Health And Wellness In The Workplace

The costs of healthcare have been rising more than 10% annually for several years. A substantial amount of the money spent in the healthcare system treats expensive illnesses and illnesses.

• Approximately 95% of the $1.4 trillion that we spend as a nation on health goes to direct medical services, while about 5% is allocated to preventing illness and promoting health.

• Potentially, 50 percent to 70 percent of all illnesses are preventable as they’re associated with modifiable health risks.

• In an effort to optimize worker health, reduce avoidable healthcare utilization and enhance work performance, and in turn lower healthcare costs and improve worker satisfaction and retention, many companies are developing, or are interested in developing, Wellness Programs for workers.

The advantages of corporate wellness are well documented. More than 120 scientific research studies repeatedly show themes such as improvements in health outcomes coupled with high returns on investment (ROI). Some major findings include the following -

• Savings of $3.48 in decreased healthcare costs per dollar invested.

• Savings of $5.82 in lower rates of absenteeism costs per dollar invested.

• ROIs of at least $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of program implementation.

• Lifestyle behavior change programs -  $3 to $6 ROI within 2 to 5 years.

• Self care, decision support programs -  $2 to $3 ROI within a year.

• Disease management programs -  $7 to $10 ROI within a year.

By offering health betterment programs, corporations are not only providing an additional service for employees, but they’re also gaining financially. Further, the impact of a health betterment program goes beyond lowered healthcare cost and ROI.

A health betterment program can affect productivity, absenteeism, morale, recruitment success, turnover, and medical care costs.

* Source -  Rees, C., and Finch, R. (2004). Health Improvement -  A comprehensive guide to designing, starting and reviewing  worksite programs. National Business Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

As reported by the American Journal of Wellness, “Wellness is the science and art of assisting people  change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health.

Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change behavior, and develop environments that support good health practices.

Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change.”

Wellness Program -  Action Steps

The process of building a Wellness Program involves -

• Identifying the current health status of your workers

• Decidingthe appropriate programs and interventions to offer

• Promoting and beginning the programs

• Building in motivational incentives

• Measuring the impact

• Revising programs based on evaluation outcomes

It may even include developing policies and procedures that support employee participation in wellness activities at your worksite (like flextime).

Steps to Starting a Wellness Program

• Conduct an organizational assessment

• Obtain management support

• Establish a wellness committee

• Obtain worker input

• Create goals and goals

• Design and implement program activities

• Pick incentives

• Evaluate outcomes

Among the ways the government plans to improve the nation’s health is through comprehensive Wellness Programs.

As reported by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, these programs might help workers live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior change programs.

In fact, among the objectives of Healthy Individuals  2010, a set of health objectives for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to elevate the proportion of workers that participate in a comprehensive Wellness Program at their worksite to 75 percent.

5 Ways to Assess and Improve Your Employees’ Health

Emotional health is a state of wellness that comes from understanding and acknowledging our emotions and locating appropriate ways to express them.

As employees, we often bring emotional problems from our childhood or current family life into the workplace because we haven’t dealt with them effectively outside of work.

This can seriously damage workplace relationships and lead to poor performance and negative feelings all around.

Many tools and techniques exist for assisting us improve our emotional health. Some of the most common are given below, with real-life case histories illustrating their use.

When an unpleasant mood or feeling persists over a length of time, don’t hesitate to seek out a qualified professional. Wellness programs generally have professional support already in place as part of their services.

1. Coaching/Counseling -

One of the hallmarks of emotional health is the willingness to ask for help when we need it.

Confidential expert help, the coaching and counseling provided by worker assistance or wellness programs, can provide an external source of strength and insight for “working out” emotionally-based problems in lieu of “working them in” to your job.

2. Self-help Groups -

Self-help groups are designed to aid individuals  in emotional situations in which they feel alone. the purpose of these groups is twofold -  to allow individuals  to safely feel and express their emotions, and to help break their isolation at work and/or in society at large and reintegrate them into society with the support of a peer group.

The classic self-help group is Alcoholics Anonymous, but thanks to technology, it’s possible to connect with others that have common health challenges, no matter how unique the situation.

People  are taking advantage of tele-conference groups and social websites, like sparkpeople .com and revolutionhealth.com. Wellness programs often have such groups available through web-based or telephone support. Progressive corporate wellness provider

Exan Wellness, for instance, offers teleconference cell groups and moderated wellness forums for interacting with others in a supportive, confidential and anonymous environment.

