Corporate wellness programmes good investment?

Takudzwa Hanyani

Today’s financial challenges serve as a test of the extent to which Zimbabwean employers view wellness programmes as an investment in human capital. Though evidence supporting the cost-effectiveness of wellness programmes is substantial and growing,  some employers remain skeptical that wellness programmes can yield a positive return on investment (ROI).
Through experience, workplaces are uniquely suited for combining tenets of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention to improve population health at a relatively low cost compared to the cost of treating conditions that could have been prevented. Similarly, expectations vary concerning how long it takes to achieve program outcomes and what level of ROI is achievable in the short term and in the long term.

The current financial dire straits which most companies in Zimbabwe are facing has led to scrutiny of the relevance of wellness programmes against a backdrop of rising medical costs. Even though this position is justified, a large body of research evidence still suggests that well designed wellness programmes can add value to employee’s lives and make considerable cost savings for companies. However, most business leaders want to know where the real ROI in wellness programmes stem from, how much value do wellness programmes add to employee and organisational performance? For purposes of this article we will review the economic ROI of wellness programmes.

The current overriding burden of communicable disease coupled by emerging non communicable disease is seriously affecting medical costs and employee engagement.
For example, research has proven that 75 percent of medical costs are attributed to non communicable disease.

The WHO Global Status Report of 2010 showed that NCDs are the biggest cause of death worldwide and it is estimated that by 2030 66 percent of health related deaths will be a result of NCDs.
In particular, Zimbabwe has been witnessing alarming increases in cancers, obesity, diabetes, and related disorders for many years. These diseases strain organisational resources, as individuals who experience them generate significantly higher medical costs for companies.

Doctors in Zimbabwe have increased consultation fees from U$20 to U$50, while specialists are now charging up to U$120 from U$60. However, these diseases mostly emanate from modifiable, behavioural risk factors most which are adopted in the workplace. 

Researchers have proven that some modifiable health risk factors account for approximately 25 percent of all healthcare expenditures for employers. Moreover, employees with seven risk factors (tobacco use, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, overweight/obesity, high blood glucose, high stress, and lack of physical activity) cost employers 228 percent more than those lacking those risk factors.
Workers with these risk factors are more likely to be high-cost employees in terms of absenteeism, disability, and reduced productivity. Synthesising the health promotion literature spanning 15 years, one researcher concluded that there is consistent evidence that a relationship exists between obesity, stress, and multiple risk factors, and subsequent healthcare expenditures and worker absenteeism.

Wellness programmes have become a financial necessity for organizations struggling to manage health related costs such as sick leave/absenteeism rates, poor presenteeism rates and poor performance due to ill health.
With all the evidence associated with implementing a comprehensive wellness programme from medical care cost reduction, increased employee engagement and motivation most employers’ might question: how do organisations measure performances of wellness programmes? What are the measures of success for wellness programs? Nevertheless examples are needed in wellness programmes to more tangibly articulate what measures should be tracked at a given point in the program life cycle and how each measure provides foundational support for a comprehensive approach to best practices in evaluation and a credible determination of ROI.
For most organisations that invest in wellness programmess, the ultimate indicator of programme success is financial return on programme investment.

Some may therefore find it surprising that among the litany of measures of success available to ratify the benefits of wellness programmes, ROI measurement is decidedly the furthest from having achieved a consensus definition. Fittingly, measurement standards for ROI calculation are emerging along with other initiatives to better define and measure quality in wellness programmes.

Comprehensive programmes are more likely to yield better impacts on health and clinical outcomes as well as medical care costs, but they also require more savings to overcome their cost.
Besides the huge cost reduction wellness programmes can make, employers should not be single-mindedly focused on deploying wellness programmes as a cost control tactic and in the end risk missing the much greater potential benefit of improving organisational performance.
– Takudzwa Hanyani is a Corporate Wellness Consultant and Certified Wellness Coordinator writing in his own personal capacity. He can be reached on takudzwa.hanyani87@gmail.com or hanyani@wellnessconnectzim.comBlog: www.wellnesspeople.wordpress.com