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Employing the Right Healthcare and Wellness Program

HR Tech Outlook | Wednesday, July 15, 2020

All wellness programs need to be fun. However, the primary objective of these programs is to improve employee health and morale.

FREMONT, CA: Corporate health and wellness programs have become a trend in recent years. However, a majority of these programs fail to achieve their objectives. Failure can be defined in different ways. A corporate health and wellness program may be deemed as a failure if it does not reach its desired goal of improving healthcare and reducing healthcare costs. At the same time, a wellness program aimed to improve employee morale can be considered a success if it results in improved employee morale. Failure and success of any wellness program can be judged based on their objectives.

Most organizations employ corporate wellness programs to ensure that their employees remain in good health, which would allow them to spend less on healthcare. There is enough evidence supporting the positive impact of wellness programs, and without doubt, a good wellness program can have a considerable impact on employee wellness and morale.

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[vendor_logo_first]However, more often than not, healthcare and wellness programs are not designed with enough attention. As a result, they fail to change employee health behaviors or improve health risks. There can be various reasons for the failure of a wellness program.

In some cases, health and wellness programs are nothing but a series of events, presentations, screenings, and incentive programs offered under the wellness umbrella. These programs are easy to administer, as there is no need to track participation or collect any data. All wellness programs need to be fun. However, the primary objective of these programs is to improve employee health and morale. Hence, fun cannot be the only factor in a wellness program. They need to be organized and structured to ensure that the employees stay on track to meet the objectives of the program. Just like any industry, a right business decision should be based on reliable and adequate data collected. Employee wellness programs that are activity-based may lack the organization and data to determine if they're having any effects on employee health. Outside of participation, activity-based wellness programs typically don't produce positive wellness outcomes.

Outcome-based wellness programs are those that are initiated to achieve some behavioral changes in the employees, such as no smoking or attain specific results on biometric screenings. From this perspective, outcomes-based corporate health and wellness programs are just wellness programs focused on improving employee health and health behaviors. This is the goal of most corporate health and wellness programs.

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