Working for Workplace Wellness

Workplace wellness does not happen overnight or within one quarter.  Workplace wellness is an ongoing, dynamic process that takes commitment from all persons involved.

Why Workplace Wellness

The workplace is an ideal location and enviornmnet to pursue health incentives that will re-shape the lives of your employees.  According to the World Economic Forum, PriceWaterHouseCoopers report, the importance of the workplace in implementing prevention strategies is due to the idea that employees spend and are increasingly spending more time at the job site.  Employers have the opportunity to impose the necessary mechanisms to promote a health lifestyle that will lend itself into the employee's everyday lives.  In additiona, the WEF reports on the increased productivity of employees and the idea that a wellness program can be used a recruitment tool as manyu prospective employees are looking for the "work-life balance."

What Workplace Wellness Can Do

Workplace wellness can impact the three most health damagin and preventable diseases: tobacco use, physical inactivity, and poor dietary habits.  Each of these three contribute tot he high rates of cancers, cardiovascular disease and obesity that plague American lives today.  According the Center for Disease Control 2003 Power of Prevention Report, nearly 33% of all U.S. deatch (about 80,000) can be attributed to these behaviors.

The Economic Cost

• The WEF reported, "If there were a 10% reduction in mortality from heart disease and cancer, it (a country) could save $10.4 trillion annually."
• Estimated cost of cardiovascular disease in 2003 was $351.8 billion.  $209.3 billion in direct medical cost and $142.3 billion in lost productivitiy.
• Total cost of obesity in 2000 was $117 billion.  $61 billion in direct medical cost; $56 billion in lost productivity.