I have come across two new studies that shed some light on the long term impact of workplace wellness programs and wanted to share some of findings with readers. I feel this new research on employee wellness programsreveals how both employees and employers are benefiting from wellness incentives that are offered for a period of a year or longer.
According to a study featured in the Workplace Health Promotion blog, the difficult economy is affecting the stress level of the American workforce. The author reasons that the increased stress load makes employees more likely to participate in a workplace health promotion program to help improve their health and wellness.
The survey reported that nearly 80% of survey respondents thought they could improve their personal health if offered the proper tools and information. In my experience as an account manager, successful employee wellness programs are the programs that offer information to employees easily and through multimedia depending on employee demographics. The majority of people surveyed apparently wanted to receive health and wellness advice or information from a healthcare professional, while others preferred to look up information online and some even preferred the information be provided by human resource professionals.
This research shows that it is imperative for employers to offer at a minimum health risk assessment incentives to employees. A health risk assessment is the perfect opportunity for an employee to discuss his or her health and wellness goals with a personal physician while being checked for any possible healthcare concerns. When employers incentivize employees to make a hra appointment, the company pairs a caring professional with an employee in a one-on-one discussion that can help the person better achieve their wellness goals in the long run.
The Wall Street Journal Blog discussed another recent long term study of healthy employees which demonstrated when employees are involved in workplace wellness activities tended to be more social and had improved collaboration on the job with coworkers. Having taken place from 1984 to 2006, this groundbreaking research found that sports-playing adults saw a boost in income equivalent to an extra year of education. Wellness programs, as seen in this study, actually have the potential to appreciate the value of your workforce in addition to reducing healthcare related costs for both employees and employers.
Employee Wellness programs that are properly designed will motivate employees by offering them the right tools and information to become healthy team players and more valuable assets of the business. By taking this new information into consideration, your company can implement a new wellness program or re-evaluate an existing one to maximize the potential of your organizational performance one healthy employee at a time.
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