Corporate wellness simply involves a company ensuring the good health of its employees so as to limit the costs of healthcare for the company, while increasing productivity by alleviating absenteeism.
Despite rules and guidelines prohibiting workplace relationships, many companies have taken countermeasures to ensure their employees remain productive and safe at work. Employers have created policies and health programs to curtail the spread of STDs. And thus, STD testing for Corporate has become a pillar in recent years. This paves the way for the subject of discussion.
Why STD testing is a major part of corporate wellness?
1) There are no laws to safeguard workplace sexual health
For one, there are no legal measures that require any infected persons – whether infected with HIV or another STD – to disclose their status at work. This means the burden falls on the employer to establish a health program treating or preventing the spread of disease amongst employees.
Legally, an employer cannot single out anyone for testing – even during the hiring process – which means that the employees have to be encouraged or incentivized to get tested.
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2) Office romance is rampant
According to a recent study by reputable Vault.com, at least 5 out of 10 employees who participated acknowledged that they did in fact engage in office relationships at one point or another, regardless of policy. Whether it was just a one-night fling or a long-term relationship, employees are likely to have relationships and establishing a sexual health program is for the betterment of the work environment as a whole.
As more issues on intergender dynamics in the workplace blanket modern media outlets, the last thing you want is to garner attention for a chlamydia epidemic within your organization. Thus, having an STD testing program in the workplace is vital to curtailing the spread of sexual infections among employees.
3) STDs mostly affect the working age group
STDs are naturally prevalent among the sexually active and the workforce is majorly made up of such individuals i.e. between 24 to 40 years with slight minorities on either side of that age bracket.
The risk of infection at the workplace is therefore extremely high with events such as corporate sponsored parties and other alcohol-fueled festivities cementing the need for Corporate wellness that encompasses regular STD testing. According to a study on chlamydia conducted by STDTestingOrlando.net, 70% of men and 90% of women who have chlamydia won’t display any symptoms. And thus, are never tested for STDs.
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4) It Saves Time
Based on figures provided by Gallup, the average American employee – i.e a full-time employed adult – works more than 47 hours each week. This leaves only one free day out of seven for social interaction, and leisure. These figures show us that employees spend most of their time at work. Having a voluntary system in place will ensure the workforce is constantly encouraged to maintain sexual health and removes friction from the process of getting tested for STDs. As we’re biologically wired to reproduce, these policies also incentivize employees to remain healthy and fit which bleeds over into workplace productivity.
Health Awareness Yields Greater Productivity
Corporate wellness hinges greatly upon the sexual health of employees, as most cases of workplace infections are usually sexually transmitted infections. Furthermore, these infections can add to long-term health expenses and high premiums.
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According to Homestdtesttalk.com, untreated bacterial infections in women result in pelvic inflammatory disease in about 40% of infected women – 1 in 3 of these women will experience infertility. Women with untreated gonorrhoeaa experience higher infant mortality, and the babies that survive are more likely to be born blind. Untreated chlamydia can lead to erectile dysfunction. And having initiatives and programs that address HIV in the workplace can be cost-effective, saving businesses money by reducing the financial impact, legal implications, and other resulting disruptions according to the CDC.gov website.
Good corporate wellness has a plethora of benefits to the employer including improved morale, reduced loss of effective working hours, and lower insurance costs. Therefore, many organizations across the country have put together policies and programs to prevent STD outbreaks from impacting the overall health of the company.
