Health and Wellness: The Benefit You Shouldn’t Overlook
January 21, 2012
It could be the enrollment of several new employees to OpenView’s health plan, or perhaps the January gym rush. It may have even been the sneezing passenger I sat next to on the train yesterday. Whatever caused it, I’ve been thinking a lot about health and wellness and the role of employee benefits lately.
It’s no secret that the cost of health care in the United States is constantly evolving, particularly given major changes in health care reform legislation in the last year. Together with an uncertain economy, the majority of employers are feeling less and less confident in their ability to maintain their offering of an affordable employer-sponsored plan over the next ten years.
In their annual report, Towers Watson, a national consulting firm, surveyed more than 600 employers on the challenges that stand in the way of them being confident in maintaining affordable benefit coverage. The biggest challenge? Employees’ poor health habits. Yikes! As the employer, you are as much on the line for the poor health habits of your employees as they are when they face the doc at their annual (hopefully) check-up. The health and wellness of your employees is a costly issue. So, as an employer, what can you do to maintain your status over the long-run as a company with an awesome total rewards portfolio?
Enter a wildly popular and emerging trend known as the health and wellness program. Taking on a variety of forms, a workplace wellness program is designed to positively impact the healthy behaviors of your employees through educational, organizational or environmental activities. Examples could include discounted gym memberships, a smoking cessation program, and even on-site access to a nutritionist.
However, implementing a creative program that relies on very few resources can be just as successful too, as evidenced by an article in Inc. magazine which highlights how the CEO of an 18 person organization made a big impact with simple changes to the workplace environment. For small companies with limited resources, creativity can often be the key to the most effective program with a big ROI. In fact, studies have shown that for every $1 contributed toward a successful wellness program, an employer can expect somewhere from $2 to $6 in return! Simply by influencing the healthy behaviors of your own employees!