What is Workforce Health All About?

Workforce health programs have been part of the corporate landscape for decades. While initial efforts were largely focused on executive leadership with specific health risks, these programs have since evolved to include entire workforce populations. Increasingly these programs include initiatives to incentivize “healthy behaviors” with varying levels of health care benefits.

What is driving this movement? Clearly, the cost of employer paid health benefits has been rising at an alarming rate. Muting the health risks that are associated with increased utilization and cost is certainly a worthy rationale for deploying workforce health programs. In addition, with the advent of the Affordable Care Act, taxes will be levied on the most costly benefit plans. Furthermore, reducing hospital admissions has been identified by many in health care reform as a critical piece in repairing the care delivery system.

As an employer, what are some key considerations to take into account prior to designing and implementing a workforce health program?
The workforce is the most valuable asset of an employer. While there are a host of individual, interpersonal, organizational, community and societal drivers of behavior, the workplace, either “bricks and mortar” or virtual, can exert a tremendous influence on health behavior. Still, why should an employer invest in workforce health programs?

Many will look to the return on investment (ROI) of such programs to answer this question. There are a host of papers indicating a positive ROI related to both direct and indirect costs (incuding presenteeism, absenteeism, and short and long term disability) of health risks and chronic conditions. There are also papers that suggest otherwise, and thus the ROI remains a contentious issue.

Measurement of the ROI for workforce health programs is a bit of a “sticky wicket”. There are many drivers outside of the workforce health program itself that can influence health outcomes. Accounting for these drivers and other methodological concerns are often problematic, as is obtaining accurate data related to direct and indirect costs. As a result, the question persists - why should an employer invest in workforce health programs?

The best rationale for investing in workforce health is that direct health care costs are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the total expense of health risks and chronic conditions. Indirect costs account for three quarters of the total cost, with presenteeism comprising the overwhelming share. With a “new normal” set of expectations related to shrinking budgets, tighter timelines, increased workloads, maintaining the health and quality of life of the workforce has never been more important.