EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

Employee Development



Employee Development

Employee Development

In “Prevention Makes Common 'Cents,'” a report issued in 2003, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimated that 129 million adults in the United States are overweight or obese and that treating medical conditions related to obesity costs $69 billion to $117 billion per year. HHS also reported that more than 75% of all health-care dollars are spent on chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and asthma—most of which are preventable. In addition, 70% of the cost of health care is incurred by just 5% of the population. Considering that health-care costs are on a steady upward projection—12.5% in 2005 alone—many employers have begun to develop a proactive approach to long-term health-care cost containment through encouraging employee wellness and disease prevention. The target is not those who are already chronically ill, but those who are in an at-risk category. The goal is to provide interventions designed to maintain good health. For those who are successful in these efforts, the benefits are not only realized in lower health-care spending, but also higher employee productivity and enhanced organizational performance. Accordingly, it is important for firms to understand what these programs consist of, how employee wellness programs

Employee health and wellness programs attempt to improve the overall health status of employees and sometimes even employees' family members through prevention, education, and health interventions (Johnson & Johnson, 2003). Companies in the United States began to use workplace health and wellness programs in the 1970s, largely in response to declining employee health status and rising health-insurance costs (Conrad, 1987). By 2005, 75% of companies in the United States were offering health promotion programs, up from 56% two years earlier (Pallarito, 2006). Thus, while health and wellness programs at work are a relatively new development, they have rapidly diffused and play an important role in firms' efforts to become more competitive.

So why do organizations care about the health of their employees? This is not a simple question to answer, as a number of evolving cultural forces have resulted in an increased focus on improving employees' health rather than on merely treating their illnesses. Results from over 22 years of health and wellness interventions, including more than 100 empirical research studies, suggest that these programs provide improved health outcomes and a positive return on investment for business organizations (Pelletier, 2005). Accordingly, these programs have shown to be not only beneficial to employees but also to the employers who utilize them. Health and wellness programs have also been shown to have beneficial effects on organizational financial performance. Wellness programs have been commonly attributed with being “at least partly responsible for slowing the increase in health insurance premiums” (Kossek, Ozeki, & Kosier, 2001, p. 25). In addition, they have been shown to reduce absenteeism and increase employee productivity (Eddy, Eynon, Nagy, & Paradossi, 1990). For example, city employees in Garland, Texas, took part in a half-year health and wellness program in which they collectively lost around 800 pounds, leading to an ...