What makes a Corporate wellness program effective
Offering a company wellness program has many benefits, from decreasing sick days to improving employees’ productivity and time management.
Companies that offer an effective wellness program typically see an increase in healthcare costs of 1-2% per year compared to an average of 7%. According to a 2010 study by Baicker, Cutler, and Song, they found that, “medical costs fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent.” However, a wellness program can only be effective and impact the company if participation is high. Several components make a wellness program effective: proper communication, tracking, a holistic approach, and participation from the top down.
A wellness program’s success lies in providing consistent and strategic communication. Effective communication plans deliver the right message, at the right time, to the right audience, and from the right sender. An empowered communication plan will also offer information about the current state and the reason behind the new project or change. Employees need to be informed on how to get involved, how it works, and what’s in it. Communication must come not only often but from different communication channels and modes.
Tracking a Wellness program is critical to measuring overall participation. You should perform annual wellness assessments to show participation and global improvement of the program each year. It is also a good idea to survey or create focus groups to gather insight from the employees into what they are looking for from a wellness program. Finally, make the overall program's participation, outcomes, and progress. Managing a wellness program can be timely and challenging without suitable systems and tools.
Providing a multi-tiered incentive program can be a powerful motivational tool for getting employees involved in a company’s wellness program. Allowing employees to opt into different levels of wellness rather than an all-or-nothing approach improves strong engagement and improved health outcomes. An excellent holistic program will provide wellness offers in physical, mental, financial, and disease management. A multidimensional wellness program is a core of what makes Movement 1st different than most wellness programs.
Lastly, but most importantly, is having support from the top down for a company wellness program to thrive. Integrating health into a company’s overall vision and purpose is crucial for participation. When the entire company is invested in the program, the company will see a higher return on investment and value. Therefore, the company's leaders must help consistently promote and be involved in the wellness program.
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