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| CORPORATE WELLNESS PROGRAMS |
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Corporate Wellness Programs
Would you like to see the positive energy in your workplace improve? Want to find a way to motivate your employees? Looking for some friendly competition around the office? Corporate life can often add unwanted stress, which most often leads to undesired effects on the mind and body. Champion Trainers wants to work with your employees and help them become healthier. Additionally, we can provide health, fitness, and nutrition information for your entire office staff. Contact us to discuss the goals you have in mind and how we can work together to help improve the atmosphere around your office
Contact us if you are concerned, discuss with us for a solution. Our fitness consultant can help design a program or if you are even more committed and can afford to convert a somewhere in your workplace into a workout area, we can help you customize a local gym. We will provide all the software to ensure that your staff is fit for the job. If that is not possible, we can offer you a group exercise program at our designated gym. |
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| WORKPLACE WELLNESS BENEFITS |
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Six Reasons for Workplace Wellness
We believe that there are six important reasons why every business should consider developing and implementing a health promotion initiative.
Reason # I: Health Care Costs
Let's start with the obvious. The first reason why the concept of health promotion is important to an organization is because health care costs continue to be an issue of major concern.
As you know, we spend over $2 billion dollars in this country alone on health care. What's more, the average annual health care cost per person in Singapore exceeds $700 - lifetime costs per person are somewhere in the neighborhood of $56,000.
Much of these costs are linked to health habits, it is possible for employers to take aggressive action toward reducing health care utilisation and containing costs by taking on a health promotion program at the workplace.
Reason # 2: Most Illnesses Can Be Avoided
The second reason why the concept of health promotion is important to businesses is that the leading causes of illness are largely preventable. Believe it or not, experts suggest preventable illnesses make up approximately 70% of the entire burden of illness and associated costs in Singapore. Behind these illnesses are a whole host of preventable factors including such things as tobacco use, high-risk alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyles, and poor nutritional habits.
Are you beginning to see the big picture here? By leveraging a health promotion initiative at the workplace, employers can take important steps toward preventing unnecessary sickness and death. This is why so many business people are attracted to the idea of developing a health promotion program.
Clearly, it makes a lot of sense. After all, if you can reduce the burden of illness among your workforce by preventing the major causes of sickness, more of your employees will remain healthy and productive. What's more, you may even save some money in the process.
Reason # 3:The Work Week is Expanding
The third reason why the concept of health promotion is important to businesses is the reality that the workweek is expanding.
According to Harvard economics professor Juliet Schor, people are working harder than they ever have before. Believe it or not, the typical American now works 47 hours a week - 164 more hours than only 20 years ago. And, if this present trend continues, Schor contends that average person would be on the job 60 hours a week - for an annual total of 3,000 hours a year.
Driven in large part by newly developed technology, modern conveniences like modems, laptops, personal pagers, faxes, cellular phones, voice and e-mail, have all but erased the traditional and sacred boundaries of work.
Without question, an ever-growing workweek poses a number of threats to the health and well-being of your employees. However, as a number of progressive employers have demonstrated, health promotion programs can help to alleviate some of these concerns.
Reason # 4:The Technology Revolution is On
The fourth reason why the concept of health promotion is important to businesses relates to the fact that we are currently knee-deep in a revolution of technology. In fact, since 1990, Singapore businesses have more than quadrupled the use of computers in their workplace.
To be sure, our increased reliance on technology has ushered in a whole host of new health concerns including things like repetitive stress injuries, low back problems, and compromised vision. Moreover, because almost one-third of the workforce now spends the lion's share of their day seated at their desks plugged into workstations, sedentary lifestyles have become a concern of epic proportion.
Left unaddressed, these issues can have a serious impact in terms of the health of your employees and your company checkbook. While not a panacea, a well-designed health promotion initiative can also help to address some of these concerns.
Reason # 5: Employee' Stress Levels are Increasing
Not only are we living in a high tech era, we are also living in the midst of an information explosion. In fact, according to management guru, Dr. Price Pritchett, there has been more information produced in the last 30 years than during the previous 5,000. And, if that's not enough, experts estimate that the information supply available to us is doubling at the rate of every five years.
In addition to the challenge of information management, is the cold, harsh reality that the life span of our expensive computer hardware is now measured in days. Let's not sugarcoat it. Trying to harness technology within a business environment is both challenging and frustrating.
