Evaluating Your Worksite Wellness Program: ROI or VOI?

An important step in the development of each worksite wellness program is setting goals and determining how you will measure results. This will help you determine whether your program is meeting your objectives and will provide insight about changes you can make to improve results.

Organizations can use two methods to evaluate the investment in their health and wellness programs. The first, return on investment (ROI), evaluates the amount of money a company spends on wellness compared to the amount of money it saves on healthcare costs. This form of evaluation is focused on the tangible return – money – and a measurable outcome that directly relates with the original investment. When evaluating a program using ROI, it’s clear whether the return or the investment is of greater value.

The second evaluation tool, value on investment (VOI), measures the overall value received on the financial investment while also including the abstract value received from the investment. Because VOI is not as tangible a measure, the types of outcomes may differ from the initial investment and can sometimes be difficult to compare.  When using VOI, it can be a challenge to determine whether the value or the investment is of greater value. Despite this challenge many organizations have started to use VOI to evaluate their wellness programs because it includes the invaluable benefits of employee health – increased morale, reduced sick days, decreased turnover and higher productivity as well as the financial savings on healthcare costs.

In deciding which evaluation measure to rely on, take a look at your corporate culture, your wellness program goals, and the size and style of your program. Your program goals can help  you determine how success should be defined. Does your program have a “people” focus, a “productivity” focus or another type of focus that lends itself to using either ROI or VOI? Next, define the size of your wellness program. Smaller programs are slightly more difficult to measure because a large sample is not available to accurately demonstrate financial comparisons. Lastly, take a look at your wellness program style. Is the focus on overall employee wellbeing or only on physical health? Is it activity or education based? The answers to these questions can help you determine whether a ROI or a VOI evaluation makes the most sense for your organization.

Whether taken together or independently, ROI and VOI are important tools that can help you evaluate the success of your worksite wellness program. Wellness Workdays helps clients evaluate each and every program we implement. If you are looking for additional insight or need help evaluating your initiative, contact us.

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