Wellness Library

Armed with data, Company Health Promotion Program topic preferences and goals – and a Company Health Promotion Program Committee eager to get things done – it is now time to decide how best to take action.  This website supplies tools to help you!  You can read about the various types of wellness programs offered by other corporations to get an idea of what might 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 Employee Wellness Program considerations include:

1. Formally Introduce the Workplace Health Promotion Program and consider policy statements that state the effect of the wellness program.  Examples include a general policy concerning the responsibility 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 won’t be beneficial if your workers are unaware of it or do not know the options or how to participate.  Communicate your wellness program using a variety of methods to make sure the message and “how-to’s” are heard!

   Worksite 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 / handouts / 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 are able to both support and encourage participation among employees.  Consider both formal or employer rewards and incentives and informal or program rewards/prizes from local resources to reinforce participation in Company Health Promotion Programs. Either way, it’s significant to support rewards and incentives that are attractive and meaningful to your employees.

   Formal Workplace Wellness 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
   
   • gym/Fitness Center discounts or enrollment fee coverage
   • Public transportation vouchers
   • Flexible work time options
   • “Wellness Days” off work  

   Rewards or Informal Company Health Promotion Program Incentives:

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

4. Evaluate neighborhood resources available to support some of the wellness services.  The local health department or your organization medical care provider may be able to assist  you with this information.  There are also vendors throughout the State providing great wellness services for organizations.  They are available to assist you when strategizing and find the best options available.

5. Launch 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 Employee Wellness Program Committee should set out a plan for the entire year that outlines accomplishing objectives and goals, as well as supports details for marketing and evaluating the program. The plan is the detailed map of what types of programs will be available, when and where they will be scheduled, how they will be marketed and evaluated, and what the budget is.  It is valuable to plan your wellness activities based on your objectives and goals, as well as the budget since different strategies will yield different outcomes.  For example, if your intention is to broaden awareness on a topic, then distributing handouts or scheduling a one-time education session may be appropriate.  Still, if your objective is to change behavior, then different strategies may be necessary, such as ongoing weekly sessions and support groups.  Click here to link to Program Design Options for additional ideas.

Worksite Wellness Program Marketing

Now is the time to plan 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 employees repeatedly!  Consider having an overall kickoff exercise to inform everyone of the wellness program.  Upper Management must offer the introduction or invitation so that all employees are cognizant of their backing and leadership in the program.

Possible marketing methods:

• Distributing email messages, including reminders
• Establish flyers,
• Putting up bulletin board postings,
• Composing articles,
• Sending letters or
• Sending special invitations.  

Other Workplace Health Promotion Program Considerations:

• Is the Employee Health Promotion Program promoted to all staff members or to a specific target audience?
• Do you have a Corporate Wellness Program champion (someone who is joined with different groups in the organization, and well respected) who can help in your promotion efforts?
• If your marketing efforts aren’t working, do you have a way to revisit and change your strategy?
• How will you determine success and evaluate your program?  And how will you gather the information necessitated to evaluate your program?  

Topics most frequently included in Workplace Wellness Programs:

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

The topics and type of Workplace Health Promotion Program planned hinge upon the needs and interest, overall objective and resources available.  Program Design Options   include awareness programs such as pamphlets and/or education sessions, behavior modification programs such as tobacco cessation and weight loss classes, and environmental or employer reinforcement such as no smoking policies or healthy selections in snack 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 employees healthy and not need to screen for disease.  Instead you might want to focus on healthy lifestyle behavior such as exercise and great nutrition to prevent the start of disease.  Click here for more information on strategies for keeping employees well, identifying disease early, or returning employees to work who already have a chronic disease.

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

A Workplace Wellness 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 little thoughtful planning, you increase your chances for a efficacious experience.  Clear objectives are required to plan your wellness program in order to ensure success!

Wellness program goals are different from one employer to another depending on the population, needs, interests and resources.  Nonetheless, 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 valuable to consider how your Worksite Health Promotion Program fits in with the corporation mission statement, contributes to the overriding mission and supports the corporation bottom line.  This will integrate your efforts throughout the corporation operations.  

Below are some examples of Worksite Wellness 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 Corporate Health Promotion Program to support  in beginning Corporate Health Promotion Program services that fosters and upholds that value.”

