As the Economy Skrinks, Workplaces Shed Weight

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You would hope that employee health would always be a priority to businesses. In addition to the intrinsic value of health (health for the sake of health), healthy employees miss less days of work, are more productive, and cost their employers significantly less in health-care fees.

"It seems that only prosperous businesses can afford to have unhealthy employees."

For years now, studies have been published that show that when businesses invest in work-site wellness programs, they actually save money. Ron Goetzel, the founding Director of Cornell University's Institute for Health and Productivity Studies, is one of the most prominent researchers who has studied the economics of work-site wellness programs -- his research has found that strong work-site wellness programs (i.e., comprehensive) often have a return on investment (ROI) of greater than 3 to 1. That means that for every $1 dollar companies spend on wellness programs, they will likely save $3, for a net profit of $2.

In one recently published example, Citibank reported a savings of $8.9 million in medical expenditures from their health promotion program, which cost Citibank $1.9 million to implement, for an ROI of $4.56 for every $1 spent (Goetzel and Ozminkowski, 2006).

Now that the economy is in the can, more businesses are finally paying attention to worker health as a possible source of cost-savings. It seems that only prosperous businesses can afford to have unhealthy employees.

The St. Louis Business Journal recently published an article on this topic:
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/02/09/focus5.html?b=1234155600%5E1774310

If you would like to find research articles on this topic, you can start by checking out Ron Goetzel's CV--scroll down to find articles he has authored or co-authored. We warn you, it's LONG. Not everything is directly related to worksite wellness, so you'll have to pick and choose. This guy has been very busy!
http://www.human.cornell.edu/che/Features/upload/Ron_Goetzel_CV_102506-2.pdf