Inherent in the whole process is an increased level of stress for both you and your employees. In fact, in a recent nationwide poll, more than half of Singaporeans describe their jobs as stressful. Moreover, the vast majority indicated that their stress levels have worsened over the past ten years.
One thing's for certain, if left unchecked, high levels of organisational stress will exact a very real toll on your business. From increased accidents, to reduced productivity, to unnecessary absenteeism, to increased medical care costs, stress is insidious in its nature and devastating in its impact.
Increasingly, more and more business leaders and health promotion practitioners are looking to health promotion programs as a means of reducing, managing, and in some instances, even eliminating harmful stressors. By implementing a comprehensive stress management intervention, it is possible for leaders of businesses to successfully combat prevalent stressors in the workplace.
For example, teaching your employees stress management skills, implementing flexible work schedules, increasing the quality and quantity of social interaction, and increasing participation in the company decision-making process can all have a significant impact.
Reason # 6: Increasing Diversity in the Workforce
Perhaps one of the most exciting developments in the business environment is the increasing diversity of the workforce. However, with increasing diversity comes the need to address a variety of health and wellness issues in order to keep one's employees healthy and productive.
For example, jobs generated by small firms are more likely to be filled by younger workers, older workers, and women.
Again, with increasing diversity comes the challenge of being responsive to a variety of additional health concerns. Because health promotion programs help to pinpoint the specific health issues of most concern, such initiatives can be used to seamlessly identify and address a variety of diverse health issues.
The Bottom Line on Worksite Wellness
While the previously mentioned list was by no means meant to be a comprehensive one, you'd have to agree that these are some pretty compelling reasons why every organisation should give serious consideration to developing a workplace health promotion initiative.
U.S.A. statistics are used when Singapore statistics are not available. All Singapore statistics are derieved from the Singapore Ministry of Health.
No Longer A Matter of Speculation
The Benefits of Worksite Wellness
Consistent with the newly emerging worksite wellness literature, there are a number of tangible benefits associated with worksite wellness programs.
Benefit #1: Improved Morale
As the organisational culture begins to change as a result of your health promotion efforts, you and your employees may actually begin to see and feel a new level of energy within the organization. Ultimately, one of the most ambitious goals of any comprehensive health promotion program is to attempt to influence the attitudes and actions of the organisation's most valuable resource - its employees.
Benefit #2: Reduced Turnover
As we all know, employee replacement costs can be quite high for any kind of business. The effort and expense associated with running employment advertisements, reading applications, checking references, interviewing qualified candidates and hiring, and training a new employee can be a serious burden on any business. In light of the challenges that high employee turnover poses, many businesses are looking to health promotion programs as an additional perk that can help to prevent employees from jumping ship.
Benefit #3: Increased Recruitment Potential
In the midst of a very tight labor market especially in specialised fields, businesses are forced to pull out the stops in order to recruit new talent. In some instances, health promotion can prove to be a very valuable tool in sealing the deal.
Benefit #4: Reduced Absenteeism
When an employee misses work in a business setting, the entire organization is forced to absorb their responsibilities. Even in the event of the occasional absence caused by things like colds and the flu, work can back-up and tensions can build.
Even worse is a long-term absence caused by a major health event that requires hospitalisation and/or rehabilitation. By preventing certain types of illness caused by poor lifestyle habits, health promotion programs can play an important role in reducing absenteeism.
Benefit #5: Health Care Cost Containment
Most businesses don't start a health promotion program with cost containment in mind. However, cost containment for certain health problems should be considered a viable goal by many businesses.
Benefit #6: Improved Employee Health Status
One of the greatest advantages of a well-designed health promotion initiative is the promise of improved health. While not conclusive, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that well-designed health promotion initiatives can successfully impact such behaviors as smoking, high-risk alcohol use, exercise, nutritional habits, seatbelt usage, and stress.
Corporate Wellness Makes a Bottom-Line Difference
The Cost Benefit of Workplace Wellness
This is a relatively new initiative in Singapore hence there is little documentation to make a case. We shall make a case study of the cost benefit of workplace wellness in America.
Today, more than 81% of America’s businesses with 50 or more employees have some form of health promotion program the most popular being exercise, stop-smoking classes, back care programs, and stress management. Most employers offer wellness programs simply because they think the benefit is worth the cost. Yet business leaders continue to ask themselves how to control huge annual increases in health insurance premiums and health care costs.
