Health and Wellness Center

Armed with data, Worksite Health Promotion Program topic preferences and goals - and a Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee rearing to get things done - it is now time to decide how best to take action.  This website provides tools to help you!  You can read about the different types of wellness programs available by other companies to get an idea of what could possibly work for your employer.  There are Statewide Resources listed as well as national non-profit groups offering resources, and specific examples of resources available on various wellness topics.  In addition, keep looking under Steps to an Effective Program for ideas to get you started!

If your planning phase was well executed, you should simply have to follow through with the plans you have already made.  

Important Corporate Health Promotion Program considerations include:

1. Formally Introduce the Employee Health Promotion Program and consider policy statements that state the significance of the wellness program.  Examples include a general policy concerning the commitment to employee health and safety as well as specific policies such as No Smoking, Healthy Eating and Physical Activity.
2. Communicate Your Program: The best planned program with great wellness programs will not be productive if your employees are unaware of it or do not be aware of the options or how to take part.  Communicate your wellness program using a variety of methods to be sure the message and “how-to’s” are heard!

   Employee Wellness Program Communication Strategies might include:

   • Newsletter articles
   • Postings on the company’s intranet or internet
   • A designated Champion of the program
   • Formal or informal meeting to announce program, “the kick-off”
   • Flyers / pamphlets / brochures / table tents,
   • Bulletin boards / kiosk where all material is promoted or found,
   • Email / phone messages,
   • Mailings or distributions  

3. Use Company Health Promotion Program Incentives:  You will be amazed to find out what most of us will do for a no cost T-shirt.  Incentives can both support and innervate participation among staff members.  Consider both formal or business incentives and rewards and informal or program rewards/prizes from local resources to reinforce participation in Company Health Promotion Programs. Either way, it’s important to offer incentives and rewards that are attractive and meaningful to your staff members.

   Formal Workplace Health Promotion Program Incentives:

   • Discounts on employee medical insurance premiums or co-pays, or contributions to 401K programs, employee stock options, or other mechanisms.  
   
   Click here for more information on health plan incentive ideas
   
   • fitness center/Fitness Center discounts or enrollment fee coverage
   • Public transportation vouchers
   • Flexible work time options
   • “Wellness Days” off work  

   Prizes or Informal Employee Wellness Program Incentives:

   • Cash - a very effective incentive!
   • Prize incentives/rewards such as gift certificates to healthy restaurants; music player to use while working out, emergency kits, or any other prizes that would innervate your staff members.
   • T-Shirts, water bottles, or other inexpensive rewards

4. Assess area resources available to offer some of the wellness services.  The local health department or your company medical care provider may be able to help  you with this information.  There are also vendors throughout the State providing excellent wellness services for corporations.  They are available to help you strategize and find the best options available.

5. Implement your program as planned documenting information and outcomes as you go such as numbers of participants, dates of activities, and any other special details you are tracking.

The Company Wellness Program Committee ought to set out a plan for the entire year that outlines accomplishing goals and objectives, as well as provides details for marketing and evaluating the program. The plan is the detailed map of what types of programs will be offered, when and where they will be scheduled, how they will be marketed and evaluated, and what the budget is.  It is important to plan your wellness activities based on your goals and objectives, as well as the budget since different strategies will provide different outcomes.  For example, if your objective is to broaden awareness on a topic, then distributing handouts or scheduling a one-time class may be appropriate.  Nonetheless, if your objective is to change behavior, then different strategies may be necessary, such as ongoing weekly meetings and support groups.  Click here to link to Program Design Options for additional ideas.

Worksite Wellness Program Marketing

This is the time to coordinate your marketing strategies!  How can you market the wellness program and ongoing activities?  No matter how you decide to, market often, keep it fresh, and remind workers over and over!  Consider having an overall kickoff exercise to let everyone know about the wellness program.  Upper Management must provide the introduction or invitation so that all workers are aware of their reinforcement and leadership in the program.

Possible marketing methods:

• Sending email messages, including reminders
• Create bulletins,
• Hanging bulletin board postings,
• Writing articles,
• Sending letters or
• Distributing special invitations.  

Other Worksite Wellness Program Considerations:

• Is the Company Health Promotion Program promoted to all employees or to a specific target audience?
• Do you have a Company Health Promotion Program champion (someone who is connected with different groups in the organization, and well respected) who can help in your promotion efforts?
• If your marketing efforts do not seem to be working, do you have a way to revisit and change your plan?
• How will you determine effectiveness and evaluate your program?  And how will you collect the information needed to evaluate your program?  

