Corporate wellness programs… If you don’t know what they are, they’re essentially programs that companies buy in efforts to help improve the health and wellbeing of their employees. Having been linked to improved retention rates, greater productivity, and reduced healthcare costs, corporate wellness programs have proven to be beneficial to both employees and their employers.
But how much does a wellness program actually cost? In this blog, I’ll explain how much a corporate wellness program generally costs a company, specifically per employee. Let’s get into it!
Average Cost of a Corporate Wellness Program Per Employee
The cost of a corporate wellness program varies greatly depending on a few factors: the size of the company, the type of program, and the level of support provided. However, although the cost ranges, we do have a gauge on how much employers typically spend per employee on corporate wellness programs.
A survey conducted by UnitedHealthcare in 2017 showed that, yearly, companies spent an average of $742 per employee on wellness programs. Apart from that, additional research suggests that the average cost of a corporate wellness program per employee typically ranges from less than $100 to over $2,000 per year.
Evidently, the average cost of a corporate wellness program per employee varies, but again, the cost per employee is dependent on the different factors that companies want to incorporate into their programs.
What’s the ROI of a Corporate Wellness Program?
In the study conducted by UnitedHealthcare, organization leaders reported the wellness program’s return on investment of being $1 to $4 for every dollar spent. In addition to that, Harvard researchers have found that, with the implementation of wellness programs, and for each dollar spent on them, medical costs drop $3.27 per employee per year and absenteeism costs drop $2.73 per employee per year. There’s clear evidence to back the return on investment for wellness programs, but how much should you be spending on your own wellness initiative?
How Much Should You Spend on a Corporate Wellness Program?
According to the Wellness Council of America, companies should be spending between $100-$150, if not more, per year on employee wellness initiatives. Other research suggests that anywhere from $150-$300 per employee per year is a typical benchmark, although it’s important to note that wellness programs and their associated costs will vary, and that this shouldn’t be approached with a one-size-fits-all mindset.
Why Invest in Employee Wellness?
Now, it’s easy to take a look at all these numbers and statistics and not understand the full picture of why investing in employee health and wellness can actually be really beneficial to companies. Put blatantly, the reason why you should invest in corporate wellness has to do with the benefits that doing so has proven to provide. These include the following: improved employee health, increased productivity, reduced healthcare costs, improved employee retention, positive company culture, and improved corporate image, amongst various others. Investing in the health and wellness of employees has proven to have been monumental investments in the companies themselves, and for this reason, you should consider investing in your own employees’ wellness.
BetterYou
If you’re interested in implementing a wellness program at your company, I’d strongly recommend checking out BetterYou! Simply put, BetterYou is a goal-setting app designed to help employees improve their health and wellness.
BetterYou has helped 38% of users get 30 more minutes of sleep per night, has helped 61% of users get an extra 10 minutes of talk time with their favorite people per day, and has helped 42% of users improve their average movement by 500 steps per day. In addition to that, the app has 2x the retention rate of an average wellness program.
If you have questions or are interested in learning more about BetterYou, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We look forward to connecting with you.
