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1. What can your company afford to invest in its wellness program? In 2007 almost 40 percent of large companies in the US spend more than $200,000 annually and 20 percent spent at least $1 million on corporate wellness. Yes, that's a lot, but consider what it costs in employee productivity and absenteeism if you don't help employees optimize their health and well-being. In fact, a 2007 study conducted by the Milken Institute found that lowering the obesity rates alone could produce productivity gains of $254 billion and avoid $60 billion in treatment expenditures annually for companies.
2. Do you have the tools and staff to implement a successful program? A benefits management system must be in place to support a corporate wellness program and companies must have the tools and technology to track participation, issue rewards, and adjust health plan premium payments accordingly.
3. How will you measure program effectiveness and ROI - or will you invest those dollars in making employees healthier? Wellness programs have been shown to produce an overall return on investment of 1.5:1 to 3:1 after three to five years, meaning that for every dollar invested in wellness, employers can expect to save between $1.50 to $3.00 (Human Resource Executive 2007). But you must decide what approach you want to take when it comes to investing money in measuring your program's ROI. A survey conducted in 2006 by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, shows that 87 percent of 464 benefits professionals and plan sponsors didn't know the ROI of their programs. The issue of measuring ROI brings up an important question: where do you want to spend your dollars? Calculating ROI or focusing on making employees healthier? A number of companies actively supporting very successful wellness initiatives have opted not to track detailed ROI. But beware: according to most in the "C" suite, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Measuring the overall wellness program effectiveness from a dollars perspective may be necessary to ensure that the programs continue to receive buy-in (read: budget) from upper- management.
Angela Manzanares, November 14, 2008
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