COMPANY WELLNESS PROGRAMS DON’T WORK

Health insurers and fitness gurus have been saying for a long time that workplace wellness programs can reduce medical spending, increase productivity and improve well-being. However, a study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found little evidence to support those claims. Researchers randomly selected people to participate in a wellness program at a workplace of more than 12,000 employees and achieved no measurable improvement in worker absenteeism, productivity or general level of health. While past studies have shown people enrolled in wellness plans improved their health, this new study suggests they did so only because those who join voluntarily are already more likely to be healthy. The programs have one measurable benefit, according to the study. They make employees think their employers care about them.
* Well, the dumb employees think that. Everybody else knows the companies just set up wellness programs to lower their healthcare premiums.
* Take the money you’re wasting on wellness and spend it on daily donuts and raises. Your employees will love you.
* How about putting the donuts and money out back, at the top of a two-mile hill?
* Haven’t employers figured this out yet? When you’re at work, all you really want to do is go home.