Company Health and Wellness : Investment in Company Health Promotion Programs Pays Big Dividends

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

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

The benefits from an employees point of view can be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, decreased body fat, a more youthful fit body, an increased ability to handle job 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 constructive a wellness program needs to achieve both senior staff’s and employee’s objectives, and this can be accomplished through a program that will provide the individual employee with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and wellness, 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 – Worksite Wellness Programs

Diminished Rates of Absenteeism – Dupont reduced absenteeism by 47.5 percent over six years for the participants of their employer fitness program, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).

Reduced Health Care Expenditures – Steel case showed a decrease in healthcare claim expenditures 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 Corporation 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 company physical activity program had a 250 percent return on investment; $2.51 for every $1 invested over a five year period (American Journal of Health Promotion, March, April, 1991).