For many companies, medical costs can consume half of corporate profits or more. Some employers look to cost sharing, cost shifting, managed care plans, risk rating, and cash-based rebates or incentives. But these methods merely shift costs. Only worksite health promotion stands out as the long-term answer for keeping employees well in the first place.
Worksite wellness is health care reform that works. Results from America’s finest companies, summarized here, are reason enough to think about an investment in your most important asset - your employees and the impact this investment can have on your bottom line.
Providence Everett Medical Center, a member of the Wellness Councils of America, in Everett, Washington, saved an estimated $3 million or a cost-benefit ratio of 1 to 3.8 over 9 years of an outcomes-based employee health benefit program called the Wellness Challenge®. By offering financial incentives ($250 - $325) to employees who meet specific organizational and employee health initiatives the program continues to meet cost containment expectations in the area of healthcare use, sick time, injuries, while improving health habits and self-care practices. During the first 4 years of the program there was a 28% average reduction in healthcare utilization compared to nine other Providence hospitals that were used as a control group.
Du Pont saw that each dollar invested in workplace health promotion yielded $1.42 over two years in lower absenteeism costs at Du Pont Co. (Well Workplace Gold in Delaware). Absences from illness unrelated to the job among 45,000 blue-collar workers dropped 14% at 41 industrial sites where the health promotion program was offered, compared with a 5.8% decline at 19 sites where it was not.
The Travelers Corporation claims a $3.40 return for every dollar invested in health promotion, yielding total corporate savings of $146 million in benefits costs. Sick leave was reduced 19% during the four-year study. In addition to improving the overall health of 36,000 employees and retirees by reducing poor health habits and increasing good ones, The Travelers realized cost savings by decreasing the number of unnecessary visits to a doctor and emergency rooms. In a similar but smaller study, members of a Travelers fitness center were absent from work significantly fewer days than nonmembers.
The Stay Alive & Well program at Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Company, based in Las Vegas, cost $76.24 per employee during the two years it has been in operation. Over half of the 1,600 employees participated (with up to 80% participation rates in the intervention program). Participants significantly lowered cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and weight and experienced 21% lower lifestyle-related claim costs than non-participant. Resulting savings: $127.89 per participant with a benefit to cost ratio of 1.68 to 1.
Superior Coffee and Foods, a Bensenville-Illinois-based subsidiary of Sara Lee Corporation, attributes impressive results to the success of the company’s comprehensive wellness program. Superior showed 22% fewer admissions to a hospital, 29% shorter hospital stays, and 42% lower expenses per admission when comparing costs for this division’s 1,200 employees with costs for other divisions. Long-term disability costs were down by 40%. Superior Coffee and Foods has earned WELCOA’s Well Workplace Gold award.
With medical costs per employee at $6,000, nearly twice the national average, Union Pacific Railroad introduced the concept of personal health management to its 28,000 employees, mostly union and blue collar, in 19 Western and Southern states. Beginning with a modest medical self-care initiative at an annual cost of $50 per person, the program achieved a net savings of $1.26 million. In addition, a voluntary program to help employees lower health risks projected a cost-benefit ratio of 1 to 1.57 after one year. Employees in a treatment group lowered their risk of high blood pressure (45%) and high cholesterol (34%); others moved out of the at-risk range for weight problems (30%); and 21% stopped smoking.
Average medical costs of high-risk Steelcase employees--those whose lifestyles include two to four health risks such as smoking, little exercise, overweight--are 75% higher than those of low-risk employees. But high-risk employees at this Grand Rapids, Michigan-furniture manufacturing company who improved their health habits through the company’s health promotion program and became low risk cut their average medical claims in half thus lowering their medical insurance costs by an average of $618 per year. If all high-risk employees (20% of the total employee population) in one location changed their lifestyles to become low risk, the projected savings could total $20 million over three years.
Employees at Berk-Tec, a small manufacturing company in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, learned self-care techniques and lowered their company’s health care costs in one year. By using a self-care guide, the 938 employees and their family members made smart medical decisions and saved $21.67 per employee and dependent?a nearly 18% reduction in costs. By combining reductions in doctor visits and emergency room use, the company saved $39.06 per employee a 24.3% decrease in costs over the previous year.
A medical claims-based study of 72,000 people insured through 285 Wisconsin school districts found a lower demand for medical services among those with access to disease prevention and self-care programs. Reductions in medical services results in savings for the Wisconsin Education Insurance Group of as much as $4.75 for each $1 spent, higher savings were found in the group receiving access to a 24-hour phone-based nurse advice line, a self-care reference book, and health education materials.
