There's no doubt about it.

Health care reform is a hot topic these days.

It has stirred up passionate feelings about increasing access to care and providing affordable health insurance. With all the talk about health care reform, are we missing something? It seems like the debate is more about health insurance instead of health care. What about improving the health of Americans? What about the role that employers can play in improving public health? 

As an employer concerned about the health of your employees and your bottom line, wouldn't it be nice to know what type of Return on Investment (ROI) you could expect from your on site flu shot program?  

It is estimated that 10 to 20 percent of the workforce is absent at some point during the flu season, due to the impact of the influenza virus. One of the many benefits of a worksite flu shot program is a healthier workforce. Overall a vaccinated workforce experiences:

Let's say you're a workplace wellness or HR professional, and you've just finished gathering data
about the health status of your employee population. You've done biometric screenings, a health risk assessment, a medical claim analysis, and conducted an employee interest survey. 

But where do you go from here? How do you transform this data into a comprehensive wellness operating plan that drives engagement and delivers results?

In the past, flu shot efforts have mainly focused on seniors and people with chronic health conditions. Today, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention recommends that almost everyone over the age of six months receive a flu vaccination because anyone can get the flu and anyone can give the flu to somebody else. With this change, employers face a new challenge: to encourage all employees to get vaccinated.

Preventative maintenance is important to keep things such as home appliances, cars and tools in good working order. But what about the most important asset of all – health?

While many people think of the flu as just a "common cold" the flu is really a serious respiratory disease. Every year in the United States, on average:

In order to get the most benefit out of an on-site health screening, it is important to pick the type of health screening that will work best for your employees and provide the right data for your wellness program. When looking at a biometric screening program, companies can choose between a fingerstick or venous blood draw. For most companies, the fingerstick method is the preferred method.

This June marks the fourth annual National Employee Wellness Month, an initiative that provides business leaders with fresh ideas and proven strategies around corporate wellness. At TotalWelllness, we know a healthy workplace plays a key role in preventing and managing chronic disease. As a proud supporter of National Employee Wellness Month, TotalWellness believes that the workplace should be an environment that supports employees by providing resources to improve their health. Here are few of the things we’ve put in place:

• Improving employee morale
• Reducing health care costs
• Reducing sick days taken by employees
• Increasing employee productivity
• Decreasing workers’ compensation claim costs
• Enhancing the work environment and employee morale 
• Attracting new employees