Should My Company Consider A Wellness Program?

Are you personally a goal setter? Does the culture of your company thrive on competitive games for building camaraderie? Would it benefit your bottom line to save money on rising healthcare costs? Saving healthcare costs are on everyone’s mind, especially small business owners looking for strategies to reduce health costs, and maintain a happy healthy workforce. According to the Department of Health and Human Resources 2.5 trillion dollars is the annual expenditure for health care in the US; 70-75% of those expenditures are for treatable preventable conditions. Simple lifestyle changes can effect productivity, motivation and reduce healthcare costs. Investing in employees with programs to motivate change will create a better and happier employee relationship while helping reduce your expenses.

Do Incentives Work?

After teaching school for nearly 17 years, our owner, Olivia, will frequently state that adults are just kids in adult bodies; the same as they were in kindergarten. People respond to incentives! Do you use coupons? Carry discount or loyalty cards? Work to win points? Want to see your name posted for high score? Appreciate praise at a meeting of co workers? of course you do.

What type of program do you need? A program with quality promotional pieces selected for the types of employees in your location that is easy to control and administer based on your budget and time table.

For example:

1. Programs can be set up as pre-selected, pre-purchased and displayed on site. Programs like this can be promoted internally with special event days for recognizing employees that reach benchmarks.  

2. Company stores can be set up for redemption of selected merchandise.

3. Fulfillment suppliers can be contracted to provide the employee the ability to select their own products; shipped directly to them in a pre-selected price point determined by the employer.

How do you get started?

            If your company is large enough create a wellness committee or appoint a wellness chief.

            Consider inviting in a local hospital, they have wellness teams that can come in for education and assessment.

Are you a smaller company? Perhaps set some competitive goals with co workers with a reward for the winner or agree to have a walking staff meeting or a salad bar with items each employee brings in for the day.

How important is safety knowledge when purchasing promotional products?

Product safety is an important component to promotional advertising. Stories that focus on public perception and outcry when toys or apparel meant for kids are recalled due to safety issues are not hard to find; chances are you’ve read at least one such story in the last 6 months. In fact, one of our industry publications alerted distributors recently to be more stringent in our relationships for sunscreen and personal care products, citing a recent voluntary recall of some popular spray sunscreens as a fire hazard around open flame or before completely dry. Back in December we were reminding our cleints that they need to make sure that lips balms are up to date with new requirements for labeling ingredients.

 

As distributors we appreciate our industry association leaders promoting safety educaton and providing articles and alerts to help us navigate the complex jargon that surrounds product safety; however Promotional Partners has an expert on site!  

Having extracted, analyzed and reported results for a vast number of the toxic and carcinogenic chemicals from both drinking water, groundwater and soil samples for state and national contracts, Keith has the knowledge to interpret applicable compliance levels within our industry.  Many of clients started asking about BPA free water bottles a couple years ago, which means that they want products that are free of Bisphenol A, found in plastics; which over time can leach into the fluid the bottle contains.  The fear from the public arose due to the fact that almost everyone these days drinks from some type of plastic bottle.                   

Product safety and compliance became increasing important as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) released the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in 2008 aimed at improving the safety of products intended for use by children ages twelve and below.  This act made for sweeping changes in allowable chemical concentrations in mostly but not limited to plastic products.  California enacted Proposition 65 in 1986, leading the way for product safety.  Both of these pieces of legislation continue to change in an effort to promote an increase in safety for products used by US consumers.

If products were purchased by a supplier registered with both major associations, ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute) and PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) a distributor, such as Promotional Partners, will have the ability to access safety information insuring that the product has been third party tested and complies with all applicable laws.

Safety standards and protocols are in place to rather to raise awareness that companies should be purchasing from companies that seek out relationships for product safety and compliance before securing products that are promoting your business.  Purchasing from local distributors that are up to date on safety compliance the next time you decide to make a promotional item purchase from an internet supplier, make sure you are buying safe products that have been third party tested and certified.  We all want to make the news, but not for safety reasons.

 

Tech is hot!

Tech creates jobs and drives a demand for apps that are being incorporated into business models. Recently the Apex Chamber of Commerce added an App called My Chamber which allows businesses to connect with other chamber members supporting a shop local and shop within member attitude that promotes relationships that lead to long term business. Read more about how this app can help your business with the link offered here.  http://www.carynews.com/2013/07/08/3017179/local-chambers-of-commerce-turn.html

Incorporating tech pieces into your employee’s gifts, your sales team and your marketing is smart; connecting with the contemporary on the go life style that spans generations, ethnicity and genders. Layering promotional pieces that integrate tech components into the design of apparel, bags, and office products offer more than an edgy appearance, they provide form and function which reinforce the strong performance of ad specialty items to their recipient.

One of the key benefits of our company is the ability to one-stop-shop and source promotional items, print materials, displays, packaging, mailers, signage and other traditional applications for media distribution but often we see that our clients are not layering their media.

What are some ways you can create some interaction?

Apply a QR code to send customers to your blog or video clip demonstrating a new product.

Offering a redemption or contests with retail sales

Uploading forms unique to your business to USB drives; even have devices arrive pre-loaded.

Send materials in digitally printed envelopes and boxes to share your company story

Showcase new products or services with table tents or lobby displays such as light boxes or tripod fabric displays. Digital displays can include a QR code to reference back to print media describing your company’s work.