Health And Wellness In The WorkplaceHealth And Wellness In The Workplace

The costs of medical have been rising more than ten percent each year for several years. A substantial amount of the money spent in the medical system treats costly illnesses and diseases.

• Approximately 95 percent of the $1.4 trillion that we spend as a nation on health goes to direct medical care services, while about 5 percent is allocated to preventing disease and promoting health.
• Potentially, 50 percent to 70 percent of all diseases are preventable as they are associated with modifiable health risks.
• In an effort to optimize employee health, cut preventable medical care utilization and enhance work performance, and in turn lower medical care expenditures and better employee satisfaction and retention, many businesses are developing, or are interested in developing, Worksite Wellness Programs for employees.

The benefits of workplace wellness are well documented. More than 120 research studies repeatedly show themes such as improvements in health outcomes coupled with high returns on investment (ROI). Some primary findings include the following:

• Savings of $3.48 in reduced medical expenditures per dollar invested.
• Savings of $5.82 in cut absenteeism expenditures per dollar invested.
• ROIs of at least $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of program implementation.
• Lifestyle behavior change programs: $3 to $6 return on investment within 2 to 5 years.
• Self care, decision backing programs: $2 to $3 ROI within a year.
• Disease management programs: $7 to $10 return on investment within a year.

By offering health improvement programs, corporations are not only offering an additional service for employees, but they are also gaining financially. Furthermore, the effect of a health improvement program goes beyond decreased healthcare cost and return on investment. A health improvement program can affect productivity, absenteeism, morale, recruitment success, turnover, and healthcare costs.

• Source: Rees, C., and Finch, R. (2004). Health Improvement: A comprehensive guide to starting, launching and evaluating worksite programs. National Business Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

According to the American Journal of Health Promotion, “Health promotion is the science and art of helping people alter their lifestyle to move toward a state of ideal health. Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, alter behavior, and establish environments that support great health practices. Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change.”

Workplace Wellness Program: Action Steps

The process of creating a Corporate Wellness Program involves:

• Identifying the current health status of your employees
• Determining the appropriate programs and interventions to offer
• Promoting and launching the programs
• Building in motivational incentives/rewards
• Measuring the effect
• Revising programs based on evaluation outcomes

It may even include developing policies and procedures that support employee participation in wellness activities at your workplace (such as flextime).

Steps to Starting a Company Health Promotion Program

• Conduct an business assessment
• Obtain senior staff reinforcement
• Establish a Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee
• Get employee input
• Establish goals/objectives
• Design and enable program activities
• Choose incentives
• Assess outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to better the nation’s health is through accross the board Worksite Wellness Programs. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, these programs may help staff members live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior change programs. In fact, one of the goals of Healthy People 2010, a set of health objectives for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to stimulate the proportion of staff members that participate in a accross the board Worksite Wellness Program at their worksite to 75 percent.

5 Ways to Assess and Improve Your workers’ Health

Emotional health is a state of wellness that comes from understanding and acknowledging our emotions and finding appropriate ways to express them. As staff members, we frequently bring emotional concerns from our childhood or current family life into the worksite because we haven’t dealt with them effectively outside of work. This can seriously damage worksite relationships and lead to poor performance and harmful feelings all around.

Many tools and techniques exist for helping us improve our emotional health. Some of the most common are given below, with real-life case histories illustrating their use. If an unpleasant mood or feeling persists over a length of time, do not hesitate to seek out a qualified professional. Corporate Health Promotion Programs usually have professional reinforcement already in place as part of their services.

1. Wellness Coaching / Wellness Counseling:
One of the hallmarks of emotional health is the willingness to ask for help when we need it. Confidential professional help, the coaching and counseling offered by employee assistance or wellness programs, can support an external source of strength and insight for “working out” emotionally-based concerns rather than “working them in” to your work.

2. Self-help Groups:
Self-help groups are designed to aid people in emotional situations in which they feel alone. The purpose of these groups is twofold: to allow people to safely feel and express their emotions, and to help break their isolation at work and/or in society at large and reintegrate them into society with the support of a peer group.

The classic self-help group is Alcoholics Anonymous, but thanks to technology, it’s possible to connect with others that have common health challenges, no matter how unique the situation. People are taking advantage of tele-conference groups and social websites, such as sparkpeople.com and revolutionhealth.com. Workplace Health Promotion Programs often have such groups available through online or phone support. Progressive corporate wellness provider Exan Wellness, for example, offers teleconference cell groups and moderated wellness forums for interacting with others in a supportive, confidential and anonymous environment. People with shared challenges get together and discuss the emotional challenges they are facing at work or in other areas of their lives and work through change together.

