Corporate wellness programs can help a company's employees become happier, healthier and more productive. Prevention of disease is a key strategy. Wellness programs can benefit a corporation's bottom line by reducing heath care costs, a crucial consideration. Human resources managers and other executives can defend the costs and benefits of wellness programs to elicit organizational commitment and employee participation.
Types of Programs
The Washington Health Foundation, an agency that provides free wellness services to private businesses, conducted a study listing different types of wellness programs. These include blood pressure screenings, and workshops and classes on diabetes, tobacco cessation and stress management. Components of wellness programs also include encouragement of walking during employee breaks and lunchtimes, plus using stairs instead of elevators. Online health assessments, which then dispense individual advice, are also popular. Employee incentive programs are an additional component, and include giveaways from bottled water and granola bars to pedometers and discounted recreation center memberships.
As wellness programs spread, voluntary and mandatory participation have been tested by companies.For instance, the University of Alaska's voluntary program has a confidential health risk assessment for its employees; other facets of the program at the university include health and wellness seminars and screenings for problems such as high cholesterol.
Anna Wilde Mathews, in a July 9, 2009, "Wall Street Journal" article,details mandatory wellness programs. Mathews notes that the legality of mandating health tests such as blood pressure and mammograms is questionable. However, in a mandated program AmeriGas Propane Inc.compels employees with a tenure longer than two years to get annual checkups.
Employee Productivity
The Washington Health Foundation study cites statistics that show wellness programs decrease absences among employees, showing for instance that at a Nevada school district, wellness participants missed an average of three days less per year. The same report shows how a mandatory strength and stretching program increased productivity by 20 percent at a forklift manufacturing company.
Disease Prevention
Beyond helping workers to be more productive, wellness programs may save lives. AmeriGas cited "anecdotal evidence" that individual employees discovered diseases such as fatty liver and breast cancer because of the company's mandatory wellness program. The University of Alaska's program aims at prevention efforts such as providing immunization schedules for children and information on staying healthy past age 50. A Wyoming Department of Health report cites a study of a Salt Lake City, Utah, worksite wellness program that showed participants reducing rates of chronic conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity.
Cost Reductions
Businesses are in business to make a profit, of course. The return on investment of wellness programs is another benefit--and one that may be necessary to present when trying to solicit organizationwide participation. The Washington Health Foundation says that employees in wellness programs cost companies less because those employees make fewer health insurance claims and have less incidence of "catastrophic" diseases, such as cancer or heart attack. The Wyoming Department of Health report showed that wellness and prevention programs can reduce employers' health care premiums and disability costs.
Considerations
The best wellness plan in the world is ineffective if the company is unwilling or unable to encourage participation by employees. Mathews, in the "Wall Street Journal" article, stressed that an AirGas human resources representative actually reported higher initial health care costs for the company's mandatory program, because AirGas employees' screenings were covered 100 percent by the firm. The hope is that, over time, wellness programs will pay dividends with employee productivity, but all benefits of wellness must be analyzed for the long term rather than the immediate budgetary effect.
Tags: wellness programs, wellness programs, blood pressure, Health Foundation, Washington Health
