Every country has its own way of dealing with health care. Maybe your country provides it to everyone, or maybe you as an employer provide insurance or other coverage for your employees. Whether you are paying for it or not, you have an incentive to help your employees stay healthy, trying to prevent illness rather than treating it. Sick employees miss work, which hurts your productivity, and when they do try to come to work anyway, they just make others sick. Chronic illnesses and unhealthy behaviors can lead to long-term problems that diminish their abilities over time. Employees who are worrying about their own illnesses, or illness in their family, will not be focused on work. So, helping your employees stay fit and healthy is not just a nice thing to do (which it is), it’s also a profitable thing to do.

So, consider how you can encourage good health in the workplace. Maybe make sure there are healthy snacks available. Perhaps the company can pay for smoking cessation programs. Make time during the day for physical activity. Subsidize gym memberships. Set aside a wellness fund that helps pay for employee entrance fees to local running events. Basically, tell people you want them to be healthy, and then back it up with action and, if necessary, some funding. The return on that investment is always positive.

And I’m not just saying that because I ran the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in Australia yesterday.