Inspire Your Employees with Annual Physicals

Annual Employee Physicals | Occwell.comOne of the reasons people let their health go is that they just don’t know what’s going on. Whether you are doing employee physicals to see if your team is able to handle certain tasks or are just doing it for health insurance reasons, providing employees with their numbers can help inspire a positive change.

Being confronted with bad health numbers – high cholesterol, blood pressure, or sugar numbers – can be jarring at first, but once a person understands the reality of the situation, it allows them to make a decision. Do they want to continue to walk down this unhealthy path? Most people do not. This is the time to help your team members improve themselves. After the physicals, you can offer health coaching and special deals on local gym memberships. This is also a perfect time to start health contests at your business. You can run weight loss contests, fun runs, and walking challenges to help inspire your team to better themselves.

When you are seeking assistance with annual employee physicals, you can rest assured that the team at Occwell will assist you. We offer nationwide services, coming to your location to help with physicals, as well as drug testing. Call us at (513) 453-4503 to request our services today!

A Benefit of Corporate Drug Testing

Mobile Drug Testing Services | Occwell.comWhen you run a business, it’s important that you have a dedicated crew working for you. Any individual on drugs can be a drag on the rest of your team. Whether you run a large corporate organization or a small business, it’s important to invest in quality drug testing services. The team at Occwell is here to provide you with exceptional mobile drug testing services.

One of the biggest benefits of doing random drug testing is that you are able to show the public and your shareholders that your team has a clear head and is always safe while on the job. Any business that employs people doing drugs faces safety risks that could mean trouble for your business, customers, and other employees. Our organization provides a wide array of testing services for your needs, including tests for drugs like marijuana, cocaine, methadone, and other problematic, addictive substances. These tests are vital for any business, including companies with employees that drive trucks, perform sensitive procedures, or operated heavy machinery.

It doesn’t matter if you you have reasonable suspicions that your employees are using drugs or are just following company policies, the specialists at Occwell are ready to assist you. Contact us at (513) 453-4503 to inquire about our services. We are based in Cincinnati, OH, but offer nationwide services.

Tips for Reducing Chronic Illness at Your Workplace

pre-employment physicalsChronic illnesses such as headaches and migraines, indigestion, and fatigue plague companies en masse across the country. It’s not genetic predisposition that’s causing this. The work environment you provide for them can actually play a role. Reduce the outbreaks of chronic illnesses at your workplace and productivity will rise.

Identify Problems Early

Employ OCCWELL to perform pre-employment physicals and physicals of existing staff on a regular basis to identify those suffering from chronic illnesses. Having a medical professional tell them that they have such an illness and offer tips for combating it will help staff members take their discomfort more seriously and work on ways to avoid symptoms during the work day. Offering these on-site physicals will make staff reluctant to see a doctor more likely to accept the medical examination.

Require Breaks

Staring at a computer screen for too long can cause frequent headaches. Sitting for too long can cause back pain and stomach issues. Regular breaks are key to combating both. Ask that employees get up from their desks and walk away for their break time, preferably to get fresh air if the weather is clement.

Encourage Healthy Habits

Provide healthy snacks in the vending machines or break room. Remind employees of the 20-20-20 rule when it comes to working on the computer: every 20 minutes, look away from the computer at a point about 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Offer incentives for participating in physical activities individually or as a group. Encourage healthy habits and your employees will have more energy and will feel better.

At OCCWELL, we’re happy to provide both pre-employment physicals and on-site physicals at regular intervals for your staff to make sure you keep chronic illness outbreak rates low. While of course you should encourage staff to stay home when exhibiting contagious illnesses, it’s those non-contagious long-term conditions that actually disrupt the most work hours because staff will show up but be unable to focus.

Do You Have to Report Drug Use Among Your Staff?

mobile drug testing servicesDrug use causes problems for a company both when the drugs are brought onto the premises and when the employees engage in drug use entirely off site. Addiction impacts your workers’ level of productivity and can cause issues for your company. When it comes to reporting drug abuse to the authorities, your company’s liability only goes so far.

Test Employees Regularly

The best way to discourage drug use among your staff is mobile drug testing services. OCCWELL can make regular visits to your company; whether or not your staff knows about the testing in advance, this should decrease their likelihood to do drugs in the first place, knowing their job is on the line.

Protecting Your Company

If we find evidence of drug use and you don’t find any illegal drugs on the premises, you do not have to report it to authorities. However, our tests may prove integral to protect your company in the event of a lawsuit; it’s proof that you had the right to dismiss the worker regardless of other performance. You can’t fire anyone on the guess that she’s doing illicit drugs off-site.

