Worker participation in wellness programs most common success metric: Survey
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Employee participation in specific workplace wellness initiatives remains the most common metric by which employers measure the success of their overall health management programs, according to a report released Thursday by Willis North America Inc. in New York.
Fifty-eight percent of employers that offer some type of workplace wellness program said their program's success is measured in part by the number of employees that participate in health risk assessments, according to Willis' “2014 Health and Productivity Survey.”
Forty-nine percent of employers include participation levels in biometric screenings when calculating a wellness program's overall success, while 42% said medical claims data is included in their success metrics. Employees' biometric results and overall satisfaction with their employer's wellness offerings were also among the top five most popular success metrics among employers.
The study's results reveal that employers' preferred methods of measuring their wellness programs' successes have changed little in the last year. In fact, employers' top five preferred wellness success metrics were unchanged in Willis' 2013 and 2014 surveys.
Meanwhile, the percentage of employers measuring their wellness program's impact on nonmedical cost drivers has remained similarly stagnant. Although 93% of employers polled in 2014 said they have embraced the notion that workplace health management programs can positively affect their employees' overall productivity, only 9% actually measure their wellness program's success by its effect on productivity or presenteeism, representing an improvement of just a single percentage point over the results of Willis' 2013 survey.
Additionally, 13% percent of employers or less reported in 2014 they use employee absenteeism rates, workers compensation or disability statistics to gauge their wellness program's success, compared with 10% or less in the 2013 survey.
