By Peter Haight
Communications Officer, Alberta Blue Cross
Even if most of your employees work in the field, you shouldn’t overlook the value of promoting wellness in your workplace. A commitment to workplace wellness not only helps your bottom line, it can help foster greater employee engagement and loyalty.
As a leading benefits provider in Alberta, Alberta Blue Cross is committed to promoting workplace wellness and encourages all employers to consider its many merits.
Bottom Line
Workplace wellness initiatives can lower your benefit plan costs. About 80 per cent of drug claims are used to treat chronic conditions with modifiable risk factors. This means that a person can take steps in his or her daily life to reduce the risk of developing diseases, like high blood pressure or Type 2 diabetes, or prevent these conditions from worsening, for those who already have them. When an employee starts a new medication, or is prescribed a higher dosage, you pay more through higher premiums. Studies show that for every dollar invested in wellness programs, the eventual return on investment (ROI) ranges from $2 to $6.85. In addition, a focus on workplace wellness can help keep employees healthier and potentially avoid costly short- or long-term disability claims that often result from chronic illness.
Increased Productivity
Evidence suggests that wellness programs can also reduce absenteeism in an organization. In 2011, according to the Canadian Return on Investment Study, wellness programs led to a reduction in absenteeism by 1.5 to 1.7 days per employee each year. This translates into several hundreds of dollars per employee every year.
Get Started
Simply providing a couple of information sheets or a gym membership is a start, but to achieve a measurable ROI, your wellness plan should be targeted, integrated and comprehensive. This means creating a year-long plan and focusing your activities on the health and wellness issues prevalent in your workplace. For example, if your employees work shift work, getting enough sleep is vital to their productivity. In this case, your wellness program might focus on helping them get enough sleep so they can arrive at their job site each day ready and alert.
Develop Plan
Take an inventory — Before you develop your wellness plan, look at what your organization is already doing. Other than your benefit plan, what other “perks”—like gym memberships, educational assistance or workshops—do you already offer? Do these perks match what your employees want? If they’re not taking advantage of them, do you know why? What would it take to get employee buy-in for a new wellness program?
Consider all aspects of wellness — Wellness includes programs focused on healthy eating, physical activity, work-life balance, company culture, mental health, and health and safety. For example, if your employees work in the field, you can help them eat more healthily by providing reimbursements for dietitian services or weight-management programs. These services can enable them to make healthy choices if they’re on the road and provide support to help them achieve their weight-management goals. Back at the office, offer healthy choices in the vending machine or schedule a dietitian to visit your workplace.
For some employees working in oil and gas, physical activity is part of the job. But that doesn’t mean your organization shouldn’t promote wellness outside working hours. If you offer a spending account, employees can use it to pay for fees to participate in recreational sports leagues, visit local recreation centres, or purchase new fitness equipment. This not only keeps them active at home, but also improves their mental health because it allows them to pursue activities they enjoy after hours.
Create a wellness plan — Once you have a proper inventory of your organization’s current health and wellness initiatives and an understanding of each wellness area, you’re ready to start planning. First, start by setting your goals and objectives. What are you hoping to achieve as an organization? What employee attitudes are you hoping to change? Your goal should be an overarching statement that directs your plan, while your objectives should identify specific and measurable outcomes—set a deadline and know what you want to accomplish.
Once you set your goals and objectives, create an action plan for how you will achieve them. If your objective is to increase the number of employees eating healthy lunches on the job site, your action plan might include communicating healthy options to employees who may not have access to kitchen facilities. When they’re back at the hotel, it could include helping them identify healthy options at local restaurants.
When you complete your wellness plan, don’t forget to evaluate its success. You can find out what worked, and what didn’t, so you can improve your plan for your next initiative.
Long-term Wellness
The key to any successful wellness program is ongoing communication. Whether it’s through staff meetings, employee newsletters or posters, communication is important because it lets employees know that your organization is serious about wellness and will increase their likelihood of buying in.
So what’s holding you back? Get started on your wellness journey today by visiting www.workplacewellnessonline.ca. Hosted by Alberta Blue Cross, this web site provides a one-stop shop for anyone with an interest in workplace wellness; it includes both a wealth of resources and a “tool kit” that provides a step-by-step guide for implementing your workplace wellness program.
As Alberta’s largest benefits carrier, Alberta Blue Cross provides health and dental benefits to meet the needs of over 1.6 million Albertans. They offer benefit plans for individuals and families, seniors, and large and small employers and just about every type of health benefit, including prescription drugs, dental, vision care, preferred hospital accommodation, emergency medical travel, ambulance, home nursing and chiropractor, as well as life insurance and short and long term disability coverage for group plan members.
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