Topics most frequently included in Corporate Health Promotion Programs:

• Nutrition
• Physical Activity/Exercise
• Tobacco Use Cessation
• Bone Health
• Cardiovascular Health
• The Spine
• Stress Reduction
• Chronic Disease Awareness & Prevention
• Self-care; Wise Health Care Consumer
• Screening Services (BMI, Blood Pressure (BP), bone density, blood lipids, glucose, posture, vision, and other…)
• Ergonomic Assessments
• Health Fairs
• Kids/family Events
• Others topics that staff members have interest in  

The topics and type of Company Wellness Program planned hinge upon the needs and interest, overall goal and resources available.  Program Design Options   include awareness programs such as brochures and/or education sessions, behavior change programs such as tobacco cessation and weight loss classes, and environmental or organization support such as no smoking policies or healthy selections in vending machines.  

The programs planned also depend on the demographics of your workforce.  If you have a young, healthy workforce, you may want to focus the wellness attention on keeping staff members healthy and not need to screen for disease.  Instead you might want to focus on healthy lifestyle behavior such as exercise and great diet to prevent the on-set of disease.  Click here for more information on strategies for keeping staff members well, identifying disease early, or returning staff members to work who already have a chronic conditions.

It is also valuable to consider, and plan how you will evaluate the performance of your wellness program.  The system needs to be established for tracking certain data and recording activities depending on the program goals/objectives.  Step 7 discusses program assessment in more detail.   And Step 6 will launch your program!

A Employee Health Promotion Program without objectives is somewhat akin to taking a family trip without any planning; you won’t know where you’re going, how to get there, what you want to do once you have arrived, or even whether or not you have arrived!  The trip may end up ok, or it may end up disastrously.  Yet, with a modest amount of thoughtful planning, you increase your chances for a successful experience.  Clear objectives are necessitated to plan your wellness program in order to ensure success!

Wellness program goals/objectives are different from one company to another depending on the population, needs, interests and resources.  Nevertheless, well thought out objectives based on your company’s needs assessment will form the foundation of a efficacious wellness program!

Worksite Health Promotion Program Mission Statement

The first consideration is a mission statement for your Worksite Health Promotion Program. The mission statement is the overriding expression of what the Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee wants to accomplish by launching a wellness program.  It is important to consider how your Worksite Health Promotion Program fits in with the employer mission statement, contributes to the overriding mission and supports the employer bottom line.  This will integrate your efforts throughout the employer operations.  

Here are some examples of Employee Health Promotion Program mission statements:

“At XYZ Corporation, maintaining an environment that supports employee health and safety is our underlying value.  It is the mission of the Worksite Wellness Program to support  in beginning Worksite Wellness Program services that fosters and upholds that value.”

“It is the mission of the XYZ Workplace Wellness Program Committee to cultivate healthier lifestyle choices to decrease health risk factors, improve overall wellness, and maintain a advantageous, active work force.”

Employee Wellness Program Goals

The objectives and goals further define your mission and are based on your needs assessment.  Depending on the needs assessment, upper management expectations and employee interests, examples of objectives and goals can include:

The intention(s) of XYZ Worksite Health Promotion Program in year XXXX is to:  (one or more of the following examples)

• Decrease absenteeism by one day per employee
• Cut down on musculoskeletal injuries by 10%
• Cut down on unnecessary emergency room visits
• Lower or contain healthcare costs
• Improve dietary habits of employees
• Cut down on health risk factors  

Worksite Health Promotion Program Objectives

Specific Corporate Wellness Program objectives help meet your long-term goals and objectives.  Both short term and long term objectives must be developed as the stepping stones to accomplish the goals and objectives.  In addition to objectives for the expected participant outcomes, process objectives must also be developed for the program process itself.  By way of example, process objectives may include how many employees you want to take part in the programs, how many sessions on a topic will be available, the type of wellness sessions that will be implemented, etc.

