Whenever you are considering whether to make a financial decision, you consider what kind of a return you will have on your investment or what kinds of future costs could be avoided by taking action now.Many business owners struggle to see how setting up a wellness program is actually good for business.There is strong scientific evidence that a correlation exists between an individual’s unhealthy lifestyle and injury, disability and certain chronic illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, strokes, and premature mortality.If you can lessen the symptoms of or even prevent these illnesses with some intervention through the establishment of a wellness program, the benefits in the form of both insurance cost savings and increased employee satisfaction are significant.
In a corporate wellness program designed specifically for your company, the goal is to create programs based on the health needs and liabilities of your employees.Perhaps your employees struggle with cigarette smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyles, poor diets, being negatively affected physically by high stress situations, chemical dependencies, or mental health issues.Just imagine how much better your company would operate if all of these issues could be addressed.The individuals struggling with these problems would be happier, work better and have a higher quality of life.
There is significant evidence demonstrating the advantages of corporate wellness programs and the long-term savings to the employer when employees embrace the program and take advantage of the assistance and information provided through a well-organized program.There is a substantial amount of savings in health care costs to be had for the employer if they can promote physical activity, educating employees in effective ways to reduce risk factors for chronic diseases (most especially heart disease, which according to the U.S. Organization of Health and Human Services, is the leading cause of mortality in the United States each year). In fact, it was calculated that last year alone “heart disease accounted for more than $137 billion in national medical costs and lost productivity.”Hopefully your mind is now changing if you were one of those business owners who lives a philosophy of keeping personal health and wellness matters separate from the workplace
According to studies by the University of Michigan and Johnson and Johnson, “One of the major advantages of corporate wellness programs is that for every dollar spent on a corporate wellness programs, a company can save as much as $6 in insurance costs.” This same study also showed financial advantages of having an employee wellness program in that on average $1,100 was saved on insurance costs annually for every employee who quit smoking, $269 was saved each year for employees who changed their sedentary lifestyles and became more active, a whopping $1,200 was saved a year on employees who reduce their cholesterol levels from 240 milligrams to 190 milligrams, and an average of $177 was saved on employer paid insurance costs a year for every employee who goes from obesity (more than 30 pounds overweight) to a healthy weight.
Most wellness experts agree that the best way to make a corporate wellness program most successful is to identify the high-risk employees and the high-risk health behaviors and to first create a wellness program around the needs of the staff.Next, you must encourage those high-risk employees to change their behaviors and have the support system in place to facilitate the decision to make those changes.Setting up a wellness program is good for business when a desire to help employees improve their quality of life is married with a realization that the investment in your employees is really an investment in the future of your company.