Recent Corporate Wellness Trends

January 30th, 2012Wellness, Work Place Health0 comments

Wellness in general has changed over the years, which involves the increase in holistic thinking and in new and older alternative therapies. Nutrition, for example, has been a topic of increasing discussion among those who see and treat patients. At the same time, it has become important to lower the cost of the rising cost of healthcare, including the cost of healthcare insurance premiums.

Corporations are taking on the role of helping employees begin to become and remain healthy.

Companies have hired corporate wellness managers who are focused on health issues like the prevention of disease, understanding the return on investment companies look forward to in order to lose less money because of employee illness, and learning how to better manage the employees’ more serious diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

These chronic conditions cost more to treat and most older employees have at least one of these chronic illnesses in US. For this reasons, corporations are becoming more creative in getting employees to participate in health and wellness programs.

Some things employers are figuring out are that incentives to participate in corporate wellness programs are necessary to encourage participation. Incentives can involve giving employees cash, either directly or after they have accumulated enough healthcare points to receive cash. Gift cards and reductions in healthcare premium costs are two other ways corporations can get involved in getting the employee to participate.

Some things employers could ask for as goals for getting points or cash include reducing one’s BMI or body mass index to several more points towards a normal 18-25, having consistently lower blood pressure numbers, having lower blood sugars, or blood pressure. Employers could achieve these goals through having better diets, exercising more or through seeing the doctor about getting on medication that would reduce these cardiac risk factors.

There are those who believe that those who do not enter a wellness program and choose to live a lifestyle that does not support wellness will receive some kind of penalty. They believe that the employer will take on a “Big Brother” existence and be too controlling about the employees’ lives.

Other employers are holding programs like “wellness events” or health fairs, in which the employee becomes exposed to things that can worsen their health like eating in an unhealthy way or smoking. They can also have screening events in which employees can find out their BMI, cholesterol and blood sugar, among other things.

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