With escalating
health care costs eroding every company’s bottom line, employee wellness
programs are quickly becoming the norm at many companies nationwide. In fact, MetLife’s 10th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends
found that 77 percent of employers with more than 500 employees offer wellness
programs and 44 percent of all companies, regardless of size, offer wellness
programs.
Whether you
already have a wellness plan in place or are considering implementing one, you
will want to evaluate the effectiveness of your program. A number of studies
have researched and evaluated wellness program ROI and the benefit-to-cost ratios range from $1.49 to $4.91 in benefits for every
dollar spent. However, calculating ROI can be a time consuming and expensive
process for many companies. There are numerous variables that each company must
take into consideration.
With so many
companies already committed to investing in wellness, there is a growing trend
to move away from complicated ROI calculations towards measurements based on
VOI—or value on investment. It’s common sense that employees who begin eating
better, quit smoking, take their medications and/or exercise will cost their
employers less money. By looking at VOI, companies can evaluate their wellness
programs based on the self-defined outcomes that are important to their
organizations.
Since different
outcomes are important to different organizations, examining the value on your
investment lets you focus on the outcomes that are important to your company
and take steps to fulfill them. Take the time to map out your objectives when
you start planning your wellness program.
What are your goals? Are you
looking to:
- Get a sedentary population moving?
- Engage a majority of employees in wellness initiatives?
- Reduce absenteeism?
- Increase productivity?
- Improve morale and loyalty?
- Retain and attract top-notch employees?
- Keep yearly insurance premiums from rising?
By setting goals,
you can put simple methods in place to track data. If you are looking to get a
sedentary population moving, exercise can be logged and recorded. If you want
to track participation in programs, use sign in sheets. You get the idea. It’s
important to collect as much data as you can and use it to demonstrate that
your wellness program is achieving the objectives that you want to achieve. If
you do this, you will realize that there is tremendous value in a healthy
workforce.
We’d love to hear
from you. How does your company measure the effectiveness of its wellness
program? Or, if you are just getting
started, what are you looking to accomplish and how do you plan to measure you
results?
