Happy New Year, everyone!

Many people take the start of the new year to refocus their energy and concentrate on their health.  It’s important to look at yourself and see what needs improvement, but why not take the same approach with your organisation? This year, make a corporate resolution to focus on the health and wellbeing of your employees to help stem your costs.  It may at first seem like too big a task. But health care costs have been steadily rising, and if we don’t do something now, our employees’ health will continue to decline while our costs will continue to climb. (more…)

Entrepreneurial Approaches Turn the Tide on Health Issues

When presented with a sobering statistic about the correlation between American waistlines, fuel consumption and the environment, my first reaction was this: as the weight of the average American increased by 10lbs, the airline industry has had to burn an additional 350 million gallons of fuel, resulting in an extra 3.8 million tons of CO2*.

The business leader in me sees those 10lbs as cutting into the profit margin for Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic.  The environmentalist in me sees it as an avoidable strain on our increasingly fragile environment. And the humanitarian in me just considered the weight gain bit and hoped that something will change soon, because weight gain and other preventable health behavior are resulting in chronic disease in America.

And it’s not just in America.  Chronic diseases such as heart disease and stroke are the number one cause of death in the world, according to the World Health Organization. We can prevent many of these cases of disease if we just look after ourselves better and take more responsibility for our own personal sustainability.

Now, as much as I’m fond of my airlines – and all things jet-propelled and fast – I am hugely concerned that we’re not slowing down and walking enough. That we’re not cycling enough. That we’re not picking ourselves up from our desks and moving enough.  Sedentary people will eventually be sick people, and it’s maddening to think about the amount of disease that could be avoided if we just moved our bodies more. There are plenty of fun ways to do that without having to strap on the Spandex!

As global citizens, the Virgin team is committed to helping people enjoy healthy and fulfilling lifestyles whilst minimizing the negative impact we have on the world.  I’m an optimist at heart and I see tremendous opportunity to apply entrepreneurial and innovative approaches to tackling this social issue impacting businesses and individuals today.  As an employer, I’m calling on you to stir up some action in your workplace.  Use the power you hold to influence the behavior of your employees so they’ll make smart choices at work, and then take them home, too.  Don’t just offer a programme – really get behind it. Set a good example and send a big message about how important this is. And make sure you give them something that’s meaningful  when they do start looking after their health – and I don’t mean a water bottle with your logo!  They’ll ultimately save you money, so why not give them opportunities to earn some money for their healthy choices? 

Tell us about how you and your employees are tackling this issue in your workplace. 

*Obesity raising airline fuel costs.’
9/11/04. (www.livescience.com)