Those wellness programs you’ve been on the fence about? Turns out they just may save you money.
A new study published in the September Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reports that a program to reduce weight and improve health risk factors in obese employees produced a short-term return on investment of $1.17 per dollar spent.
In this case, a group of 890 overweight and obese employees from various companies were studied as they used a program called Healthyroads, which costs an average of $300 a year per employee. The study found for each dollar spent on the obesity management program, costs decreased by $1.17.
So where was the money saved? Mostly reduced health care spending, but also better productivity:
To assess the financial impact of the program, the researchers used a recently developed ROI model, which estimated the changes in medical costs and worker productivity resulting from reductions in health risks. The results suggested a total projected savings of nearly $312,000. About 60 percent of the savings resulted from reduced health care spending; the remaining 40 percent resulted from improvements in productivity.
If that’s not an argument for the effectiveness of workplace wellness programs, I don’t know what is.