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Worksite Wellness: Benefits

"Live Healthy. Work Healthy."

Escalating health care costs continue to remain an issue of great concern for many health professionals, employers and insurance companies. While the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation in the world, its citizens are not the healthiest, in many respects. Employees with more risk factors, including being overweight, smoking and having diabetes not only cost more to insure, they also pay more for health care than individuals with less risk factors. To take a stand against this startling fact, many employers are now offering some type of wellness program to offset the rising costs of health care. Aside from helping improve the health of already at-risk employees, employee wellness programs also have a huge impact on healthy individuals, raising awareness so employees with fewer risk factors remain in a lower cost group. People spend more awake hours at work than anywhere else, on average 50 hours a week, so it’s up to employers to take aggressive action towards implementing wellness programs. Corporate wellness programs play a key role in maintaining and improving employee relations and morale. Bottom line, a healthy, motivated workforce is vitally important to a company as a whole.

A worksite wellness program can do the following:

  • Reduce absenteeism: It has been shown healthier employees spend fewer days away from work due to illness, saving the company thousands, even millions, of dollars on down time and temporary employment. Additionally, because good health typically carries over into better family choices, your employees could possibly miss less work caring for sick family members.
  • Control Increasing Health Care Costs: Today, employers have a vested interest in health-related issues and reducing unnecessary medical costs that consume corporate profits and employee paychecks. For many companies, medical costs can consume half of corporate profits…or more!
  • Improve Productivity: While it is not as easily measured as the increase in health care costs, improved employee morale and productivity plays a big role in the success of a company or business.
  • Improve Presenteeism: Presenteeism is a new phenomenon occurring when employees are at work but do not feel as productive as usual due to stress, depression, injury or illness.
  • Reduce Injuries: Healthy employees with less risk factors are at a lower risk for injury than those unhealthy employees with more risk factors. Classes are a popular means of trying to prevent injury, including exercise classes, smoking cessation courses, back care programs and stress management lectures. More examples of wellness programming courses include health education classes, subsidized use of fitness facilities; internal policies that promote healthy behavior and any other activity, policy or environmental change that affect the health of an employee.
  • Improve Employee Morale and Retention: Employee turnover is expensive and an employee wellness program is an added benefit to encourage employee retention. Company sponsored wellness programs send a clear message to employees that management values their well-being.

Worksite Wellness Programs for the Small Business
WELCOA’s 10 Steps

  1. Capturing CEO support
  2. Designating a Company Wellness Leader
  3. Conducting an employee interest survey
  4. Providing an opportunity for health screening
  5. Administering an annual physical activity campaign
  6. Holding a healthy eating in-service/lunch & learn program
  7. Establishing an in-house wellness library
  8. Disseminating a monthly health newsletter
  9. Implementing healthy policies and procedures
  10. Supporting community health efforts