Small Business Tips: Increasing Your Financial Literacy

How is your company]s financial wellness? What is it anyways? For employers, financial wellness is a program or set of programs designed to improve your financial behaviors and your employees and outcomes towards a positive bottom line at work and at home. Financial wellness includes the holistic approach to the physical health of the employees as it impacts the financial management of the company.Keep reading .....  

Small Business Tips: Increasing your Financial Literacy 

Having a great idea and running with it is not enough to operate a successful business. A business owner must wear many hats when operating their company, but managing and understanding their finances doesn’t always come easily.

Relying on a business manager or an accountant is a beneficial way to verify that you are conducting your finances by the book, but many small business owners do not have the budgets to afford these specialists. In fact, “40 percent of small business owners say they are financially illiterate – yet 81 percent handle their business’ finances themselves,” according to an Intuit study as reported by one source.

Whether you will hire out or want to tackle your business finances yourself, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of your financial situation if you truly want to be in charge of your business. With a little effort, it is not difficult to increase your financial literacy with these tips:

Know What is Required to Run a Business

Bloomberg reported that 80 percent of businesses fail in the first 18 months, states a source. Much of that failure is due to the fact that business owners are not skilled in properly handling their finances. There is a lot of financial planning and management required to operate a company, such as “budget, accounting and taxes, calculating price points, and projecting revenues and success rates well into the future to ensure continued success.”

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Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA

Certified Health Coach 

Workplace Wellness Consultant

C2 Your Health LLC 

Top 50 Health Promotion Professional 

WELCOA On the Move Company Challenge

WELCOA is happy to announce the 2017 national On the Move Challenge and C2 Your Health LLC is excited to offer a discount for the 2017 challenge!

WELCOA has created a solution to get all employees moving because they want to, not because they have to. Employees will assess their physical activity barriers and receive targeted coaching and next steps from fitness expert Sean Foy. They will learn to connect physical activity with what is truly important to them, like their families, careers and managing their stress. They will set goals for their health and well-being and share them with their coworkers, and they will get support from each other to begin to create a culture of health in your organization. Includes device-agnostic fitness tracking device integration.

Choose Between 

·         On the Move Company Challenge ·         On the Move Monthly

·         Or engage with them together!

On the Move – Monthly – Benefits

·         On the Move Monthly platform access at a monthly per participant rate. ·         Monthly curriculum of turn-key programming that teaches participants to focus on their purpose, their intention, their reason for moving more and sitting less. ·         Incorporates financial well-being, stress management, nutrition, social well-being and more into purpose-driven curriculum. ·         High-touch personalized assessments and coaching that will change your employees’ physical activity behaviors and attitudes.

·         Educational videos, tools and resources for helping employees move more and sit less. ·         Optional device integration at no additional cost. ·         Hands-on training for onsite coordinators on best practices that will enhance your program for years to come. ·         Optional training and certification for onsite coordinator. ·         Ongoing customer service and support for your onsite coordinator.

On the Move Company – 12 week challenge – Benefits

National Challenge Deadline April 3, 2017

·         On the Move Company Challenge platform access for all employees with educational, behavior change, physical activity tracking and social support functionality. ·         National designation as one of the Top Most Active Companies. ·         12 Weeks of turn-key programming that leverages the new science of behavior change to help your employees move more and sit less. ·         A customized outcomes reporting package. ·         Optional device integration at no additional cost.

·         Built-in pre/post culture audit and employee engagement measures. ·         Hands-on training for onsite coordinators on best practices that will enhance your program for years to come. ·         High-touch personalized assessments and coaching that will change your employees’ physical activity behaviors and attitudes. ·         Educational videos, tools and resources for helping employees move more and sit less.          ·         Ongoing customer service and support for your onsite coordinator.

“I love that the challenge has made people stop and consider the decisions they make, often choosing a healthier path.”

– NICOLE, WEST ALLIS-WEST MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT 

Federal Standards for Workplace Wellness Programs

The majority of large employers that offer health benefits today also offer at least some wellness programs in an effort to promote employee health and productivity and reduce health related costs.  Workplace wellness programs vary in the services and activities they include, and about three-in-ten large employers use incentives to encourage employees to participate.  Depending on a program’s characteristics, different federal rules might apply.  Final regulations recently issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) would change standards applicable to certain workplace wellness programs that use incentives to encourage workers and their spouses to provide personal health information.  These new rules are intended to be more consistent with other standards implementing requirements in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that apply to certain workplace wellness programs.  Both rules seek to balance employer interest in incentivizing workers to participate in wellness programs against requirements that prohibit discrimination based on health status, disability, and genetic information. 

