GiftCard Partners Blog

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. The stresses of our modern day society contribute to unhealthy choices such as fast food, processed food, and smoking. Long workweeks, lack of exercise and alcohol consumption are also a factor. There are significant benefits to improving the choices that we make in order to have a healthier and longer life. Here are just a few healthy lifestyle changes to consider: Exercise Regular physical activity can help prevent and manage preventable diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Lower rates of cancers, stroke, and depression have all been linked to regular physical activity. Lack of time is an often used excuse for lack of physical activity, but physical activity can easily be incorporated into your day by taking the stairs instead of the elevator, going for a walk during break times, and skipping drive thru windows.

We are only two short weeks away from the 7^th Annual Employer Healthcare and Benefits Congress in Orlando. On the fence about coming? Haven’t booked your flights yet? Need a better rationale for your boss? Look no further. Here are our top three reasons to attend EHBC 2015:

According to a new Business Insurance webinar, corporate wellness ROI is becoming a passé metric. ROI? How is that possible, you might ask? ROI is the critical metric. It’s how we back things up and prove their worth to executives, finance departments and our managers. However, with situations like corporate wellness programs creating a unique challenge to prove tangible corporate wellness ROI, a new metric Value on Investment or VOI is taking its place. 64% of corporate wellness administrators measure their program with VOI, while only 28% use ROI. While this is only from an isolated sample, it is indicative of a turn in the tide. Measuring value, including metrics like employee participation percentages and behavior changes in aggregate, still provide objective metrics that can prove the worth of the program without providing unreliable or altogether unprovable metrics. One major component of VOI that any employer can use is absenteeism. Measurably reduced absenteeism is what VOI is all about. A component directly related to your organization’s corporate wellness program providing measurable positive results on your employees’ day to day operations and continuity is the definition and practical use for VOI. Is your organization measuring VOI? It might be time to start.

What are the best practices for employee wellness programs? How do you know you are administering your employee wellness program the “right” way? You might be giving financial incentives or started a lunchtime walking group, but how do you know your employee wellness program is working for both you and your employees?

The 2015 Flu season is still a few months away, but now is a great time to start getting prepared. Every year the United States experiences an epidemic of seasonal flu. While flu season peaks in the winter months, flu outbreaks can happen as early as October and can last all the way into May. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends a yearly flu vaccination for everyone 6 months of age and older. This is the first and most important step to protecting oneself from this very serious disease. People should start getting vaccinated as soon as the flu shot becomes available. Many flu shot providers receive the vaccine as early as July or August. The CDC encourages getting the shot preferably by October. But as long as the flu virus is spreading, it’s not too late to get vaccinated. The flu shot has become easy to obtain. Even without insurance or appointment, CVS/pharmacy offers adolescent, adult, & senior flu shots right in the store while CVS/minute clinic locations offer all that and pediatric flu shots as well. All vaccines are administered by a certified immunizing pharmacist or through a nurse practitioner or physician assistant at Minute Clinic locations.