Wellness Library

Introduction to Workplace Wellness Programs

The previous ten years has brought major changes in business attitudes toward Corporate Wellness Programs. Interest in self-help and self-care programs has increased as growth in medical costs have encroached substantially into profits. Changes in the business structures of medical facilities, in particular the growth of the for-profit medical sector, and the need to contain costs are changing the ways in which purchasers of medical plans are viewing their own efforts toward provision of workplace medical programs and facilities. Projections for the next decade indicate that workplace health programs will continue to become important factors in the provision of medical, including prevention activities, for both government and private industry. In corporations with existing Corporate Wellness Programs, administrative rationale for sponsoring these activities ranged from improving employee health (28%) to improving employee morale (9.7%). Programs include interventions associated with safety, health risk assessment, tobacco cessation, Blood Pressure (BP) control, diet programs and stress management. Benefits cited range from improved health and work rate to reducing medical costs.

Demographics of the U.S. Workforce
• 110 million Americans were in the civilian labor force in 1981; by the year 2000 the civilian labor force is expected to be nearly 140 million.
• 44% of the 1984 labor force was female; 10% was Black.
• The median age of the workforce is 32 years and is expected to rise to 32 years by 2030.
• 57.9 percent of all employees work in companies with between 2 and 500 employees; 45 percent work in companies with fewer than 100 employees. An additional 7.5 million Americans are self-employed and 3 million are farmers.
• 18% of all wage and salaried staff members in 1985 were union members.
• 45 percent of all workers are employed in offices.

Prevalence of Workplace Health Promotion Programs Activities

Based on a 1985 survey, almost 66 percent of worksites with 50 or more employees had Workplace Wellness Programs activities in 1985.  The frequency of worksite-based activities by selected categories in 1985 was:

Activity

Smoking Control       35.6 percent
Health Risk Assessment    29.5%
Back Care             28.6 percent
Stress Management       26.6 percent
Exercise             22.1 percent
Off the Job Accidents    19.8%
Nutrition             16.8 percent
Blood Pressure (BP) Control    16.5 percent
Weight Control          14.7%

Worksite size is the strongest indicator of program prevalence.

Most staff members believe the benefits of their Workplace Health Promotion Programs activities outweigh the costs, although few formal evaluations exist.

The most usually given reason for starting programs and perceived profit from programs is improved employee health.

At most worksites with activities (85.4%), all staff members are eligible to take part. 30 percent of worksites with activities offer them to company dependents, and an equal percent offer them to retirees.

When worksites seek outside program assistance, they turn to voluntary, not-for-profit organizations (57.1%), private for-profit providers-consultants (50%), local hospitals (44%), and insurance organizations (43%).

Smoking Cessation Programs

Smoking related health concerns cost American corporations $26 billion per year in lost productiveness and $7 to $8 billion in tobacco-related health care expenditures.

Employees who use tobacco are 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized than people that do not use tobacco, have 2 times as many job-related accidents as people that do not use tobacco and have absenteeism rates approximately 50 percent higher than people that do not use tobacco.

People who smoked an average of one or more packs of cigarettes per day had 118 percent higher health care expenses than nonsmokers.

76 percent of current smokers and 80 percent of former smokers and non-smokers feel that businesses must restrict smoking to certain areas.

In 1985, 65% of smokers, 85% of nonsmokers and 78% of former smokers, felt that smokers ought to refrain from smoking in the presence of nonsmokers.

In 1986, 17 states had laws regulating smoking in offices or workplaces either in government-controlled offices or offices of private workers.

Examples of smoking cessation intervention program used by employers include:

• making available nonsmokers a discount of health and life insurance;
• paying full or partial fees for smoking cessation programs;
• offering cessation programs on organization or shared time;
• providing cash payments to quitters after 6 of 12 smoke-free months;
• participating in national quit smoking days; and
• adopting a smoke-free employer policy and setting deadlines for implementing the policy.

Physical Fitness Programs

An active 55-year-old man can lead as vigorous a lifestyle as a sedentary 35-year-old.

Differences in work-related exercise has been determined to provide a two- to three-fold difference in cardiovascular deaths between active staff members and their more sedentary counterparts.

In addition to improving strength, balance, and flexibility, physical activity programs have the potential to reduce the probability of back injuries among certain occupational groups.

93 million workdays in the United States are lost annually due to back issues.

Research findings support the notion that worksite exercise programs better fitness and help lower other health risks, although results related to improved work rate are weak due to lack of methods for accurately measuring work rate.

A very small percentage of worksites have onsite physical fitness facilities.

The majority of employees sponsored fitness programs involve skills training such as aerobic dance, low impact aerobics, weight training, preand post-natal exercise classes, and walking/jogging groups.

Some organizations subsidize employee participation in neighborhood “Ys,” health clubs or other neighborhood programs if no on-Site facilities are available.

Job Site exercise program may reduce expenditures to employers by decreasing employee healthcare claims and expenditures.

People whose weekly exercise was equivalent to climbing less than five flights of stairs or walking less than a half mile, spent 114 percent more on health claims than those who ascended at least 15 flights of stairs or walked 1 1/2 miles weekly.

