Monthly Archives: January 2011

10 Tips for Getting a "No" on a Cold Call

I admire sales professionals. You make a career doing something I don’t have the moxie to do. That said, I get several cold calls every day. If I wasn’t discerning and assertive in saying “no” to some very persistent salespeople, I’d never get the rest of my job done.

Here are some tips on how to get me to say no. I hope they will help you — as someone who sells services related to wellness or other employee benefits — get truly qualified prospects to say yes.

To get me to “no”:

  1. Start the call with “Tell me about your wellness program.” Continue reading →

Stress, man flu, absenteeism, and headlines run amok

We’ve been banging the stress drum lately, drawing attention to the role of the organization in workplace stress. Now comes a study that sheds light on the connection between stress, illness, productivity, gender differences, and the wackiness of the media.

Here’s the deal: This morning’s newspapers in the UK trumpeted a new study, saying the study confirmed the existence of “man flu.” Continue reading →

Working with Stress: The Movie

In a post a couple of weeks ago, Stress At Work: Does Your Job Make You Sick?, we prattled on about the demand-control model of stress. Maybe you didn’t have time to read that post and chose, instead, to wait for the movie. Well, your wait is over. The good folks at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), several years ago, published numerous resources on this topic, including a two-part video that they posted on YouTube, which we’ve posted below. While the production values, office backdrops, and hairstyles in the video are dated, the information is not. In fact, the latest research on workplace stress Continue reading →

Wellness Managers: 6 Reasons to Toot Your Own Horn

It’s easy to get jaded about awards for employee wellness programs, or to feel that doing presentations at conferences and talking to the media are luxuries you don’t have time for. But seeking public recognition of your program’s accomplishments is something you should see as an essential part of your job. Promoting your program to the world outside your organization is as important as promoting it internally, and the two are intrinsically connected.

There’s nothing self-serving about it. Public recognition of your employee wellness program will… Continue reading →

Stress at Work: Does Your Job Make You Sick?

The December CoHealth TweetChat generated a lively discussion about workplace stress (read a recap here). Some participants –notably, Dr. David Ballard from the American Psychological Association – cited the impact organizational structure and job design have on employee stress. For those interested in learning more about this model, we’ve posted the following excerpt from Bob Merberg’s The Health Seeker’s Handbook (Well Lit Books, 2003). In future posts, we’ll provide additional resources related to this essential concept in employee stress.

The primary reason that worksite wellness programs in the United States have failed to live up to their original promise — building a healthier, more productive workforce and reduced health care costs — is because these programs have focused on individual health behaviors with total disregard for the maladies and health-risks that are intrinsic to the organization itself. CEOs can be sold on the idea that their employees’ behaviors must change, but they refuse to assess the manner in which they treat those employees.

Over the last 30 years, a strong body of scientific evidence has emerged supporting the idea that employee health is driven largely by Continue reading →