Objectives must be easily measurable within a set time frame.  Try using the SMART formula to set up both your long and short-term goals/objectives:

• Specific (one behavior or outcome)
• Measurable (one result that can be inspected or evaluated),
• Attainable (but also challenging),
• Realistic (do you have the resources to achieve?), and
• Time specific (within 3 months - up to 5 years)  

This is the who, what, when, where, why, and by how much method.  For example, the mission for a weight loss program that has an overall intention of improving healthy eating and promoting a healthy weight is that:

Members (who) will lose an average of .5 - 1 lbs per week (specific what that is measurable) at the end of the 12 week lunchtime program (time specific what, when and where) for a minimum of 6 lbs weight loss per colleague (attainable and realistic).

Or:

Members (who) will catch 11 of the 12 sessions (specific what that is measurable) and name at least one healthier eating change at the end of the program (specific what, when, where)

An example of an objective for coaching workers with elevated cholesterol might be:

To cut the total cholesterol (specific what) of high risk employees with cholesterol over 240 mg/dl (specific who) to 200 mg/dl (measurable how much) through one-on-one counseling sessions provided at the worksite (where) by X date (ex, after 6 months) (attainable, realistic & time specific when) to cut the risk factor for heart disease (why).  

And one last example of a process objective for a smoking cessation program with an central objective to assist  participants in committing to quit for life:

By the end of the 4-week smoking cessation program, ten percent of the participants will have quit smoking.  Each participant will be contacted at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months from the program’s end to determine quit status (process goal) and ten percent of those who quit will still be tobacco-free after one year.

You have now completed Steps 1 through 4, including starting your Workplace Wellness Program Committee.  It is now time to plan your wellness activities!

Prior to you start drafting your Employee Health Promotion Program you need to know where you are now and then decide where you want to go.  Attaining a thorough needs assessment is vital to the performance of your wellness program for two reasons:  First it ensures that your Employee Health Promotion Program activities will be targeted to meet your company’s specific needs so that outcomes can be achieved.  Secondly the needs assessment supports the information you will need to evaluate the effectiveness of your wellness program.

It is frequently tempting to rush the assessment - especially when time is short or those with experience already have an idea of needs.  Do not give in to this temptation!  It is vital to know what your corporation needs are, what senior staff expects, and what workers want as well as expect, before you create a Worksite Health Promotion Program.  

Consider and gather data on:

• Employee Demographic Information
• Employee Health Risk Factors
• Medical Claims
• Injury Rates & Causes
• Workers’ Compensation Claims
• Short and Long Term Disability Claims
• Absenteeism
• Corporation Culture Audits
• Employee perceived needs and health risks
• Upper Management’s expectations or desired outcomes

There are many ways to assess this information.  Although some of data gathering process may be time consuming, remember that it is nonetheless critical to plan programs that target specific concerns.  This information will be critical to set objectives and for evaluating program performance.  How else can you know if outcomes have been achieved?

Options to help gather the information:

• Confidential Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) with a Employer Group Summary Report
• Wellness Screenings such as blood lipids, Blood Pressure and blood sugar click here for additional information on wellness screenings.
• Employee Needs and Interest Surveys
• Suggestion boxes placed around the organization
• Focus Groups or hosting a luncheon meeting as a focus group
• Sending out a confidential email questionnaire
• Review records and databases including OSHA logs, first aid reports, insurance expenditures  

Once your needs assessment is complete, the Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee can review the outcome and begin drafting and prioritizing program options.  Creating must be based upon objectives and goals and identified outcomes, Step 4 of the seven step process!

Organizing an active Worksite Wellness Program Committee supports opportunities for both senior staff and employee participation in the program.  The Committee ought to be a team of staff members and managers who formally meet to plan activities to reward healthier employee lifestyles.

Typical Functions of a Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee:

• Analyzing needs & interests
• Coming up with program ideas
• Developing activities
• Creating communication plans
• Promoting programs to co-staff members
• Serving as champions of the Workplace Wellness Programs
• Assisting with evaluation  

Your Corporate Wellness Program Committee should be representative of all echelons of the organization.  Consider all facets of the workforce - multiple sites, shift employees, diversity (race, gender, ethnicity), and departments.   It’s also important to consider who will chair or co-chair the Corporate Wellness Program Committee and whether or not there are the finances to support a Corporate Wellness Program manager or occupational health consultant, even on a part-time or contractual basis.  Click here for more information on the benefits of a health consultant.  

Depending on your organization size and resources, if you already have a organization Safety Committee you might want to consider making it the Safety & Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee.  You have the potential to request volunteers or invite employees to take part.  

