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A great company Wellness Program will enhance the health of the company and most importantly, the health of its employees. Company wellness programs may include initiatives that are within the workplace as well as the community and an employee’s home. Employers are becoming more involved in promoting the health of their workforce. The results of company wellness programs are beneficial for both the employees and the employer. Wellness programs focus on the physical well being of employees, looking after medical requirements and ensuring personal health as a priority.
These wellness programs may create lifestyle and behavior changes for our employees. With education and the support of the work environment, employees find they more open to making healthier changes and choices in their home life. Many wellness programs focus on nutrition counseling, smoking cessation, weight loss, disease management and prevention, healthy lifestyles, cancer screening, nutrition, weight loss regimes, stress management, discounts on health clubs and total employee health risk assessments. These programs can be implemented with low to no cost to the company. These valuable tools allow your employees to take their health seriously in and out of the workplace.
The overall healthier workforce can reap many benefits to the company. Significant reductions in our health insurance premiums based on the introduction of wellness programs can be experienced due to the decreases in health insurance usage by our employees. Healthier employees = fewer doctor visits, fewer hospital stays and shorter hospital stays. Also, Workers’ Compensation insurance premiums can be reduced by companies showing that they take the health of the workforce very seriously. Most large companies already have complete corporate wellness programs. Many of the mid-size and smaller companies are finding the value to their employees by providing these programs and services. Most programs are non-threatening and nonembarrassing to your employees which makes it more likely that they will participate willingly in the program.
Companies with wellness programs report a significant reduction in absenteeism. Employees who participate in a wellness program will make changes, small and large, to their lifestyle that can reduce or eliminate conditions they may have been experiencing such as heart problems, obesity or depression. A wellness program will identify these conditions and educate employees on how to change their lifestyle in order to garner positive health results. Lower absenteeism equates to a reduction in costs and an increase in productivity, directly affecting your company’s bottom line. Being healthy increases energy level, concentration and work output. Lower absenteeism also directly affects the cost of your sick leave benefit.
If your company is looking at the possibility of introducing a Corporate Wellness Program, contact your health insurance carrier or broker first. You don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel to have a good program. Learn from others what works best for them. One of the best ways to start a program is by sponsoring a Wellness Fair to see how your employees react to the openness and access to so much health information at one time.
Whether you have ten or one thousand employees, it’s always good to look into a wellness program. The short-term cost of the program will have long-term effects on your employees and your direct costs related to health insurance and absenteeism. Everyone benefits from a wellness program. A happy and healthy workplace will be a productive and effective one.
Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), wellness incentives of up to 20 percent of the total premium are permitted, provided that the program meets certain conditions. The new health reform law passed in March 2010 increases the amount of the potential award/penalty to 30 percent of the premium. Under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, employers an offer increased incentives to employees for participation in a wellness program or for meeting certain health status targets beginning in 2014.
Vicki Krotzer, PHR
HR Project Manager
HR Resolutions
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