3. Journaling: Journaling is often recommended by counsellors as a way to help identify and process emotions. People record their emotions in writing as they experience them, in whatever form they wish. By helping the writer gain greater emotional clarity, journaling can help in making more emotionally informed decisions. In much the same way, letter writing enables people to identify and process the emotions they feel in relation to others. The letter need not be sent or its contents shared: it simply provides a place for the expression of feelings.

An 18-year-old “army brat,” Brent has always done well at school, academically and athletically. But in his last year of high school, something seems to have happened to him. He has lost all interest in school, becoming moody and withdrawn.

Brent describes to his guidance counselor all the times he had to move when he was growing up. Each move wrenched him from his friends and forced him to play the role of the “new kid on the block.” The counselor suggests that Brent write letters to the friends he has missed over the years telling them how he felt. Finally, he has a chance to say a proper goodbye.

4. Evaluate Your Emotional Wellness: Organizations that seek to boost employees’ interpersonal skills, or emotional intelligence in the workplace are more thriving, according to ground-breaking journalist Daniel Goleman. And emotional intelligence is the buzzword in workplaces these days. Some Corporate Wellness Programs have information about emotional intelligence, or emotional health assessments. Seek out more information about emotional intelligence for better corporate wellness.

5. Friendships/Support Systems: Friendships allow people to feel supported in their emotional journeys. At the same time, they give people an opportunity to foster their empathetic skills. These skills are also important for worksite health. When we are empathic with fellow workers, we help them resolve harmful or unhealthy emotions. New friendships are made through hobbies, classes, clubs, or even through web-based groups. Many people are finding emotional satisfaction by finding friends through Facebook and other social websites.

At times worksite stress that is not dealt with in a healthy manner can be brought home. A 36-year-old mother of three, Sarah, wants to be a great wife, a great mother, and a success at her work. One day, drained after a long day at work, she shouted at her rambunctious children and threatened to hit her youngest son. Her behavior horrified her. To make matters worse, she believes she is a failure at her work as well as at motherhood. She watches with jealousy as younger co-workers advance much more rapidly up the corporate ladder despite having less experience than she has.

On the advice of a counselor, she decides to take time out for herself and take a course for amateur painters. It doesn’t take long before she strikes up a friendship with a single mom in the class. She once led a life very similar to Sarah’s before managing to achieve a better balance between work and family. Her new friend becomes a much-required sounding board for Sarah and offers her perspectives on her life that she hadn’t considered before.

25% Jump in Employer Interest in Employee Health and Wellness

Job Site wellness for their employees, companies are discovering, is wonderful for the health of their companies as well. Employee Wellness Programs help to cut the expenditures associated with poor employee health, which include absenteeism, loss of work rate and poor work quality.

A current Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 U.S. corporations indicated a valuable paradigm shift in how corporations view health benefits for their staff members. Of those surveyed this year, 88% are committed to instituting long-term medical assistance programs (over the next 3-5 years) for their staff members, with the goal of boosting the health and productiveness of their workforce. This represents a 25% rise in interest in Worksite Health Promotion Programs over 2007.

A strong offering of Workplace Wellness Programs to meet the demand has resulted. Health assistance providers have broadened their programs with tools that address general lifestyle factors, physical, social and psychological health factors. Programs look to predict chronic disease in their workers and give them the tools and the information to prevent it. Companies also demand a way to measure the effectiveness of their health care spending.

“Self-care is our motive,” says Vic Lebouthillier, president of progressive health and wellness provider Exan Wellness.”We really believe giving staff members tools to help them manage their own health, and promoting the advantages, while giving people resources to reach out for help is the key to thriving lifestyle modification. Corporations are also telling us they need a cost-effective way to deliver Corporate Health Promotion Programs. The sort of program we have developed over years delivers the highest healthcare return on investment.”

Combining workplace wellness promotions, internet based assessments and health trackers, internet based health information, phone conferences and self-help groups, and access to a wide variety of health professionals, is behind the success of the Exan program. “Having internet based statistics about staff members’ health also makes it easier to track the bottom line – ROI” says Vic Lebouthillier.

