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© Copyright 2000 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the November 2000 edition of
BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
Making the business case for wellness
Showing the benefits to the bottom line is not an impossible task.
By Shelley Davie
For over 20 years, wellness or health promotion programs have made profits for many different types of
companies across Canada. The simple facts are that programs properly implemented and managed do improve
employees' well-being and management's bottom line. Support from management and the means to evaluate the
program are both critical to the success of a wellness program.
Building a business case for wellness includes demonstrating examples of other Canadian programs, gathering
your current health-related data and costs, group health status reports of your company's employees and an
overview of the corporate culture and how it relates to health.
It's useful to show a range of results from wellness programs such as B.C Hydro's 10-year program's return
of $3 for every dollar spent. Or Canada Life's more than 22-year-old program's return of almost $7 for each
dollar invested.
You can show that the 17-year-old program at Winnipeg-based Canadian Wheat Board results in an annual rate
of 3.8 sick days per employee as compared with Statistics Canada's average of 6.2 days. You will also want
to show that Husky Injection Molding's drug costs are less than one-third of other manufacturers and their
yearly turnover is one-half of the average for its sector.
If possible, also find a company in a similar industry, with a comparable employee breakdown or with a
relevant geographical breakdown and focus on a detailed report of their wellness program.
Working jointly with the accounting department, develop a list of costs that are a direct result of
employee illness. In a second list, show each expense that the company incurs indirectly as a result of
sickness or absenteeism (the cost of hiring replacement workers, for example). This aggregate data is
rarely gathered within an organization and it's a great opportunity to gain the support of the finance
department.
Group health reports should be developed using employee health assessment questionnaires. The group data
serves as information for your business case, a tool for designing your program and a baseline for future
evaluation. There is a multitude of these questionnaires available on the market and new ones crop up daily
on the Internet. Accurate research is essential for positive results. This is not the place to cut corners
or to be unsure of the validity of the questionnaire you are using.
Corporate culture is also integral to the success of a wellness program; therefore, it is necessary to have
an objective overview of that culture and how it relates to health. The overview can be obtained by
performing focus groups, surveys and/or departmental meetings.
The sum of this information will make a thorough and convincing business case for your company. It will
provide you with all the information necessary to design and implement a program and the means to evaluate
it while gaining the support of management.
With the rising costs of health benefits, especially prescription usage, an aging population, increased
competitiveness and resulting need for peak productivity and fierce competition to attract and retain the
best employees, companies can no longer afford not to introduce workplace wellness programs. In fact, the
biggest risk a company can take is to do nothing.
Shelley Davie is president of Live Well Ltd. in Ajax, Ont. sdavie@livewell.on.ca.
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