About

Corporate

1. Because healthy employees stay with your company.

We believe this is because participants in wellness initiatives learn ways to effectively combat and deal with stress.  According to this Forbes article, a whopping 42% of employees reported leaving a job due to stressful workplace conditions.  This study by Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health shows that “organizations with highly effective wellness programs report significantly lower voluntary attrition than do those whose programs have low effectiveness.”

2. In addition to lower attrition rates, healthy employees also have considerably lower healthcare costs.

This article in the Harvard Business Review cites the case of medical equipment behemoth Johnson & Johnson, which implemented a comprehensive wellness program for their employees in 1995.  In the ensuing two decades, the number of employees who had high blood pressure dropped by more than half, and the number who smoked plummeted by more than two-thirds.  These are just two of the many benefits seen since the program began.  J&J’s leaders estimate that, thanks to their wellness initiatives, the company has saved around $250 million on health care costs over the past decade.  Even more impressive, from 2002 to 2008, their ROI was $2.71 for every dollar spent.

3. And, perhaps most importantly, healthy employees are more productive.

While illness-related absenteeism obviously wreaks havoc on productivity, many employees with chronic health conditions (including depression, migraines, anxiety, back pain, and diabetes) are vulnerable to presenteeism, which is when people come to the office but perform poorly due to stress or sickness.  The healthcare provider Aetna states here that the costs associated with presenteeism are approximately 60% of the total cost of worker illness, and estimates the total cost of presenteeism to US employers ranges from about $150 to $250 billion annually.