“Companies are moving beyond their traditional role as a provider of healthcare benefits to foster holistic programs that pinpoint the specific health needs of their employee populations, drive employee behavior modification and eliminate barriers to healthcare,” says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.

However, in a separate survey of 30,000 staff members, 74 percent said that, although they felt their company had an obligation to help them be aware of how to use their health benefits program, only 12 percent felt the company had any right to tell them how to be healthy. Based on these results, businesses need to drive home the fact that improved health is better for their staff members as well as the company. It’s a win-win situation.

Employers and workers did discover common ground when it came to future healthcare. Both surveys indicate that 95 percent of workers be aware of that their taking care of their health today will influence future medical care payments. A similar percentage also be aware of the important of early detection and prevention when it comes to saving on medical care expenditures.

Cost is significant for most businesses as well. Over 80% of those surveyed made cost mitigation a priority for 2008, but those cuts did not involve shifting responsibility for medical care onto employees. Although 64% of businesses have transfered expenditures to their employees, only 17% aim  to do so in the next 3-5 years. Similarly with health reimbursement accounts, 20% now offer these, but only about 5% aim  to use them in 2008.

These survey results indicate employers are getting more proactive in helping their employees to modify behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is obviously good for the wellness of employees, but also for the wellness of the employers they work for. Almost half the employers surveyed were convinced that changing health behaviors was key to increased productiveness and lower absentee rates. Over 60% plan  to institute programs that help employees shift and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle. Almost of these employers will also use data and measurements to ensure their medical care strategies meet their medical care objectives?

It is clear to virtually every American (especially those of us in business) that health care costs are skyrocketing out of control. No one doubts that either the market will solve the issue OR the government will impose one on us. Managed care has failed from either a cost containment or quality of care perspective. Employers have reached the point where the expense of offering health care insurance is almost as burdensome as government regulation. It’s time for some new thinking on health care and its effect on business and vice versa. “Corporate wellness” as an operational perspective rather than merely window dressing is one way to deal effectively with rising health care costs.

The Insurance Delimma

The first step in solving the concern is to realize that an employee’s health is their own responsibility. Expecting companies to offer unlimited health care insurance coverage is simply unrealistic and unreasonable. It’s time for companies (on a broad scale) to reconsider their role in providing health care insurance coverage. Instead of providing complete coverage for all employees through group plans, companies ought to start to modify the burden of health coverage to those covered.

Here’s the approach. Offer catastrophic medical insurance as a group benefit to all employees with a sizable enough deductible (say $5000 per employee) to make the expense affordable for the employer. Then, allow employees to buy their own medical insurance policies (based on their own needs) and pay for them through payroll deduction with pre-tax earnings. There are numerous insurance companies that sell individual plans on this basis. Everybody wins. Staff Members can tailor their coverage to their own needs and circumstances using their own doctors. Companies win by stopping the endless cycle of rising costs and ever-changing plans. And when individuals become responsible for the expense of their own insurance, they become more attentive to their own health. Besides, if an employee is interested in working for you ONLY because your employer offers great insurance benefits aren’t they telling you they’re going to cost you more money in the future?

Create a “Wellness Culture”

Our current “sickness culture” perpetuates the health care crisis and hastens the demise of market-based solutions. By sickness culture, I mean our focus on health problems instead of on having a healthy workplace and performance culture.

So, what would a “wellness culture” look like? First, rather than paid sick days, workers might be rewarded at year’s end with an attendance bonus. Employees would be reimbursed for successful completion of tobacco cessation and weight-loss programs. Corporations would invest in corporate memberships at local health clubs so every employee can take part. Employees would be offered in-house wellness programs on a variety of issues ranging from ergonomics to stress management. Finally, employers would commit to hiring and retaining healthy workers. Simply put, healthy workers cost less and are more constructive than unhealthy ones. Applicants ought to be screened for health habits and practices that limit their work rate and improve the likelihood of future expense. While this may seem harsh, it rewards those workers whose personal lifestyle and habits ensure the best Return on Investment by the organization committing to hire, train and pay them.

