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.

Employee Wellness in Prevention of NCD’s

The 61st annual World Health Assembly is taking place this week in Geneva, Switzerland and at this assembly; the World Health Organization (WHO) is presenting its report titled “Preventing Non-communicable Diseases (NCD) in the Workplace through Diet and Physical Activity.”

The report calls for workplace wellness programs to be promoted and implemented worldwide.

Importance of Employee Wellness

The report states that NCD related deaths have surpassed transferable disease related deaths and have become the leading global killers. Examples of NCD’s are heart disease, diabetes and stroke. In 2005, 60% of worldwide projected deaths were caused by non-communicable diseases. They are predicting that this health trend will continue through at least 2030.

Unhealthy diets, excessive caloric intake, lack of physical activity and tobacco use are the major risk factors in the cause of NCD’s. Now more than ever, the understanding of the importance of health and wellness is crucial.

Employee Wellness is Effective Tool

The report states that workplace wellness programs are found to be effective in improving health-related risk factors, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The report also states that wellness programs will improve the health of employees, improve the corporate image, improve employee morale, reduce employee absences and sick leave, increase employee productivity, and reduce corporate health care costs.

Employee Wellness Monitoring

Finally, the report mentions that to have a successful employee wellness program, monitoring and evaluation through health risk assessments and health outcomes are essential and should be included in the wellness program implementation. The evaluations ensure that the program developed meets the proper needs of the employees. Employees should be reevaluated on an on-going basis to make sure the wellness program is still working, or to see if there are any adjustments that need to be made.

Start an Employee Wellness Program

Employee Wellness USA can get your company started on the right track to reducing the risks of non-communicable diseases within your staff. Please contact one of our health representatives and they will be more than happy to assist you with putting together a free wellness proposal.

Wellness Challenges Are Popping Up Everywhere

Wellness Challenges are definitely hot right now and they are encouraging more and more people to get healthy and live better. Whether it is a city or a school or a social group or even a whole state, competitive spirits are being ignited by the challenge to be the healthiest team. The challenges are usually about a six months to a year in length and they are made up of several teams, these teams all get points for physical activity, selecting healthy foods, and just making better life and health choices overall.

The best part about wellness challenges is even though there really is only way “real” winner; everyone that participates in the challenge is a life winner.

Wellness Challenges Provides Incentive to Get Healthy

Establishing a wellness challenge in your office is a great way to get employees to participate in your established wellness program. Have employees form teams and receive points for everything from attending a corporate health fair to getting a health risk assessment to starting an exercise regimen. At the end of the year, the teams will win prizes based on the number of points they have accumulated.

Wellness Challenge Kick-Off

Contact Employee Wellness USA and have our team come out and provide on-site health screening for all participating employees, so that everyone has a baseline to judge their improvement from. We will then work with you to create a wellness program that will be the foundation of the challenge.

Wellness Challenges Improve Corporate Health

Not only will wellness challenges improve the health of your employees, it will improve the overall health of the corporation by providing benefits such as reduced injuries, reduced frequency of worker’s comp, reduced healthcare costs, better employee attendance, and better corporate morale.

Like we said earlier, everyone is a winner in a wellness challenge!

Workplace Obesity: The Facts

Workplace obesity has become one of the fastest growing health care problems in America. It is well known that America is considered one of the, if not “the”, heaviest countries in the world. This is largely in part due to fast food, un-healthy snacks and a very sedentary lifestyle. However, what many people are not aware of is that the rate of obesity in our country has doubled in the last 30 years and this weighs heavily on a company’s bottom line.

According to a new report from The Conference Board, Weights and Measures: What Employers Should Know about Obesity, obese employees cost private employers an estimated $45 billion annually. Here are some of the report’s findings:

• Obesity is associated with a 36% increase in spending on healthcare, more than smoking or problem drinking.
• 34% of adult Americans fit the definition of “obese”
• Obesity related health problems are costing American companies billions of dollars annually in medical expenditures and work loss.

Workplace Obesity: How Employers Can Help

With the increase in obesity and employer costs associated with it, it is more and more imperative to establish a way to assist employees with their healthy living choices. Wellness Programs can help employers help their employees. By providing assistance with health screening, health risk assessments and by conducting employee wellness surveys; wellness programs allow the employer non-invasive ways to communicate their concerns about their employee’s health.

EmployeeWellness.com suggests establishing a Walking Wellness program to assist your employees in meeting their weight-loss goals. Walking Wellness is a program designed to get your employees away from their desk and get them outside for a little exercise. Keep it fun by having contests, setting up weight-loss teams and having organized healthy picnics.

If you have any questions about how to get your employees moving, and therefore saving them and your company money, please feel free to contact one of our wellness experts.

Health screening: knowledge is power

A health screening is one of the most important tools in the corporate wellness toolbox for improving employee health and wellness. However, it’s hard to look beyond the simple pragmatic details of an on-site health screening to understand its power for unlocking improved employee wellness, lower health insurance premiums and reduced absenteeism. Just as small, systematic changes can revolutionize an individual’s fitness, seemingly minor systematic changes within your organization - like regular health screenings - can revolutionize the fitness of the individuals who collectively are your company’s finest asset.

How health screening works

“How does one little blood test do all that?” you may be asking. Yes, a health screening looks like a simple blood test, but the fact is that a well-administered and carefully organized group blood test can enable a health screening that will isolate dozens of risk factors for you and your employees.

Health screenings, such as the health risk assessments (HRAs) performed by EmployeeWellnessUSA, produce an easy-to-read series of reports on the health hazards that threaten your workforce. Depending on the health risk tests that you choose, your health screenings can point out possible problems posed by high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many other common health issues. Health screenings can also highlight dangerous levels of toxic workplace substances or industrial chemicals. Lastly, a thorough health screening, whether an on-site health screening at your campus or one arranged at one of our nationwide testing laboratories, can test for health risk management issues with illegal drugs like amphetamines, marijuana, heroin and cocaine.

The advantages of health screenings with EmployeeWellnessUSA

If you elect to work with EmployeeWellnessUSA when performing your company’s health screening, you’ll have some advantages that will make your job easier.

We’re veterans of distributed laboratory testing and our services have been written up in a variety of national publications, including TIME, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. We bring that experience to every corporate client who chooses to partner with us for health screening.

We also use our proprietary online health management system to perform health screenings. Our system allows us to deliver online scheduling of employee tests, email reminders that work the way you do, confidential medical reports (aggregated for you, and individualized for your employees), online consent forms, health surveys, secure data handling and more. You can rely on our experience when planning your company’s health screening.

Talking to EmployeeWellnessUSA about health screening

Early detection makes a world of difference for almost all major diseases, including the big killers like cardiovascular disease and cancer. Don’t delay in setting up your organization’s health screening. The corporate wellness statistics are clear about the benefits of implementing wellness programs like health screenings. It’s worth it - both as a fiscal decision and as an initiative that will be emotionally satisfying for you and your employees. Please contact our health screening specialists for a no-obligation chat.