Employee Wellness

This video was created for a class project for FCM 8420 at the University of Missouri, Spring 2010 with the intent to show how employee wellness programs can reduce organizational costs by reducing medical costs and lost productivity costs. Nationwide, the lost economic output associated with chronic conditions totals an astounding $1 trillion, including lost workdays loss of presenteeism. The costs associated with the lifestyle-related diseases for an organization are a combination of medical and productivity costs. Medical costs include treatment of disease and medication necessary. Productivity costs include increase in absenteeism, decrease in presenteeism (employee engagement while at work), and short-term disability. It is estimated that approximately 50 hours of productivity are lost per inactive employee per year; this measure was used for the calculation of loss productivity costs. According to the CDC, nearly three-quarters of health care costs are attributed to chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer—diseases which are largely driven by our lifestyle choices. Studies show a causal relationship between an individuals lifestyle and their personal risk of developing certain types of chronic conditions and diseases. If your employee population reflects the average US population, almost half of your employees have at least one chronic condition or disease. The employee healthy behavior recommendations were based on …