Employee Wellness : Investment in Worksite Wellness Programs Pays Big Dividends

High rates of employee turnover and the expenditures of sick days are increasingly taking bites into company profits. The high cost of recruitment programs only adds to the challenges that these concerns in total cost the average company. Many employers are finding the solution to these challenges by increasing job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of programs that provide a decrease in these expenditures.

It has become increasingly clear to most managers that a well designed wellness program / physical activity program with a strong nutritional and fitness lifestyle emphasis will directly meet this need. Senior Management’s goals for a productive wellness program must be viewed through the perspective of increased employee work rate, decreased absenteeism due to health related causes, improved employee morale, decreased utilisation of employer subsidised health benefits, enhanced team cohesion and effectiveness and a reduction in turnover due to lack of job satisfaction. It is obvious that an improvement in any of these areas will have a beneficial influence on the monetary status of any organisation.

The benefits from an employees point of view can be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, diminished body fat, a more youthful fit body, an increased ability to handle work related stress, greater feelings of confidence and morale and more social associations at work contributing to greater feelings of satisfaction with their work and worksite.

To be most productive a wellness program needs to achieve both senior staff’s and employee’s objectives and goals, and this can be accomplished through a program that will support the individual employee with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and wellbeing, and the benefits of attaining a fitter, healthier lifestyle, and a plan that will allow them to achieve the crucial changes to their physical condition that can be applied in the context of their life and work.

The Bottom Line – Corporate Wellness Programs

Lowered Absenteeism – Dupont reduced absenteeism by 47.5% over six years for the participants of their corporation fitness program, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).

Diminished Health Care Expenditures – Steel case showed a reduction in healthcare claim costs of 55 percent for corporate exercise program participants over non-participants over a six year period – an average of $478.61 for participants vs. non-participants who averaged $868.88, (The Am. Journal of Health Promotion, Sept/Oct, 1991).

Diminished Turnover – Turnover among physical activity program participants at the Canadian Life Assurance Organization was 32.4 percent lower over a seven year period compared with non-participants (Canadian Journal of Public Health, Jan/Feb, 1988).

Positive Return on Investment – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Indiana saw that its employer fitness program had a 250% return on investment; $2.51 for every $1 invested over a five year period (American Journal of Health Promotion, March, April, 1991).