Individuals  with shared challenges get together and discuss the emotional challenges they’re facing at work or in other areas of their lives and work through change together.

3. Journaling -  Journaling is often advised by counsellors as a way to help identify and process emotions. People  record their emotions in writing as they experience them, in whatever form they wish.

By helping the writer gain greater emotional clarity, journaling can help in making more emotionally informed decisions. In much the same way, letter writing empowers people  to identify and process the emotions they feel about others.

The letter does not have to be sent or its contents shared -  it simply provides a place for the expression of feelings.

An 18-year-old “army brat,” Brent has always done well at school, academically and athletically. But in his last year of high school, something seems to have happened to him. He’s lost all interest in school, becoming moody and withdrawn.

Brent describes to his guidance counselor all the times he had to move when he was growing up. Each move wrenched him from his friends and forced him to play the role of the “new kid on the block.”

The counselor suggests that Brent write letters to the friends he has missed over the years telling them how he felt. Lastly, he has a chance to say a proper goodbye.

4. Assess Your Emotional Health -  Corporations that seek to increase employees’ interpersonal skills, or emotional intelligence in the workplace are more successful, as reported by ground-breaking journalist Daniel Goleman.

And emotional intelligence is the buzzword in workplaces these days. Some wellness programs have information about emotional intelligence, or emotional health assessments. Seek out more information about emotional intelligence for better corporate wellness.

5. Friendships/Support Systems -  Friendships allow people  to feel supported in their emotional journeys. at the same time, they give people  an opportunity to create their empathetic skills.

These skills are also important for workplace health. When we are empathic with fellow workers, we help them resolve negative or unhealthy emotions. New friendships are made through hobbies, classes, clubs, or even through online groups.

Many individuals  are finding emotional satisfaction by connecting or re-connecting with friends through Facebook and other social web sites.

Sometimes workplace stress that isn’t dealt with in a healthy manner can be brought home. A 36-year-old mother of three, Sarah, wants to be a good wife, a good mother, and a success at her job.

One day, drained after a long day at work, she shouted at her rambunctious children and threatened to hit her youngest son. Her behavior horrified her. to make matters worse, she believes she is a failure at her job in addition to at motherhood. She watches with jealousy as younger coworkers advance much more quickly up the corporate ladder despite having less experience than she has.

On the advice of a counselor, she decides to take time out for herself and take a course for amateur painters. It doesn’t take long before she strikes up a friendship with a single mom in the class.

She once led a life very similar to Sarah’s before managing to achieve a better balance between work and family. Her new friend becomes a much-needed sounding board for Sarah and offers her perspectives on her life that she had not considered before.

25 percent Jump in Corporation Interest in Employee Wellness

Corporate wellness for their staff members, employers are discovering, is good for the health of their corporations as well. Wellness programs help to cut the costs associated with poor employee health, which include absenteeism, loss of productivity and poor work quality.

A recent Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 USA companies indicated a meaningful paradigm shift in how companies view health benefits for their staff members.

Of those surveyed this year, 88% are committed to instituting long-term health care assistance programs (over the next 3-5 years) for their staff members, with the goal of improveing the health and productivity of their workforce. This represents a 25% increase in interest in wellness programs over 2007.

A strong offering of wellness programs to meet the demand has resulted. Health assistance providers have broadened their programs with tools that address general lifestyle factors, physical, social and psychological health factors.

Programs look to predict chronic disease in their workers and give them the tools and the information to prevent it. Companies also demand a way to measure the effectiveness of their healthcare spending.

Self-care is our motive, says Vic Lebouthillier, president of progressive wellness provider Exan Wellness.”We really believe giving workers tools to help them manage their own health, and promoting the benefits, while giving people  resources to reach out for help is the key to successful lifestyle change.

Corporations are also telling us they need a cost-effective way to deliver wellness programs. the type of program we have created over years delivers the highest healthcare return on investment.”

Combining corporate wellness promotions, web-based assessments and health trackers, web-based medical information, telephone conferences and self-help groups, and access to a broad variety of health experts, is behind the success of the Exan program. “Having web-based statistics about employees’ health also makes it easier to track the bottom line - ROI” says Vic Lebouthillier.

Corporations are moving beyond their traditional role as a provider of health care benefits to create holistic programs that pinpoint the specific health needs of their employee populations, drive employee behavior change and eliminate barriers to health care, says Jim Winkler, leader of Hewitt’s health management consulting practice.

