Employer Wellness

High rates of employee turnover and the expenditures of sick days are increasingly taking bites into company profits. The high cost of recruitment programs only adds to the challenges that these concerns in total cost the average company. Many businesses are finding the solution to these challenges by increasing job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of programs that yield a decrease in these expenditures.

It has become increasingly clear to most managers that a well designed wellness program / fitness program with a strong nutritional and fitness lifestyle emphasis will directly meet this need. Senior Management’s objectives for a beneficial wellness program must be viewed through the perspective of increased employee productiveness, decreased absenteeism due to health related causes, improved employee morale, decreased utilisation of organization subsidised health benefits, enhanced group cohesion and effectiveness and a reduction in turnover due to lack of job satisfaction. It is obvious that an improvement in any of these areas will have a positive impact on the financial status of any organisation.

The benefits from an employees point of view can be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, lowered body fat, a more youthful fit body, an increased ability to handle job related stress, greater feelings of confidence and morale and more social connections at work contributing to greater feelings of satisfaction with their work and workplace.

To be most constructive a wellness program needs to achieve both management’s and employee’s goals and objectives, and this can be accomplished through a program that will offer the individual employee with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and wellness, and the benefits of attaining a fitter, healthier lifestyle, and a plan that will allow them to achieve the significant changes to their physical condition that can be applied in the context of their life and work.

The Bottom Line – Workplace Wellness Programs

Lowered Rates of Absenteeism – Dupont reduced absenteeism by 47.5% over six years for the participants of their organization fitness program, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).

Lowered Healthcare Expenses – Steel case showed a decrease in medical care claim costs of 55 percent for corporate physical activity program participants over non-participants over a six year period – an average of $478.61 for participants vs. non-participants who averaged $868.88, (The Am. Journal of Health Promotion, Sept/Oct, 1991).

Reduced Turnover – Turnover among fitness program participants at the Canadian Life Assurance Company was 32.4% lower over a seven year period compared with non-participants (Canadian Journal of Public Health, Jan/Feb, 1988).

Positive Return on Investment – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Indiana saw that its corporation exercise program had a 250 percent return on investment; $2.51 for every $1 invested over a five year period (American Journal of Health Promotion, March, April, 1991).