With more recent research being done on employee health and its effects on companies, it is now safe to conclude that the benefits from encouraging and implementing a wellness program are no longer disputable. Whether it is lower health care costs, greater productivity, lower absenteeism, or higher morale, healthy employees cost you less and have a noticeable impact on the company in both the short and long term.
Over time, you are able to drive down health care costs by positively influencing your employees’ health and well being. You can impact the healthy employees by maintaining their wellness, and even get some employees who are on the edge of being unhealthy back into good health.
An example of this written in the Harvard Business Journal, explains that doctors who conducted a study, at a single employer, researched a random sample of 185 employees and their spouses. The participants were not heart patients, but they received cardiac rehabilitation and exercise training from an expert team. Of those participants classified as high risk at the beginning of the study (according to body fat, blood pressure, anxiety, and other measures), 57% were converted to low-risk status by the end of the six-month program. Furthermore, medical claim costs declined by $1,421 per participant, compared with those from the previous year. A control group showed no such improvements. The bottom line: every dollar invested in the intervention yielded $6 in health care savings for that company.
A wellness program is not only a strategy for cutting avoidable costs, but also functions as a commitment to your employees and the overall health of your organization.
Wellness initiatives provide opportunities to help brand the company and drive change to the organizational culture. Here are some outcomes that result from developing your company brand and culture that could emerge from the pursuit of a healthy company lifestyle:
- Increased leadership opportunities
- Educated and empowered employees
- Ability to build connections and make cross-department communication easier
- Positive perceptions of the company and the workplace
- New, unique company and employee needs can be identified and acted upon
For further reading on workplace wellness check out this article.