“It is the mission of the XYZ Workplace Wellness Program Committee to foster healthier lifestyle choices to decrease health risk factors, improve overriding well-being, and maintain a advantageous, active work force.”

Workplace Wellness Program Goals

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

The goal(s) of XYZ Company Wellness Program in year XXXX is to:  (one or more of the following examples)

• Decrease absenteeism by one day per employee
• Decrease musculoskeletal injuries by ten%
• Decrease unnecessary emergency room visits
• Decrease or contain healthcare expenditures
• Improve dietary habits of staff members
• Cut down on health risk factors  

Worksite Wellness Program Objectives

Specific Worksite Health Promotion Program objectives help meet your long-term goals.  Both short term and long term objectives ought to be developed as the stepping stones to accomplish the goals.  In addition to objectives for the expected participant outcomes, process objectives ought to also be developed for the program process itself.  By way of example, process objectives may include how many staff members you want to participate in the programs, how many sessions on a topic will be offered, 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 objectives and goals:

• Specific (one behavior or outcome)
• Measurable (one result that can be monitored 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, an intention for a weight loss program that has an overall intention of improving healthy eating and promoting a healthy weight is that:

Participants (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 participant (attainable and realistic).

Or:

Members (who) will go to 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 the mission for coaching workers with elevated blood lipids might be:

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

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

By the end of the 4-week smoking cessation program, 10% 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 intention) and 10% of those who quit will still be tobacco-free after one year.

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

Prior to you begin laying out your Workplace Wellness Program you need to have a benchmark.  Completing a thorough needs assessment is vital to the performance of your wellness program for two reasons:  First it ensures that your Workplace Wellness Program activities will be targeted to meet your company’s specific needs so that outcomes have the potential to 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 limited or those with experience already have an idea of needs.  Do not give in to this temptation!  It is essential that you understand what your employer needs are, what upper management expects, and what employees want as well as expect, before you begin a Workplace Health Promotion Program.  

Consider and accumulate data on:

• Employee Demographic Information
• Employee Health Risk Factors
• Medical Claims
• Injury Rates & Causes
• Workers’ Compensation Claims
• Short and Long Term Disability Claims
• Absenteeism
• Company Culture Audits
• Employee perceived needs and health risks
• Senior 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 essential to plan programs that target specific concerns.  This information will be vital to set goals/objectives and for evaluating program success.  How else can you know if outcomes have been achieved?

Options to help gather the information:

• Confidential Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) with a Organization Group Summary Report
• Health Screenings such as cholesterol, Blood Pressure (BP) and blood sugar click here for additional information on health 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 Wellness Program Committee can review the results and begin creating and prioritizing program options.  Planning should be based upon goals/objectives and identified outcomes, Step 4 of the seven step process!

Establishing an active Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee supports opportunities for both senior staff and employee involvement in the program.  The Wellness Committee ought to be a group of employees and managers who formally meet to plan activities to reward healthier employee lifestyles.

Typical Functions of a Company Health Promotion Program Committee:

• Evaluating needs & interests
• Coming up with program ideas
• Beginning activities
• Creating communication plans
• Promoting programs to co-employees
• Serving as champions of the Workplace Wellness Programs
• Assisting with assessment  

Your Worksite Wellness Program Committee must be representative of all echelons of the organization.  Consider all areas of the workforce – multiple sites, shift employees, diversity (race, gender, ethnicity), and departments.   It’s also significant to consider who will chair or co-chair the Worksite Wellness Program Committee and whether or not there are the finances to support a Worksite 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 business size and resources, if you already have a business Safety Committee you might want to consider making it the Safety & Company Health Promotion Program Committee.  You can request volunteers or invite staff members to participate.  

The number of Worksite Wellness Program Committee members is dependent upon the size of your employer; however, you need sufficient members to get the work done and yet not too many to keep it manageable, usually at least 4 members and maximum of 12 to 15 members.  It’s significant to include skeptics of wellness as well and not just those employees already practicing healthy lifestyles.  

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

• Employee representatives from a cross section of different departments,
• Senior Management
• Health and safety consultant(s),
• Human Resources (HR) 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 a strong Corporate Wellness Program Committee!  The Corporate Wellness Program Committee ought to meet on a regular basis with a planned agenda and action items.  Effective Wellness Committees have a shared mission, vision 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 employers have implemented.