The number of Corporate Wellness Program Committee members depends on the size of your company; however, you need sufficient members to get the work done and yet not too many to keep it manageable, usually a minimum of 4 members and maximum of 12 to 15 members.  It’s significant to include skeptics of wellness as well and not just those staff members already living healthy lifestyles.  

Depending on your worksite, consider representatives from the following areas:

• Employee representatives from a cross section of different departments,
• Upper Management
• Health and safety professional(s),
• Human resources consultant(s),
• Employee benefits representative or someone from finance,
• Your Employee Assistance Program provider (if applicable), Click here for more information on EAPs
• Occupational health employee (if applicable).

Establish an effective Workplace Wellness Program Committee!  The Workplace Wellness Program Committee should meet on a regular basis with a planned agenda and action items.  Effective Wellness Committees have a shared mission, vision and objectives and goals.  Members must believe that their participation is worthwhile and appreciated, that their work is important, benefits the organization and co-employees, and they are recognized for their contributions. Refer to the NC Workplace Programs section for examples of what other organizations have implemented.

As with any program, the two most important elements for the success of your wellness program are senior staff backing & employee participation.  Upper Management establishes the vision and supports the resources from which action plans flow.  Genuine backing from senior personnel also brings credibility to the wellness initiative.  It is important that senior staff be visible supporters and role models for your Company Health Promotion Program.

staff members need to be involved on several echelons so that they feel ownership of the wellness program.  Workers are the program stakeholders!  All staff members should have an opportunity to support input and feedback through needs & interest surveys and program assessment tools.  The information gathered should be used to plan programs that target those needs and interests to ensure participation, buy-in, and backing.

There are several methods to identify employee needs and interests such as:

• Holding Employee Focus Groups
• Discussing Wellness Interests During Department gatherings
• Distributing and Encapsulating a Needs & Interest Survey
• (Including|Allowing for|Making sure to include} an Opportunity to Give Suggestions on Each Evaluation Tool  

Any one or combination of several techniques will be sure that the wellness program meets what employees want.

Step 3 supports additional information on determining wellness program needs.  But first, instituting a Company Wellness Program Committee can help you involve upper management & employees, determine need, and plan your wellness program.

A key to a thriving Worksite Health Promotion Program requires management commitment and employee involvement.

Company Health Promotion Program Step 2: Create a Company Health Promotion Program Committee

An active Company Health Promotion Program Committee sees to employee involvement, supports buy-in, management backing, and maintains a team that is ready to take action to launch wellness programs.

Workplace Wellness Program Step 3: Gather Data to Ascertain Key Needs and Expectations

The next vital step is to base the Employee Wellness Program on the needs and interests of your organization and its staff members.

Employee Wellness Program Step 4: Set Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives constitute the maps to guide you where your program needs to go.   These make up the foundation for planning and evaluating activities to see to it that your wellness program will meet your special needs.

Employee Health Promotion Program Step 5: Design a Detailed Action Plan

There is no such thing as over-planning!  The best of intentions can get lost, overstepped, or forgotten withoutadequate planning, and then it would be all for naught.

Employee Health Promotion Program Step 6: Select and Implement a Plan

Once you have the needs assessment results, a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee, goals and objectives it’s now time to put your plan into action!

Corporate Wellness Program Step 7: Oversee and Assess Your Corporate Wellness Program

Evaluation is a critical step to keep a program on target, as well as to ensure that the program is reaching its goals and objectives or achieving favorable results.

In Conclusion

These Seven Steps outline considerations for a all-inclusive approach to designing and launching an effective wellness program.  Are you able to start components of wellness activities without following these steps?  Yes, of course, but you may not have the sustainability or ability to see desired outcomes.  Following the Seven Steps need not be difficult or burdensome.  A very simple approach can achieve a successful wellness program!

Therefore, to ensure a successful wellness program remember the key components as you plan your program or improve your current program:

• Senior Leadership Support & Employee Involvement
• Active Workplace Wellness Program Committee
• Worksite Wellness Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Worksite Health Promotion Program Goals and Objectives are Determined
• Detailed Worksite Wellness Program Action Plan Based upon Resources & Budget
• Worksite Health Promotion Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Assessment of Company Wellness Program Outcomes

The program design options hinge upon the objectives and goals and desired outcomes of your program.  If your intention is to help employees change behavior, decrease risk factors, or save health care dollars then your wellness program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be essential to support that design.  

