How healthy is the work environment that you’ve created for your employees? Think about it. Is your corporate culture so toxic that it drains the energy, creativity, enthusiasm, and health of your employees? Or have you created an environment that encourages and sustains work/life balance while supporting employee efforts to manage their health?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting afternoon naptimes complete with milk (skim, of course) and cookies - although there is compelling research in support of the power nap for increasing productivity, alertness, and mood. And it would be disingenuous of me to suggest that we don’t need to work hard to increase performance, remain competitive, and continue to move our businesses forward.

But if you think that your employees don’t react negatively to a corporate environment relentless in its push for ever-increasing performance, consider an October 2007 article in Harvard Business Review.

“Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time” reinforces the knowledge that our most prized personal resource, physical energy, is renewable—but only when it’s tended with conscious intention. With spring just around the corner (yet struggling to get here), it’s a great time to tend to health habits that may be suffering from neglect—and creating a drain on personal energy.

Where can you make improvements to help employees nurture and tend that oh-so-precious renewable resource? Here are four major culprits of energy drain, complete with spring renewal plans to combat even the worst offenders!

Energy Drainers

1. Skipping meals, or grabbing high-fat, sugar and salt-laden choices on the run.
2. Using the vending machine as a stress relief mechanism.
3. Relying on the cream and sugar in your coffee for fuel.
4. Serving as the “go-to” person that harbors the desk drawer stash of candy and junk.

Spring Renewal Plan

1. Re-write the menu for breakfast meetings and working lunches—replace donuts and Danish with bagels, greasy pizza with turkey, tuna, and lean meats, and don’t forget to serve plenty of fruit, yogurt, salads, and water.
2. Review your vending machine offerings; are they in desperate need of a nutritional revamp? Healthier choices, when eaten as a delay tactic for writing a tedious sales report, can improve concentration.
3. Is the coffee station stocked with chemical-laden coffee creamer and huge bowls of sugar? Provide 2% milk, soy creamer, green and black tea, and individual packets of sugar (great portion control).
4. Come clean about the junk food stashed in your desk drawers; dump the junk and restock with healthy, energizing snacks.

For a free list of healthy desk drawer snacks, send an e-mail with “Healthy Desk Drawer Snacks” in the subject line to nutrifit@sbcglobal.net

Cathy Leman is a registered and licensed dietitian, certified personal trainer, and the owner of NutriFit, Inc. in Glen Ellyn. She conducts nutrition education and wellness programs for companies, and is the author of the booklet “Nutrition At Work: 60 Simple Ways To Eat Healthy On The Road And At The Office”. Individual copies and quantity sales are available by contacting her at www.eatwellgtestrong.com.