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Workplace Wellness Benefits Everyone

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Workplace wellness refers to the education and activities that a worksite may sponsor in order to promote healthy lifestyles for their employees and their families. Examples of wellness initiatives include health education classes, subsidized use of fitness facilities and internal policies or programs that promote healthy behavior.

Why Workplace Wellness?
Wellness affects your company’s bottom line in many ways — in particular, it can lower health-care costs, increase productivity, decrease absenteeism and raise employee morale. Because employees spend many of their waking hours at work, the workplace is an ideal setting to address health and wellness issues. The following are ways your company may benefit from a workplace wellness program:

  1. Control Health Insurance Costs — A wellness program can help employees with high risk factors make the lifestyle changes to improve their quality of life and reduce their health-care costs, while also helping employees with fewer risk factors stay healthy.
  2. Reduce Workers’ Compensation and Disability Costs — Employees who make healthy changes and lower their health risk factors often have a reduced chance of a workplace injury, illness or disability. This, in turn, can save employers money, not just on insurance premiums and benefits paid out, but also on the costs of recruiting and training a new worker to replace an employee who is out of work for health reasons.
  3. Increase Employee Productivity and Fewer Missed Days — Healthier employees mean fewer sick days, which is another benefit companies can achieve through wellness programs. Plus, employees’ healthier behaviors may translate into better family choices, so employees may also miss less work caring for ill family members. In addition, healthier employees tend to be more productive since they are not coming to work ill or are worried about their health problems. Increased productivity and reduced absenteeism can yield significant cost savings.
  4. Higher Morale and Improved Recruiting — A company that cares about its employees’ health is often seen as a better place to work, and wellness programs can attract top talent in a competitive market. In addition, demonstrating a commitment to your employees’ health can improve employee morale and strengthen retention.

For more information about workplace wellness programs, email the MBA’s HR Services team at hrservices@mbausa.org or call 814/833-3200 or 800/815-2660.

Alyssa Finegan

is an HR business partner at the Manufacturer & Business Association (MBA). Contact her at 800/815-2660, 814/833-3200 or afinegan@mbausa.org.