Although a majority of employers offer some form of employee wellness program, far fewer employers are using their programs to generate a financial return on their company's investment, according to a Business Insurance survey.

Seventy-six percent of the 407 human resources and benefits decision-makers surveyed in November offer an employee wellness program. However, only 48% indicated that the extent to which their wellness program has reduced overall health insurance costs is factored into their assessment of their program's success.

Eighty-one percent of the 309 firms offering employee wellness programs primarily use participation rates to determine their program's success, while 68% do so based on the amount of positive feedback they receive from employees.

Even fewer employers—about 28%—indicated that reducing health care costs was their program's foremost objective, compared with 59% that said their programs were designed mainly to improve the overall health of their employees.

Throughout the articles in this issue, experts say employers can greatly improve their ability to secure and sustain financial investment in their wellness programs by measuring their programs' impact on direct and indirect costs over time.

While half of employers across the public, private, nonprofit and governmental categories said they expect to offer similar wellness programs in the next two years, a significant percentage indicated plans to reduce their wellness offerings over the same time period. Five percent of nonprofit employers, 6% of public employers, 9% of private employers and 21% of governmental employers responding to the survey said they expect to offer less comprehensive wellness programs in the next two years.

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In addition to a lack of focus on programs' financial performance, the survey results indicated a prevalence of many tendencies that experts say often impede employers' ability to achieve positive returns on their investment. The most common types of wellness offerings identified in the survey indicate employers' strong preference for broadly targeted initiatives, such as on-site health screenings and immunizations, and weight-loss and smoking cessation programs.

Meanwhile, significantly smaller percentages of employers said their wellness programs include offerings designed to improve health management at an individualized level, including personal health coaching, ergonomic resources, workplace safety evaluations, stress management and nutrition classes, and wellness newsletters.

Another tendency experts often point out as an impediment to generating positive ROI is infrequent program evaluation. Most experts recommend that employers evaluate their wellness programs at least once a year. However, according to BI's survey—conducted by Cliffside, N.J.-based Signet Research Inc.—only 68% of employers surveyed said they've conducted a formal evaluation of their wellness program in the past 12 months. Twenty-two percent said it had been one to two years since they last measured their program's participation or performance results, while 10% said it had been more than two years.

Interestingly, employers' diligence in evaluating their wellness programs appears to wane over time, as recent adopters of wellness programs were more likely to have evaluated their program within the past 12 months than employers whose programs were implemented more than five years ago.

Overall, 58% of employers reported that their programs had been somewhat successful, while 29% said their programs had been very successful and 5% said their programs had been extremely successful. Only 7% said their programs were not successful.

The survey also found an overwhelming preference for participation-based incentives. Eighty-five percent of publicly owned employers said they offer monetary or nonmonetary incentives linked to participation in their wellness program, as did 70% of privately owned and nonprofit employers.

This story is from the December 10, 2012, issue of the weekly print edition of Business Insurance, a special issue featuring wellness program topics across a broad spectrum of employers.

Copies of this issue, which includes a data poster featuring wellness program successes and trends, are available for $100 by contacting our Single Copy Sales department at 888-446-1422.

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