Corporate Wellness Programs Have Ups And Downs

A wellness program is something that a lot of companies have chosen to implement as it allows them to focus on being able to improve employee health and to find ways in which they can reduce their health insurance costs and other issues. Are wellness programs beneficial? Do they cost more to invest than they are worth? It all depends onyour company's strategy that you use in order to implement the wellness program in order to see that it will aid in helping the company to grow or if it will become a problem. You need to be able to find out how your employees will respond to the wellness program. If they are not going to respond well, there is no point. They will simply avoid anything to do with the program and they don't want to participate so the company will just waste money on a ton of things. The realization is that a wellness program does make sense when you factor in the costs of healthcare. You need to look at how much you are spending because you have employees that are constantly visiting the doctor. Their increase in using your company health insurance can cost you a fortune. A wellness program will end up making the employees responsible for their role in the rising cost of healthcare. They will not be allowed to get by with just using the healthcare plan all the time and still living an unhealthy lifestyle. Let's look at some of the pros and cons that are attached to corporate wellness programs.

Pros to wellness programs
A wellness program will come with a huge return on your initial investment. Companies that successful implement them often report that for every $1 they invest, there is a $5 to $15 return! This is a huge return for your investment and definitely makes investigating a wellness program worthwhile. Here are some numbers to consider:
- Implementing a wellness program can provide you with a 28% reduction in sick leave
- Wellness programs can increase production by 20% or more
- Overall employee morale is stronger and employees are loyal to the company
- Health care premiums can reduce by thousands of dollars
- Many employees that make lifestyle changes as a result of a wellness program will go on to continue with these changes.

Cons to wellness programs
There are some that say employers should not have any type of involvement with their employees health and personal choices. While it's true that employers cannot control if you workout or eat, your failure to care for your health is costing them money and this is something that they do have control over. Depending upon the way in which you implement a wellness program you could end up dealing with employees that feel they are being treated unfairly or are being discriminated against. You need to make sure that you are focused on implementing the wellness program in the right way so you don't end up in hot water in the courts.

Research the different types of wellness programs and decide which route you would like to take. Some companies will start charging their employees more for being overweight but just because their BMI maybe high, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are out of shape. In fact most body builders have a high BMI. If you want to charge your employees for their weight, you need to come up with a fair way to rate what makes them "fat" and not fat. Smoking is another thing that a lot of companies charge for as it does lead to so many serious health consequences.