Wellness Trends . . . Companies Focus on VOI Rather than ROI

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?