Employee Health Promotion

Employee Health Promotion Programs: An Attainable Goal

Was Wellness on your company’s new year’s resolutions list? Here we are a little over midway into the third month of 2008, the time when resolutions start to falter if they haven’t lost momentum completely. Has your Worksite’s wellness resolution fallen by the wayside? If so, there are still ways to get back on track.

One Wellness tip comes to us from the YMCA of Greater Des Moines, reported from the Jersey Shore. Rod Shirk, the YMCA’s chief financial officer, participated in the organization’s first executive Employee Health Promotion Program, which registered his cholesterol as higher than normal. That prompted him to get a physical, which showed high levels of a prostate-specific antigen (PSA that often indicates prostate cancer. The outcome? His doctors caught a life-threatening illness just in time.

Thanks Employee Health Promotion Program.

So of course, Shirk is a huge proponent of Employee Health Promotion Programs. He says, “For us here at the YMCA, if we are telling people to be healthy, we had better set a good example for our employees.”

Wellness Decreases Health Care Costs

Though cases like Shirk’s dramatic cancer save are the most desirable effect of Employee Health Promotion Programs, it isn’t the initial draw for businesses. They do it to reduce health care costs, and there’s no doubt that Employee Health Promotion Programs do just that. Employee Health Promotion Program Statistics show that Employee Health Promotion Programs return anywhere from $2.30 to $10.10 per dollar spent on wellness. “Health care costs should go down as people think about changing their diets and getting more active,” Shirk says.

The Employee Health Promotion Program savings aren’t just in the Health Insurance department. Human resource departments report that Employee Health Promotion Programs also reduce absenteeism and increase productivity.

Still, businesses have been loath to invest that elusive Wellness dollar despite the well-documented returns. A Principal Financial Group and Harris Interactive survey found that only 10% of small- to medium-size businesses have made workplace Health Screenings – like the one that saved Shirk’s life – available to their employees.

Is It Necessary to Incent Businesses to Initiate Employee Health Promotion Programs?

Wellness rewards may seem like an effective way to get employees excited about Employee Health Promotion Program – but is it wise?

This helps and encourages businesses to understand the importance of maintaining a healthy staff members, not only for the welfare of its employees, but as well as the welfare of the corporate bottom line … then, yes, it could be necessary.

Tax Breaks as Wellness rewards

In 2007, two senators decided to band together to create the “Healthy Workforce Act.” This act is designed to encourage businesses to keep employees healthy and prevent disease. The senators believed that having a country focused on “well care” versus “sick care” would decrease the overall costs of health care for everyone. They decided to start with America’s staff members.

The legislation, introduced by Oregon Senator Gordon Smith and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, states that businesses would receive a Wellness reward – a fifty percent tax credit – if they offer to their employees a Employee Health Promotion Program that meets the following criteria:

1) A health education and awareness component, which could include Health risk assessments and Health Screenings.

2) A behavioral change component – such as counseling, seminars, or self-help materials to empower employees to lead healthier lifestyles.

3) A supportive environment component – including providing meaningful rewards to participating employees, such as a reduction in health premiums or allowing employees to engage in walking Employee Health Promotion Programs during the workday.

4) The creation of an employee engagement committee – which would tailor the Employee Health Promotion Program to the needs of the staff members at a particular corporation.

If this law gets passed, many businesses will be scrambling to offer Employee Health Promotion Programs in hopes of receiving the Wellness rewards.