Wellness is well worth it, says Ron Keen, co-founder and President of PureWellness. That becomes easy to understand when you appreciate that lifestyle is the single largest factor in health, he says.
If your entity is typical, Keen says, probably about 20 percent of your employees have diseases or medical problems that are not preventable. You’re going to pay for their health issues no matter what.
However, that leaves 80 percent who are currently “healthy” and not costing you so much in healthcare dollars. Unfortunately, many of those employees are making lifestyle choices that will ultimately move them into the expensive group, Keen says.
Keen and PureWellness’s Chief Wellness Officer Barb Rouleau, made their suggestions during a recent webcast on HR.com.
Bad lifestyle choices mean a huge risk of disease and conditions that are costly, like heart disease, diabetes, joint problems that result in hip and knee replacements, and back pain, Keen says.
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By the way, he notes, add stress to that list of expensive conditions. It’s a prodigious productivity robber. Studies show that employees under high stress spend 1 hour a day focused on their stress item. It’s akin to presenteeism (showing up for work when you are sick), Keen says.
Stress is even worse than it seems because employees who are under stress tend to bring fellow employees down.
There is good news, however. For that “other 80 percent” of employees who are healthy, most of the expensive health consequences are preventable, Keen says.
The Cost of Absenteeism
Of course, direct healthcare costs are the most obvious part of overall health costs to the employer. But it’s important to remember, Keen says, that there’s another cost that isn’t often counted as part of healthcare expenses: the cost of absenteeism. You’re losing productivity to days lost to illness and to all that time off for those visits to the doctor, Keen notes.
Whose Job Is Prevention?
Unfortunately, prevention falls to employers, Keen says, because they bear most of the cost of medical care. Employees see their doctors perhaps once or twice a year—not often enough to get the support and encouragement employees need to stay healthy.
The bottom line is that, if employers want to see costs go down, they have to step into the gap with wellness initiatives of their own.
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The good news, Keen says, is that many studies have been done on the cost effectiveness of wellness programs, and most show about the same result: For each dollar invested, the programs return $4 in healthcare savings and up to an additional $5 in reduced absenteeism. As they say on TV’s Survivor, worth playing for?
What Incentives Are Most Effective?
Keen says incentives, when used correctly, can take many different forms. For example, at one of his client’s workplace, there is simply a communication from the employer congratulating the employee for participating in or achieving a certain milestone. At another client, wellness program participants who reach a threshold of points are awarded a branded MP3 player, a branded T-shirt, and a branded water bottle.
The most effective incentives, he says, are monetary rewards (often in the form of gift cards) or something with the company’s brand that only employees who complete the program can receive.
Final Tip
What’s the key to wellness success? “We’ve seen high participation rates up to 60 percent when employees have easy access and the message the employer sends encourages employees to participate,” says Keen.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll review keys to great wellness programs from Rouleau, and we’ll find out about a new turnkey wellness program.
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