Federal Standards for Workplace Wellness Programs. 

Three federal laws directly address workplace wellness programs within the context of other broad rules that prohibit discrimination based on health status.  The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) prohibits discrimination by group health plans based on an individual’s health status.  ERISA makes exceptions for wellness programs to offer premium or cost sharing discounts based on an individual’s health status in certain circumstances.  The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employment discrimination based on health status and generally forbids employers from inquiring about workers’ health status, but makes an exception for medical inquiries that are conducted as part of voluntary wellness programs.   Finally, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) prohibits employment discrimination based on genetic information and forbids employers from asking about individuals’ genetic information, including information about family members’ health status, or family history.  Like the ADA, GINA allows an exception for inquiries through voluntary wellness programs.

Source: Published May 2016 Workplace Wellness Programs Characteristics and Requirements

5 Creative Ideas For Throwing An Office Holiday Party People Will Love

Holiday office parties can be maligned and/or dreaded for a multitude of perfectly understandable reasons. Sometimes the camaraderie is forced and employees resent the "gift" of socializing with people they wouldn’t want to otherwise. Sometimes the party’s so cheap it makes people feel unappreciated (I remember one workplace where we were "rewarded" for our efforts with an employee potluck from 12:00-1:00 p.m. in the lunchroom). And sometimes the big blowout comes off as tacky or soulless, especially when it involves party goers who have a lot to say, a lot to drink, and not much to eat.

Not all office holiday parties, however, are recipes for social disaster; in fact, many workers have happy memories of holiday parties, and not just the ones with the biggest budget or the longest mashed potato bar. Here are some creative ideas to help your next office party sparkle—and create real holiday warm and fuzzies among your colleagues:

1. ACTUALLY GIVE BACK

The alumni relations department at the University of Chicago throws lavish annual Christmas bashes, but interactive content editor Joy Olivia Miller’s favorite party took place at a different sort of venue: Her team went to the Ronald McDonald house and cooked together. "We spent the afternoon chatting and laughing while we made a huge pot of gumbo and sugar cookies for the families staying there," Miller recalled. "We brought some drinks and holiday tunes and kept it casual."

To Miller, actually helping meant more than just paying lip service to charity by asking employees to toss an old winter coat into a bin on the way into an opulent fete. "I think that one remains so special because it wasn't a huge to-do at a noisy place: It felt more like giving back because we actually gave our time, too." 

2. GO FOR THE BIG TENT APPROACH

Emily Graslie, chief curiosity correspondent at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, is a fan of the way the museum's holiday parties involve everyone, from staff to interns to volunteers. Plus, she says, "parties with research and collections scientists are a blast because it's a jovial time to share stories of expeditions and discoveries. The amount of history and knowledge contained in a party like that is a great reminder for why we work here in the first place. While I love the science, it's really about my colleagues, those people who pursued obscure passions into novel careers."

Source: 5 Creative Ideas For Throwing An Office Holiday Party People Will Love

"You know what everyone really wants for a holiday party? A day off! Give me $20; I'll get my own dinner and go home and spend it with my family."

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA

Certified Health Coach

Wellness Consultant

C2 Your Health LLC

WELCOA Faculty

Nominated Top 100 Health Promotion Professional  

You Are What You Eat...Even at Work

Companies trying to increase productivity should offer their employees more wellness programs, a new study finds.

Workers who ate healthful meals and exercised on a regular basis had better job performance and lower absenteeism, research from the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), Brigham Young University and the Center for Health Research at Healthways shows.

Employees who eat healthy all day long were 25 percent more likely to have higher job performance, the study found, while those who eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables at least four times a week were 20 percent more likely to be more productive.

In addition, employees who exercise for at least 30minutes, three times a week, were 15 percent more likely to have higher job performance.

Overall, absenteeism was 27 percent lower for those workers who ate healthy and regularly exercised and that their job performance was 11 percent higher than their peers who were obese, the study found.

Overweight workers experienced lower job performance and higher absenteeism, compared to those employees who suffer from depression and other chronic diseases or conditions.

Source: You Are What You Eat...Even at Work 

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA
Certified Health Coach
Wellness Consultant
C2 Your Health LLC
WELCOA Faculty
Top 100 Health Promotion Professional nominee

121 Proven Employee Wellness Program Ideas For Your Office

Employee wellness programs have become a staple in many corporations as a way to attract top talent, keep them happy and productive, and decrease employee turnover. In fact, 80% of employees at companies with robust health and wellness programs feel engaged and cared for by their employers.

