A wellness program can make your company healthy and wealthy, as well as wise. A brand new BLR book shows you how to effectively implement one.
In today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, profits are in a constant squeeze. Put in the vernacular, it’s pretty tough to make a buck.
But what if we tell you there’s a way to make not one, but three dollars for every one you spend, plus obtain for yourself and your workers other benefits that can only be described as priceless.
Are you interested? And just as important, is your senior management interested?
We’ll bet they are. Because, according to studies done by the American Journal of Health Promotion, that’s just the return you can expect from putting in place a workplace wellness program. The Journal studied the wellness plans of 200 companies and set average 3- to 6-year return on investment on those plans at 348 percent.
Even in the shorter term, wellness returns benefits. According to Provant Health Solutions, you’ll see improved absenteeism in the first 6 to 18 months of plan operation, plus a decrease in presenteeism … workers on the job when they shouldn’t be due to health issues, making mistakes and spoiling productivity. Wellness plans also can result in improved retention and a more effective recruiting package.
How difficult are such plans to implement? For this answer, we turn to a brand new BLR Guide titled Workplace Wellness: Healthy Employees, Healthy Families, Healthy ROI. These are the steps the book lays out in creating and operating a plan at your workplace.
–Create a Wellness Champion Among Senior Management. Likely not difficult, once you explain the human and economic payback and the fact that health insurance costs have jumped 8 percent to 12 percent yearly. We’ll give you a template to use in doing so. It won’t hurt that nearly every executive magazine is pushing wellness as if a CEO’s life depends on it … which it often does. Find a “wellness champion,” advises Workplace Wellness, and involve him or her in all the steps that follow.
–Assess the Current Level of Wellness at Your Workplace. Do this through surveys, and checklists that inquire what specific health concerns there are for your industry and operation. The book provides the forms to do it.
–Create a Customized Operating Plan. This should include writing a mission statement, setting goals and timelines, and assigning responsibility. (The book follows the SMART method … creating a plan that’s Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timed.) You’ll also need to consider whether to outsource fitness and training resources, and how your plan interfaces with the Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and other laws.
–Launch Your Program. Use creativity, says Workplace Wellness, with such measures as running a contest to name the program and in coming up with appropriate rewards. The book suggests (and gives detailed direction on how to run) a health fair.
–Communicate, Educate, Motivate, Empower. Build wellness into your company’s operations and culture, suggests the book. One example: Establish a regular wellness announcement time at department meetings. Motivate with incentives, and empower by letting the workers run the program as much as possible.
–Measure, Assess, and Adjust. There are numerous metrics to show how well your program is working, from improvements in absentee rates and health insurance premiums to changes in weight and cholesterol. The book provides a full set of assessment tools.
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