As with any program, the two key elements for the performance of your wellness program are management reinforcement & employee involvement.  Senior Management sets the vision and arranges the resources from which action plans flow.  Genuine reinforcement from senior personnel also brings credibility to the wellness plan.  It is important that management be visible supporters and role models for your Corporate Wellness Program.

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

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

• Holding Employee Focus Groups
• Examining Wellness Interests During Department gatherings
• Distributing and Summarizing a Needs & Interest Survey
• (Including|Allowing for|Making sure to include} a Time to Give Opinions on Each Evaluation Tool  

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

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

A key to a thriving Company Health Promotion Program requires management responsibility and employee participation.

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

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

Corporate Health Promotion Program Step 3: Gather Data to Ascertain Key Needs and Expectations

The next critical component is to base the Company Wellness Program on the needs and interests of your company and its employees.

Workplace Health Promotion Program Step 4: Create Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives constitute the maps to guide you where your program needs to go.   These constitute the foundation for planning and evaluating activities to ensure that your wellness program will meet your unique needs.

Corporate Health Promotion Program Step 5: Create a Detailed Action Plan

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

Company Wellness Program Step 6: Select and Launch a Plan

Once you have the needs assessment information, a Corporate Wellness Program Committee, goals/objectives it’s now time to put your plan into action!

Employee Health Promotion Program Step 7: Oversee and Review Your Employee Health Promotion Program

Evaluation is a necessary step to keep a program focused, as well as to guarantee that the program is reaching its goals and objectives or achieving favorable outcome.

In Summary

These Seven Steps outline considerations for a accross the board approach to designing and launching an effective wellness program.  Are you able to enable components of wellness activities without following these steps?  Certainly, but you may lack the sustainability or ability to obtain desired outcomes.  Following the Seven Steps need not be confusing or burdensome.  A very simple approach can achieve a successful wellness program!

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

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

The program design options hinge upon the goals/objectives and desired outcomes of your program.  If your intention is to help staff members modify behavior, lower risk factors, or save medical 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 pros and cons.  The intentions or results are quite different, are not interchangeable in terms of obtaining the same results, and therefore ought not be confused.  By way of example, planning activities such as an employee wellness and health 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 objective is behavior modification then a different design is necessary, such as Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Organization Support.  The outline below outlines the wellness design levels with a short explanation.

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

Awareness programs are cheap and do not require extensive employee or employer time commitments.  However, these programs do not usually yield behavior change.  Improving awareness isn’t usually enough to generate lifestyle changes for most American citizens, unless used to innervate staff members to register for a program being offered at the employer or area on the topic.  An example of this would be offering information on the deleterious effects of smoking and inviting staff members who smoke to register for a tobacco cessation class.

Education Programs:  Educational programs often support more information on a topic and can also provide time for Q & A, 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 remain inexpensive and do not require a whole lot of time for planning or attending a session.  Again, increasing awareness and providing information may not lead to the desired behavior change unless ongoing reinforcement or incentives are also planned.

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

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

Environmental and Business Support:  Environmental backing is often considered the highest and most valuable level to include when starting 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 snack machines choices,
• Offering healthy diet choices in the cafeteria, and/or
• Creating flex-time policies.  

Other examples include subsidizing healthy vending machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing fitness center or weight loss and weight management program memberships; or providing insurance incentives for healthy behaviors.

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

Employee Health Promotion Program: Components for Success

There are many critical elements that have to be considered to ensure the success of your Workplace Wellness Program or Workplace Wellness Program.  These include:  

• Senior Management Reinforcement & Employee Participation
• Active Employee 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
• Assessment of Outcomes and Program

Major advantages of healthy employees include:

• Lower Healthcare costs
• Diminished Injuries
• Lowered Absenteeism
• Increased Morale and Loyalty
• Higher Productivity
• Diminished Use of Healthcare Benefits
• Diminished Workers’ Comp/Disability
• Positive Perception in Community
• Lowered Turnover
• Improved recruitment for skilled workers

What is NOT Having a Employee Wellness Program Costing Your Organization?  

