You can find answers to your questions in Wellness Programs, the tenth book in the International Foundation’s Survey & Sample Series. The survey, produced by Foundation staff in the Information Services and Research departments, reflects responses from 464 members in the United States and Canada, representing corporations, multiemployer trust funds, public employers and professional service firms. It includes 93 samples.
Following are highlights from the survey.
Sixty-two percent of respondents offer wellness initiatives either in a standalone program (36% of all respondents) or as a part of their group health plan (26%). Fifteen percent of respondents do not currently offer any wellness initiative, but plan to do so within the next 12 months, while 23% offer none and do not plan to.
Although most (46%) of those who offer a wellness program use in-house staff to plan and implement the program, 11% hire outside vendors. Participation and Utilization of Wellness Initiatives Respondents report various average levels of participation in wellness programs. More than 80% of those responding have an average employee participation rate at 50% or below.
The most popular type of incentive offered is noncash incentives (35%) such as T-shirts, gym bags, water bottles, etc.
Several benefits can be received as a result of a wellness program. Of those we polled, improved employee health is the benefit most often cited (44%), followed by improved employee morale (43%), lower health care claims or costs (29%) and reduced absenteeism (18%).
Most of those we surveyed (87%) do not know the return-on-investment amount for dollars spent by their organization on wellness promotion. This result underlines the belief that return on investment for wellness programs is difficult to measure. This may be due to the fact there is no standardized, widely accepted methodology for measuring the savings from a wellness program. Also, it may take a few years to realize a positive financial impact. Among our survey respondents, corporations (16%) and professional service firms (15%) are more likely to know the return on investment than multiemployer plans (9%) or public employers (5%). For respondents who do know, the most popular amount derived in cost savings for every $1.00 spent was $2.01 to $3.50 (6% of all respondents), followed by $1.01 to $2.00 (3%) and $3.51 to $5.00 (2%).order full report]