Be open to “alternative and complementary” approaches

Studies published in primary medical care journals reveal that people who use “alternative and complementary” health modalities (including chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga and massage) are generally healthier, better educated, take fewer medications and miss fewer days from work than the average American. Since these people look for ways to stay healthy without prescriptions and surgery, they end up being a net benefit in terms of attendance and work rate. Old prejudices in this area should be discarded in order for companies to better work rate and boost profitability

Conclusion

Health Care costs are growing at a staggering pace. Managed care is an abysmal failure. Corporations are buckling under the pressure of providing health coverage to their employees. American competitiveness in the market is sagging. These times call for extraordinary solutions. It’s time for American corporations to consider some out-of-the-box solutions to the health care crisis. Company wellness is an approach that is timely, achievable and reasonable given the alternatives. All options must be considered while we still have a chance.

Research spanning more than a decade has consistently established Company Health Promotion Programs to be financially effective and that every dollar invested on a corporate wellness program can return $2.30 and $10.10 by decreasing absenteeism, sick day usage and by lowering insurance expenditures. Additionally it is noted that there are marked improvements in employee success and productiveness in organizations that start a Company Health Promotion Program.

Healthy businesses enjoy improved employee morale and an improved ability to attract and retain key people. Additionally, staff members are more alert and beneficial. For instance, Coca Cola reports that they save an estimated $500 a year per employee once they implemented a exercise program in which 60 percent of their staff members take part. Coors Brewing Employer published that staff members who participated in their Corporate Wellness Programs reduced their absentee rate by 18%.

employees enjoy their share of benefits from Corporate Wellness Programs too. A healthy lifestyle impacts every part of a person’s life, including their work environment. Corporate Wellness Programs result in fewer injuries, less human error and a work environment that is more harmonious and relaxed. Additionally, employees who work at a company that implements a Corporate Wellness Program know that their company is concerned about their health & wellness. Workers often report a decline in their stress levels due to Corporate Wellness Programs.

As workers feel better, more relaxed, more valued and more human to their employer; they enjoy an increase in productivity. This increase in productivity, while productive to the employer, is also important to the employee as it increases their own sense of self worth and confidence levels. Staff Members who feel efficacious and who feel that they accomplish goals/objectives are overriding happier and in a better frame of mind.

The advantages of Company Wellness Programs, both tangible and intangible, are evident. It is a wise move for a company to start a Company Wellness Program, especially when they incorporate some form of mental health aspect into it. This also has social advantages as domestic violence and child abuse is determined to be lowered in areas where wellness programs are implemented. These days, a company can almost not afford to have some sort of wellness program to offer to their employees.

Some of the top wellness programs currently in use today include:

Health Risk Assessments or HRAs

Health Risk Assessment is a top corporate wellness program currently in use globally. Corporations that enable it determine the safety and health concerns of employees by the assessment of appropriateness of the facilities and equipment against the needs of the employees.

It can, for example, guide the corporation into determining how the air quality within an office room impacts the users and then help the assessment team to come up with the measures necessary to correct the concern. An HRA can also evaluate the level of exposure workers have to certain hazardous or dangerous materials and practices.

Immunizations

This isn’t always practiced in every country since there are regions where government sponsored immunization shots are available. However, it has also become an important component of the top Company Wellness Programs in many businesses in North America.

Immunization shots, such as those used to combat flu, for example, are available to workers for free.

Employee Assistance Program(EAP)

EAPs consist of a wide variety of services. It can range from providing educational resources to workers regarding health concerns to sponsoring health services and healthcare. In many employers, medical and insurance have also become a staple part of their benefits system.

In-house nutrition drives

This is another wellness program that corporations use, particularly those that offer in-house commissary or cafeteria services. Instead of serving richer, high-calorie fare, cafeterias offer options for a healthier diet, usually in the form of low-calorie foods and sugar substitutes.

In-house employee wellness newsletter and campaign drives

One of the top wellness programs that businesses can start is a self-powered tool using a newsletter to promote wellness, coupled with a visible campaign. The campaign may be done periodically and focus on a specific topic, such as smoking hazards, cancer, stress, carpal tunnel syndrome, safety in the workplace, etc.

The employee wellness newsletter in itself can be an effective means to deliver information to workers or members of a company but it is far from perfect. Some workers, for example, may not read the newsletter entirely or even pay attention to it. If the problems outlined in the newsletter are promoted through an active and highly visible campaign, it will be easier to maximize beneficial results.

Exercise and physical activity drives

Another top wellness program for organizations is one that involves physical activities. Organizations often sponsor exercise-related events such as marathons and business sports programs to promote employees to remain fit or lose excess weight. In mid- to large-sized organizations, organizations may even pay for health club memberships or in-house exercise facilities.

