Company Wellness Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Company Wellness Plan - Essay Example This can conclude with sad results to both the company and the employee. Firstly, the employee’s health is affected and may be worsened slowly, a situation that may lead to him/her fail to perform well. Thus, in this situation it means that he would loose his job, that becomes to have less income and which leads high rate of poverty. On the other hand, the company may loose a qualified and profitable employee that could help the company move forward. Therefore, it is the fact that, effective wellness program creates a strong return on investment (IRO) in the short-term as well as long-term (Rosen, 2004). For example, in the short-term, (6-18 months), it can affect workplaces absence. In the long-term, it can affect an average of $3 for every $1 spent (The Healthcare Intelligence Network, 2006). Beneficial managers choose wellness programs based on what the workers need. It’s obvious that employees will benefit from such services; on the other hand, the earliest advantag e of managers of arranging to meet employee health needs is if workers could be screened or treated quickly, they could be more productive on their job. Furthermore, it is obvious that preventive measures which are offered by wellness programs might lower healthcare cost even keeping employees at work (The Healthcare Intelligence Network, 2006). However, managing healthcare costs requires a risk management strategy. The goal of wellness programs then is not only to make workers feel good, but also to move participating employees from high risk category of contracting diseases into lower risk categories (The Healthcare Intelligence Network, 2006). Nevertheless, as in the case of Fresno, disability incidence for example has increased from 10/1,000 employees to12/1,000 even with availability of wellness programs. Probably, this is because some employees resist changing even in the face of such wellness programs. On the other hand, there are also workers, who are health conscious, and t hey don’t want to participate in the incentives. In the case of the benefit manager in the Fresno Company, it is also very important to incorporate the senior management in the process of emphasizing on the wellness programs in the company. Getting senior management on board doesn’t mean getting approval to try some wellness programs. It means getting management fully behind a workplace wellness program that becomes part of workplace culture (The Healthcare Intelligence Network, 2006). The more the management promotes and participates in workplace, the more successful the program will be. Therefore, the first and most important thing is to create awareness campaign among senior management and ensure continued commitment and support and visibility of the wellness initiatives. In fact most work place wellness programs do not result in a positive ROI without support from the senior management (Rosen, 2004). This is true for any work place that aims to change employee beha vior which should be the basic goal of every wellness program. The other important issue to a new appointed benefit manager should be evaluation of the existing wellness programs in the company. This involves overview of operation style and their effectiveness and deficiencies associated with them. For example,