Yet underused: corporate wellness programs beneficial

Corporate wellness programs are a proven way for companies to not only save money, but improve the productivity of their workers and increase overall employee satisfaction. However, only 11 percent of large US companies are offering them. So what is preventing employers from offering corporate wellness programs?

Leaders in the global medical community gathered last week for the European Society of Cardiology’s EuroPRevent 2011 conference in Switzerland to discuss this issue and collaborate on how to best encourage companies to incorporate wellness programs their businesses.

Understanding Corporate Wellness

Corporate wellness programs are health programs provided by employers which serve to benefit the overall health of the employee. However, part of the problem with these types of programs is that they are not clearly defined. There are many companies out there who claim to offer corporate wellness, however they lack the key components of an effective program. A true comprehensive wellness program includes yearly physical examinations and labs, wellness coaching by qualified professionals, online web access to medical records and other medical services, and home doctor visits while traveling. Some programs, such as Elite Health’s Corporate Wellness program, can even bring health care professionals to the workplace to conduct wellness screenings.

Healthy Employees = Happy Employers

Studies have shown that for every $1 that a company puts into corporate wellness programs, $3 are saved through decreased sick days, increased worker productivity and employee retention. One review showed that these types of programs reduced healthcare claims by 27.8 percent, doctors visits by 16.5 percent, hospital admissions by 62.5 percent, disability costs by 34.4 percent and injury incidence by 24.7 percent.

However, despite these benefits, corporations continue to resist offering wellness programs to their employees. In a national survey 62 percent of companies offered some wellness services, 11.3 percent offered comprehensive services and only 4.9 percent of companies with 50-99 employees offered any program at all.

The speakers at the Geneva conference suggested that perhaps one of the reason that companies under-utilize these programs is lack of employee participation. Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, PhD, a preventive medicine specialist at Northewestern University in Chicago explained in her speech at the conference, “A lot of times even when wellness programs are there people don’t take advantage of them. If physicians were to ask their patients whether these opportunities were there at their jobs and encourage them to participate, that could be a very useful strategy.”