The key to having a successful corporate wellness program is encouraging overall wellbeing while still keeping it fun (see #57 for a perfect example). If you can’t get your team engaged then your wellness program ideas will quickly lose steam. So make your initiatives fun, try new ideas and see what your team values the most.

A lot of the wellness ideas listed here are ones we’ve used ourselves and have seen the benefits firsthand. Many others were contributed to us from awesome companies that know how to take care of their teams.

Below is a list of 121 employee wellness program ideas that you can easily implement at your office.

Source:  121 Proven Employee Wellness Program Ideas For Your Office

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA 
Certified Health Coach
Wellness Consultant
WELCOA Faculty
Nominated for Top 100 Health Promotion Specialists
C2 Your Health LLC

10 Best Practices to Staying Healthy at Work

Health care is a hot topic these days, and the personal health and wellness industry is booming. With health care reform, some companies are in a bind and are seriously looking at ways to promote wellness and preventive health measures for their employees.

If you are an employee, you know that staying healthy benefits you in many ways: fewer missed work days, greater productivity and less stress. Staying healthy is good for your pockets too, in the form of lower health care costs and health insurance premiums.

So when you’re going to the office and working in close quarters (ah, the cubicle life) every day, how can you stay healthy?

1. Wash your hands often - Hand-washing is the number one way you can prevent yourself from getting sick.

2. Keep your workspace clean - The average desk harbors hundreds of times more bacteria than a toilet seat — pretty gross, right? 

3. Drink more water - Staying well-hydrated is crucial to your productivity, energy levels and overall health. #stayhydrated

4. Keep hand sanitizer at your desk - Keep some handy at your desk, so it can be applied immediately and used in between hand washings when needed.

5. Avoid others who are not feeling well or exhibit symptoms of illness - Wash your hands after spending time at or near the work space of someone who is sick, sneezing or coughing.

6. Eat well including light, healthy lunches -Make sure to include some lean protein, salad or fresh veggies, and fresh fruit for lasting energy with no afternoon slump. #onesimplechange 

Read to rest: 10 best practices to staying healthy at work.

 Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA 
Certified Health Coach
Wellness Consultant 
WELCOA Faculty 
Top 100 Health Promotion Professional Nominee 
C2 Your Health LLC

Worksite Wellness - Stressed Out? 6 Tips To Reduce Work-Life Stress And Improve Your Health

Just turn on the news and you'll be hearing about the latest company down-sizing, right-sizing, slow down, re-organizing, down economy or as the financial advisers say - economic winter. What about you? All this bad news and at work you're burned out, exhausted mentally and physically. Have you asked yourself - "at what price?"

As your responsibilities grow, your shoulders become heavy with the burden of your life as it gets busier and more stressed day-by-day. With constant worry, increased responsibilities and more work - life becomes frantic. Our head becomes heavy with fatigue and dizziness; this is enough to not only make you feel tired but make you sick too. Really sick.

Stress can be different things to different people. For most of us stress is commonly caused by a feeling of too much work, too little time, financial loss, feeling out of control all of which contribute to thoughts which can make you feel depressed. Everyone suffers from stress at some point in his or her life, but the real challenge is to overpower and kill the stress developing inside you, and NOT to get killed by it.

Stress is connected to chronic ailments such as back pain, headaches and fatigue. Chronic diseases such as the flu, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, Crohn's Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, GERD just to name a few are all impacted by long-term stress. The connection between your perception of stress and your body's ability to fight off disease is so strong some experts think stress can be "deadly". So you're right, your job is killing you and now we can prove it! Feel better?

Source: Worksite Wellness -Stressed Out? 6 Tips To Reduce Work-Life Stress And Improve Your Health

Your partner in health,

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA
Certified Health Coach
Wellness Consultant
WELCOA Faculty
C2 Your Health LLC  

Trumpcare: A new reality for U.S. healthcare & the workplace

Now that Donald Trump will soon be sworn into office as our next president, in the weeks and months ahead we can expect to learn more details about his proposed healthcare policies and how he plans to begin the process of repealing the Affordable Care Act.  

While most Americans are likely more familiar with his reality TV show than his proposed healthcare policies, and while his proposed policies are not as detailed as those that were listed on the Hillary Clinton campaign website, there’s more substance to Trumpcare than what was reflected in many of his short statements and one-liners in the debates. The policies that make up Trumpcare will require substantial changes to U.S. healthcare’s current legal and regulatory structure, and to U.S. tax law. 

