Employee Wellness Now as Important as Cost and Workforce Issues
25 percent Jump in Employer Interest in Employee Health and Wellness
Job Site wellness for their employees, corporations are discovering, is great for the health of their corporations as well. Employee Wellness help to cut the expenditures associated with poor employee health, which include absenteeism, loss of work rate and poor work quality.
A new Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 United States corporations indicated a significant paradigm shift in how corporations view health benefits for their employees. Of those surveyed this year, 88 percent are committed to instituting long-term medical assistance programs (over the next 3-5 years) for their employees, with the objective of boosting the health and work rate of their workforce. This represents a 25 percent growth in interest in Employee Wellness over 2007.
A strong offering of Employee Wellness to meet the demand has resulted. Health assistance providers have broadened their programs with tools that address general lifestyle factors, physical, social and psychological health factors. Programs look to predict chronic conditions in their employees and give them the tools and the information to prevent it. Companies also demand a way to measure the performance of their health care spending.
“Self-care is our motive,” says Vic Lebouthillier, president of progressive health and wellness provider Exan Wellness.”We really believe giving employees tools to help them manage their own health, and promoting the advantages, while giving people resources to reach out for help is the key to successful lifestyle modification. Corporations are also telling us they need a cost-effective way to deliver Employee Wellness . The type of program we have developed over years delivers the highest medical return on investment.”
Combining worksite wellness promotions, online assessments and health trackers, online health information, phone conferences and self-help groups, and access to a wide variety of health professionals, is behind the success of the Exan program. “Having online statistics about employees’ health also makes it easier to track the bottom line – return on investment” says Vic Lebouthillier.
“Companies are moving beyond their traditional role as a provider of health care benefits to cultivate holistic programs that pinpoint the specific health needs of their employee populations, drive employee behavior change and eliminate barriers to healthcare,” says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.
However, in a separate survey of 30,000 employees, 74 percent said that, although they felt their business had an obligation to help them know how to use their health benefits program, only 12 percent felt the business had any right to tell them how to be healthy. Based on these results, corporations need to drive home the fact that improved health is better for their employees as well as the business. It’s a win-win situation.
Employers and employees did discover common ground when it came to future health care. Both surveys indicate that 95 percent of employees know that their taking care of their health today will effect future health care payments. A similar percentage also know the significant of early detection and prevention when it comes to saving on health care expenditures.
Cost is significant for most corporations as well. Over 80 percent of those surveyed made cost mitigation a priority for 2008, but those cuts did not involve shifting responsibility for health care onto employees. Although 64 percent of corporations have transfered expenditures to their employees, only 17 percent intend to do so in the next 3-5 years. Similarly with health reimbursement accounts, 20 percent now offer these, but only about 5 percent intend to use them in 2008.
These survey results indicate corporations are getting more proactive in assisting their employees to shift behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is obviously great for the wellness of employees, but also for the wellness of the corporations they work for. Almost half the corporations surveyed were convinced that changing health behaviors was key to better work rate and lower absentee rates. Over 60 percent intend to institute programs that help employees modify and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle. Almost of these corporations will also use data and measurements to ensure their health care strategies meet their health care objectives?