Notwithstanding, in a separate survey of 30,000 employees, 74% said that, although they felt their corporation had an obligation to help them understand how to use their health benefits program, only 12% felt the corporation had any right to tell them how to be healthful.

Based on these results, employers need to drive home the fact that improved health is better for their staff members as well as the corporation. It’s a win-win situation.

Businesss and employees did find common ground when it came to future health care. Both surveys indicate that 95 percent of employees understand that their taking care of their health today will impact future health care payments.

A similar percentage also understand the important of early detection and prevention when it comes to saving on health care costs.

Cost is important for most businesses as well. Over 80% of those surveyed made cost mitigation a priority for 2008, but those cuts didn’t involve shifting responsibility for healthcare onto workers.

Although 64% of corporations have shifted costs to their workers, only 17% plan to do so in the next 3-5 years. Likewise with health reimbursement accounts, 20% now offer these, but only about 5% plan to use them in 2008.

These survey leads todicate businesses are getting more proactive in assisting their employees to change behaviors and take ownership of their own health futures. This is obviously good for the wellness of employees, but also for the wellness of the businesses they work for.

Almost half the companies surveyed were convinced that changing health behaviors was key to increased productivity and lower absentee rates. Over 60% plan to institute programs that help employees change and/or sustain a healthier lifestyle.

Nearly of these businesses will also use data and measurements to ensure their health care strategies meet their health care objectives?

It’s clear to virtually every American (specifically those of us in business) that health care costs are skyrocketing out of control.

No one doubts that either the market will solve the problem OR the government will impose one on us. Managed care has failed from either a cost containment or quality of care perspective.

Companies have reached the point where the cost of providing health insurance is almost as burdensome as government regulation. It’s time for some new thinking on healthcare and its impact on corporation and vice versa.

Corporate wellness as an operational perspective in lieu of merely window dressing is one way to deal effectively with rising health care costs.

The Insurance Problem

The first step in correcting the problem is to realize that an employee’s health is their own responsibility. Expecting businesss to provide unlimited medical insurance coverage is simply unrealistic and unreasonable.

It’s time for corporations (on a wide scale) to reconsider their role in providing medical insurance coverage. Instead of providing complete coverage for all staff members through group plans, corporations should start to shift the burden of health coverage to those covered.

Here’s the approach. Provide catastrophic health insurance as a group benefit to all staff members with a big enough deductible (say $5000 per employee) to make the cost affordable for the corporation.

Then, allow workers to buy their own health insurance policies (based on their own needs) and pay for them through payroll deduction with pre-tax earnings.

There are numerous insurance companies that sell individual plans on this basis. Everybody wins. Staff Members can tailor their coverage to their own needs and circumstances using their own doctors. Companies win by stopping the endless cycle of rising costs and ever-changing plans.

And when person become responsible for the cost of their own insurance, they become more attentive to their own health.

Besides, when an employee is interested in working for you ONLY because your corporation offers great insurance benefits aren’t they telling you they are going to cost you more money in the future?

Create a “Wellness Culture”

Our current “sickness culture” perpetuates the health care crisis and hastens the demise of market-based solutions. By ailment culture, I mean our focus on medical problems instead of on having a healthful workplace and performance culture.

So, what would a “wellness culture” look like? First, in lieu of paid sick days, workers might  be rewarded at year’s end with an attendance bonus.

Workers would be reimbursed for successful completion of tobacco use cessation and weight-loss programs. Businesses would invest in corporate memberships at local fitness clubs so every staff member can participate.

Workers would be offered in-house wellness programs on a selection of issues ranging from ergonomics to stress management. Finally, companies would commit to hiring and retaining healthy staff members.

Simply put, healthful workers cost less and are more productive than unhealthful ones. Applicants should be screened for health habits and practices that limit their productivity and increase the likelihood of future expense.

While this may seem harsh, it rewards those staff members whose personal lifestyle and habits ensure the best Return on Investment by the corporation committing to hire, train and pay them.

Be open to “alternative and complementary” approaches

Studies published in major medical journals reveal that individuals who use “alternative and complementary” health modalities (including chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga and massage) are ordinarily healthier, better educated, take fewer medications and miss fewer days from work than the average American.

