What is a Wellness Program?

A Wellness Program is an organized program to assist and support workers in establishing healthier lifestyles.  This can include increasing employee awareness on health topics, scheduling behavior change programs, and/or establishing corporation policies that support health-related goals.  

Programs and policies that promote increased exercise, use of tobacco avoidance and cessation, and healthy food selections are a few examples.  

Dimensions of Wellness

Wellness is more than physical fitness.  In addition to physical fitness, the dimensions of optimal health include

• Spiritual Wellness

• Emotional Wellness

• Social Wellness

• Intellectual Wellness

These dimensions are often depicted as a “life wheel” with examples of health components that include -

• fitness,
• nutrition,
• purpose in life,
• financial planning,
• social connections and support systems,
• stress management,
• mind-body health,
• career planning and
• continued learning.  

The key for individual health is keeping the “life wheel” in balance.  A extensive wellness program addresses most, if not all, of these dimensions.

Why Corporate Wellness?

Staff Members spend a great deal of time on the job, and the truth is that our traditional work-week is increasing.  In fact, the typical American now works about 47 hours per week.  

Plus, technologies such as modems, laptops, cellular phones, voice and email have blurred the work-life boundary.  These realities reduce the amount of time that the average individual can devote to wellness pursuits, and yet workers are expected to be at top performance when at work.

A recent study  by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses found that corporate wellness or wellness programs are successful in assisting employees make positive health changes due to several factors like convenience, environmental support, and peer or social acceptance.  

What’s the Link between Wellness and the Workplace?

Programs and policies that promote healthy behaviors can make a large difference on worker wellness AND have an impact on the corporation’s bottom line.   Studies have shown that for every dollar invested by corporations in corporate wellness/wellness programs, there were savings ranging from $1.49 to $4.91 with a median savings of $3.14*.  

In business terms, that’s more than a 3 - 1 minimum return on investment - a number that is hard to ignore, and a best practice that should warrant serious consideration from companies.  

In truth, a corporate wellness literature review posted in Wellness Practitioner Journal found -  

• 19 studies found a 28.3 percent reduction in sick time

• 16 studies demonstrated a 5.6 - 1 return on investment

• 23 showed a 26.1% reduction in health costs

• 4 found a 30% reduction in direct medical and workers’ compensation claims

There is little doubt that a extensive wellness program targeted to meet a corporation’s specific needs can save money by decreasing absenteeism, lowering health care expenditures, decreasing staff member turnover, and increasing productivity.

• United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2003