It's no secret that small businesses in the US are being throttled by health care and workers comp costs. It seems that just about every small business I know has reduced their workforce to just family members. A large percentage of companies that typically would employ small numbers of people have reduced themselves to just family run operations to avoid the costs of health care and workman's comp insurance and also to avoid the risk of a workman's comp claim. Of course the economy is a big part of this but the dampening effect of these exorbitant expenses make a lot of businesses just not work in a less than dynamic economy.
For those companies that are surviving and also retaining their employees, reducing these costs is a fundamental concern. When it comes to reducing health care costs employee wellness programs are a businesses best friend. Healthier employees means less health care costs, reduced absenteeism, and a reduced risk of workman's comp claims. In fact recent studies are showing returns on investment of three to fifteen dollars for every one dollar spent on a workplace wellness program. These returns are typically seen in under eighteen months according to recent surveys.
None of this is new. The concept of exercising at work to maintain health has been around a long time. Japan instituted it in factories after World War II to rebuild itself from utter destruction. Business experts such as Zig Ziglar have been promoting the idea for decades. It just seems that it's finally catching on in the US business world. And it's catching on in a big way. It is estimated that the US workplace wellness industry will double over the next three years. The industry is mainstream among large companies and becoming so among small and mid sized companies.
However there is something new about the motivation of todays company in instituting a workplace wellness program. As stated previously US companies are instituting workplace wellness for the purpose of reducing health care costs. That is unique in that in the past and in other countries today they are put in place for the purpose of productivity. It's been shown over and over again that employees that exercise at work are about twenty percent more productive. L.L. Bean demonstrated this by holding three five minute aerobics breaks throughout the day and then measuring overall productivity. They found that overall the company produced about thirty minutes of product more than if they had not taken the breaks rather than the expected fifteen minutes less.
Productivity has always been the goal with workplace wellness measures and it still is in almost every country but the US. Motivations aside, workplace wellness programs are growing at a tremendous rate in the US and whether they were put in to reduce health care costs or not the end result should still be higher productivity. Higher productivity means higher profits and higher profits should lead to economic recovery.
Planned or not workplace wellness programs have the potential for helping business through these rough times. Healthy people are productive people. So if your at your desk reading this right now I encourage you to get up and pump out a few jumping jacks. Then get back to work and let's get this country on it's feet again.
Phil and Liz Weaver are the developers of Break Pal - Workplace Wellness. Break Pal is the first of it's kind, a web 2.0 based fitness at your desk application. It works with human nature rather than against it. Break pal delivers office safe exercises to a users desktop at predetermined intervals. A highly effective and easy to implement workplace wellness program sure to reduce health care costs, boost productivity, and make work a much more enjoyable place.