. In addition to typical vending machine snacks, Weaver offers fresh fruit, yogurt, juices, granola bars, water, cheese sticks and other healthy snacks. The snacks and lunches are sold at cost. Employees can purchase a snack or lunch by putting the appropriate amount of money in a jar next to the snack station. Over time, the company has found that employees have been putting more money into a jar than necessary for some snacks. They have also noticed that the jar will often stay filled with $200-$300 in a busy section of the plant and no one has ever had to worry about employees walking off with the money. Moreover, employees have now started adopting the healthy snacks as their exclusive snack and purchasing them for their home as well, promoting health and wellness even further.
  
  
• FedEx Custom Critical boasts an on-site cafeteria that provides a variety of healthy and low-carb menu options. FedEx also offers a “lunch crunch” exercise program and guest speakers who educate team members on health and wellness.
  
  
• Invacare works with the provider of its vending and cafeteria services to offer a wide selection of healthy foods. Now, not only are employees presented with many fabulous healthy food choices, but they can build up points which allow them one free healthy meal for every six they purchase. They have even brought in a local chef who presented health cooking classes at a lunchtime event where each participant learned about healthy ingredients and cooking techniques and enjoyed a delicious meal.

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