Mandatory Wellness Programs

Most employees typically spend more than half of their waking hours at work. Unsurprisingly, work culture can have a serious impact on their health. As a result, many companies have designed wellness programs to promote a healthier work environment and prevent and manage diseases in an effort to maintain employee health and productivity. Another significant consideration for implementing a wellness program is combating the rising costs of health care coverage. Specifically, these programs are created to encourage a healthier lifestyle, with the expectation that such behavioral changes will, in turn, create a healthier work force resulting in lower employer insurance premiums. Because certain preventable health conditions, such as obesity and tobacco-related illnesses, are significantly contributing to the overall decline in employee health and rising expense of health care coverage, employers are responding by providing services such as discounted gym memberships and employee assistance programs including nutritional counseling and/or health coach services.