Why Wellness?
The importance of wellness is ever increasing, whether it means practicing healthy choices or learning new ways to create a more successful and balanced lifestyle. Certainly, at its foundation are efforts focused at disease and illness prevention. With the amount of time spent at the workplace today and the link between health and productivity, the worksite becomes an important venue for the promotion of wellness.
Worksite wellness programs are defined as services focused on the promotion or maintenance of good health rather than the correction of poor health. These programs are designed to assist people in adopting positive behaviors with a hope of improving the productivity of the workplace and morale of the workforce. There are a wide range of programs and initiatives that can fall under the wellness umbrella, but all of them have the potential to alter the workplace, based on their implementation and employee participation. From lifestyle assessments to health education to physical activities, the mission of wellness programming is to help employees adapt to and maintain healthier lifestyles.
Why is wellness important in the workplace?
There are both tangible and intangible benefits to workplace wellness programs that may each have a positive effect on an organization’s bottom line. Effectively designed, implemented and managed wellness programs have been shown to significantly reduce the cost of employee health care, improve absenteeism and increase productivity. In addition, wellness programs can lead to higher employee morale and ultimately increase employee retention.
Healthy individuals tend to experience a much higher quality of life, and healthy behaviors can reduce the risk for chronic disease. While traditional workplace health benefits programs focus on treating employee health problems and diseases, wellness programs focus on maintaining health and preventing illness, injury and other health issues by investing time, energy and money in the overall well-being and related wellness behavior choices of employees. Similar to the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” wellness programs can be used to help prevent health problems by guiding healthy habits and promoting healthy lifestyle choices to employees.
Benefits of Wellness Programs*
Positive outcomes associated with worksite wellness programs can include:
For employees:
- Improved health status, vitality and empowerment
- Increased opportunity to take control of health and medical treatment
- Improved quality of life and individual morale through risk factor reduction
- Reduced health care costs, absenteeism and pain and suffering from illness and accidents
For employers:
- Increased employee morale
- Improved workplace productivity
- Opportunity for cost savings via:
- Reduced sick leave absenteeism
- Reduced disability claims
- Decreased health care utilization
- Reduced premature retirement
- Decreased overall health benefit costs
- Fewer on-the-job accidents
- Lower casualty insurance costs
It is important to note that these programs often advise a long-term strategy that requires company commitment as well as employee engagement.
*Overview adapted from: Chapman, L. Proof Positive: An Analysis of the Cost-Effectiveness of Worksite Wellness. Sixth Ed., 2007.
