Wellness Program Incentives

High rates of employee turnover and the expenditures of sick days are increasingly taking bites into employer profits. The high cost of recruitment programs only adds to the challenges that these problems in total cost the average employer. Many companies are finding the solution to these challenges by improving job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of programs that provide 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 goals for a beneficial wellness program must be viewed through the perspective of increased employee productiveness, diminished absenteeism due to health related causes, improved employee morale, diminished utilisation of company subsidised health benefits, enhanced team cohesion and performance 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 beneficial effect on the financial status of any organisation.

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

To be most productive a wellness program needs to achieve both upper management’s and employee’s 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 – Worksite Wellness Programs

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

Diminished Healthcare Expenses – Steel case showed a reduction in healthcare claim costs of 55% for corporate exercise 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).

Diminished Turnover – Turnover among fitness program participants at the Canadian Life Assurance Corporation 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 observed that its employer fitness 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).