Why not celebrate the new year by helping your employee benefits clients help employees control bulging waistlines?
If your clients ask their employees to list their top 5 New Year's resolutions, something related to losing weight will be on virtually everyone's list.
Next, ask the CFOs to list the top 5 biggest cost drivers for their companies. At most companies, rising health care costs will be a major concern — and, obviously, one of the leading drivers of health care cost increases is excess weight.
A recent report titled "Work Well, Live Well: Making Downtown Denver the Healthiest Workplace in America" highlights the connection between obesity and health care costs.
Many workplace health care costs are driven by the lifestyle-related behaviors of employees, poor nutrition and lack of exercise. This is a great time to remind employers that a properly designed wellness program can reverse this trend.
It is estimated that top wellness programs reduce health and benefit costs by 25%. According to the "Work Well" report, medical costs fall, on average, by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs.
Employers should resolve to listen to their employees and give them what they are looking for this holiday season: a way to reduce their waistlines while improving their companies' bottom lines.
Benefits advisors should resolve to think harder about ways to create practical, affordable incentive programs, to help employers give employees who may be face to face with a giant piece of cherry cheesecake the urge to just say no.
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