Health and Wellness Leads : Workplace Wellness Programs Now as Important as Cost and Workforce Issues

25 percent Jump in Employer Interest in Employee Health and Wellness

Worksite wellness for their employees, corporations are discovering, is great for the health of their corporations as well. Worksite Health Promotion Programs help to cut the costs associated with poor employee health, which include absenteeism, loss of productiveness and poor work quality.

A new Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 American businesses indicated a valuable paradigm shift in how businesses view health benefits for their staff members. Of those surveyed this year, 88% are committed to instituting long-term health care assistance programs (over the next 3-5 years) for their staff members, with the objective of boosting the health and productiveness of their workforce. This represents a 25% rise in interest in Corporate Wellness Programs over 2007.

A strong offering of Corporate Health Promotion Programs to meet the demand has resulted. Health assistance providers have broadened their programs with tools that address general lifestyle factors, physical, social and psychological health factors. Programs look to predict chronic disease in their staff members and give them the tools and the information to prevent it. Companies also demand a way to measure the effectiveness of their health care spending.

“Self-care is our motive,” says Vic Lebouthillier, president of progressive health and wellness provider Exan Wellness.”We really believe giving staff members tools to help them manage their own health, and promoting the benefits, while giving people resources to reach out for help is the key to efficacious lifestyle modification. Corporations are also telling us they need a cost-effective way to deliver Company Health Promotion Programs. The sort of program we have developed over years delivers the highest medical care return on investment.”

Combining workplace wellness promotions, web-based assessments and health trackers, web-based health information, phone conferences and self-help groups, and access to a wide variety of health professionals, is behind the success of the Exan program. “Having web-based statistics about workers’ health also makes it easier to track the bottom line – ROI” says Vic Lebouthillier.

“Corporations are moving beyond their traditional role as a provider of health care benefits to foster holistic programs that pinpoint the specific health needs of their employee populations, drive employee behavior modification and eliminate barriers to healthcare,” says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.

Nevertheless, in a separate survey of 30,000 workers, 74 percent said that, even though they felt their business had an obligation to help them be aware of how to use their health benefits program, only 12 percent felt the business had any right to tell them how to be healthy. Based on these results, corporations need to drive home the fact that improved health is better for their workers as well as the business. It’s a win-win situation.

Employers and employees did find common ground when it came to future healthcare. Both surveys indicate that 95 percent of employees understand that their taking care of their health today will impact future medical care payments. A similar percentage also understand the valuable of early detection and prevention when it comes to saving on medical care expenditures.

Cost is valuable for most corporations as well. Over 80% of those surveyed made cost mitigation a priority for 2008, but those cuts did not involve shifting responsibility for medical care onto staff members. Although 64% of corporations have transfered expenditures to their staff members, only 17% intend  to do so in the next 3-5 years. Similarly with health reimbursement accounts, 20% now offer these, but only about 5% intend  to use them in 2008.

These survey results indicate companies are getting more proactive in helping their staff members to modify behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is obviously good for the well-being of staff members, but also for the well-being of the companies they work for. Almost half the companies surveyed were convinced that changing health behaviors was key to greater productiveness and decrease absentee rates. Over 60 percent aim  to institute programs that help staff members modify and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle. Almost of these companies will also use data and measurements to ensure their healthcare strategies meet their healthcare objectives?