Corporate Wellness Programs: a Business Strategy Investment

Most employees spend much of their day in the workplace, which usually impedes health and activity. For this reason, the first place to begin health improvement is in the workplace. The workplace is the ideal environment to influence employees to migrate toward a healthier lifestyle. Healthy activities and the introduction of nutritional foods through a Wellness Program at work can create healthier habits for your employees. Healthier employees are more productive, take less sick days, and save your company money.



The cost of health care has steadily increased over the years. In order to fight the double digit increase, wellness strategies must move away from a treatment oriented approach, to a preventive oriented approach. There is evidence that many of the leading causes of death, illness and disability are due to modifiable, thereby preventable, behaviors.

Because 70% of all illnesses are preventable, companies have the opportunity to influence the health of their workers. The necessary behavior change must occur in employees, who utilize health care, and be initiated by employers, who pay for health care. The movement toward corporate wellness programs to solve health issues must begin with a comprehensive plan that integrates into a company’s strategic or business plan.

A healthier workforce will have fewer health insurance claims, be more productive, and have less absenteeism and/or presenteeism. Employers understand that an increase in claims or usage of the benefit plan increases cost. The reduction of these risk factors dramatically decreases health care costs for your company.

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report revealed that worksites with physical activity programs have helped employers:

• Reduce healthcare costs by 20 to 55 percent

• Reduce short-term sick leave by 6 to 32

percent

• Increase productivity by 2 to 52 percent

A wellness program aims to reduce these risk factors among your employees. However, for a Wellness Program to be successful in the long term, it must have a plan to ease employees from external motivators, or incentives, to internal motivation such as the honest desire to be healthier and the dedication to making changes.

Incentives are important in initiating change, but should not be the core of a wellness program. The goal of your wellness initiatives should be to keep the low and moderate risk employees from moving to the high risk category. Risk factors increase proportionally with cost, and more rapidly than they decrease. A corporate wellness program that simply keeps the status quo can be as desirable as improving the health status of employees.

Best wellness practices advise your company to form an internal wellness committee. This committee should include a representative from key departments because wellness initiatives are a risk management program and not a frivolous benefit. Committee members should include financial representatives, worker’s compensation managers, disability managers, and accident or safety representatives. Your wellness committee, along with your company executives, should begin and maintain the culture of health in your organization to encourage healthier behaviors. Your company and employees will reap the benefits.