Wellness Programs in 2020

Companies have had several years to integrate wellness goals and resources into their workdays. Now that wellness is a workplace staple, recent research suggests that the biggest wellness challenge for 2020 should be a drive to measure objective results.

Track Your Wellness Results in 2020

Employers have implemented smoking cessation, weight loss, work-based exercise regimens, stand-up-while-working-strategies, and a ton of other health-based initiatives. Based on statistics in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2018 Employer Health Benefits Survey, 82% of large companies and 53% of small companies invested in workplace wellness programs. Of course, the explosive growth of company-sponsored programs is due, in part, to the expansion of wellness as an industry.

It’s important to maintain confidence that your company-sponsored program is in place for the right reasons. To ensure that you’re achieving the health, lifestyle, and cost-savings benefits you expect, you must monitor and track your results. If necessary, you should also consider changes that will enhance program effectiveness.

Harvard’s Workplace Wellness Clinical Trial

Wellness research from the Harvard School of Public Health has companies reexamining their wellness efforts. As most of the published wellness program data were outdated, they decided to conduct their own study.

Researchers set up an 18-month clinical trial involving 32,974 employees from multiple locations of a single employer. The Journal of the American Medical Association published their good news/bad news results on JAMANetwork.com. They found the following:

• Wellness programs promoted positive changes in self-reported behaviors such as exercise and weight control.

• The study turned up no significant assessable differences in blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and other critical health measures.
• Researchers found few differences in employee health and healthcare service use and no significant health care spending differences among program participants vs nonparticipants.
• Over the course of their 18-month study, they found no differences in employment outcomes.

Stay Committed to Wellness

Employee wellness is a great concept but, like every business expenditure, it should also be cost-effective. If your company has a wellness program up and running, you shouldn’t renege on that commitment. Instead, make 2020 the year that you put controls in place. Track employee participation and results and encourage regular feedback.

• If a wellness contractor runs your program, take a more active role.
• Stay in touch with your employees and document their wellness goals.
• If your wellness programs no longer generate interest, find replacements.
• Offer small incentives for goals achieved.

Wellness Commitment 2020

For more ideas about keeping your commitment to wellness, visit out contact page or call The Health Consultants Group at (800) 367-2482.