Chronic 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.

When it comes to a business’ employees, it’s incredibly important that not only are they physically healthy and capable but that they are mentally prepared to do the job they are getting hired for. This is why many companies will have pre-employment physicals conducted to assess those that they are interviewing for a specific position.

The examination will almost always focus on your physical well-being, so aspects like your hearing and vision will be checked as well as your respiratory system. In most cases, a general physical exam will be done to chart your height, weight, vision, hearing, and check things like your blood (blood sugar), cholesterol, blood pressure, and pulse rate.

These aspects will vary in importance as they are dependent on what is required of the job. For instance, a general laborer will need strength and an excellent respiratory system. With this said, there are a lot of benefits that these physical examinations offer companies, including:

• Ensuring that there are no medical conditions of potential employees that would otherwise pose a risk or harm current hired employees.
• Ensures that the potential hire will be compatible with the job that is being offered. This makes sure that the job will be done correctly and that the person will be able to handle it.
• It will determine whether further testing is needed in other areas like physical ability tests which look at an employee’s grip and pull strength.
• The blood test portion will alert the company of any potential employee that may do drugs or consume alcohol. This protects the company from a new hire doing this type of behavior on the job or showing up to the job incapacitated.

Finally, by having potential new hires take the pre-employment physicals, your company is setting the tone that the company does care about the health of its employees. Not only will this help diminish any underlying hazards within the infrastructure of the company, but it will help establish a healthy environment for all that work at the company. Physical examinations help companies assess and find the right hires for the job. There is no point in hiring someone who is not physically fit to do the heavy lifting, nor someone who cannot work well under a stressful environment.