Enjoy these health and wellness articles which were written by industry leading wellness experts / wellness consultants to assist you in learning more about corporate wellness programs / employee wellness programs.
Why should worksites implement corporate wellness programs that encourage employees to be physically active and support healthy eating behaviors?
Millions of Americans are at risk of living shorter, less healthy lives due to the rapid increase of obesity and overweight in the United States. Every year, businesses spend millions of dollars treating adult obesity/overweight related conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and cancer.
With the rapid increase in technology, the need for physical exertion in the workplace has decreased tremendously. Moreover, due to longer work weeks, a faster paced lifestyle, as well as a number of other complex reasons, Americans are being driven to eat on the go, where the portions are large and high in fat and calories.
For employees, this poses significant challenges to an individual’s ability to maintain health. For employers, poor employee health is likely to decrease productivity while increasing absenteeism and insurance claims.
The fact remains, however, that employers can help reduce the effects of obesity and the associated costs of health care through the use of corporate wellness programs. Worksites are a vital place to influence lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity and healthy eating. Employers can influence their employees and help them change through a variety of corporate wellness programs including interpersonal, institutional, policy, environmental or organizational changes.
If corporate wellness programs provide a supportive environment and have programs that allow employees to include physical activity and healthful eating in their day, it benefits both the employees and the business’ bottom line. There are an estimated 39 million days and counting of lost work time each year due to obesity related diseases and conditions.
Research shows that employers that invest in the health of their employees through comprehensive corporate wellness programs continually have returns on their investments. Additionally, corporate wellness programs are effective at recruiting, retaining and maintaining high quality employees that are healthier and more productive. In short, worksites can be a great environment to create and foster change through the use of corporate wellness programs.
How does one go about creating, developing, implementing and evaluating a comprehensive corporate wellness programs in the workplace? How can you ensure that the corporate wellness programs will be effective? How do you get employees involved in corporate wellness programs and then maintain their interest are all important questions needing to be addressed.
It is hoped that this corporate wellness programs article will serve as a blueprint allowing you to plan, implement and evaluate a program in your worksite and thereby enable you to measure the health of your employees, increase productivity and morale, and decrease absenteeism as well as corresponding health-care costs.
- For many companies, medical care costs are consuming 50% of business profits.
- The Association for Worksite Health Promotion concluded that for every $1 invested in a worksite wellness program, the company would save $5. In essence, your investment in health is free. The resources an organization invests in health management will likely be matched by the return in lower health care utilization, pharmaceutical costs, absenteeism, and presenteeism—similar to quality and safety initiatives.
- Almost half of all premature deaths in the United States and other developed countries are caused by lifestyle related problems, such as inactivity, poor eating habits, alcohol and tobacco use and abuse, etc.
- Illness and injury associated with an unhealthy lifestyle or modifiable risk factors is reported to account for 25% of employee health care expenditure.
- Medical costs attributed to obesity and overweight are estimated to be annually $395 (36%) higher than those for normal weight.
- Obese employees are nearly 75% more likely to experience high rates of absenteeism (seven or more absences during a six-month period) than normal weight employees.
Based on this data, corporate wellness programs can be easily justified in nearly every business and location, regardless of size.