Build a Competitive Business with Wellness

Employees are an organization’s greatest asset. For this reason, employers should deploy the same amount of resources for employee wellness programs that is put toward building their business. Wellness programs should no longer be used as a mere enticement for recruitment of new talent but should instead be viewed as a necessity to be competitive in business.

Now is the time for employers to embrace wellness as a cost saving measure. Employers spend approximately $93 billion per year on obesity and related chronic diseases. In addition, the indirect costs of ill health may be several times greater than these direct medical costs. To compound matters, the US workforce is aging. By 2018, nearly one-quarter of the workforce will be 55 years or older. And, unfortunately, as employees age their health risks increase.

According to the CDC, 117 million Americans – or roughly half of US adults – have at least one chronic disease and one-quarter have multiple chronic conditions; and rates are expected to increase for certain illnesses. By 2050, the number of adults with diabetes could double or triple. And it’s not simply physical health that employers need to worry about. Approximately 18 percent of the population suffers from a diagnosable mental illness and a global analysis found that depression, anxiety and stress are rapidly increasing. These disorders take a toll on energy, focus and mood, in addition to causing increases in absenteeism due to doctors’ visits and sick days.

Newcomers to the workforce are affecting the landscape as well. The millennial generation who favor independence, leadership, creativity and a healthy work-life balance also favor wellness. Success in this new world will depend on an employer’s ability to maintain older, experienced workers, keep health care costs down and satisfy the ideals of the incoming generations.

To maximize the benefit of wellness programs consider the needs of your employees, the unique structure of your organization and available resources. According to Harvard University researchers, wellness programs returned over $3.00 in health care savings for every dollar that the company invested. Further, it is estimated that an improvement in mental health would save companies $21.6 billion due to reduced absenteeism alone. And a recent report in the Economist found that 89 percent of employee respondents believe that wellness programs improve their well-being and happiness.

Employers and management need to embrace the notion that it is not fiscally prudent to put employee health on the back burner; employee well-being is the foundation of a successful company. When a business employs a healthy, satisfied and engaged workforce, productivity goes up, influence expands, health costs decline and profits increase.

At Wellness Workdays, our comprehensive wellness programs encompass total well-being. We work with organizations across the country to develop programs that target the specific needs of each workforce – from physical and mental health to emotional health and fiscal fitness. A number of our programs involve spouses and children, which enables us to develop healthy employees and healthy families. Let us help you make your organization healthy in every dimension.

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Visit Wellness Workdays for more information about our worksite wellness programs.