Incentives

Some of the top wellness programs implemented by companies involve Incentives. This involves employer-sponsored programs that reward staff members for achieving specific wellness-related objectives and goals. Participation in health campaigns and signing up for wellness programs are two of the most commonly rewarded schemes. Rewards can range from special recognitions to over time acquired points (for bigger rewards) to specific gifts. In a few cases, cash may also be used.

Nonetheless, incentive systems have had mixed reactions and levels of success. But it continues to be one of the top choices among employers who are willing to modify it in order to fit their unique needs.

Peer Pressure

In a myriad of corporations, corporations take advantage of peer pressure in order to advocate staff members to participate in wellness programs. This is currently one of the favorite Workplace Wellness Programs currently in use today and growing in popularity. Peer pressure is frequently leveraged to help encourage competitions referring to workplace wellness and to persuade staff members to be active in corporation-sponsored wellness fairs.

Wellness is a great concept. It brings happiness into health and encourages a truly holistic approach to life. Wikipedia defines wellness as a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an central feeling of wellbeing. It sounds like exactly what every one is looking for. But when you start to talk about corporate wellness, or workplace wellness, all life goes out of the concept. Total solutions, disease management and health evaluation do not inspire visions of enjoying life and living it to the full. They start from the assumption that sickness is here to stay and needs to be discovered, managed and controlled but can never be healed.

The wellness industry is growing phenomenally fast. Wellness guru, Paul Zane Pilzer, has labeled it the next trillion dollar industry. But wellness has two different faces. On the one hand there are the small organizations – people working from home or in small centers selling all kinds of wellness products and services at a speed of growth that is escalating rapidly. On the other hand corporate wellness is also exploding but in a very different direction.

The baby boomers who are driving the popular wellness revolution have been described as the first generation to refuse to accept the inevitability of death. They are actively looking for ways to prevent aging, stay healthy into old age and enjoy themselves more than ever before after retirement. This is a radical departure from current notions of old age, which are often dominated by pictures of sickness, frailty and suffering.

The businesses have been largely forced to take on wellness. This is partly through legislative pressure, with a myriad of countries introducing laws to make businesses liable for stress-related sickness in their workers. It is also monetarily motivated, as research has repeatedly demonstrated the enormous costs of absenteeism (and increasingly of presenteeism as well).

Whereas the baby boomers are actively looking for new solutions and new lifestyles the corporations are struggling to organize largely traditional and mainstream health systems, such as doctors, nurses, insurance and screening systems. The concern is that the traditional health system does not have solutions for the issues that people are handling.

Nobody ever went to see a doctor to get happy, because a doctor doesn’t have any clue how to make people happy. And numerous stress-related health problems are described as chronic diseases, which means that they last for a very long time – or perhaps for the rest of your life – because there is no medical cure. Counseling is a common offering in companies for emotional problems, but whilst it may offer a useful pressure valve it is not a powerful treatment for stress, unhappiness or depression.

Imagine walking into a company where the staff members are happy, healthy, full of inspiration, fit, love working, have meaningful family lives, active social lives, and enjoyable relationships at work and in their area. That kind of company would be a pleasure to work in and bound to be successful because people would be working to their optimum capacity.

So can we establish a system of true wellness that will serve the development of the businesses and their workers and will pay for itself because of the advantages that both sides will gain?

First of all we have to face the fact that we can’t place all the responsibility into the hands of the current health system. Absenteeism, stress, depression, the very roots of the wellness revolution, have not been solved by the current system. If they had been we wouldn’t have this revolution, we would all be much more well. So we need to look elsewhere for solutions.

We also can’t rely on makeshift feel-wonderful wellness offerings, such as the onsite massage group which visits the office once a month or the wellness day that raises awareness for a bit of while but leaves most people unaffected. They are simple to organize but have little or no real significance on employee wellness.

Company needs are different than individual needs and many of the new small wellness businesses that are springing up simply don’t have the capacity to serve the corporate market. However it is in the best interest of both businesses and workers to find and develop systems of health and wellness that really work – that benefit people to be happy, handle stress, love working, and to have sufficient energy to go home at the end of the day and enjoy their family and social life. So far the corporate world has hijacked the concept of wellness and turned it into a modern version of occupational health. It is time to raise the vision and discover how to make truly healthy, happy workplaces where people thrive.

