I bet you’re wondering how corporate wellness programs will be valuable to you and your company? What exactly can we do to help make your company more successful? Following are four extensive benefits of corporate wellness intervention.

Reduced Health Care Costs

Implementing a corporate wellness program could help reduce health care costs by educating employees on the importance of nutrition, fitness, and the mind. With education comes practicing, and with practicing comes ingraining the practice. Eventually, employees adopt a healthier lifestyle all stemming from education of corporate wellness programs. Promoting healthy habits will result in healthier employees. In turn, your employees are less likely to get sick or injured, which saves your company a significant amount of money. According to a study measuring the effectiveness of workplace health management programs, “paid claims costs including medical treatment and wages reduced from $350,000 in the year prior to the program to $150,000 in the year following the program’s implementation”. This study shows that intervention was clearly associated with reduced health care costs, and we could be doing the same for you!

Reduced Absenteeism and Presenteeism

Absenteeism is defined as “an employee’s intention or habitual absence from work”, while presenteeism is “when an employee turns up for work despite the fact that they are not well enough to do their job”. For example, if you have a stomach ache and you stay at home; that is absenteeism. On the other hand, if you have a stomach ache but decide to power through and show up to work, but you’re in extreme pain throughout the day which makes it harder for you to do your job; this is presenteeism. Both absenteeism and presenteeism lead to decreased productivity, therefore affecting the outcome of your company’s success. Causes of absenteeism and presenteeism include the following:

• Stress
• Low morale
• Depression
• Illness
• Injury…

…which all stem from lack of health and self-care. According to a study conducted by the Annual Health Affairs exploring how workplace wellness programs generate savings, “absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent”. This clearly shows that intervention results in reduced absenteeism, benefiting the employer by reducing the costs for absent employees.

More Productivity and Enhanced Loyalty

It’s universally known that the healthier the employees, the more productivity in the workplace. It was reported that after intervention, depression and work related stress were reduced while happiness was increased almost instantaneously. Happier employees are more inclined to promote and continue wanting to work for and be loyal to the company. Therefore, it was shown that intervention plays a role in promoting mental health, which plays a role in the workplace setting as it increases productivity and enhances loyalty of employees.

Implementing a corporate wellness program has numerous benefits for you as an employer and your company. Your involvement as an employer matters! The more involved an employer is during wellness intervention, the more encouraged employees are to take part in it. According to the National Institute For Health Care Reform, it was quoted by a benefits consultant that “it helps tremendously if [company] leadership doesn’t try to pretend that [wellness’ is just good for employees”, meaning that if employers are sincerely interested and are involved in intervention, particpation rises. In addition, wellness programs are now typically a part of company’s benefits package, which can help attract employees to work for your company and stay at your company.

Intervention leads to lower healthcare costs, reduced absenteeism and presenteeism, and more productivity/enhanced loyalty which can make or break a company. Wellness programs can intervene in a way that will result in these outcomes while benefiting your employees simultaneously.