Consider the health risk factors that are increasing chronic diseases for adults:

• 59% of adults are overweight or obese
• Greater than 60 percent of adults do not exercise regularly
• More 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 # 1 cause of death in smokers
• 26 percent of staff members stated they were often or very often burned out or stressed by their job  

Health Care expenditures are Rising:  Health Care costs are at a record level of $1.7 trillion with no signs of holding steady, let alone going down.  The average expense of annual medical spending is over $5,000 per person and including dependents almost $10,000.  Recent data shows that medical related expenditures now cost North Carolina companies thousands of dollars per employee, each year.

Most Illnesses Can Be Prevented:  Although it sounds unbelievable, experts indicate that avoidable illness makes up 60 percent – 70 percent of the entire burden of illness in the U.S..   In North Carolina, it is estimated that more than 53 percent of all deaths are avoidable, and that 2/3 of all avoidable deaths are due to tobacco use, a sedentary lifestyle, and poor nutrition.

Stress Levels are Rising:  As employer resources dwindle and employers adopt cheaper work practices, the effects of absenteeism and productivity lost have an increased influence.  In a new national poll, 78 percent of the population described their jobs as stressful, and most believe that stress levels have become worse over The last decade.  Furthermore, high levels of employer stress can negatively affect a employer by increasing injuries, absenteeism, and medical expenditures while decreasing productiveness.  Simple solutions such as stress management education, flexible work schedules, quality social interaction, and increased participation in employer decision-making can improve stress levels in the workplace.

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

The cost is dependent upon the type of Corporate Wellness Program implemented.  There are several options to reward employee health with pros and cons of each.  The program design is dependent upon the objectives of the wellness program, the company resources, and the neighborhood resources available.  

Enhancing dietary practices, increasing physical exercise levels, managing stress or discussing work life balance problems, and lowering/eliminating tobacco use, are primary strategies for preventing many of the most common avoidable chronic diseases. The possibilities of how your company addresses these problems are endless and can range from increasing employee awareness, which may include purchasing a few pamphlets on a variety of topics, and quantifying walking distances around your facility, to establishing company reinforcement such as funding a full-time occupational health professional or building an onsite fitness center.  

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

A Company Wellness Program is an inclusive program to assist and support employees in implementing healthier lifestyles.  This might possibly include rising employee awareness on health subject matters, scheduling behavior modification programs, and/or implementing business policies that support health-related objectives.  Programs and policies that promote increased physical movement, tobacco use prevention and cessation, and healthy food selections are a few examples.  

Dimensions of Wellness

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

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

These ranges are frequently illustrated as a “life wheel” with examples of health components that include fitness, diet, purpose in life, monetary planning, social connections & reinforcement systems, stress management, mind-body health, career planning and ongoing learning.   The key for individual health is keeping the “life wheel” in allignment.  A inclusive workplace wellness program addresses most, if not all, of these ranges.

Why Worksite Wellness Programs?

employees invest a whole lot of time working, and the fact of the matter is that our traditional work-week is growing.  In fact, the typical American now labors about 47 hours every week.  Additionally, innovations such as modems, laptop computers, cell phones, voice and email have confused the line between life and work.  These realities decrease the amount of time that the average individual is able to devote to health & wellness pursuits, and yet employees are expected to be extremely efficient when at work.

A recent study conducted by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses observed that workplace wellness or Workplace Wellness Programs are thriving in supporting workers to make beneficial health changes due to several factors such as convenience, environmental support, and co-worker or social acceptance.  

What’s the Link between Wellness and the Workplace?

Programs and policies that encourage healthy lifestyles are able to make a sizable difference on employee wellness AND effect the corporation’s bottom line.  Studies have found that for every dollar invested by employers in Worksite Wellness Programs/wellness programs, there were savings from $1.49 to $4.91 with a median savings of $3.14*.  In corporation vocabulary, that’s more than a 3:1 minimum ROI – a number that is tough to overlook, and a best practice that must draw serious consideration from employers.  In fact, a Worksite Wellness Program literature review published in Health Promotion Practitioner Journal saw:

   • 19 studies found a 28.3 percent reduction in sick time
   • 16 different studies determined a 5.6:1 ROI
   • 23 showed a 26.1% decrease in health care expenditures
   • 4 found a 30 percent decline in direct health care and workers’ compensation claims

There is little doubt that a comprehensive wellness program created to meet a business’s specific needs can save money by decreasing absenteeism, reducing healthcare costs, reducing employee turnover, and building productivity.

• The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2003