How Health Companies Can Make A Positive Impact On The Community

Anyone who is willing can make a positive impact on their community. You can start with simple acts of kindness like cleaning up a...
a group of people sitting on a bench posing for the camera

Anyone who is willing can make a positive impact on their community. You can start with simple acts of kindness like cleaning up a local park or volunteering at the local animal shelter. But how should a company look at their current practices to help make their workplace a better environment for all and what are the best practices for growing health and nutrition companies? Businesses and communities depend on having healthy people. For a health company’s long-term success they need employees, customers, and suppliers to be of healthy mind and body. Certain enterprises, especially smaller firms, may feel less able to invest in community health. But working in a partnership with other local companies through chambers of commerce or similar groups can make the process a win-win for everyone involved. Read on to learn about how health companies can make a positive impact on the community by implementing best practices and creating a wonderful work environment.

Investing in Wellness and Employee Experience

Health companies have an important role to play in community health. After all, staying fit is not just for healthcare companies anymore. While businesses invest in employee’s health and wellness, they also need to make sure that their families are taken care of as well. By making the effort to invest in employee health, a company is showing that they will go beyond the four walls of the office to look out for their surrounding community. When a company takes this type of action, they are creating commercial value and even a competitive edge. Some simple actions could be just expanding your employee’s wellness programs and promoting good food in the cafeteria.

Another great way to make a significant impact on your community is to try and reach out to local organizations and as Big Brother where you can speak on the importance of healthier choices and positive behavior. You can also look into branching off a bit from health and investing in affordable housing possibly near your headquarters. This can still relate to your business, seeing as when the community is no longer worrying about a roof over their head, this leads to healthier lives with less obesity and a great place all around. It is all about identifying an opportunity for your company and the community. For example, Venterra CEO John Foresi has made a huge step in the healthcare world as he celebrates healthcare heroes by setting up housing.

Venterra Realty, for those who are not aware, was founded by John Foresi and Andrew Stewart and is a property management company that owns and runs 60 apartment communities in the United States. These apartment communities house over 5,000 Healthcare Heroes. Many of these communities have medical professionals who have taken charge of caring for their own communities during the coronavirus and shown immense courage. The company was set up to follow a set of core values regarding how decisions would be made for the overall business and team members. Currently, Venterra provides housing to over 32,000 people. The company is looking to positively impact the overall lives of its residents, as well as being the best workplace for its team members. They’ll stop at nothing in their pursuit of excellence and the ideal employee experience. That’s why John Foresi is a top CEO among corporate leaders in the U.S.

Products and Services

A healthcare company can also try to alleviate adverse health impacts that are caused by any of its products or services. There are always tools that can be used to help develop clear resolutions for wellbeing needs. A great example of this is the fact the 3.6 million Americans end up missing their appointments because they do not have access to reliable transportation. A provider can look into how this impacts their particular communities and try to set up a program that would aim to alleviate the problem of transportation. Most companies can easily look into removing the barrier all together by just addressing the problems head-on.

Keeping your business and its sustainability running will be a major factor in your company’s success. Children in this country are already at risk of living shorter life spans thanks to lack of proper nutrition. By going to the source of where their workers and customers live, work, and play they can meet any issue head-on and try to gain the upper hand. If an employee’s child is sick or ill, they usually will have to take time off of work which would cause productivity to fall. Sick and absent workers cost American firms around $225 billion annually. This number proves that if a worker is unhealthy then it will trickle down to the entire community suffering from poor health. Corporations that invest in local community health have the potential to reduce employee healthcare costs, benefit their reputations, and create greater consumer and worker loyalty.

Lana Carson is executive editor of Urban Tulsa. Her writing has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books and The Huffington Post.
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