HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Employee Wellness Program



Table of Contents

Introduction3

Research Method5

The sample5

Sample characteristics8

Measures9

Discussion/Body10

Conclusion15

References17

Employee Wellness Program

Introduction

Employee wellness programmes are long-term organizational activities designed to promote the adoption of organizational practices and personal behaviour conducive to maintaining or improving employee physiological, mental, and social wellbeing (Wolfe and Parker, 1994). In UK, there is a growing trend for companies to offer wellness programmes at the workplace (The Straits Times, 1994). Research conducted by the National Productivity Board in 1992 on the Quality of Worklife reported that a majority of the companies in UK was concerned with the need to contain rising health costs. In 1991, for example, the UK employer had to spend S$252 in medical costs on each worker, which was an increase of some 6.8 per cent over the previous year (Alsagoff, 1993). However, only a minority of these companies were actually considering the implementation of wellness programmes as a viable alternative to health care cost containment. Of those companies which had chosen to adopt wellness programmes, most of them cited that the main objective in doing so was to increase employee productivity, to improve employees' welfare benefits and morale, and to enhance the corporate image of the company (Wong, 1993).

Another major concern of organizations today is the increased competition and technological changes. Global and domestic competition have resulted in efforts to make corporations “lean and mean” through cost reduction and downsizing, job elimination, reductions in “non-productive” repair and maintenance, and job speeding and combination. These changes undoubtedly will have negative effects on employee health or wellbeing by increasing the likelihood of overwork, work stress, job dissatisfaction and accidents (Wolfe et al., 1994).

Technological changes not only have resulted in reduced work concentration and efficiency, they have also created several stress-producing factors: work overload, work pressure, and job insecurity. The potential for stress and stress-related effects of technological changes is substantial (Donaldson, 1993), as are their costs to organizations (Manning, Jackson and Fusilier, 1996). This is because workers who feel stressed will not be able to perform to their fullest potential and their health may also be adversely affected thus lowering productivity levels.

Rationale for providing wellness programmes at the worksite include greater access to adults compared to other community programmes, reasonable stability of the target population, presence of organizational structures and management to support the programmes, ability to provide preventive medical services at lower costs, and opportunities to develop and provide more comprehensive, integrated health programmes than those possible through traditional medical care and public health institutions (Opatz, 1994).

Research Method

The sample

The UK organizations will be selected for this study will be based on the proximity in staff size, targeting only white-collar employees. Of the 20 companies approached, six (30 per cent) organizations agreed to participate in the study. Reasons given by the 14 organizations who will be unwilling to participate in the study included the fear of interruption to the work flow and confidentiality of the information required.

Of the six organizations involved in the study, three have corporate wellness programmes and the other three do ...