There are different wellness program design levels depending on desired outcomes and budgets.  Each level has advantages and disadvantages.  The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining similar results, and therefore should not be confused.  For example, planning activities such as an employee health & wellness fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having pamphlets available do not usually result in behavior modification, but may expand awareness on a topic.  If the intention is behavior modification then a different design is required, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Employer Support.  The outline below describes the wellness design levels with a brief explanation.

Awareness Programs:  At this level a employer makes health information available and accessible to staff members.  This type of program frequently includes pamphlets on a variety of issues, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc.   Also, most wellness fairs are designed as awareness programs with vendors providing information and providing health screenings to staff members.  

Awareness programs are cheap and do not require extensive employee or organization time commitments.  Still, these programs do not usually result in behavior change.  Improving awareness isn’t usually enough to generate lifestyle changes for most people, unless used to arouse staff members to register for a program being provided at the organization or area on the topic.  An example of this would be offering information on the dangerous effects of smoking and inviting staff members who use tobacco to register for a tobacco cessation class.

Education Programs:  Educational programs often support more information on a topic and are able to also provide time for questions & answers, but are similar to awareness programs.  An example is lunch-n-learn sessions on a health related topic.  These cost the corporation a little more than awareness programs; however, they are still inexpensive and do not require much time for planning or attending a session.  Again, increasing awareness and providing information may not lead to the desired behavior modification unless ongoing backing or incentives are also planned.

Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs:  These programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or seminars to support wellness and health education, address barriers and support opportunities to practice the desired skills.  Behavior change programs therefore require more organization resources, cost more, and also require more employee commitment, time and effort.  The results are frequently the desired positive lifestyle change, which if sustained may lead to potential cost savings.  

Examples are tobacco cessation classes, weight loss and weight management meetings, or an ongoing exercise program.

Environmental and Company Support:  Environmental backing is often considered the highest and most significant level to include when creating your wellness program in order to support and maintain healthy behaviors.  These types of design options include policy changes such as:

• Creating a smoke-free workplace
• Designating a walking path,
• Establishing worksite fitness centers,
• Ensuring healthy vending machines selections,
• Offering healthy food choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Establishing flex-time policies.  

Other examples include subsidizing healthy snack machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing gym or weight loss and weight management program memberships; or providing insurance rewards and incentives for healthy behaviors.

Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of all of these options.  The more comprehensive the approach, the more efficacious the results will be.  For example, a employer can have smoking cessation information available; can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of smoking and how to quit; can enable an onsite tobacco cessation program, supply self quit smoking kits, or support workers to catch a neighborhood program; and/or on an environmental backing level can establish a tobacco-free workplace and grounds, offer reduced healthcare insurance for non-smokers, or provide pharmacological quit smoking aids for free.

Workplace Health Promotion Program: Components for Success

There are several key parts that have to be considered to ensure the effectiveness of your Worksite Wellness Program or Worksite Wellness Program.  These include:  

• Senior Leadership Support & Employee Involvement
• Active Worksite Wellness Program Committee
• Program is Based on Employee Needs & Interests
• Goals and Objectives are Established
• Detailed Action Plan Based on Resources & Budget
• Program Implementation & Internal Marketing
• Evaluation of Outcomes and Program

Major advantages of healthy employees include:

• Decreased Medical Care expenditures
• Diminished Injuries
• Reduced Rates of Absenteeism
• Increased Morale and Loyalty
• Increased Productivity
• Reduced Use of Health Care Benefits
• Lowered Workers’ Comp/Disability
• Positive Image in Community
• Lowered Turnover
• Better recruitment for competent employee

What is NOT Having a Employee Health Promotion Program Costing Your Corporation?  

Let us look at the health risk factors that are increasing chronic diseases for adults:

• 59 percent of adults are overweight or obese
• Greater than 60 percent of American citizens do not get regular exercise
• Greater than 75% of American citizens do not eat the minimum recommendations for fruits and vegetables
• Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death and the primary cause of death in smokers
• 26 percent of staff members stated they were often or very often burned out or stressed by their job  

Medical Care expenditures are Growing:  Medical Care costs are at a record figure of $1.7 trillion with no signs of leveling out, let alone decreasing.  The average expense of yearly medical care spending is over $5,000 per person and with dependents almost $10,000.  Recent data shows that medical care related expenditures now cost North Carolina corporations thousands of dollars per employee, per year.