On-Site Use

If you find illicit drugs on-site, you should report the findings to police. Don’t confiscate it unless you think the worker will then hide the drugs, as you want the police to be able to identify who has the drugs and how much. Ask your human resources department about protocols to take to search a staff member’s locker or desk when you suspect drug use. You cannot search their vehicles even when parked on your property, although you can report suspicions to the police and have them decide whether or not to search.

Rely on OCCWELL to help you identify a staff member who’s abusing drugs so you can replace them with a more productive worker — but also encourage that person to get the help he needs.

Do You Have Cause and Authority to Act If You Suspect an Employee Does Drugs on Their Own Time?

reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testingObviously, illegal drugs on your property is cause for immediate firing, especially when you consider the legal trouble your business could be in and the negative impact it would likely have on your company’s image. However, most employees who do drugs won’t bring them to the office — or, if they’re abusing prescription drugs, the drugs might seem benign enough to not cause an issue. However, you absolutely do have the authority and cause to require your employees remain drug-free, even if they never take drugs at work.

Arrange Surprise On-Site Testing

Arrange reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testing with OCCWELL, which takes its mobile lab to your company so there’s minimal disruption to your work day. Since having advanced notice or requiring off-site testing might give drug users ample time to flush it from their system temporarily to pass the test, it’s better to alert employees there will be random testing (to discourage them from using in general) and not provide any more details.

Encourage Overall Wellness

In addition to drug testing, we provide on-site employee physicals and can discuss company-wide health initiatives that will encourage healthier living among your employees overall. Overall wellness will lower health care costs among your employees, which will help you keep your company’s premium and health savings account contributions manageable.

The Bottom Line

Even if employees don’t abuse drugs on-site, it doesn’t leave their systems when they’re working for you. Addicts are more likely to be tardy or absent from work entirely and are less focused and less efficient throughout the day. As their employer, you absolutely have cause to ascertain if an employee behaving erratically or becoming more withdrawn is abusing drugs.

OCCWELL can help you navigate the murky waters of suspecting substance abuse and learning how to deal with it with your employees. A drug test is all the legal proof you need to terminate an employee’s contract and hire a replacement more likely to perform the job efficiently.

3 Tips for Making Your Business More Accessible for Employees With a Disability

pre-employment physicalsIf you currently employ or plan to hire people with disabilities, you know that they’re part of a well-rounded and vibrant working community. However, even if you have the best intentions, you may overlook things that could make your working environment uncomfortable or even inhospitable to the disabled people on your staff. Fortunately, it’s easier to make adjustments to your company environment than you might think.

Both pre-employment physicals and physicals performed on an annual basis afterward will help you gauge your employees’ current level of health and provide you with a better overall picture of how to approach healthier living initiatives on site. While it’s illegal to discriminate against prospective employees with disabilities, if a specific job requires physical activity, a physical performed ahead of time can help you determine with the job applicant if she’s suited for the work. If not, you may be able to readjust the typical requirements of the job to better suit her abilities.

Hold Wellness Programs

With the help of OCCWELL, plan on-site wellness programs to educate your staff about healthier living and making tasks less obtrusive for those with disabilities. We can discuss not only tips for when to assist a colleague with disability, but also tips for when not to be too intrusive.

Redesign as Necessary

The most common obstacle to a person performing his job when he has a disability is poor design choices that limit access. Work with health consultants to design rooms, desks and entryways with better access. For example, consider adding automatic doors and more space between desks.

Ask an OCCWELL representative what other measures you can take to make your working environment healthier and more comfortable for all your employees. In addition to outreach about disability requirements, we can also help you encourage healthier living among all employees with on-site testing and information about healthy living initiatives.

How to Easily Reduce or Avoid Workplace Injuries at Your Business

workforce drug screening servicesEvery business owner or manager dreads the possibility of workplace injuries — and although they’re more common in industries that require physical labor from employees, they’re possible at any job in any industry. Doing what you can to prevent them or reduce the number and severity of injuries on the job will save your company money by keeping insurance costs and payouts low.

Do Regular Screenings

Intoxication on the job is a leading cause of injuries, so regular workforce drug screening services are a must to keep your employees focused and alert when on the job. Even if a staff member hasn’t taken drugs that day, frequently doing drugs can leave the toxins in their systems and impact their performance. If they know their jobs depend on regular, surprise screenings, they’ll be less likely to do drugs to begin with.

Perform Regular Physicals

In addition to regular screenings, ask that all employees get physicals on an annual basis. With OCC Well, we can even bring the mobile clinic to your place of business so everyone will get a physical on site. We’ll help your employee’s spot issues that could prevent them from performing their job in a safe manner.

