Proving that the first HR & Wellness Links Worthy of Your Attention wasn't a fluke, welcome to the second edition. Enjoy!

This is a list of the best HR and employee wellness-related links from the last week (or so), curated by Nicholas Tolson, CEO of Cor, and occasionally others as noted. From the useful, to the funny, to the irreverent, to the visionary. These are the links that made me think, made me laugh, made me scowl, or made me dream. We have likely tweeted most of these from @corHQ, but these are the best of the bunch. Enjoy!

HR & Wellness Links Worthy of Your Attention #2

• offered increased health care costs or increased exercise, employees choose action - The venerable and shift key-averse Fran Melmed breaks down a study in which participants were faced with an increasingly common choice: commit to more exercise or pay a financial penalty. The study produced impressive, if not entirely surprising, results. Some people felt "coerced," yet, interestingly, these people saw success in the program nonetheless.
• Frisco eighth graders become teachers' wellness coaches with big results - We know you're smarter than a 5th grader (and maybe Jeff Foxworthy, too), but how about having an 8th grader as your health and wellness coach? An innovative teacher in Texas decided to use students to help teachers eat better and get in shape. The trick? Both the students and the teachers were held accountable. Ingenious! (h/t to Rene)
• The pursuit of happiness in the workplace - The Financial Times, of all places, examines an issue that I've seen pop up in the mainstream press more and more recently: well-being. (Dan Bowling, one of Cor's advisors and a leading well-being consultant, is clapping his hands.) My question: it's obvious to us all that we're more productive when we're happy; why is it such a revelation that companies should be in the business of fostering this happiness in their employees?
• Digital Health For Dummies - I'm not sure John Nosta adds too much to the Wkipedia definition of digital health that he quotes in this article, but you will hear the line, "Digital health is a check engine light for your body!" quoted daily for the next three months. At least. It will get annoying, but it's a good little turn of phrase that I think will help people understand the real-world utility of digital health. For something a bit more in-depth, check out John's earlier article, "2013: The Year of Digital Health." 
• New Well-Being Study on Wellness a Game Changer - We were a bit obsessed with well-being this week, as you can tell, so add this summary of a study published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine to the pile. They looked at the correlation between well-being and productivity, but it's important to note that they took a broader view of well-being to include not just health-related risks, but work-related and financial aspects as well.
• Do Monetary Rewards Create Psychpaths - If the title alone didn't secure this post on incentives by Paul Hebert a spot on this list, the image of The Joker sealed the deal. It's another in a long line of posts on the limitations of financial incentives, but the focus here is on how incentives work to increase self-focused behavior. Thus, as Paul puts it, "With so much of our day-to-day work reliant on others it would seem to me that using cash or other monetary equivalents should be approached with caution."

Ok, what did we miss? Let us know on Twitter or via email. Thanks!

This Monday we started our Six HR & Wellness Links Worthy of Your Attention series. Well, it's Friday, and we know everyone wants to get to the weekend, so we're keeping things brief with another new series, "HR & Wellness Tweets of the Week." These will typically be lighter fare than the "Worthy of Your Attention" series, and may even include the occasional Rickroll for good measure. Enjoy!

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I hate those automated paper.li "online newspaper" pages. (Even worse are the automated tweets that promote them, but I won't go there.) Sure, they make things easy on the "publisher," but as a reader - a literal consumer of information - I want a human curating my information. That's the whole value proposition of our brains, or community, of sharing things between people. 

This is why I have long been a fan of Mitch Joel's "Six Links Worthy of Your Attention" series. He and two friends select two "must see" links, and each of these (do the math) six links is presented with a small summary/lead-in. Now that's what I'm talking about! They are on issue #151, and they are all really good.

So, with a nod and a thank you to Mitch and his cohorts, I present to you my HR & Wellness Links Worthy of Your Attention, Issue #1.