Most Illnesses Can Be Avoided:  Although it sounds unbelievable, experts indicate that preventable illness makes up 60% - 70% of the entire burden of illness in the U.S..   In North Carolina, it is estimated that more than 53% of all deaths are preventable, and that 2/3 of all preventable deaths are due to tobacco use, physical inactivity, and poor nourishment.

Stress Levels are On the Rise:  As business resources dwindle and organizations adopt cheaper work practices, the effects of absenteeism and lost productivity have an increased influence.  In a recent nationwide poll, 78 percent of American citizens described their jobs as stressful, and most felt that stress levels have risen over The last decade.  Moreover, high levels of business stress are able to adversely affect a business by growing injuries, absenteeism, and healthcare expenditures while decreasing productivity.  Simple solutions such as stress management education, flexible work schedules, quality social interaction, and increased participation in business decision-making are able to improve stress levels in the workplace.

What is the Initial Cost and Time Investment for a Employee Wellness Program?

The cost depends on the type of Corporate Health Promotion Program implemented.  There are several options to encourage employee health with pros and cons of each.  The program design depends on the objectives of the wellness program, the company resources, and the area resources available.  

Improving dietary practices, increasing physical activity levels, managing stress or addressing work life balance issues, and reducing/eliminating tobacco use, are primary strategies for preventing many of the most common preventable chronic diseases. The possibilities of how your company addresses these issues are endless and can range from increasing employee awareness, which may include purchasing a few handouts on a variety of topics, and measuring walking distances around your facility, to establishing company support such as funding a full-time occupational health consultant or building an workplace fitness center.  

When well-planned and based on your goals and objectives, any of these programs are able to help you succeed.  Refer below to Workplace Health Promotion Program Design Options for additional ideas.

A Company Health Promotion Program is an organized program to assist and support workers in adopting healthier lifestyles.  This might possibly include rising employee awareness on health subject matters, scheduling behavior modification programs, and/or adopting employer policies that support health-related objectives.  Programs and policies that encourage increased physical exercise, tobacco use prevention and cessation, and healthy diet selections are a few examples.  

Dimensions of Wellness

Wellness is much more than fitness alone.  In addition to physical fitness, the scope of good health include:

   • Spiritual Wellness,
   • Emotional Dimension of Wellness,
   • Social Wellness,
   • Intellectual Wellness

These dimensions are often depicted as a “life wheel” with examples of health dimensions that include fitness, diet, purpose in life, monetary planning, social health & backing systems, stress management, mind-body health, career planning and constant learning.   The key to personal health is keeping the “life wheel” in balance.  A accross the board workplace wellness program addresses most, if not all, of these dimensions.

Why Workplace Health Promotion Programs?

employees spend a great deal of time on the job, and the bottom line is that our traditional work-week is growing.  In fact, the average American now works about 47 hours per week.  Additionally, technologies such as modems, laptop computers, cellular phones, voice and email have confused the work-life boundary.  These realities decrease the amount of time that the average person is able to devote to wellbeing and health pursuits, and yet employees are predicted to be at top performance when at work.

A new study by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses saw that workplace wellness or Employee Wellness Programs are efficacious in assisting employees to make positive health changes due to several factors such as convenience, environmental reinforcement, and co-worker or social acceptance.  

What’s the Link between Wellness and the Workplace?

Programs and policies that encourage healthy behaviors can make a big difference on employee wellness AND impact the employer’s bottom line.  Studies show that for every dollar invested by employers in Worksite Wellness Programs/wellness programs, there were savings between $1.49 to $4.91 with a median savings of $3.14*.  In employer terms, that’s more than a 3:1 minimum ROI - a number that is hard to ignore, and a best practice that must warrant serious consideration from employers.  In fact, a Worksite Wellness Program literature review posted in Health Promotion Practitioner Journal observed:

   • 19 research studies saw a 28.3 percent reduction in sick time
   • 16 different studies shown a 5.6:1 return on investment
   • 23 showed a 26.1% decline in healthcare costs
   • 4 found a 30 percent decline in direct health care and workers’ compensation claims

There is little doubt that a accross the board wellness program targeted to meet a business’s specific needs can save money by lowering absenteeism, reducing healthcare expenditures, reducing employee turnover, and expanding productiveness.

• The United States Department of Health & Human Services, 2003