A big part of my job is helping team leaders purchase group benefit policies for their employees. To illustrate some of that information, two weeks ago we dug deep into a study called The Prevention Plan, which is an interesting look into why group benefits carry the costs they carry.
The study is a big help when I talk to employers and professionals about providing group benefit products. We wanted to understand the impact declining health in the workplace is having on the amount of money we’re contributing to insurance policies in Canada.
The money quote?
According to The Prevention Plan, “average premiums for family health insurance coverage have increased 131% since 1999.”
We’re faced with a challenge. Who’s up for it? How do we do it?
Where Does Wellness in the Workplace Begin?
“Since they first started providing employee benefit plans, employers have played a significant role in the health of their employees.”
That’s Greg Caines, a partner with the firm Morneau Shepell.
For Caines, the answer is simple: employers can lower the cost of their health benefit plans by increasing engagement, resiliency, and ultimately, ownership of personal health and wellness.
That doesn’t mean providing onsite yoga classes for employees who are already healthy will solve the problem, but it’s one method that signals the motivation to provide people with the opportunity to take care of themselves first and foremost.
Happiness counts for a lot these days. When you’re content in your job, you’re motivated to solve problems and your mental wellness is engaged. Another way to describe this condition?
Engagement.
Corporate Support When Required
We work with a lot people on their employee health benefits. Providing insurance for employees in the areas of dentistry, optometry, and other options that exist within a family’s required set of needs is a crucial component of operating a healthy company.
Healthy in this sense refers to financial health as well as physical health.
However, we understand that the best way to keep your company thriving is to have everyone on board. When people take time off work, it costs your company time, money, and productivity. Things happen, people get ill, but that doesn’t mean we should neglect our ability to improve employee health through dialogue, innovation, and an overall encouraging culture of wellness.
The Results
Let’s go back to the results of The Prevention Plan Study.
It’s authors, doctors Ronald Loeppke, Dee W. Edington, and Sami Bég had a knack for clever headlines. They suitably named their primary method of testing as The Intervention.
Because truth be told, the average Canadian employee needs an intervention, and it’s the progressive business leader who holds the power to stage such an intervention. Participation in this particular study was voluntary with its participating companies, which is a damning fact on its own, but also confirms that true commitment to health and wellness begins at the individual level.
Well, there’s nothing like the impact on your budget to stir you into action, even if the benefits of physical wellness won’t.
With that in mind, the results:
“The study demonstrates that The Prevention Plan™ reduces key employee health risk factors and effectively moves employees to lower overall health risk categories.”
“Reducing health risks is a critical goal for employers because it has been shown to reduce health care costs and improve productivity in the workplace.”
As the study itself notes, the only surefire way to produce “large-scale, population based changes in health behaviours” is to make gradual contributions to the system. From government policies to employee-driven initiatives to management-implemented directive, we have the power to improve our health while simultaneously reducing the cost when we do require the benefits of health care.
It all starts with you.
When a professional culture embraces the responsibility for employee health from top to bottom, the benefits are fewer significant medical claims and therefore fewer group benefit cost increases.
Are you a team leader looking to provide your group with a specific health care plan?