Since these person look for ways to stay healthy without drugs and surgery, they end up being a net benefit in terms of attendance and productivity. Old prejudices in this area must be discarded in order for businesses to improve productivity and increase profitability

Conclusion

Health Care costs are increasing at a staggering pace. Managed care is an dreadful failure. Companies are buckling under the pressure of providing health coverage to their employees.

American competitiveness in the market is sagging. These times call for amazing solutions. It’s time for American corporations to consider some out-of-the-box solutions to the health care crisis.

Corporate wellness is an approach that is timely, achievable and reasonable given the alternatives. All choices should be considered while we still have a chance.

Research spanning more than a decade has consistently shown wellness programs to be financially effective and that every dollar invested on a wellness program can return $2.30 and $10.10 by lowering absenteeism, sick day usage and by decreasing insurance costs.

Also it is noted that there are marked improvements in staff member performance and productivity in organizations that start a wellness program.

Healthy organizations enjoy increased staff member morale and an improved ability to attract and retain key individuals . Also, employees are more alert and productive.

For  instance, Coca Cola reports that they save almost $500 a year per worker once they implemented a fitness programin which 60 percent of their workers participate.

Coors Brewing Business stated that workers who participated in their wellness programs lowered their absentee rate by 18 percent.

Employees enjoy their share of benefits from wellness programs too. A healthful lifestyle affects every part of a person’s life, including their work environment.

Wellness programs result in fewer injuries, less human error and a work environment that is more harmonious and relaxed. Also, employees who work at a corporation that starts a wellness program know that their organization is concerned about their wellness.

Workers often report a reduction in their stress levels due to wellness programs.

As workers feel better, more relaxed, more valued and more human to their company; they enjoy an increase in productivity. This increase in productivity, while beneficial to the company, is also essential to the worker as it increases their own sense of self worth and confidence levels.

Staff Members who feel successful and who feel that they accomplish objectives are overall happier and in a better frame of mind.

The advantages of wellness programs, both tangible and intangible, are evident. It’s a wise move for a company to begin a wellness program, specifically when they incorporate some form of mental health aspect into it.

This also has social benefits as domestic violence and child abuse is shown to be lowered in areas where wellness programs are implemented. These days, an organization can nearly not afford to have some sort of wellness program to offer to their workers.

Some of the top wellness programs currently in use today include -

Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal}s

Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} is a top wellness program currently in use globally. Organizations that implement it determine the safety and health concerns of staff members by the assessment of appropriateness of the facilities and equipment against the needs of the staff members.

It can, for example, guide the organization into deciding how the air quality within an office room affects the users and then help the assessment team to come up with the measures necessary to correct the problem. an HRA can also evaluate the level of exposure staff members have to certain dangerous or dangerous materials and practices.

Immunizations

This is not always practiced in every country since there are regions where government sponsored immunization shots are available. Nevertheless, it’s also become an important component of the top worker wellness programs in many organizations in North America.

Immunization shots, like those used to combat flu, for example, are offered to staff members for free.

Worker Assistance Programs

Staff Member Assistance Programs consist of a wide variety of services. It can range from providing educational resources to staff members regarding health issues to sponsoring health services and medical care. In many companies, medical and insurance have also become a staple part of their benefits system.

In-house diet and nutrition drives

This is another wellness program that organizations use, namely those that offer in-house commissary or cafeteria services. Instead of serving richer, high-calorie fare, cafeterias offer options for a healthier diet, typically in the form of low-calorie foods and sugar substitutes.

In-house wellness newsletter and campaign drives

One of the top wellness programs that organizations can start is a self-powered tool using a newsletter to promote wellness, coupled with a visible campaign.

The campaign could  be done periodically and focus on a specific topic, like tobacco use hazards, cancer, stress, carpal tunnel syndrome, safety in the workplace, etc.

The newsletter in itself could be an effective means to deliver information to staff members or members of an organization but it is far from perfect.

Some employees, for instance, may not read the newsletter entirely or even pay attention to it. When the issues outlined in the newsletter are promoted through an active and highly visible campaign, it will be easier to maximize positive results.

Exercise and exercise

Another top wellness program for organizations is one that involves physical activities. Businesses often sponsor exercise-related events such as marathons and corporation sports programs to encourage staff members to remain fit or lose excess weight.

In mid- to large-sized businesses, businesses might even pay for health club memberships or in-house exercise facilities.

Wellness Incentives

Some of the top wellness programs implemented by businesses involve incentive rewards. This involves company-sponsored programs that reward employees for achieving specific wellness-related objectives.

