Posted by Company Wellness | Posted in Company Wellness, Wellness Programs | Posted on 13-08-2010
High rates of staff member turnover and the costs of sick days are increasingly taking bites into corporate profits. The high cost of recruitment programs only adds to the challenges that these problems in total cost the typical corporation.
A lot of businesses are locating the solution to these challenges by increasing job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of health promotion programs that yield a reduction in these costs.
It’s become increasingly clear to most managers that a well designed wellness program with a strong nutritional and fitness lifestyle emphasis will directly meet this need.
Management’s objectives for a productive health promotion program should be viewed through the perspective of increased employee productivity, lowered absenteeism due to health related causes, improved employee morale, lowered utilisation of corporation subsidised health benefits, enhanced team cohesion and effectiveness and a decrease in turnover due to lack of job satisfaction.
It’s obvious that an improvement in any of these areas will have a positive impact on the financial status of any organisation.
The benefits from an employees point of view could be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, reduced body fat, a more youthful fit body, an increased ability to handle job related stress, greater feelings of confidence and morale and more social connections at work contributing to greater feelings of satisfaction with their work and worksite.
To be most productive a wellness program needs to achieve both managements and staff members goals, and this can be accomplished through a wellness program that’ll provide the individual employee with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and well-being, and the benefits of attaining a fitter, healthier lifestyle, and a plan that’ll allow them to achieve the necessary changes to their physical condition that can be applied in their life and work.
The Bottom Line – Health Promotion Programs
Lowered Absenteeism – Dupont reduced absenteeism by 47.5 percent over six years for the participants of their employee fitness initiative, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).
Lowered Health Care Costs – Steel case showed a reduction in medical claim costs of 55 percent for corporate fitness program participants over non-participants over a six year period – an average of $478.61 for participants vs. non-participants who averaged $868.88, (The Am. Journal of Wellness, Sept/Oct, 1991).
Reduced Turnover – Turnover among fitness program participants at the Canadian Life Assurance Company was 32.4 percent lower over a seven year period compared with non-participants (Canadian Journal of Public Health, Jan/Feb, 1988).
Positive Return on Investment – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Indiana found that its corporate exercise initiative had a 250 percent return on investment; $2.51 for every $1 invested over a five year period (American Journal of Wellness, March, April, 1991).