Wellness programs work, according to the people who use them. That’s the key finding from a new survey of 2,000 Americans employed by organizations that offer health wellness benefits in addition to traditional medical insurance. Benefits that, among other things, help employees monitor and improve their health, access gyms, get advice on fitness or diet, and battle addictions like smoking or substance abuse.
The new research also confirms that many employers are now supplementing those health wellness benefits with financial wellness programs that can help employees with budgeting their money, managing debt, saving for retirement, investing, and protecting against financial risks.
Among the survey’s key findings:
• Users of health wellness benefits are more likely to be healthy than non-users. Forty-five percent of users report themselves to be in good physical health, versus 37% of non-users.
• Both health and financial wellness programs correlate with better mental health. Fifty-nine percent of workers who use health wellness programs consider their overall mental health “good,” as do 59% of those using financial wellness programs. Those numbers fall to 53% for those who don’t use health wellness programs and 55% for those who don’t use financial wellness programs.
These findings add to the body of literature that suggests that financial and physical health are often intertwined, and that employers who help their employees on both fronts stand the best chance of achieving the benefits that wellness programs can offer: healthier, happier, more productive employees whose physical and emotional health may lead to lower rates of absenteeism, fewer delayed retirements, and reduced levels of employee turnover, healthcare costs and employee disability.
This report explores the survey’s findings in more detail, shedding light on how workers are using health and financial wellness benefits, why some workers do not, and which specific benefits they’d like to see offered more widely.
Click here to download and read the full report, “The Interplay Between Health & Financial Wellness Benefits .”