Employee wellness is the new buzzword in health care for companies. At all of the HR expos I have attended this year, employers are looking for ways to help get their workers healthy.

A focus on wellness helps a company keep its employees happy, especially during a time of growth. And even if the economy in your area isn't as robust as it was two years ago, it still makes sense to have a wellness plan in place. Healthy, happy employees make for healthy profits. It's all rolled up under the culture umbrella. Happy and healthy employees lead to a great culture. Everything you invest in wellness gives itself back in ways that are immeasurable.

Having a leadership team that supports all of your wellness initiatives improves company profits, not only financially but also by participation, improves the bottom line. Management should be in there on a daily basis encouraging employees to be as healthy as they can be. Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful existence. Here are some thoughts to consider:

• Progress means that improvement is always possible.
• Aware means that you are continuously seeking more information about how you can improve.
• Choice means that you consider a variety of options and select those in your best interest.
• Success is determined by each individual to be their collection of life accomplishments.

Employers are constantly besieged by consultants, brokers, insurance companies, product reps, and benefits companies to buy their respective "wellness widget."  Sometimes the requests come from bottom-up suggestions by workers, and often they are the result of concepts learned at various seminars that feature wellness gurus.