Have you ever wondered how much unhealthy employees are costing your business?

It's more than you might think.

Poor worker health costs U.S. employers a staggering $576 billion a year. This massive sum comes from lost productivity due to worker absence and chronic conditions.

Effective internal communication is critical to driving high employee participation in worksite wellness programs. Unfortunately, in today’s work environment of information overload, employees are inundated with messages. Human Resources and Health Promotion professionals have to cut through the noise of other competing messages and work priorities if they hope to have success with their wellness efforts.

Research indicates that wellness programs reduce health care costs, with reductions for large companies averaging $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs, according to a policy brief from Health Affairs.

Flu season can be a challenging time for businesses.

The flu virus spreads easily among employees, affecting not only the workplace but also the broader community. This seasonal illness can severely impact business operations, causing employees to miss work due to their own sickness or to care for ill family members, increasing stress and reducing productivity.

With potentially thousands of hours of lost work time, it’s clear that companies have an economic interest in keeping employees healthy and flu-free.

A healthy and productive workforce is critical to any business's success. So, how can employers motivate their teams to engage in healthy behaviors, like getting a flu shot?

More employers are encouraging employees to quit smoking with incentives (or penalties!) According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) 2018 Employee Benefits survey report, 16% of employers provide a discount on health insurance premiums to people who do not use tobacco products, 10% offer a discount for participating in a program to quit smoking and 18% impose a smoking surcharge.

Given the often high-valued health care discounts, many employers are turning to nicotine testing to discourage dishonesty and ensure incentives are appropriately distributed. 

“The purpose of worksite wellness is not to change people, but to change the culture.”
-Dr. Dee Edington

As a HR or health promotion professional, you probably have been hearing a lot about biometric screenings. But you may be wondering how biometric screenings can really help your company and wellness program. By measuring your employees’ cholesterol and glucose levels, body mass index and blood pressure, onsite screenings provide information you and your employees need to understand health risks. Plus, you gain insights that health risk appraisals or claims data alone can’t provide.

Regardless of the size or type of your business you can help protect your business and employees from the flu. An organization can be severely impacted by people coming to work when they’re sick. Illness can spread from person to person causing entire companies to be effected. For small employers, that could mean as much as five missed workdays each for every employee who experiences flu-like symptoms, according to a 2011 study from Walgreens.

What does "Workplace Wellness" mean to you? Is it a business necessity or just a fluffy HR benefit?