Corporate Wellness More Than Improving the Bottom Line for your Business

“Wellness programs are not only valuable for the organizations and their employees, they are our biggest hope for fixing a national health crisis.” –
Rajiv Kumar, doctor and entrepreneur, “In Defense of Corporate Wellness Programs”

TEXT HEATHER DE PAULO

Many of us have heard of the term “Corporate Wellness” or “Workplace Wellness,” but what does it really mean, what does it entail for a business owner, and most importantly, what’s the bottom line? Specifically, corporate wellness is defined as any workplace health promotion activity or organizational policy designed to support healthy behavior in the workplace and to improve health outcomes.1 It can be carried out in the workplace, as well as many other settings.

Keys to a Successful Wellness Program

People are becoming more and more health conscious, but due to higher stress, longer workdays and constant multitasking, it is more difficult to find the time to act on wellness goals. Creating an on-site wellness program is important because the majority of an employee’s time is spent at the workplace,2 however, getting away from the office can prove to be beneficial in it’s own right.

According to Harvard Business Review,3 workplaces have a unique power to reframe the mindset around health itself – from one of sickness to one of wellness.

The organizations with the greatest success are managing to shift people’s relationship with health from one where health is something thought about and “practiced” annually at the doctor’s office, to one where health is practiced daily through small lifestyle habits. Corporate wellness cannot be treated as a band-aid, and you definitely won’t be able to find it in a fitness app. Engagement, motivation, support, and strategy are the keys to a successful wellness program.2 This commitment isn’t just for employees, it needs to go to the top – it motivates employees to see their CEO’s getting on board as well.

Promoting wellness in the workplace can consist of a variety of activities, such as health fairs, health education, medical screenings, healthy office snack delivery services, health coaching, weight management programs, wellness newsletters, on-site fitness programs and/or facilities, and educational programs, to name a few.1 These activities are all aimed at educating people as to what it means to live a healthy life, but more importantly emphasizing and encouraging continued motivation for long-term behavior change well into the future.

Some of these activities can be just as effective, if not more, when they take place outside of the workplace. According to Rudolph de Wit, physical therapist/acupuncturist, natural medicine practitioner and founder of PIAI Institute in Curaçao, there are benefits to taking an employee out of his/her environment. “While we are always willing to assist companies in setting up an on-site, ongoing corporate wellness program, we firmly believe that taking the employee out of their environment for a couple of days opens up more interactive ways of getting the message across, and provides greater opportunity for concentrated focus and therefore, a greater learning experience.”

The Bottom Line

Healthcare costs are rising year after year. According to the Center for Disease Control in the US, chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and obesity account for 75 percent of total healthcare costs.2 Obesity, which tends to be the main culprit leading to the cause of many chronic diseases, accounts for a whopping 21% of the costs alone.4

In the past, companies have mainly focused on the “demands” aspect of the equation when trying to solve productivity, non-performance and other employee related issues, which is the current main motivator for local companies to engage in corporate wellness programs, as well, according to de Wit. “The new thinking is to focus on the ‘resources’ side of the equation. At PIAI, we do exactly that by working on increasing your inner strength, your ability to rise up to challenges and by working on your total well-being.” Companies that implement corporate wellness programs find that they help the bottom line, not only in the short run, but in the long run and in areas that were not considered before.

The fact is, healthier employees cost you less; and there are many case studies to prove it: The leaders at Johnson and Johnson, the pharmaceutical company, estimate that wellness programs have cumulatively saved the company $250 million in health care costs over the past decade; from 2002 to 2008, the return was $2.71 for every dollar spent.3 During a randomized control trial by doctors Richard Milani and Carl Lavie, it was demonstrated that of the participants receiving wellness intervention who were at high risk, 57% dropped to low risk at the end of the six-month program, resulting in a decline in medical costs of $1,421 per participant, yielding $6 in health care savings for every dollar spent.3

The way some companies skirt around the increasing cost is by passing on the difference to their employees through higher deductibles. However, by implementing a more positive approach, some companies are allowing healthier employees to actually help their own bottom line. For example, some employers are empowering and rewarding their employees by offering incentives such as lowering employee’s contributions with rebates if they do participate in a wellness program.

Employers simply cannot afford to take the financial burden of rising health costs any longer.

Keep it Going

Corporate wellness shouldn’t be boring. Creating unique and dynamic programs that consistently evolve over time ensure the best possibility of long-term success. Human beings need to be challenged and stimulated in different ways and different means to create change. Challenge your program to stay on the latest trends; it will help to appoint a wellness leader who takes direct responsibility over the operations.

Preventable wellness is a complete lifestyle and behavior change, so it takes time and commitment.2 The only way to prevent disease is with actionable steps to halt progression. When old habits are years in the making, you cannot expect behavior to change overnight. However, when a person is able to commit mentally, emotionally, and socially, and on a conscious level, progress is possible. An employee wellness program needs to address this through consistent education and layers of accountability.

“Investing in corporate wellness is not a luxury,” stated de Wit, “it’s an investment in your employees’ engagement with the company leading to increased productivity and increased creativity and problem solving skills. The decrease in the cost of absenteeism and turnover is a bonus!

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_wellness
2 http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2013/09/12/five-reasons-corporate-wellness-is-more-important-than-ever/
3 https://hbr.org/2010/12/whats-the-hard-return-onemployee-wellness-programs
4 http://www.obesitycampaign.org/obesity_facts.asp

Harvard Business Review lists three key approaches to a successful wellness program:

1. Rework your corporate mission to highlight health as a key element. Redefine your core business from “a company with a wellness program” to “a wellness company that happens to sell XYZ.”

2. Tap into the personal motivation of your employees. People don’t strive to get healthy because it’s the right thing to do. If a company can tap into the personal motivator of each employee, it can better communicate the value of health. Making a program tie-in to every day life makes it more relevant and increases the number of employees who participate.

3. Employees need to own the program – they have to feel that it’s theirs. American company, L.L. Bean empowers employees to design their own wellness initiatives that are relevant to their respective departmental needs. This empowerment encourages employees to take the initiative to develop their own programs, and if they get enough people in their department interested, the company funds and supports it. This creates wellness representatives who help spread the message, keeps employees accountable and give support to others when they start to fall behind.