Hold Regular Health Events

Ask the OCC Well experts to visit your place of business on a regular basis to host health events such as demonstrations to provide tips for working in a healthier, more productive way and exercising as a group to promote better health. Our experts can even advise you on healthier foods to keep stocked in the break room or cafeteria to encourage better eating.

Get in touch with OCC Well to learn more about how our mobile clinics and regular physicals can help you keep workplace injuries to a minimum. It’s a small, affordable investment that actually saves you money in the long term when you consider how much less likely your staff will be to get injured.

3 Important Reasons to Have Pre-Employment Physicals for a Job That Involves Physical Labor

annual employee physicalsWhen looking to quickly fill warehouse, factory, construction, delivery, or other jobs that involve a lot of physical labor, it’s not uncommon to hold job fairs and hire new employees by the dozens or even hundreds. However, regardless of the contracts you have to make good on, it’s worthwhile to hire experts to perform pre-employment physicals before you actually offer a person a job or during a trail period before you fully commit to hiring them.

Avoiding Injuries

In addition to regular annual employee physicals to make sure a person’s capability to perform a job hasn’t changed, you need to know if a job applicant is capable of performing the tasks associated with the job before the work even begins. A person incapable of lifting the required amount of weight, standing for long periods or bending over when necessary is more likely to get injured on the job — which will cost your company a sizeable amount of money for settlements, increased premiums, and hiring someone to step in.

Avoiding Delays

Employees who are incapable of working at the pace you set as standard for the entire facility will slow down your company’s abilities to meet deadlines and deliver products or services as promised. It’s not just about a person’s ability to perform a task once, but her ability to perform the task for hours at a time in the long term. A physical will help you catch potential obstacles to that.

Ensure Healthier Employees

A healthier pool of employees typically translates to lower health premiums. Incentivize good health choices, such as eating better and exercising more, with regular examinations, beginning before an employee even starts working for your company.

OCCWell makes adding physical examinations to the employee search process a breeze. With fully functional labs and clinics we can take on the road, we can even come to a job fair and become a part of the fast hiring process so you’ll know even by the end of the day whether your batch of new recruits will work out for you. Call us today to learn more.

How On-Site Health Care Can Boost Your Business

on-site employee health testingProviding opportunities for your employees to receive on-site healthcare might seem like an expensive investment. Many think that by just providing health care options alone, employees have enough to do the best work and have a great work/life balance. However, providing on-site healthcare can benefit your business and employees a lot more than you think. These are some things that you might not have thought of when considering on-site employee health services:

Health care expenses go down. By providing options for onsite health care, employees are more likely to take preventive health measures. Things like on-site employee health testing, referrals to other specialists, and incentives for getting screenings push your employees to take steps early. This way, they are ahead of any possible problems that can cause major expenses to themselves or the business.

Less sick days are used. Again, if employees start to feel sick, they have the convenient option of seeing someone right away. They don’t have to worry about taking time off to see a doctor or because they are too sick to work. Your employees are happier because they aren’t using their precious PTO on being sick and you have a full workforce.

Overall, you have happier employees. Employees like when their jobs make their lives more convenient. Letting employees do things like see a doctor while at work or being able to work from home in the event a family member is sick.  When employees are happy and healthy, their work products are at their best. Also, having a healthy happy team means they are collaborative and creative.

Taking some steps to provide healthcare solutions in the workplace might seem costly at first, but the return on investment will be worth it. For more workplace screenings and on-site employee health testing, visit OccWell.com today!

Why Your Business Should Have Employee Testing

employee alcohol testingTrust and confidentiality between you and your employees means everything to a business owner. For the most part, once you’ve chosen quality employees, you typically don’t have to think about drug testing. However, sometimes incidents at work can cause owners to think twice about it. Testing employees for drugs and alcohol might seem awkward to bring up to your employees, but it actually benefits your business in the long run. Here’s why:

It ensures that quality work is being done. Employees that are impaired are not focused on their work. They could overlook crucial steps that can in turn produce a product that is not up to the quality standards of your business. Customers, both loyal and new, know when work isn’t quality and when to take their business elsewhere.

It can lower overall costs. Having sick employees means more time off and more medical charges. This then can affect productivity, employment turn over, and your bottom line. Having healthy employees not only makes a happier workplace, but a more productive and resourceful one!

It increases safety in the workplace. Employees that are impaired can be a hazard to other employees or customers. This is especially true if your business uses heavy machinery or tools. Be sure to review common safety practices frequently and make sure employees are aware of conditions in their environment.

Testing your employees is a proactive step to cut unnecessary costs and prevent liability concerns. What’s great is that work place screenings, such as employee alcohol testing, are easier to do than you think. Contact OccWell for more information on drug, alcohol and other wellness screenings today!