For the majority of organizations around the world, improving productivity by keeping employees healthy and working is emerging as the top business objective, with stress singled out as the prime threat to health, according to a survey.
Buck Consultants’ third annual global wellness survey, Working Well: A Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies finds stress is consistently cited as the top health risk driving wellness programs globally, save for the U.S. and Latin America, where lack of exercise and poor nutrition are of top concern.
“Employers in the United States and Latin America seem to lag behind the rest of the world in addressing stress and its related conditions such as depression, anxiety, and fatigue,” says Barry Hall, a Buck principal who directed the survey. “These are among the most significant drivers of productivity loss and absenteeism, as well as increased healthcare costs.”
North America is home to the highest percentage of wellness programs, offered by 75% of responding employers. Globally, 24% of respondents indicated a decreased ability to provide wellness services (likely as a result of the global recession), while 19% actually enhanced their wellness initiatives.
“Wellness programs appear to be holding their own as an organizational priority,” says Hall. “Despite increased pressure on employers to cut budgets, many recognize that their wellness programs can help relieve the personal burdens that often affect their employees’ health and productivity. Further, the prevalence of provisions in U.S. health reform legislation in support of wellness and prevention seems likely to propel wellness to even greater attention and investment in the United States.”
Fastest-growing components
Buck expects the fastest-growing components of wellness initiatives around the world—including technology-driven tools, online healthy lifestyle programs, and personal health records—to increase 100% or more over the next three years. On-site programs—such as caregiver support, personal health coaching, and healthy food choices in vending machines—are also expected to increase rapidly.
Incentive awards are most prevalent in the U.S. (offered by 56%of respondents), the use of which has increased 63% since Buck’s first survey on the issue in 2007. Other parts of the world are seeing an increase in the awards, primarily Asia (42%) and Australia (33%).
Measuring impact
The survey finds that relatively few organizations are using metrics to validate the success of their wellness programs, with only 22% worldwide measuring financial outcomes.
“The fact that organizations continue to expand wellness programs, despite this lack of measurement, suggests that the intuitive value of improved employee health remains a major motivator for employers,” says Hall. “Employers may recognize that health outcomes and behavior changes inspired by wellness programs are likely to take multiple years to fully manifest themselves in the form of measurable savings.”
The Buck survey included 1,100 organizations representing 10 million employees in 45 countries.
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