Health and Wellness Best Practices

Workplace Wellness
By Donald Ardell, Ph.D.

American companies have promoted healthy lifestyles since the mid 1970’s. At present, 81% of American businesses with 50 or more employees have some form of wellness program - the most popular being exercise, smoking cessation, back care and stress management classes. Such initiatives are often called “health promotion.” What accounts for such enthusiasm throughout corporate America?

There are at least six reasons why such efforts are supported as good for the health of business, as well as employees.

REASON #1 This country spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, but our citizens are not the world's healthiest. (See, “In The Life Expectancy Olympics, America Loses To Japan, France, Australia And 38 Other Countries - But Take Heart - We Spend A Lot More.”) Americans are, in fact, stressed out and sedentary, obese tobacco users who drink too much alcohol and suffer from chronic health problems. No wonder we spend so much on medical care.

Medical costs consume half of corporate profits - or more. Health promotion efforts supplement other steps to contain medical costs, including cost sharing, cost shifting, managed care plans, risk-rating, and cash-based incentives. Unfortunately, these steps merely shift costs. Only worksite health promotion promises a long-term answer for keeping employees well in the first place.

Promoters of worksite wellness describe an ultimate goal of creating conditions wherein employees will want to live in ways that enable them to stay well in the first place.

REASON #2 Much of the illness in the U.S. is directly preventable. Estimates are that 95 percent of medical spending goes for diagnosis and treatment of illness after it occurs, despite the fact that 70% of illness is preventable. Leading causes of death, a reminder of the validity of reason number one, are tobacco use, poor diet and alcohol abuse. In my view, the leading cause of death might be insufficient fitness! Rarely do fit people smoke, eat poorly or abuse alcohol.

REASON #3 Healthcare costs are a significant concern to business. This will not surprise any business executive. After all, no other country spends so lavishly on sickness care as we do - $1.7 trillion annually, or 16% of GDP. Despite all this spending, 47 to 90 million citizens are unprotected, that is, lack health insurance. Many who have it are not as protected from catastrophic expenses as they might think, as Michael Moore famously demonstrated in his hit documentary, "Sicko."

REASON #4 The worksite is an ideal setting to address health and well-being. Most Americans work; thus, the hope is that worksite wellness programs can expose employees to a level of health awareness that they have not realized at home, school or elsewhere. Companies have much at stake, given that they bear so much of the costs of illness care.

In fairness to employees, one other reason for viewing the worksite as an ideal setting for addressing health and wellness issues is the fact that conditions associated with working make so many people sick! Honestly. The workplace contributes to un-wellness is so many ways, including long commutes in stressful traffic situations, long hours, unrealistic management expectations about productivity, pressure to perform heroically and so on. Such conditions leave too little time for quality of life activities that help people stay well. Many employees do not get adequate sleep, a factor that some experts consider one of the most important elements of a wellness lifestyle.

REASON #5 Empirical research supports the belief that health promotion programs can improve health, save money and produce a return on investment. The WELCOA site contains a listing of studies to back this assertion.

REASON #6 The number of companies crafting world-class wellness programs is increasing. There are many examples of organizations that have used various kinds of incentives (e.g., financial) to promote weight loss and other desired health enhancement outcomes.

All six reasons are more than enough justification for American companies large and small to investigate the nature and potential returns of worksite wellness. The need is clear, and the evidence that even basic risk reduction and health education programming pays off, is persuasive.

The next question to examine might be how worksite wellness could not only bring about medical cost savings, but increase quality of life indicators for most employees, as well. Tune in next time for a look at that challenge.

Donald B. Ardell, Ph.D. is a resident of downtown St. Petersburg and the author of 15 books, his latest being Aging Beyond Belief: 69 Tips For REAL Wellness. Don has produced the WELLNESS REPORT since 1984. For more information, go to: www.seekwellness.com/wellness.

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