Health and Wellness in the Workplace and the effect on Productivity
Employee health and wellness is an ever-increasing topic of discussion amongst organizational leadership. A corporate wellness program is program within an organization that actively promotes a healthy lifestyle through education and the encouragement of a healthy lifestyle possibly through incentives. “The benefits of workplace wellness programs have been widely touted: they are known to improve productivity and can cut absenteeism by reducing the number of personal and sick days used” (Atkins, 2009, para. 1). The author of this paper will explore why health and wellness and workplace productivity would be a ...view middle of the document...
The idea is to promote not only fitness and health but to increase morale in the hopes that productivity is also improved. Corporate wellness programs are becoming more and more prevalent so research on this topic would give insight to the success and the subsequent rise in popularity of such programs.
To conduct the research for topic a research design method must be decided. The author of this paper concludes that the best design method for this research should be the survey method combined with observation method. “Some sociologists prefer one type of research to the other, but we learn most when we draw on many different research designs and do not limit ourselves to a particular type of research” (Schaefer, 2006, p 36).
The survey method alone would not be best suited for this research topic because the information collected in surveys is often skewed by personal opinions and biases. However, this method would be good for collecting quantitative data, such as sales figures for individuals or number of sick days used by the employees. To dig deeper into the analysis, participatory research may prove to be beneficial. “Investigators who collect information through direct participation and/or by closely watching a group or community are engaged in observation. This method allows sociologists to examine certain behaviors and communities that could not be investigated through other research techniques” (Schaefer, 2006, p.38). This design should be used because the observation method would allow for real-life studies of the topic. Thus the results of the research would be clearly visible to the researchers as the study unfolds.
The experimental method could work for such a study but there is the risk that the employees behavior could be influenced by the sheer fact that greater attention is being paid to them. The use of secondary sources as a research method could also work but there may be limitations on available information. First hand observations and surveys of individuals is the most efficient way to find qualitative and quantitative results.
For this research, the purpose is to see a measurable difference between companies that have health and wellness programs and those that do not. As previously stated, in this author’s...