Workplace Wellness
WORKPLACE WELLNESS
DEVELOPING TRENDS OF CORPORATE WELLNESS PROGRAMS FOR PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MGMT.
What Is Workplace Wellness?
Workplace wellness is any program that aims to improve the health of your employees and their families while reducing your health-related costs as an employer. Many companies implement comprehensive wellness programs that focus on preventive health and lifestyle modification. Workplace wellness includes organizational policies designed to facilitate employee health including allowing flex time for exercise, providing on-site kitchen and eating areas, offering healthy food options in vending machines, holding “walk and talk” meetings, and offering financial and other incentives for participation, among many other options. Workplace wellness has been expanded over the past decade to encompass the overall creation of a “culture of health” within the worksite.
Why Implement a Workplace Wellness program?
Wellness programs are linked to greater productivity, less absenteeism, and a reduction of long-term health care costs. Health and efficiency have a clear relationship—healthy employees take fewer sick days and are more productive at work—and businesses are starting to take notice.
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report revealed that at worksites with exercise programs as components of their wellness programs, healthcare costs decreased from 75 to 55%, short-term sick leave was lowered from 38 to 32%, and productivity increased from 50 to 52%.The rationale behind wellness programs is that encouraging healthy habits now can prevent or lower the risk of serious health conditions later.
According to Healthy Workforce 2010 and Beyond, a joint effort of the U.S. Partnership for Prevention and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, organizations need to view employee health in terms of productivity rather than as an exercise in health care cost management. The emerging discipline of Health and Productivity
DEVELOPING TRENDS OF CORPORATE WELLNESS PROGRAMS FOR PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MGMT.
What Is Workplace Wellness?
Workplace wellness is any program that aims to improve the health of your employees and their families while reducing your health-related costs as an employer. Many companies implement comprehensive wellness programs that focus on preventive health and lifestyle modification. Workplace wellness includes organizational policies designed to facilitate employee health including allowing flex time for exercise, providing on-site kitchen and eating areas, offering healthy food options in vending machines, holding “walk and talk” meetings, and offering financial and other incentives for participation, among many other options. Workplace wellness has been expanded over the past decade to encompass the overall creation of a “culture of health” within the worksite.
Why Implement a Workplace Wellness program?
Wellness programs are linked to greater productivity, less absenteeism, and a reduction of long-term health care costs. Health and efficiency have a clear relationship—healthy employees take fewer sick days and are more productive at work—and businesses are starting to take notice.
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report revealed that at worksites with exercise programs as components of their wellness programs, healthcare costs decreased from 75 to 55%, short-term sick leave was lowered from 38 to 32%, and productivity increased from 50 to 52%.The rationale behind wellness programs is that encouraging healthy habits now can prevent or lower the risk of serious health conditions later.
According to Healthy Workforce 2010 and Beyond, a joint effort of the U.S. Partnership for Prevention and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, organizations need to view employee health in terms of productivity rather than as an exercise in health care cost management. The emerging discipline of Health and Productivity