Abstract

The nation is facing a crisis in the form of work absenteeism, decreased productivity, increased risk of job-related injury and higher employer claims’ costs. What organizational policies and programs help to lower claim cost, decrease absenteeism-related losses and increase overall productivity? What approaches can organizations model in order to provide a safe work environment that supports sustainable behavior change and facilitates increases in health care access and information? Researchers estimate that 117 million adults in the United States suffer from at least one chronic condition. Employers are spending $93 billion a year in medical claims costs and the United States is spending nearly $2 trillion on health care2, 3. As the prevalence of chronic conditions and medical care costs rise, employers are choosing an innovative, cost-effective and impactful solution: wellness programs. Employers implementing worksite wellness initiatives are seeing results. Not only are employees lowering instances of disease and risk of other complications, companies with worksite wellness policies and programs are experiencing nearly half the rising market trend of health costs than companies without wellness programs. This extensive literature review examines current wellness program practices, their components and incentives, and the effectiveness of the programs’ policies on employee behavior change.

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