A list of the best HR and employee wellness-related links from the last week, curated by Nicholas Tolson, CEO of Cor, and occasionally others as noted. From the useful, to the funny, to the irreverent, to the visionary. These are the links that made me think, made me laugh, made me scowl, or made me dream. We have likely tweeted most of these from @corHQ, but these are the best of the bunch. Enjoy!

HR & Wellness Links Worthy of Your Attention #1

• Reading List from the Human Resource Executive Health & Benefits Leaders Conference - Here's a good idea: When you go to a conference, write down every book or paper you hear mentioned for future reference. That's what Janet McNichol did. And we should all thank her for it.
• Employee Benefits Leaders Share Insights from HRE Conference - From all accounts, the inaugural Health and Benefits Leadership Conference was packed full of useful information, and this 45-minute conversation between seven esteemed HR/wellness leaders (and a couple acquaintances of mine) who attended is an opinionated, useful, and enjoyable jaunt through some of the topics covered at the conference. 
• Hipster Bias: Another HR Hurdle? - Dawn Hardica teaches us how to detect hipster bias in your hiring practices. It's laugh-out-loud funny - "Which of the Avett-Brothers are you most like?  Describe." - but sheds light on fashion unfairly influencing your hiring decisions. With "what should I wear to this interview?" being a common question for young job-seekers, I say this is relevant to all all sides.
• Stop obsessing over wellness ROI - Heath Shackleford finally brings some level-headedness and nuance to the discussion of evaluating wellness, and encourages a holistic point of view. I couldn't agree more. I think the Einstein quote by a commenter sums it up best: "Everything that can be counted doesn't necessarily count; everything that counts can't necessarily be counted."
• The Scientific 7-Minute Workout - Everyone was all over this one from the New York Times this week, so it's unlikely you missed it, but it's too good to leave out. Lifehacker added to the pile with a series of videos showing you the proper form for each of the exercises. What's your excuse not to workout now? 
• With obesity epidemic, what's the best way to get people to eat healthfully? - The Washington Post asks the million-dollar (or is it trillion?) question, and surfaces some surprisingly simple - and free - solutions. Some may even call them "hacks." Such as, "Taller, thinner glasses can trick a person into thinking he has consumed more than if he had been drinking from a shorter, wider vessel."

I'd love to hear about any links you think are worthy of this list for next week. Tweet them to us @corHQ. Until then, happy reading...

Do you like to dance? Do you combine it with exercise? This guy sure does!

Professor and behavior design expert BJ Fogg and his team at the Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab want to explore the health benefits of dance. 

If this gets your foot tapping, and you'll be near Stanford on May 22nd, learn more and register at designfordance.org.

There's lots of data - and even more loose talk - about corporate wellness programs out there. People pontificate and argue about ROI (or lack thereof), engagement (whatever that is), incentives, HRA's, and other acronyms.

All this information typically results in more questions, rather than any concrete advice. At this moment, there are CEO's sifting through research reports and asking their HR department to convene wellness committees in order to determine whether they should implement an employee wellness program.

There are indeed lots of hard questions and real issues to grapple with when thinking about a wellness pogram. However, before you get down into the weeds, a CEO needs to determine whether a wellness program is something her company - and her employees - needs in the first place. No need to put the cart before the horse, right?

Being a CEO, I know things needs to be condensed down to their essence for me. Get rid of the fluff, and let me focus on the crux of the issue. With that in mind, fellow CEO's, here is your one-question methodology for determining whether your company should have an wellness program:

Do you believe happier, healthier employees make your company more competitive in the marketplace?

I'm sorry, you get no more questions in this survey. I cannot answer what "more competitive" means for you. That's up to you to decide.

Does it mean your employees will be more productive and thus produce more widgets in less time? Yes, possibly.

Does it mean you will have an easier time attracting and retaining top talent? Yes, possibly.

Does it mean you will have lower healthcare costs? Yes, possibly.

Does it mean you will win a "Healthiest Place to Work" award and get valuable PR? Yes, possibly. 

So, think about all of the above, and I'll ask the question again: Do you believe happier, healthier employees make your company more competitive in the marketplace?

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