Sticking by wellness programs

Workplace wellness

Companies are always stressing how their employees are their best asset, highlighting how the health and well-being of staff is often the most important part of corporate culture. As such, wellness programs have fast become one of HR's hottest trends in recent years: a trend that, it seems, not even the recession can buck.

Employers have spent plenty in recent years to keep employees healthy, hoping that such efforts will keep them on the job and less likely to use healthcare insurance. The idea is that this will lead to lower healthcare costs for companies, costs which have previously been estimated to average more than $7000 per employee per year.

Ultimately, while the return on investment in wellness initiatives is hard to measure, companies say the programs really can work. In fact, in a recent study by insurer MetLife, 94 percent of companies who implement wellness programs say they have reduced medical costs.

Expand and improve

Furthermore, as the economy begins to stabilize and look toward a recovery, wellness program supporters are hoping that this fact - combined with growing political and social support for such programs will cause employers to expand and improve them.

Its an commendable notion, not least as other reports suggest that a lack of funding is causing many wellness initiatives - which include smoking cessation programs, cash credits for workers taking self-assessment health surveys, on-site gyms, fitness training classes, nutritional counseling and subsidized gym memberships - to actually fall by the way side.

Budget cuts

In New York, for instance, which leads the way in smoking cessation initiatives for its citizens is having to cut back on its anti tobacco crusade because of financial considerations to balance the state budget deficit. According to reports, $10 million is being cut from the program used to fund anti smoking programs which is likely to mean an end to advertisements on television and billboard advertising.

The bad news comes at the same time as a team of researchers at Penn State College publish a study showing how smokers who light a cigarette as soon as they wake-up display higher levels of nicotine than those who wait, regardless of the number of cigarettes smoked.

However, there is some good news, in a June 2009 employee benefits survey of 522 employers, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 72 percent offered wellness information, 64 percent provided vaccinations, and 59 percent had wellness programs. According to the report, smoking cessation programs were offered by 39 percent, weight loss by 30 percent and on-site fitness classes by 12 percent.

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