Employee Wellness Programs Reap Huge Benefits for Employers
Employee wellness programs are intended to promote and improve the health and fitness of employees. These programs can either be offered by employers directly or through insurance plans. Through these plans, employees are offered premium discounts, gym memberships, cash rewards and other incentives in a bid to encourage participation. Examples of these programs in the business place include weight loss, diabetes management, annual health screening and those designed to discourage smoking.
Why Companies Need Wellness Programs
Everybody falls sick at one time or the other. However, nearly 117 million Americans are suffering from one or more chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, asthma, kidney problems or stroke. These conditions require constant medical attention.
What is worrying however, is the fact that more and more youth are affected by some of these conditions previously associated with old age. This means that in a typical business day, more people are likely to call in sick. This has a huge, negative impact on productivity, and 93% percent of business leaders agree.
Almost $225.8 billion annually is lost from employee absenteeism. This amounts to $1,685 for every employee. In addition, companies with high costs of worker’s compensation are related to common health risks like smoking, physical inactivity and poor health.
Furthermore, obesity alone costs employers more than $73 billion a year in health care costs. With these staggering figures and statistics, it clearly makes economic sense to integrate wellness programs in the workplace. This not only improves productivity of the business, but also the individual health of employees.
Furthermore, employee counseling are being incorporated into wellness programs to allow more employees to work stress free while dealing with their personal issues. Statistics reveal that 42 percent of employees are stressed about their personal health while over 60 percent of employees are stressed about work. Proper counseling helps employees work through their stresses and concentrate more on their duties.
Benefits of Incorporating Wellness Programs
Wellness programs have improved the overall health and energy of employees in America. They have helped to reduce smoking by almost 7 percent. They have also addressed obese and overweight issues and have reduced disability by a whopping 14 percent. Screenings allow people to catch serious chronic conditions such as cancer earlier to allow proper medical attention.
Improved individual health of employees has has reduced absenteeism and its related costs. These programs have also reduced the monthly cost of healthcare borne by companies by $360 a year for every member. Those programs that promote proper nutrition and regular exercise have resulted in a 13 percent savings in health care. This means there will be less expenditure on healthcare annually and more productivity in the long run.
As you can see, there are a ton of phenomenal reasons as to why more and more businesses are implementing wellness programs into the workplace. But enough talking about them, we want to hear from you:
Does your company currently offer a wellness program? If ‘yes’, has it been beneficial to the energy levels and work productivity of the employees using it? If ‘no’, what has kept your company from offering such a plan?
About the Author
Ryan Ayers is a self described: Husband. Marketing Manager and Contributor for A Real Online Degree. Freelance writer on the side. Lover of all things related to business, technology, innovation, and the LA Clippers. Feel free to reach out to him on Twitter (@TheBizTechGuru) or LinkedIn.
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