Measuring the Effectiveness of Employer Sponsored Wellness Programs

While it is generally true that investments in wellness save three to four times their costs in healthcare cost savings, how can you know that your program is performing at peak capacity? How do you know whether you are getting a return on your investment in employee health?

Consider the following five key indicators and data when looking to gauge and measure the success of your company’s wellness program:

•Investigate sick day data, but limit your search to employees in your wellness program. If you note that sick days are not decreasing in the wellness group compared to employees who do not participate in your wellness program, it is probably time to consider a new approach. On the other hand, if sick days are decreasing among the group of participants, it is a good idea to develop ways to bring more employees into the program.

• If you company’s wellness plan incorporates physical wellness incentives in addition to financial ones, the stress level of your employees should decrease since health issues lead to stress in the same way that financial struggles do. Employee surveys can help you gauge the general stress level of your workforce to determine if your overall wellness approach is working.

• Take a close look at work performance as the healthier employees are. the less work they miss and the more productive they become. Take a look at the trends of employee performance and review evaluations and compare this to their participation in a company wellness program. If your wellness program is working properly, there should be at least a slight correlation between the two.

• Using yourhealth insurance provider as a resource, find out the number of employees who see a doctor, visit a hospital, or have surgery during a given period to see if your wellness program is causing a noticeable decrease in employees seeking non-preventive medical care.

• Measuring the satisfaction level of employees regarding the wellness program. Through employee surveys, you should see a correlation between job satisfaction and participation in the program.