Corporate Wellness - Setting Up A Program
How do you determine the real, tangible value of a corporate wellness program?
- Determine the areas of your organisation that will benefit from a health promotion program.
- Think about the specifics - staff numbers, current levels of absenteeism, productivity issues, morale and workplace spirit.
- Quantify them - salary costs, workers compensation and insurance, staff turnover, product sales, market competition.
- Think about the potential costs, savings and benefits to your organisation as a whole.
The annual cost of a base level corporate wellness program, focussing on health awareness raising, would be $50-$100 per employee. A mid range corporate wellness program, incorporating specific behaviour change strategies, would be $150 to $300 per employee. And a comprehensive, fully supported corporate wellness program would be $400 to $500 per employee. Visit the Wellness calculator to determine the financial benefits of your program of choice.
Ideally you want the level of spending on a corporate wellness program to pay for itself. You can achieve this by dividing the financial benefit of the program by the cost of the program. The greater the number of staff/work areas positively affected by the program the lower the cost and the greater the return on investment. Determine what level of savings or increased productivity/revenue is required to pay for the wellness program you are considering - ie, how much would you expect a wellness program to affect your workplace absenteeism, productivity and corporate image? Then list out the costs and review your initial estimations.
To assist you in working out the cost/benefit and determining the best program to suit your need you may like to consult a corporate wellness provider. FitSense Australia can provide you with obligation free assistance. You will be surprised at the proven cost effectiveness of corporate wellness programs.
Some of the benefits of a corporate wellness program may not be quantifiable and yet it is important to consider these on the benefit side of the cost/benefit equation. For example a Wellness program can provide a publicity angle or contribute to good corporate citizenship. With this in mind it is also worth comparing the cost of a Wellness program to other organisational expenses such as subsidies for parking, club memberships, in house training costs and other employee development costs, so that the investment can be evaluated within a bigger, corporate context.
The final step is to decide whether or not to make the investment decision, and if so, to choose the program which best suits your organisation.
Setting Realistic Goals
When implementing a Corporate Wellness program it is important to be clear about what you and your organisation can reasonably expect to get out of it. It is also important to understand that true and effective corporate wellness programs are not one-off, ad hoc events like annual health weeks or health expos which do not result in sustainable health improvements or long term benefits to an organisation. Corporate wellness programs are planned and progressive, incorporating a range of health promoting initiatives.
It is realistic to expect corporate wellness program participants to:
- Achieve modest weight loss;
- Stop smoking;
- Improve cardiovascular condition, muscle tone, and flexibility;
- Reduce stress levels;
- Develop more nutritious eating habits;
- Have increased energy levels and motivation to work and exercise;
- Develop ongoing awareness of health priority areas;
- Have fun!!
It is not realistic to:
- Expect 100% participation;
- Expect no relapses to pre program poor health behaviours;
- Reverse significantly deteriorated health conditions (in less than five years);
- Expect health and organisational improvements to continue after a program is discontinued;
- See absenteeism rates drop off immediately;
- See increased job output from all participants in the program.
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