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Over a decade of research has effectively shown that employee
wellness programs help to create a happier, healthier, and more
productive workforce. Wellness programs may be one of the few employee
benefits that pays money back to the organization.
One Canadian study has shown that for every dollar spent on a
corporate wellness Program, the returns have been cost savings
of between $2.30 and $10.10 in the areas of decreased absenteeism,
fewer sick days, reduced work insurance claims, lowered health
and insurance costs, and improvements to employee performance and
productivity.
Employer-sponsored wellness programs are a "growing global
phenomenon," according to a worldwide survey of employers
released in October, 2007.
According to the report, Working Well: A Global Survey of
Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies, wellness
programs are on the rise worldwide - the use of them varying
by region:
• North America: 86 percent.
• Europe: 25 percent.
• Asia: 21 percent.
• Australia: 20 percent.
• Central and South America: 19
percent.
• Africa/Middle East: 18 percent.
The same survey revealed that objectives for implementing wellness
programs vary by geographic region.
Employers in Australia, Canada and the U.S. use wellness programs
as a way to attract and retain talent. In Europe the objective
for using them is to reduce sickness and disability-related absences.
In other regions, employer-sponsored wellness programs are seen
as a way to improve workplace morale and productivity.
"This broad range of objectives is a good indication of
why wellness initiatives are becoming popular around the world," Barry
Hall, a Buck Consultants principal who directed the survey, said
in a press release.
From a management perspective, wellness programs have the potential
to decrease absenteeism, reduce medical claims costs, and improve
employee productivity, recruitment, and retention.
Employee wellness programs have long been reported as a way to
decrease healthcare costs, as supported by the following evidence:
• DuPont's Worksite Health Promotion pilot saw a saving
of 11,726 disability days and a return of U.S. $2.05 for every
dollar invested by the end of the program's second year.
• Coca Cola reported saving $500 every year per employee
after implementing a fitness program.
• Prudential Insurance Company reported that the benefits
costs for employees participating in their program were $312, as
opposed to $574 for non-participants
• Johnson & Johnson estimated an average saving of U.S.
$224.66 per employee per year for the four years examined after
the program introduction, with the bulk of the savings being in
the third and fourth years
• According to the Industrial Accident Prevention Association,
a Canadian association, workplace wellness initiatives can save
at least 20% of healthcare costs for Canadian companies.
Work performance is somewhat difficult to quantify, but several
researchers have studied the impact of exercise on job performance.
NASA, for example, found that while the productivity of non-exercising
office workers decreased 50% during the final two hours of the
work day, exercisers worked at full efficiency all day. General
Electric reported a 45% decrease in absenteeism as a result of
their corporate wellness program.
As these case studies show, being proactive in employee health
makes good business sense.
No longer are corporate wellness programs something that businesses
ask: 'Should we do this?' Instead, many are asking: 'How can we
do this?'
In Part
II of this article we will look at the different strategies
used to develop an effective corporate wellness program.
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