Wellness Programs Provide Long-Term Results

Wellness programs, according to an article in Crain’s Detroit Business, come in two choices:  workplace wellness programs or health insurance products that aim at lower costs if healthy habits are followed.  Both options are a good choice, but only one will really provide long-term health benefits for your employees and lower costs over the years.

Wellness Programs Offer Assistance

Insurance-based products offer employees the opportunity, according to the article by Jay Green, to save money on their premiums if they follow certain steps, including performing an online health assessment, visiting their physician, and agree to adopt a healthy lifestyle.  These plans usually involve one coach call to the employee during the first 90 days.  We wonder if these brief wellness encounters will actually change a person’s lifestyle.

It is the overall change in a person’s lifestyle, as well as disease prevention that will lead to lower health costs in the future.

Onsite workplace wellness programs, like the ones that EmployeeWellnessUSA works with you to establish in your place of business, offers convenient health risk assessments and screening tests for things like diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure.  As the article states, these have initial start-up costs, but the savings accrue over time and employees are more likely to stay active in an onsite employee wellness program.

Wellness Programs Get Results

Finally, the article states that companies with an effective employee wellness program can expect to see “500 percent lower absenteeism, 400 percent fewer disability claims, and 350 percent lower health care costs.”  These are numbers that are very hard to argue with.

If you are ready to start seeing those numbers in your company, contact one of our wellness experts today.  They are there to answer all of your questions, as well as provide you with a free wellness proposal.

Wellness’ Return on Investment

Wellness Programs … do they offer a strong return on investment? This is a question that we are sure goes through ever corporations mind. HR Magazine addresses the wellness return on investment topic in their June 2008 issue.

Wellness Programs: The Bottom Line

According to the article, titled “Finding Wellness’ Return on Investment,” determining the return on investment of a wellness program is not an easy thing to do for companies because it involves a lot of different variables and time.

However, the corporations that have taken the time to determine the ROI of their wellness programs have found that it is quite significant. Not to mention, the wellness program’s effect on the improvement of employee health and the slowing of the rate of their employee health care costs.

Wellness’ alliance for ROI

Wellness is such an important part of today’s corporate culture, that several large corporations have come together to form the Alliance for Wellness ROI, Inc. According to the HR Magazine article, The Alliance for Wellness ROI was specifically created to address the lack of consistency in proving the value of wellness programs.

The alliance, formed by BMW of North America, Henry Ford Health System, Kraft Foods Global, MasterCard Worldwide and Schlumberger Limited, strongly believes in showing the value of wellness programs and want to develop a standard for how wellness programs are measured.

Wellness Program Components

According the alliance, the following components should make up an corporate-offered employee wellness program:

• Disease Management programs
• Employee assistance programs
• Fitness programs
• Health risk assessments
• On-site medical programs
• Personal wellness profiles
• Screenings and preventative care
• Smoking-cessation programs
• Telephonic wellness services
• Weight management programs
• Wellness education and communication
• Work/Life balance programs.

EmployeeWellnessUSA can assist you in creating an Employee Wellness Program that includes all the above components, as well as others that fit the needs of your employees. Please contact one of our wellness professionals to receive a free wellness proposal.