CIGNA’s Healthy Babies prenatal program delivered an average savings of $5,000 per birth by providing expectant mothers with educational materials and rewarding early and regular prenatal care. And 80% of participants had normal births without complications compared with 50% for non-participant. CIGNA is a member of the Wellness Councils of America.
With savings estimated to be as high as $8 million, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System sent its 55,000 retirees a health risk appraisal followed, in some cases, with individualized reports and letters and self-care materials to encourage change and help reduce health risks among retirees and at the same time reduce the health care claim costs. In another study, Bank of America retirees in California who chose the full health promotion and demand reduction program showed a decrease in total direct and indirect costs of 11% compared with an increase of 6.3% for those who completed only a simple health questionnaire.
With lower health care claims, medical costs decreased 16% for employees in the City of Mesa (Arizona) who participated in the comprehensive health promotion program. The city realized a return of $3.60 for every dollar invested in the health of city employees.
To prevent back injuries among its employees, a county in California targeted white- and blue-collar workers, offered classes and fitness training. As a result, there was a significant increase in employee morale, reduced worker’s comp claims, medical costs and sick days related to back injuries producing a net cost-benefit ratio of 1 to 1.79.
References
Wisconsin Education Insurance Group: Internal study conducted by the OPTUM division of United Healthcare Corporation, 1995.
Bank of America: Two-year results of a randomized controlled trial of a health promotion program in a retiree population: The Bank of America study. James F. Fries, D.A. Bloch, Harry Harrington, Nancy Richardson, Robert Beck. American Journal of Medicine, 1993, vol. 94, pp. 455-462.
Berk-Tec: The effect of a medical self-care program on health care utilization. Don R. Powell, Stephanie L. Sharp, Shelley Farnell, P. Timothy Smith. 1996. In press.
California county: A cost-benefit analysis of a California county’s back injury prevention program. L. Shi. Public Health Reports, 1993, vol. 108, no. 2, pp. 204-211.
California Public Employees’ Retirement System: Randomized controlled trial of cost reductions from a health education program: The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) Study. James F. Fries, Harry Harrington, Robert Edwards, Louis A. Kent, Nancy Richardson. American Journal of Health Promotion, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 216-223.
CIGNA: CIGNA Healthy Babies program is delivering healthier babies. National Underwriter, Sept. 12, 1994. Stewart Beltz, Director of CIGNA Employee Health Management, press release.
City of Mesa: Influence of a mobile worksite health promotion program on health care costs. S.G. Aldana, B.H. Jacobson, C.J. Harris, P.L. Kelley, W.J. Stone. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 1994, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 378-382.
Du Pont: The effects of workplace health promotion on absenteeism and employment costs in a large industrial population. Robert L. Bertera. American Journal of Public Health, September 1990, vol. 80, no. 9, pp. 1101-1105.
Providence General Hospital: Controlled trial of a financial incentive program as a component of a hospital-based worksite health promotion program. Larry Chapman. 1996. In publication. Providence General Medical Center press release, June 19, 1995.
Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co.: Anthem Health Systems, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind. Staying alive and well at Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co., Inc., 1993.
Steelcase: Corporate medical claim cost distributions and factors associated with high-cost status. Louis Tze-chingYen, Dee W. Edington, Pamela Witting. Journal of Occupational Medicine, May 1994, vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 505-515.
Superior Coffee and Foods: Speech by Lee Ahsmann, Vice President of Human Resources, at Well Workplace awards dinner, Worksite Wellness Council of Illinois, 1994.
The Travelers: A benefit-to-cost analysis of a worksite health promotion program. Thomas Golaszewski, David Snow, Wendy Lynch, Louis Yen, Debra Solomita. Journal of Occupational Medicine, December 1992, vol. 34, no. 12, pp. 1164-1172. Impact of a facility-based corporate fitness program on the number of absences from work due to illness. Wendy Lynch, Thomas Golaszewski, Andrew Clearie, David Snow, Donald Vickery. Journal of Occupational Medicine, 1990, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 9-12.
Union Pacific Railroad: Office of the Medical Director, Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Neb. Well Workplace Gold award-winning application, 1996. C. Everett Koop Award winner, 1995.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Survey of Worksite Health Promotion Activities (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion), 1992. Obtain the Summary Report from the National Health Information Center, PO Box 1133, Washington, DC 20013-1133. |
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