Corporate Wellness Incentive Plans

The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports defines wellness as “a multidimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of wellbeing.” Wellness looks beyond the current template of treating disease and focuses on preventive actions and healthier lifestyles. Employee Wellness Programs, also commonly referred to as Employee Wellness Programs, serve as a complement to existing insurance-based health benefit programs and can take many forms and address a myriad different potential health conditions. They are a powerful strategy to promote positive lifestyle changes that can result in significant cost savings for businesses.

Examples of potential components of a Worksite Wellness Program comprise of:

Health Risk Assessments / Employee Health Screenings – Health Risk Assessments (aka Health Risk Appraisals), evaluate the most prevalent lifestyle-related risks of an individual. HRAs often include screenings for Blood Pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels and other health indicators. These analyses supply important benchmarking measures that ideally will allow workers to prevent or lower their risk of illnesses. Finding Wealth Through Wellness, As noted by Kathryn Krivy, director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Wellness Institute in Chicago, “Medically based Health Risk Assessments are a necessity because in order to affect transformation in your business, you need to know what the issues are, and you just don’t know until you get the data.”

Physical Activity and Weight Management – One of the most popular Worksite Health Promotion Programs is for organizations to support access to a fitness center, frequently on-Site. Other potential measures include offering healthier snack machines and cafeteria options, weight management support groups and fitness challenge programs. Some organizations, like hospital group Baptist Health South Florida, will even pay for workers to frequent weight-loss sessions such as Weight Watchers.

Awareness and Education Programs – Many  organizations hold events discussing the benefits of nutrition, safety or physical fitness, among other issues. Other options are to host a health fair or conduct a disease-awareness campaign.

Behavior Modification – This covers issues like smoking, wearing seat belts, and alcohol use. While many corporations will provide assistance for employees looking to change behavior, some corporations, like health care benefits administrator Weyco, Inc., mandate transformation, such as quitting smoking, as a condition of employment.

Alternative Treatments – Other Company Health Promotion Programs can include absorbing some or all of the costs for massages, stress-reduction activities like yoga or even herbal medicines.