"Warm up for work" Program run by a Prime Health Group exercise physiologist
EHS Today recently reported on a survey undertaken by Buck Consultants called “Working Well: A Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies”.
The global study analyzed responses from more than 1,100 organizations representing 10 million employees in 45 countries.
It found that improving productivity by keeping employees healthy and working is emerging as the top business objective. As a result, company wellness programs are very popular for businesses worldwide.
Don R. Powell, PhD., president and CEO, American Institute of Preventive Medicine, pointed out that successful employee wellness programs receive an average return on investment (ROI) of $3.48 to 1 due to reduced health care costs and $5.82 to 1 due to reduced absenteeism, making them worth considering.
“HR managers should consider issues such as maximizing employee participation, involving dependents, teaching wise consumerism as well as online employee wellness programs that manage chronic diseases,” Powell said.
Not surprisingly, the Wellness Study found that across the world, the top work health concern was stress. Although, in the US the top health concerns were lack of exercise and poor nutrition.
At the Health and Productivity Forum in February 2009, Ron Loeppke from Alere discussed the relationship between health, productivity and business strategy. He discussed the results from the largest multi-employer study which confirm that the health of the workforce is inextricably linked to the productivity of the workforce and, therefore, to the health of the bottom line. In the study, productivity losses from absenteeism and presenteeism, combined with direct medical costs, amounted to four times the direct medical costs alone.
But how important are wellness programs in Australia?
A recent article in the Sunday Herald Sun (Jan 3, 2010), mentioned how the majority of Victorian workers are in need of medical attention with builders and drivers being labeled the state’s unhealthiest employees.
According to results from the WorkHealth occupational check-up program, more than half of the 14,000 employess that have been tested are at “high risk” of serious health problems. Incidentally, more than 50 per cent of people who registered for the WorkHealth program since July 2009 rated their health as “excellent”.
Workers found to be at greater risk were in the transport, storage and construction industries, with more than 2 in 3 staff found to be in high risk categories. This includes conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
Karyn Foote from Prime Health Group, an Endorsed Service Provider with WorkHealth says “Our clients are now combining workplace health assessments, with health & wellness initiatives and online wellness programs. This combination is engaging those staff that typically don’t participate in health and wellness activities, resulting in better staff retention and a happy, healthy and productive workforce”.
For more information about getting a health assessment for your company visit Prime Health Group or contact WorkHealth.
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Although I have not seen the raw study data yet, I am always cautious about US data on wellness and ROI because health insurance is an integrated employee benefit and. I think, risks skewing any comparative data with countries outside the States.
I believe that the new corporate wellness push is not all that new and that similar health programs existed in previous decades but under different titles and categories. This is similar to how modern workplace management of mental health and psychosocial hazards is the “burnout” and “nervous breakdown” of earlier generations.
The Sunday Herald Sun article needs expansion to identify the causes of the ill-health. Sedentary prolonged positions could be the issue for drivers but for builders it may be fatigue or poor diet which require very different interventions. It may also be important to differentiate between ill-health, injury and disease.
I believe that any data from WorkHealth is likely to overstate ill-health because of the way the scheme is structure, the industries it services and the substantial assessment restrictions that were imposed by a substantial budgetary cutback.
I have no doubt that healthy happy workers are more productive but any evidence that may support my beliefs will need to match my experience by being exclusively Australian and be subjected to rigorous statistical analysis. WorkHealth has some years of operation to achieve this and would need to produce statistics that are representative and comparable. I am not sure that a scheme that seems to have begun as an enthusiasm of a WorkCover board member has the long-term credibility required to be as revolutionary as the Premier John Brumby claimed it to be.
Just to let you know that the two big studies included results from Australia.
As the findings were posted on US sites, there was limited OZ data mentioned.