Keeping employees healthy can have a positive impact on culture and lead to cost savings, according to a new study by Aon Hewitt, The Futures Company and the National Business Group on Health (NBGH).
The Consumer Health Mindset survey showed that companies expect to spend $594 per employee on health and wellness in 2014. Wellness spending has increased 15 percent from the 2013 average and has more than doubled over the last five years.
Helen Darling, president and chief executive officer of NBGH said in a press release that employers are frequently evolving their wellness plans and encouraging their employees to participate.
“Based on the feedback from this year’s survey respondents, it’s obvious that wellness programs not only play a key role in many corporate health care plans today, but they’ll continue to be an integral part of corporate benefit programs in the future,” said Darling in a press release.
Many employers are taking wellness initiatives so seriously that their employees get financial incentives for participating. This is becoming more common, with 74 percent of respondents offering incentives in 2014 compared to 57 percent of respondents in 2009.
Companies with a strong, health-focused culture reported less stress and more general happiness in their employees than those from companies with a weak wellness culture.
Employees who work at companies with good wellness plans are seeing other positive health results as well.
Seventy-five percent of employees who work at companies with positive health cultures feel that they are in control of their health. Seventy-two percent of them have gotten a physical in the last year and 62 percent say they exercise at least three times a week.
People may assume that younger employees are more healthy, but the survey warned against making health assumptions based on age.
“It’s important for organizations to pay special attention to the various age or generational segments of their employee population, particularly workers under age 35 who often are assumed to be healthier due to their age,” said Ray Baumruk, employee research leader at Aon Hewitt. “While these employees may be the best educated and most tech-savvy generation, they also may be the most at-risk generation for future health issues.”
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