Participation in health campaigns and signing up for wellness programs are two of the most commonly rewarded schemes. Rewards can range from special recognitions to over time obtained points (for larger rewards) to specific gifts. In several cases, cash might also be used.

Nevertheless, incentive systems have had mixed reactions and levels of success. But it continues to be one of the top options among corporations who are willing to modify it in order to fit their unique needs.

Colleague Pressure

In many organizations, businesses take advantage of colleague pressure for encourage staff members to participate in wellness programs. This is currently among the favorite employee wellness programs currently in use today and growing in popularity.

Coworker pressure is often leveraged to help promote competitions referring to corporate wellness and to persuade staff members to be active in company-sponsored health fairs.

Wellness is a excellent concept. It brings happiness into health and encourages a indeed holistic approach to life. Wikipedia defines wellness as a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of wellness.

It sounds like exactly what every one is looking for. But when you start to talk about corporate wellness, or corporate wellness, all life goes out of the concept. Total solutions, disease management and biometric screening do not inspire visions of enjoying life and living it to the full.

They start from the assumption that sickness is here to stay and needs to be discovered, managed and controlled but can never be healed.

The wellness industry is growing phenomenally fast. Wellness guru, Paul Zane Pilzer, has labeled it the next trillion dollar industry. But wellness has two different faces.

On the one hand there are the small corporations - people  working from home or in small centers selling all types of wellness products and services at a speed of growth that is escalating quickly.

On the other hand corporate wellness is also exploding but in a very different direction.

The baby boomers who are driving the popular wellness revolution have been described as the first generation to refuse to accept the inevitability of death.

They are actively looking for ways to prevent aging, stay healthy into old age and enjoy themselves more than ever before after retirement. This is a radical departure from current notions of old age, which are often dominated by pictures of sickness, frailty and suffering.

The corporations have been largely forced to take on wellness. This is partly through legislative pressure, with many countries introducing laws to make corporations liable for stress-related ailment in their employees.

It is also financially motivated, as research has repeatedly shown the enormous costs of absenteeism (and increasingly of presenteeism as well).

Whereas the baby boomers are actively looking for new solutions and new lifestyles the companies are struggling to organize largely traditional and mainstream health systems, like physicians, nurses, insurance and screening systems.

The problem is that the traditional health system does not have solutions for the problems that individuals  are handling.

Nobody ever went to see a physician to get happy, because a physician does not have any clue how to make individuals  happy. and many stress-related health problems are described as chronic diseases, which means that they last for a very long time - or maybe for the rest of your life - because there’s no medical cure.

Counseling is a common offering in corporations for emotional problems, but whilst it may provide a useful pressure valve it is not a powerful treatment for stress, unhappiness or depression.

Imagine walking into a corporation where the workers are happy, healthful, full of inspiration, fit, love working, have meaningful family lives, active social lives, and enjoyable relationships at work and in their community.

That type of corporation would be a pleasure to work in and bound to be successful because individuals  would be working to their optimum capacity.

So can we create a system of true wellness that will serve the development of the companies and their staff members and will pay for itself because of the benefits that both sides will gain?

First of all we’ve to face the fact that we cannot place all the responsibility into the hands of the current health system. Absenteeism, stress, depression, the very roots of the wellness revolution, haven’t been solved by the current system.

If they had been we wouldn’t have this revolution, we’d all be much more well. So we need to look elsewhere for solutions.

We also can’t rely on makeshift feel-good wellness offerings, such as the on-site massage team which visits the office once a month or the wellness day that raises awareness for a little while but leaves most individuals  unaffected. They’re easy to organize but have little or no real effect on staff member wellness.

Corporate needs are different than individual needs and many of the new small wellness companies that are springing up simply do not have the capacity to serve the corporate market.

However it’s in the best interest of both companies and workers to find and develop systems of wellness that really work - that benefit people  to be happy, handle stress, love working, and to have enough energy to go home after the day and enjoy their family and social life.

So far the corporate world has hijacked the concept of wellness and turned it into a modern version of occupational health. It is time to increase the vision and find out how to make in fact healthy, happy workplaces where people  thrive.

High rates of staff member turnover and the costs of sick days are increasingly taking bites into corporate profits. the high cost of recruitment programs only adds to the challenges that these problems in total cost the average business.

Many businesses are finding the solution to these challenges by increasing job satisfaction, team building, and the implementation of programs that yield a reduction in these costs.

