Festival Foods Offers Cash To Employees To Quit Smoking

Festival Foods are putting money where their mouth is

At Ukmedix News we’ve always harped on about the power of hard cash when it comes to getting men and women to be healthier. Whether it’s eating healthy and losing weight or quitting smoking financial incentives can play a big part.

The latest company to realize this is Festival Foods in America who are coming up with $250 cash incentives for any of their employees who quit smoking. In fact, while it’s good that Festival Foods are putting money where their mouth is their offer of $250 is actually pretty stingy when one considers that not only will they save on company health insurance policies, but that they will also reap benefits in less sick days and much boosted productivity from their non smoking employees.

In fact Festival Foods admitted that all of their employees pay the same for their in-house health insurance which in a sense means that the healthy nonsmokers are paying increased premiums to cover the risks of the unhealthy smokers. Festival Foods should consider making all the smokers pay for the extra insurance premiums because that will definitely produced dividends in the short term.

In fact we would advise Festival Foods to offer cash incentives for weight loss as well as smoking and to educate staff about healthy eating and invest in workplace gyms. They should also make it difficult for people to smoke at work and ban smoking on any premises that they own.

Peer pressure and leadership can play a great part in not only boosting the health of your company’s profits but also the health of its employees which can lead to greater loyalty, motivation and long term stability. If your company doesn’t have a policy to get people to quit you should write one right now which offers not only cash benefits but also access to a whole range of smoking cessation remedies and counseling.