How Many Hats Do You Wear?

As an employer you wear many hats. And we know that your main business is not about managing the health of your employees.

Businesses build, market, sell and service things and ideas, and when your business excels at these core functions, it succeeds in providing stakeholders a return on their investment. In essence, all issues regarding the management of human capital, including health management, flow from the success of the business and to the bottom line of the business. But, did you know that on average more than 50 percent of corporate profits go toward healthcare costs, versus only 7 percent three decades ago (American Institute for Preventive Medicine), and this definitely affects your ROI.

So what about ROI with respect to health and wellness? It has been proven that wellness programs have a time-tested return on investment, but only if they're implemented. Workplace wellness programs designed to address modifiable behavior for employees in high-risk groups focus on those behaviors that can be changed, and proactively address related healthcare costs before they happen. It is now known that integrated programs geared at those areas where employees can modify lifestyle behavior will have a significant impact on overall health, and related costs, and ROI.

The findings of a study released by Duke University Medical Center early this year indicate that "gaining too much weight can be as bad for an employer's bottom line as it is for a person's waistline." Qualifying this, the report continued, "A Duke University Medical Center analysis found that obese workers filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims, had seven times higher medical costs from those claims and lost 13 times more days of work from work injury or work illness than did non-obese workers."

The study looked at workers who had at least one medical checkup from 1997 - 2004, and found only six worker's comp claims were filed per 100 workers of normal BMI, compared with more than 11 claims filed per 100 of the heaviest workers. Medical claims costs per 100 workers were as follows:

Normal BMI: $7500
Overweight: More than $13,900
Mildly Obese: More than $19,000
Moderately Obese: More than $23,300
Severely Obese: More than $51,000 per 100 very obese workers

And this is just worker's comp-related healthcare costs due to overweight and obesity. What about healthcare costs of type 2 diabetes? Do you know that lifestyle behavior changes such as losing weight and becoming more physically active can prevent pre-diabetes from becoming type 2 diabetes. (Click Here for a Downloadable PDF on costs of type 2 diabetes)

Where does this tie-in to ROI? The National Business Group on Health and Research Triangle Institute report that for every dollar companies spend on wellness programs such as weight loss, nutrition and smoking cessation, they save up to $6 on employee health benefits. That's a 600 percent return on their investment. (Published in: American Journal of Preventive Medicine)

The issues that occupy the time and attention of company and organization leaders typically involve marketing, sales, operations and finance, not wellness, even though wellness and lack thereof will affect each of these other concerns. This is exactly why the behavior-based LoneStart Wellness Initiative takes a proactive, turnkey approach. We want the decision to implement a wellness program to be made for the right reasons, and we provide all the information necessary to make that decision.

So, do you have on your "wellness hat?" Do you know everything you need to know to make a decision with respect to implementing a wellness program? If not, contact us, and we will show you why wellness programs don't belong on the back burner, and why you can't afford to say "no" to wellness. Contact Us