WELLNESS WITHIN WORKPLACE Wellness is defined as a way of life: a balanced lifestyle you design to achieve your highest potential for well being. Wellness could also mean the integration of body, mind, and soul; an awareness that the choices we make in one area affect all others. Several decades ago working conditions in England during the 19th century were abysmal. Men, women, and children laboured in dangerous factories during the day and went home to dirty tenement slums at night. Many of the factory owners cared little for the well-being of their employees. But during that time, the owners of the Cadbury chocolate company were different. Quakers by conviction and business entrepreneurs by giftedness, they focused on improving the working conditions of their 200 workers. With wellness defined as a way of life: a balanced lifestyle, experiencing it in full was important to “The Cadburys” so they built a state-of-the-art factory with heated dressing rooms, a kitchen, and recreational areas. And to care for the employees’ spiritual needs, the workday started with Bible study. According to Health Day news America; workplace wellness programs are an effective way to reduce major risk factors for heart disease, high blood pressure amongst others. Each year, heart disease costs Am

erica about $304.6 billion, Companies spend 25 to 30% of their annual medical costs on employees with significant health risks, mainly because of their increased likelihood of experiencing heart disease and stroke, But the financial burden also falls on workers, in the form of higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles, reduction or elimination of coverage and trade-offs between insurance benefits and wage or salary increases. "Research shows that companies can save anywhere from $3 to $15 for every $1 spent on health and wellness within 12 to 18 months of implementing a workplace wellness program,” asserts Mercedes Carnethon, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Though we may not own a company, we do have regular contact with a variety of people. It is important to be ethical in our dealings. George Cadbury will go down in history as an employer who realized that looking after employees and treating them with respect produces a well-motivated team