Corporate Wellness Statistics

Every one of us yearns to feel invigorated, be healthier, live longer. Your job as an employer is to tap that desire, and create a happier workforce with lower health care costs. To help, we continually reach out to your employees with health promotion services, which includes the latest health research, irrefutable insights and risk factors to urge them to act, while vigorously evolving our workplace wellness programs to ensure they address the changing health needs. We also keep employers informed about the latest in proven health promotion interventions to help them plan creative cost-saving strategies. And we find that everyone being in the know creates a virtual Wellness Well that your employees can draw on to ensure they successfully sustain health and wellness in the workplace.

Startling Statistics

Employers have a tremendous interest in health-related issues because employers and their employees are the major purchasers of health insurance today. They both also are shouldering the ever-growing burden of paying for medical interventions to diagnose and treat preventable diseases. Here are some sobering facts to consider:

U.S. healthcare costs doubled from 1990 to 2001 and are projected to double by 2012 Source: Partnerships for Prevention (an organization of CEO's dedicated to health promotion advocacy, www.prevent.org)
Four of the ten most costly health conditions affecting employers are related to heart disease and stroke. Employees with heart disease and heart disease risk factors cost employers thousands of dollars more than healthy employees each year through higher insurance. Source: Goetzel, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1998
Between 1990 and 2004, the number of obese adults in Massachusetts rose 80%. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts found that with every 1 percent increase in body mass index, an individual's annual health care costs goes up $120. Source: Boston Globe, March 22, 2006
"Of the $5000 per employee the average employer spent on health care in 2001, more than 95% was spent on diagnosis and treatment, with maybe 2-3% being invested in early detection (screenings) and no more than 1-2% in prevention. This reactive approach persists despite evidence that up to 50% of health care expenditures are life-style related and therefore potentially preventable." Source: David Anderson, PhD reporting in Wellness Councils of America's Absolute Advantage 2003
Each smoker costs an employer an additional $3,856 a year in health-care costs and lost productivity. Source: Billings Gazette December 10, 2005
Nationwide smoking attributable productivity losses from 1997-2001 cost $92 billion. Source: Centers for Disease Control, June 2005
The National Safety Council stated that in 1996, backaches alone cost industry more than $1.2 billion in production and services and $275 million in worker's compensation. Source: The American Council on Exercise, ACE Fitness Matters, January/February 2006

Employee Wellness Makes Corporate Fiscal Sense

How do company wellness programs affect a business's bottom line? Does the benefit exceed the cost of the program? There is more and more research on the fiscal advantage of providing a corporate wellness program. Here are some findings:

Employers who invest in worksite health promotion programs can see a return of $3-$6 for every dollar invested over a 2-5 year period. Documented savings are observed in medical costs, absenteeism, worker's comp claims, short-term disability and presenteeism (lower on-the-job efficiency due to employee health problems.)
Source: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, December 2005
There are over 600 articles that analyze the research and anecdotal evidence of the cost-effectiveness of worksite wellness programs. In a review of 42 of these articles, there has been shown to be a:
- 28% reduction in sick leave absenteeism
- 26% reduction in use of the health care benefit
- 30% reduced worker's comp clams and disability management
- Reduced presenteeism losses
Source: Larry Chapman, "Meta-evaluation of Worksite Health Promotion Economic Return Studies", The American Journal of Health Promotion, 2003
A recent study showed that corporate fitness center participants had 1.3 days fewer short-term disability claims per year per employee than non-participants and had fewer health risks. Source: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, April 2006
On average, health care claim costs for IBM employees who exercise 1- 2 times a week are $350 a year less than those who don't exercise at all. Source: Joyce Young, IBM's Well-Being Director in BenefitNews.com March, 2006

Employee Wellness Makes Corporate Common Sense

The bottom line is important but there are many studies documenting the intangible advantages of a corporate wellness program. Here are some of the conclusions:

A wellness program can enhance and support an organization's core values and culture.
There is a documented relationship between healthy employees and worker productivity.
A recent study of 200 people at 3 major corporations revealed that an employee's quality of life, mental performance, and time management was 15% better on days when they exercised.
A wellness program that contains a component on self-care and proper use of the health insurance benefit leads to a more cost-conscious work force.
A high quality fitness and wellness program is an employee recruitment and retention tool. As more employers add wellness programs and on-site fitness centers to their benefit package, it is important to stay current and competitive.
Nearly 60% of all companies and 95% of large companies have programs designed to encourage individuals to take some responsibility for their health.
People spend more time at work today than any other place - employers can use this captive audience to make some serious healthy behavior changes.

Fitness Works at Work's Solutions

Fitness Works at Work's goal is to start every working man and woman on a balanced path to wellness. Let us help focus your corporate efforts on making your work environment supportive to healthy behavior by providing employees with every opportunity to be fit. Here is where Fitness Works at Work can help:

By planning your health promotion program using information from health insurance costs, employee interests, and your unique corporate culture. This information and our extensive experience and insight into employee wellness guarantee success.
By providing relevant programs to employees chock full of all the wellness information, tools and knowledge enabling them to better manage their health and the health of their families, particularly in the areas that are impacting your medical claims. The more your employees know about paths to good health, the more likely they will take those paths.
By motivating employees to assess their current state of health and readiness to change. Whether it is making sound food choices, getting more physically fit or managing Work-Life stress, Fitness Works at Work staff will gently and constantly urge employees to seek healthy behaviors.
By analyzing and evaluating results. We work with you to make sure our programs are keeping employees focused on their well-being. Because of our flexible approach and tireless dedication to your employees' health, we do whatever it takes to make sure our programs are successful.
Your company needs to be wellness committed and consistent. Having a well-structured, upbeat, on-going comprehensive wellness initiative can lead to positive health change and health risk reduction in your employees.