CORPORATE WELLNESS CONSULTATION

According to the 2009 survey produced by Buffet and Company, 91% of Canadian companies offered one or more wellness activities to their employees. This is an increase of 44% when compared to the survey results produced in 1997.

The efficacy and return on investment of wellness programming is heightened exponentially and proportionately to the amount of planning involved, and how consistently it is offered. Investing in an on-site wellness manager can be an expensive endeavor and may not be an accessible option. But when launching a wellness program, or revisiting a current initiative, it is important to make sure that all efforts are aligned correctly. By using the services of a consultant, organizations have access to the information necessary for success and will set forth in a direction which is tailored to the specific set of needs of their company.

When contemplating if workplace health promotion is right for your organization, consider the following:

According to Statistics Canada, absenteeism due to stress is up by 300% since 1995. To further this point, Canadian companies lose approximately $12 billion dollars annually due to the overall effects of stress.

A study published in 1999 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed that employees with two or more health risks (e.g. diabetes, obesity-related diseases, depression) had significantly higher number of work hours lost due to illness, and those with three or more showed significantly more time lost due to short-term disability absence.

Canada Life Insurance, one of the first companies to implement a full-scale wellness program, saw an ROI of $6.85 for each dollar invested. This was realized through increased productivity, diminished medical claims and reduced turnover rates in their workforce.

The article The Impact of Healthy Living at Work, produced by the Public Health Agency of Canada, states that health promotion and workplace wellness initiatives can decrease health care costs on average by 26%.