Posted by Employer Wellness | Posted in Employer Wellness | Posted on 28-08-2010
Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that comprehensive wellness programs, or Wellness Programs, can lower healthcare and insurance costs, reduce rates of absenteeism, and improve performance and productivity.
Other benefits demonstrated in studies include improved ability to attract and retain key personnel, greater worker allegiance, and improved public image of the company.
Healthcare and Insurance Costs
A number of studies provide evidence of lower medical and insurance costs for participants in wellness programs, especially wellness programs involving exercise.
For $30 per individuals, the Bank of America conducted a wellness program for retirees using a risk assessment questionnaire, self-care books and other mailed materials. Insurance claims were decreased an average of $164 per year in this group while they increased $15 for the control group.
Since they were able to document significant changes in risk behavior, they anticipate greater savings in future years.
Pacific Bell’s FitWorks participants claim $300 less per case for a one-year savings of $700,000. Savings for conditions related to a sedentary lifestyle are $722 per case.
Coca Cola reported a reduction in health care claims with an exercise programalone, saving $500 per employee per year for the workers (60%) who joined their HealthWorks fitness program.
Prudential Insurance Corporation reports that the corporation’s major health care costs dropped from $574 to $312 for each participant in its wellness program.
Decreased Absenteeism
Absenteeism has been shown to be impacted by corporate wellness and wellness programs. the evidence indicates a meaningful reduction in absenteeism and resultant dollars saved thus of staff member fitness plans.
Pacific Bell’s FitWorks program decreased absent days .8 percent to save $2 million in one year. FitWorks members also spent 3.3 days less on short-term disability for an additional savings of $4.7 million.
Focusing wellness efforts on high-risk staff members can lead to better results. A national manufacturing corporation reports a decrease of 12.2 percent in disease days for these staff members.
A two-year study by the DuPont Corporation of the effect of its extensive wellness program on absences among workers reports that blue-collar workers at intervention sites had a 14 percent decline in disability days vs. 5.8 percent decline for controls. There were a sum of 11,726 fewer net disability days.
Enhanced Performance, Productivity and Morale
A number of businesss with wellness programs report documented improvement in job attitude, work performance, energy level, and/or overall morale among program participants–all critical factors in enhancing productivity.
A Johnson and Johnson study found that employee attitude changes were greater at wellness intervention sites with significant positive attitude changes noted in the categories of organizational commitment, supervision, working conditions, job competence/security, and pay/benefits.
In a Canadian government study, the Canada Life Assurance Business experimental group realized a 4 percent increase in productivity after starting an worker fitness program, compared to the control group.
Moreover, 47 percent of program participants reported that they felt more alert, had better rapport with their coworkers, and generally enjoyed their work more.
Swedish investigators found that mental performance was significantly better in physically fit workers than in non-fit workers. Fit workers committed 27 percent fewer errors on tasks involving concentration and short-term memory, as compared with the performance of non-fit workers.
The Bottom Line
The following sample of corporate wellness wellness program results have been stated by individual companys –
Company – Dollars Saved/Dollars Spent
• Bank of America (Fries) – $5.96/$1
• PacBell – $3.10/$1
• Wisconsin School District Insurance Group – $4.47/$1
• Prudential Insurance – $2.90/$1
• Bank of America (Leigh) – $4.73/$1
• General Mills – $3.50/$1
Summary
There is compelling evidence that a sizable portion of the billions of dollars currently spent by corporations on health-related costs is avoidable by means of wellness programming.
Well-planned, extensive wellness programs (wellness programs and worker wellness programs) have been proven to be cost-effective, particularly when the wellness programming is matched to the health problems of the specific worker