Managers Can Influence Better Health Outcomes of Employees

Managers have a huge influence on employee behavior. So, tying 10% of managerial salary increases to health initiatives may increase employee wellness and motivation, researchers say. A new study has found that engaging managers in employee health programmes and goals may be the solution that has been missing.

"Instead of focusing on individual wellness outcomes, we propose that it would be more effective if managers were incentivised to create healthier overall work environments with simple, easy to implement actions such as installing a water cooler, providing healthy snacks at meetings, and encouraging work/life balance," said Rebecca Robbins from Cornell University.

The study surveyed 270 adults with manager roles and found that 68 percent supported the idea of being evaluated by their employee wellness actions.

"Leadership support is essential in any workplace change, including wellness. Most employee wellness initiatives do not utilize the power of manager leadership - this strategy is unique in that it really taps into the manager's ability to lead their team to wellness," said Brian Wansink from Cornell University.

Source-Medindia