If you have a job in the corporate world, when you get sick, you have to take time off work to visit the doctor. And if you’re not ill, since you have to take time off work to see a physician, chances are you don’t make regular preventative appointments.
The possible consequence of not making regular appointments with the doctor is they have no opportunity to catch any health problems early. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and what you don’t find today could lead to a big and costly health problem in the future.
So, instead of losing money in healthcare costs and workers to illness, companies need to find a way to encourage their employees to be healthy while not affecting their bottom line. That’s why companies like Tyson are bringing the doctors to the job, instead of the other way around.
Who Is Tyson?
John Tyson began his Tyson Foods chicken farming business in 1935 in Arkansas, and since then, grew his operation to include factories all over the United States. The company employs over 120,000 workers and is one of the biggest distributors of chicken products.
Before the spring of 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic, Tyson planned to open clinics outside of many of their plants throughout the US. The pandemic only proved the need for such readily available medical care for convenience, health, and cost savings.
If they wanted to see to their employees’ health and the safety of the products they were offering to consumers around the world, Tyson had to offer a solution that would help workers without hindering their production.
What Is Tyson Doing at Their Plants?
Upon researching their plant employees, Tyson saw that many of them weren’t taking full advantage of their health benefits. To remedy this problem and encourage regular visits to the doctor, Tyson built health clinics in close proximity to many of their factories. That way, they could cut insurance costs and make immediate care for their workers’ acute and chronic conditions.
These clinics include all of the equipment needed for both emergency and routine visits, like the onsite point of care testing diagnostics, labs, and prescription services.
Tyson’s Goals
With the pandemic, Tyson’s employees’ health goals are important to everyone who buys their products. After all, factory workers have the essential job of producing food, and keeping them healthy is key to avoiding a meat shortage.
Speeding up their plans to build onsite clinics, the company built seven healthcare offices to accommodate its employees’ health and safety needs.
In addition to supplying protective wear and dividers for their employees, the clinics also check temperatures before anyone enters the plant. They’re not just providing regular checkups, wellness checks, and chronic condition care, Tyson is ensuring its employees remain healthy.
And it’s not only Tyson employees that benefit from these clinics, but Tyson benefits too. That’s because healthy employees can work more hours throughout the year and produce more products.
Employee Health Is a Top Priority at Tyson
Building clinics outside of the company’s factories and filling them with qualified medical personnel isn’t cheap, but Tyson believes the investment is well worth the cost. When you care about your employees’ health and welfare, any investment you make in them will pay dividends over time.
If Tyson finds these clinics benefit their employees and the company, they plan to continue this effort across more of their locations. And maybe this will become standard practice for other company’s employees and their families to encourage people to care for their health regularly.