3 Research-Backed Reasons Why Wellness Programs Are Good For Business
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Because healthy employees stay with your company.
We believe this is because participants in wellness initiatives learn ways to effectively combat and deal with stress. Your attention to an employee’s individual health and wellness also helps to promote an overall culture of group wellness in your company. According to this Forbes article, a whopping 42% of employees reported leaving a job due to stressful workplace conditions. This study by Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health shows that “organizations with highly effective wellness programs report significantly lower voluntary attrition than do those whose programs have low effectiveness.”
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In addition to lower attrition rates, healthy employees also have considerably lower healthcare costs.
This article in the Harvard Business Review cites the case of medical equipment behemoth Johnson & Johnson, which implemented a comprehensive wellness program for their employees in 1995. In the ensuing two decades, the number of employees who had high blood pressure dropped by more than half, and the number who smoked plummeted by more than two-thirds. These are just two of the many benefits seen since the program began to combat workplace-specific wellness challenges. J&J’s leaders estimate that, thanks to their wellness initiatives, the company has saved around $250 million on health care costs over the past decade. Even more impressive, from 2002 to 2008, their ROI was $2.71 for every dollar spent. In short, wellness works.
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And, perhaps most importantly, healthy employees are more productive.
While illness-related absenteeism obviously wreaks havoc on productivity, many employees with chronic health conditions (including depression, migraines, anxiety, back pain, and diabetes) are vulnerable to presenteeism, which is when people come to the office but perform poorly due to stress or sickness. The healthcare provider Aetna states here that the costs associated with presenteeism are approximately 60% of the total cost of worker illness, and estimates the total cost of presenteeism to US employers ranges from about $150 to $250 billion annually. By focusing on health and wellness, companies see their employees’ productivity increase while at work, and their absences from work decrease.
Even the best wellness programs lose effectiveness if they are not accessible or convenient to the people they were designed to serve.
That is why Healing Hands schedules regular, on-site visits to your office. We solicit frequent feedback from workers and management alike, and we are happy to modify arrangements based on employee interest and participation. We look forward to introducing you to our team and working together to provide your company with a total wellness solution that fulfills the social, mental, and physical needs of all employees.
Contact us today to start customizing a wellness program for your organization.