Many employers balk at investing in health management programs because the keeping employees engaged in the program seems to have diminishing returns. This is when there is great excitement about the program at the beginning, but as the program continues, the participation numbers tend to wane. This can be true if the program is not entered into thoughtfully with the beginning, middle, and end result in mind. There is some organic truth to employees becoming less interested in wellness as their daily lives take precedent over everything else. If people had the discipline and ability to stick to a wellness plan by themselves, there would be little or no need for a corporate wellness program, not to mention the entire fitness industry which built upon the masses’ inability to stick to a wellness program by themselves. This being said, it should come as no surprise that people’s interest in your wellness program will wax and wane if you do not put in the proper rules of engagement.

To Screen or Not to Screen, that is the Question

The Numbers Don’t Lie

When thinking of a Workplace Wellness program, we often think of programming. It is also common to think of how much the programming will cost the company. Sponsoring health fairs, and other wellness at work initiatives that often have incentives attached to them require a budget that many people in upper management have a hard time budgeting for. C-Level decision makers are interested in tangible results and returns on the investment that they make in workplace wellness. Sure higher worker morale will give some soft and mostly intangible returns. However, it is often difficult for those decision makers to buy into that concept. Their job is to make the dollars spent make sense.

Developing and executing a successful wellness program at your organization can be extremely difficult, especially without the support of upper-level management. While many companies find that senior management is 100 percent behind their wellness initiatives, other companies’ higher-ups may struggle to find the value of such efforts. In fact, some may not be able to make the connection between the company’s overall business plan and the wellness of their employees and families.

Starting a workplace wellness program is awesome for your employees. It gets them aware of and involved with maintaining healthy habits while in the workplace. The hope is that it will translate into behaviors even at home. However, when doing claims and utilization analysis, it is often found that the families of the employees are a major source of high cost. This can be for a number of reasons. It should be the goal of any workplace wellness program that the healthy messages translate into healthy family practices.

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Eating Healthy at Work

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If your company is seeking a way to begin or continue to generate excitement around health and wellness, and Health Fair is a great way to do it. There are several benefits to initiating a Health Fair although planning can be somewhat involved. Getting health and wellness vendors involved can help to curb the expense of providing the fair. The return on this investment of time will be well worth it.