Creating a smoke-free workplace is beneficial for not only your employees but your customers. You can create a smoke-free workplace by introducing a good policy in the office that won’t discriminate against your employees that smoke. An easy way to introduce the policy is to call in all your employees that smoke and let them know that you would like to create a smoke-free workplace. This way, you can give them notice that they need to quit smoking. Some employers will give their employees one year to quit smoking or start facing extra charges for health and life insurance costs.
Once you create a good smoke-free policy, simply let everyone know that you expect their compliance with their policy and anyone caught violating it will be punished. To avoid discrimination against your smoking employees, offer smoking cessation assistance. Talk to everyone at the company and let them know how they can help their co-workers quit smoking. It is much easier to quit when you have a good support group around you. The smoking cessation assistance you offer needs to be in place for smokers that may plan on quitting in the future.
Some of the ways you can create a smoke-free workplace without discrimination include the following:
- Compensation for employees that quit smoking
- Free classes and supplies (nicotine patches) to help your employees quit smoking
- Educational courses on quitting smoking
- Support groups for staff members and their family members that quit smoking
- Clear policies that discuss smoking rules in the office
- Company newsletters or emails that discuss the risks of smoking and the benefits of quitting
- Goals on how to quit smoking
There are other things you can do to help your staff members quit smoking, it is just important to treat everyone equally regardless of their personal choices. Let your staff members know you are there to help them and support them on their journey to quit smoking. They need to know you are not trying to punish them but that you are truly trying to help them improve their lifestyle.
Financial incentives have been found to be one of the most-effective ways to help people quit smoking. Financial incentives don’t even need to be something big, even offering your staff members $25 a year is a great way to inspire some people to stop smoking. There are other incentives you can offer that will help some people quite smoking. One of them is to give people additional job responsibilities. You can even consider giving them time off work if they meet their goal and quit smoking by a specific date.
Some employers have taken a different approach to get their staff members to quit smoking. Instead of rewarding them for quitting, they will punish them for smoking. It will be outlined in the company policy that they need to pay an additional amount to the company (which will be taken out of their paychecks) if they are smoking. This money will be used to pay for the higher medical expenses of the company since they are in the high-risk pool for health insurance.
Quitting smoking really can improve your lifestyle. Your assets actually decrease if you are a smoker because it is difficult to get the smell of smoke out of things like fabric. Homes often do not re-sell for as much money as they should if you are a smoker. Many people are even excluded from certain social occasions because they are smokers. Smoking may even help you advance in your career. Since some companies won’t hire smokers, you may miss out on the opportunity to get into a great career.