Repeal of the ACA 

The first priority for Trump will be the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, this is not expected to happen overnight. The overhaul of the ACA, or the transition from the ACA to Trumpcare, however it is done, will clearly not be as simple as a reality TV show where Trump sits at a conference table, looks through each ACA rule and says “you’re fired.” Economists and lawmakers that have been deeply involved in U.S. healthcare policy have noted that repealing the ACA will be an extremely difficult task.  

Source: Trumpcare: A new reality for U.S. healthcare  

There are most likely hundreds if not thousands of opinions by now on what might happen to the ACA once the transition team for the new administration is established. No one really knows for sure what will happen, we may not know for sometime. What ever does happen will take time and surely is not an overnight happening. 

One thing is for sure, people are still sick, and going to get sicker. Smart companies will invest in their employees health. Experts agree those companies who don't will experience a disengaged workforce that will become as unstable as our economy. There's no way your company can afford this, no matter with Trumpcare has in store for us. 

Your partner in health, 

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA

Wellness Consultant

Certified Health Coach
WELCOA Faculty

C2 Your Health LLC

Entrepreneurs Track Your Health – GPS for Success

It seems many of us live minute by minute. Planning for the week would be considered long range planning. So much information is constantly coming at us solving one problem after the other. It’s hard to discern what’s urgent from what’s important moving from one crisis to another causing chaos in our life making everything seem like a crisis.

You might want to stop for a second, take a breath then ask yourself “Is my health important to me and is it important enough to me to plan for?” I will never forget the day I was sitting across from a health coaching client when they said “No, my health is not a priority to me.” 

Really? You have got to be kidding! You plan for your health now or plan for your medical bills later. You either make your health a priority or your health will become a priority for you when you develop sickness that keeps you from enjoying your family, working on your job and takes your money. 

So what’s the plan? What are your health goals? Do you know? If you have not thought it over in a while now is a great time. The rules are the same when it comes to planning your vacation, your business and your health. The more time you spend planning the more fun and prosperity you’ll experience.  

Once you have a plan in place then to insure success you will need to keep track what’s important like your care GPS keeps you on track helping you reach your destination.

Most experts agree these are the top five most important influencers on your health and well-being:

1. The quality, quantity and frequency of your food choices.

2. How much and what type of activity you experience.

3. Sleep quality and duration.

4. How you manage family, financial and job stress.

5. Water quality and frequency of consumption.

Track your food and mood

A big influencer around food choices is how you are feeling. Food choices are made for many reasons besides hunger and these hide in your daily actions. When making food choices such a types of foods and when you are choosing to eat write it down.  Writing down what you eat in detail within 15 minutes of your meal increases your ability to stick with your daily food and calorie goals. Keep a mini pad with you so you won’t have any excuses after you eat. It’s important to bring eating into your awareness. Noticing patterns in foods choices and behaviors will help you make better decisions in the future.  Not sure what to eat? The USDA can help www.choosemyplate.gov.

Track your successes

Don’t limit yourself in how you measure success. The scale is only one way and maybe not the best because the weather and food additives will cause the scale to fluctuate. Monitor your clothing size, measure your waist, legs, and arms, and monitor how tight or loose your clothes feel.

Track of your food choices

How may fruits, vegetables and whole grains are you eating? Not enough check this out www.YourJuicePlus.com. Most importantly monitor how you feel and how your body is working. With better food choices comes energy, better sleep, improved digestion, lower blood pressure, weight loss and many other health benefits.

Track your goals

While your long-term goal may be to lose 10, 25, 50 or more pounds, you need small goals to keep your motivation up. Focus on improved healthy and vitality. Being skinny in your casket really isn’t what you are shooting for. You can’t control your weight but you can control your habits. Make goals you have control of such as eat 1 more fruit and veggie per day, exercise 30 minutes and go to bed early enough to get 8 hours of sleep. 

Track your motivation

To stay motivated you must have a clear reason to make healthy lifestyle changes. Is it to spend more time with your family, lower your medical bills and / or most importantly you deserve health and vitality? Whatever the reason, write it down and keep it in front of you. Your why will keep you motivated when you hit the bumps in the road of your healthy life journey.

So what’s your health GPS set for? When you look down the road what do you see in your future? If It’s not health then you still have time it’s never too late to get started down the road to better health.

Your partner in health,

Cindy Cohen RN, BS BA

Certified Health Coach

Wellness Consultant 

WELCOA Faculty 

C2 Your Health LLC

(Track Your Health - GPS for Success first appeared in Small Biz Forward)