High rates of employee turnover and the costs of sick days are increasingly taking bites into organization profits. The high cost of recruitment programs only adds to the challenges that these problems in total cost the average organization. Many organizations are finding the solution to these challenges by improving job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of programs that give a reduction in these costs.

It has become increasingly clear to most managers that a well designed wellness program / fitness program with a strong nutritional and fitness lifestyle emphasis will directly meet this need. Senior Leadership’s goals/objectives for a beneficial wellness program must be viewed through the perspective of increased employee productivity, diminished absenteeism due to health related causes, improved employee morale, diminished utilisation of employer subsidised health benefits, enhanced group cohesion and success and a decline in turnover due to lack of job satisfaction. It is obvious that an improvement in any of these areas will have a positive influence on the monetary status of any organisation.

The benefits from an workers point of view can be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, lowered body fat, a more youthful fit body, an increased ability to handle work related stress, greater feelings of confidence and morale and more social connections at work contributing to greater feelings of satisfaction with their work and workplace.

To be most beneficial a wellness program needs to achieve both management’s and employee’s goals and objectives, and this can be accomplished through a program that will provide the individual employee with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and wellbeing, and the benefits of attaining a fitter, healthier lifestyle, and a plan that will allow them to achieve the significant changes to their physical condition that can be applied in the context of their life and work.

The Bottom Line – Workplace Health Promotion Programs

Lowered Rates of Absenteeism – Dupont reduced absenteeism by 47.5% over six years for the participants of their company fitness program, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).

Reduced Health Care Costs – Steel case showed a reduction in healthcare claim expenditures of 55% for corporate exercise program participants over non-participants over a six year period – an average of $478.61 for participants vs. non-participants who averaged $868.88, (The Am. Journal of Health Promotion, Sept/Oct, 1991).

Lowered Turnover – Turnover among physical activity program participants at the Canadian Life Assurance Company was 32.4 percent lower over a seven year period compared with non-participants (Canadian Journal of Public Health, Jan/Feb, 1988).

Positive Return on Investment – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Indiana found that its employer physical activity program had a 250 percent return on investment; $2.51 for every $1 invested over a five year period (American Journal of Health Promotion, March, April, 1991).

The Partnership for Prevention was formed to promote Fortune 1000 businesses to consider making workforce health a CEO issue and adopt strategies to promote prevention and wellness. After several years of double-digit rate increases for health insurance, businesses are realizing that one of the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have staff members take more responsibility for both costs and health choices. A majority of businesses surveyed feel that the best way for reducing costs is financial incentives and rewards to promote staff members to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Nearly 100% of employers surveyed say that health costs will be a critical or valuable problem over the next five years, according to a survey by United Benefit Advisors. More employers are adopting higher deductible health plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, wellness programs, and expanded disease management programs in order to control ever-growing medical care costs.

Failure to deal with these issues could be disastrous for a organization. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we have built a medical care machinery we can’t afford. I think we are choking the economic engine of America.” In his October 2005 newsletter, Dr. Andrew Weil stated, “I think rising health- care expenditures are becoming the primary economic issue in our nation”. Obesity expenditures California businesses billions of dollars each year. Projected expenditures for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect medical care expenditures, worker’s compensation, and lost work rate. California has experienced one of the fastest growing rates of obesity of any state.

According to California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe, “The obesity epidemic is more than a public health crisis, it is an economic crisis.” What is frightening is that most people do not even realize that they are obese, which is defined as only 20 percent above normal weight. There is a great need for additional education on weight and resulting diseases, and the workplace is an ideal venue. Wellness education and programs can result in a important return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce results in a very short period of time.

Although countless companies have attempted some form of wellness program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing. In many cases, the healthier staff members participated for incentives and rewards, such as fitness center memberships, but those who required it most did not take advantage of the program in a meaningful way. Businesses are looking at ways to encourage more staff members to buy into the wellness movement.

A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource Executive Magazine and presented by Carlson Marketing Group titled, “Healthier staff members; Healthier Bottom Line: Engaging staff members is the Missing Link in Managing Healthcare Costs,” drove this point home. This session provided actionable advice on how corporations are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on employee engagement. It also highlighted how you can establish an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential influence for your company.

Employers can simply no longer overlook the concern of their employee’s unhealthy lifestyles and must take action to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to reduce health expenditures, absenteeism and lost work rate. workers also benefit as they derive better health and greater satisfaction in both their personal and professional lives. The alternative is being caught in a non-competitive position and severely impacting the bottom-line of the business.