Medical Care costs for obese people are roughly 11% higher than those for thin people.

Nutrition and Weight Control

One-third of this country population is obese to the extent of decreasing their life expectancy.

Improvements in eating habits can reduce the risk of genuine health issues such as high Blood Pressure and cholesterol levels and is instrumental in the control of non-insulin-dependent diabetes.

The workplace offers several advantages for diet education; support and impact of co-staff members and senior staff, availability of a daily eating situation, and opportunities for follow-up and monitoring.

Worksite diet programs are able to be grouped in 6 broad categories:

• cafeteria programs;
• multi-component programs;
• weight control programs;
• blood lipid reduction programs;
• programs for pregnant and lactating women; and
• other diet education issues.

Men are less likely to take part in weight-loss programs than are female employees.

Stress Management

Estimates suggest that 50 percent to 80 percent of physician visits have the potential to be attributed to psychosomatic or stress-related origins.

Corporation pays many of the expenditures related to employee stress, both directly in the form of medical care expenditures and in reduced productiveness.

Job factors which are associated with stress include:

• not allowing staff members to take part in decisions about the work process;
• positions which require more or less skill than the employee has;
• changes in work demands;
• lack of clarity about expectations and standards; and
• conflict with co-staff members or supervisors.

Most worksite stress management programs are implemented as a result of requests from employees.

Stress management programs focus on three types of skills: relaxation skills, coping skills, and interpersonal skills.

Job Site stress management programs are often delivered in one of three formats:

• courses conducted by trained professionals;
• self-learning tools; and
• personal teaching to support  with self-assessment, planning for changes, learning new skills and responding to life crises.

The two major techniques used in worksite stress management programs are:

• teaching people to decrease the detrimental physical effects of stress; and
• teaching people to recognize and control sources of stress at work and in personal life.

Safety Belt Usage

Motor vehicle accidents are the largest single cause of lost work time and on-the-job fatalities of U.S. business.

Motor vehicle accidents account for 27 percent of all work-related deaths and 45 million days of lost work each year.

More than 36% of the 11,300 accidental work deaths in 1983 involved motor vehicles.

Employees who regularly fail to use seat belts may spend up to 54% more days in the hospital.

Traffic accidents caused about 3 times as many days of restricted activity as any other kind of disability.

Motor vehicle crashes cost $15.2 billion in lost productiveness, 88 percent of which is attributed to losses from workforce activities and future earnings.

In work settings where safety belt policies, requiring use of belts by anyone riding in a employer vehicle or using a personal vehicle for employer business, have been enforced, 60% to 90% use has been published.

Incentive programs, accompanied by education and use requirement restrictions have resulted in 40% to 70% initial usage rates.

Factors influencing the sources of worksite safety belt programs include:

• active responsibility on the part of upper management;
• clearly defined and well enforced policy of needed belt use on the job;
• positive incentives; and
• ongoing education and training programs.

Case Studies of Company Wellness Programs

Based on an extensive assessment of its all-inclusive employee Worksite Health Promotion Program, LIVE FOR LIFE, Johnson & Johnson published the break-even point for the program occurs in year 3 and by year 5 they have a net advance of $316 per employee. Their year 9 projected advance is $677 per employee.

employees at four Johnson & Johnson businesses who were exposed to the Company Health Promotion Program increased their daily energy expenditure in vigorous exercise by 104% compared to a growth of 33% among employees at businesses that were provided only an yearly health screen.

Members in the United Methodist Publishing House’s Corporate Health Promotion Program submitted more claims (1.14 per participating employee and .82 for the control in 1984, 1.44 and 1.3 respectively in 1985), but the average cost per claim was less for participants ($316 for participants and $567 for control, in 1984, $262 and $602 respectively in 1985, $270 and $566 respectively in the first four months of 1986).

The United Methodist Publishing House attributes some of the reduced than projected use in medical costs for 1985 ($902,116 projected with actual costs $142,884) to the Corporate Health Promotion Program even though the results are not conclusive.

In 1985, the Adolph Coors Organization conducted a phone interview of a random sample of its 10,000 workers to determine changes in health practices since the introduction of an employee Workplace Wellness Program 4 years earlier. The sample of 495 workers was stratified to match the business profile in terms of age, sex and job description. The survey reported that 65% of respondents started working out in The previous 4 years, 37% had improved their diets, 20% were regular users of the wellness center, 9% had stopped smoking as the result of the business’s tobacco cessation program and active participants of the wellness center miss an average of 1.96 workdays each year because of illness or injury compared to 3.08 days for non-participating workers.

The Coors Corporation also achieved a cost savings from a cardiac rehabilitation program that was launched in 1981. In 1980 employees were out of work 7.2 months after a heart attack or bypass operation. In 1984, cardiac patients were out an average 1.9 months saving $152,000 in lost work time and in 1985 cardiac patients missed an average of 2.6 months, saving $125,000 that year.

Tags: Corporate Wellness, health, medical, Wellness Library

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