It has become increasingly clear to most managers that a well designed wellness/fitness program with a strong nutritional and fitness lifestyle emphasis will directly meet this need.

Management’s goals for a productive wellness program should be viewed through the perspective of increased staff member productivity, reduced absenteeism due to health related causes, improved staff member morale, reduced utilisation of company subsidised health benefits, enhanced team cohesion and effectiveness and a decrease in turnover due to lack of job satisfaction.

It is apparent that an improvement in any of these areas will have a positive impact on the financial status of any organisation.

The benefits from an staff members point of view could be seen in improved health, increased energy levels, reduced body fat, a more youthful fit body, an increased ability to handle job related stress, greater feelings of confidence and morale and more social connections at work contributing to greater feelings of satisfaction with their work and workplace.

To be most productive a wellness program needs to achieve both managements and employees goals, and this may be accomplished through a program that’ll provide the individual worker with an awareness of their current physical condition and attitudes to fitness and wellness, and the benefits of attaining a fitter, healthier lifestyle, and a plan that’ll allow them to achieve the necessary changes to their physical condition that may be applied in the context of their life and work.

The Bottom Line - Wellness Programs

Decreased Absenteeism - Dupont decreased absenteeism by 47.5% over six years for the participants of their corporate fitness program, (Health Behaviour, March 1992).

Lowered Health Care Costs - Steel case showed a reduction in medical claim costs of 55% for corporate fitness program participants over non-participants over a six year period - an average of $478.61 for participants versus non-participants who averaged $868.88, (The Am. Journal of Wellness, Sept/Oct, 1991).

Lowered Turnover - Turnover among fitness program participants at the Canadian Life Assurance Company was 32.4% lower over a seven year period compared with non-participants (Canadian Journal of Public Health, Jan/Feb, 1988).

Positive Return on Investment - Blue Cross Blue Shield  of Indiana found that its corporate fitness program had a 250% return on investment; $2.51 for every $1 invested over a five year period (American Journal of Wellness, March, April, 1991).

The Partnership for Prevention was formed to encourage Fortune 1000 businesses to consider making workforce health a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) issue and adopt strategies to promote prevention and wellness.

After a few years of double-digit rate increases for medical insurance, companies are realizing that one of the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have workers take more responsibility for both costs and health choices.

A majority of companies surveyed feel that the best way for lowering costs is financial incentives to encourage staff members to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Almost 100 percent of companys surveyed say that health costs will be a critical or significant concern over the next five years, as reported by a recent survey by United Benefit Advisors.

More corporations are adopting higher deductible health plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, wellness programs, and broader disease management (DM) programs for control ever-increasing healthcare costs.

Failure to deal with these issues could be disastrous for an employer. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we have built a healthcare machinery we can’t afford. I think we are choking the economic engine of America.”

In his October 2005 newsletter, Dr. Andrew Weil stated, “I think rising health- care costs are becoming the major economic issue in our nation”. Obesity costs California businesses billions of dollars each year.

Projected costs for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect health costs, employee’s compensation, and lost productivity. California has experienced among the fastest growing rates of obesity of any state.

As reported by California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe, “The obesity epidemic is more than a public health crisis, it’s an economic crisis.” What is frightening is that most people  don’t even realize that they’re obese, which is defined as only 20 percent above normal weight.

There’s a excellent need for more education on weight and resulting diseases, and the workplace is an ideal venue. Wellness education and programs can lead to a significant return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce causes a very short period of time.

Although many companys have attempted some form of wellness program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing.

In many cases, the healthier staff members participated for incentives, such as fitness center memberships, but those who needed it most did not take advantage of the program in a meaningful way.

Corporations are looking at ways to encourage more workers to buy into the wellness movement.

A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource (HR) Executive Magazine and presented by Carlson Marketing and Advertising Group titled, “Healthier Employees; Healthier Bottom Line -  Engaging Employees is the Missing Link in Managing Health Care Costs,” drove this point home.

This session provided actionable advice on how businesses are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on worker engagement. It also highlighted how you can develop an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential impact for your organization.

Employers can simply no longer ignore the issue of their employee’s unhealthy lifestyles and must act to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to reduce medical costs, absenteeism and lost productivity.

Employees also benefit as they derive better health and greater satisfaction in both their personal and specialist lives. the alternative is being caught in a non-competitive position and severely impacting the bottom-line of the corporation.