Employee Health and Wellness Programs ROI is Evident
According to a new survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans there is more reason than ever to provide health and wellness programs with incentive benefits for your employees. According to the survey for every $1 companies invest in health and wellness programs for employees, $3 is saved in health care costs. 70% of U.S. employers are currently running some form of a health and wellness program, and 83% of all employers running programs saw a return on investment. It is not surprising that health and wellness programs see unprecedented return on investment. Employees get healthier, happier, and feel more supported by their employers. These factors all lead to increased happiness at work, retention rates, and productivity. To incentivize employees to reach health and fitness goals use small rewards such as gift cards
, or extra time off. It’s a great way to show employees you care, not just about the job they do for the organization, but for their long term well-being. To learn more about the report from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans check out this tip in
Time Magazine or article in
Baseline Magazine
Employers continue to use Health and Wellness benefits to manage costs
According to a survey released this week by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employers are using an increasing amount of Health and Wellness programs and benefits as both a mechanism to raise employee morale and manage rising health care costs in a slowly recovering economy. Raising employee morale and keeping employees healthy through professional development, and health and wellness programs is a cost effective investment for employees. These benefits provide an ROI in raised retention rates, productivity, and job satisfaction, as well as lower employer health care costs. The survey revealed that employers offering development opportunities such as life-coaching jumped from 33% in 2008 to 45% in 2012, and providing small rewards, such as gift cards, for completing health and wellness programs increased from 23% in 2008 to 35% in 2012. These significant increases prove this is a growing trend and the value of these rewards continues to be successful.
For more information on the SHRM survey and how employee benefit programs help manage employer costs check out this MarketWatch Release.
Safety Programs and Incentives
Although safety programs are effective for cutting workplace injuries in all workplace environments; manufacturing is an optimal industry segment to promote workplace safety incentives. Workplace environments can be harsh and employee safety is a number one concern and constant initiative. Formal safety reward programs provide an important function to motivate employees to take proper safety precautions and adapt to the safer behaviors that your environment demands. If employees are motivated to take safety awareness seriously enough to reduce the likelihood of accidents, and the program is properly structured with measurement methods in place; the company will realize ROI in increased performance, and reduced healthcare insurance premiums. Following are a few examples of typical safety and workplace incentive programs that manufacturers employ:
How do Kraft, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Adobe Boost Productivity?
Ensuring wellness in and across organizations. Talent Management magazine outlines
Tips to Ensure Wellness Boosts Productivity, which offers us key considerations for a sound framework and wellness program structure, as well as
5 Key Steps to Workplace Wellness. These are both interesting articles and offer ideas, but they are summaries of concepts we’ve been hearing about for some time. Now that wellness programs have been running long enough to show increased productivity, healthcare cost savings for employers and employees, and bottom line ROI; what’s next for creating an even more holistic approach to wellness?
An online community comment to the “Tops to Ensure Wellness” article offers the concept of management also paying attention to employees’ emotional and psychological well being while at work. Since physical well being is only 1 facet of a person’s whole being, is this facet of manageable and measurable within health and wellness programs? Since incentives and rewards have become fundamental parts of wellness programs, can they also be used to motivate emotional wellness on a measurable basis? Let us know your thoughts by commenting here.
