Happy New Year!
What is your resolution? Possibly to be more profitable or to cut overhead costs? It certainly wasn’t to have an injured employee sitting at home, right?
The most common New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight and to get back on the right track. The holidays make a lot of us very conscious of our personal and professional year end goals, and being more productive and healthier should be on everyone’s list.
With the injured employee on your “fix in the new year” list, the major goal is to be fully functioning and that means rehabilitation. The simple discouraging facts of being an injured employee at home and trying to conquer therapy exercises are feeling that you look funny while doing them, the exercises are boring, or even the “I don’t have the time” or “I’m frustrated because I can’t do what I used to” excuses. These excuses may seem silly on paper, but which category do your employees fit into?
In the Health and Wellness Rooms, therapeutic activities are built right into the day. After many injuries, schedules and routines are flung out the window so it can be hard to get back into the swing of things. However, if your employee is eligible for light or modified work, and is allowed to walk, stretch and have scheduled breaks, they can begin their lifestyle change while recuperating from their work-related injury. This means your employee may be in better shape and better educated on maintaining that lifestyle when they return, instead of feeling stiff and becoming overly familiar with daytime TV scheduling.
The gift keeps on giving as you get an employee that has not become lazy and unmotivated, and you have given them the opportunity become a healthier and more active employee. Possibly next year that “get healthy” resolution can be stricken from the “to-do” list.