How to Cut the Cost for Company Health Insurance

There are a number of unhealthy trends affecting America's workforce such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and more. This is leading to a significant increase in the company cost to provide health insurance to employees. As the rate charged to company's increases they are forced to pass-on more of the insurance premium cost to employees. The best strategy is to create a company wellness program.

How to do define company wellness? The easy answer is everything related to the well being of employees. This would include the physical, emotional and spirit well being of each employee. In the past, most company's dealt with wellness through some sort of technology such as access to a health website. The best solution is actually more hands-on information that provides direct interaction with employees.

To accomplish this, the company must bring experts on-site to interface with employees in a more direct platform. The following is a list of potential solutions to effectively implement a wellness program that gets results:

1. Consider bringing a wellness coach onsite to directly provide health education sessions where employees can interact and ask questions regarding health issues;
2. Build a culture committed to wellness. This will require strong leadership from management as the leaders must "walk the walk" and lead by example;
3. Consider turning a small office into a gym where employees can easily access the gym before and after work hours; allow company culture to embrace wellness by promoting use of the gym;
4. Provide wellness education such as smoking cessation, weight management, better nutritional choices, etc.;
5. Remove all unhealthy food from vending machines and the cafeteria as well as consider going smoke-free on company property;
6. Conduct an employee field day with fun contests to win prizes with some funding going to a local charity; consider holding employee contests such the "Biggest Loser" and other appropriate motivational challenges.

To be successful, you must find a way to motivate employees to change their unhealthy lifestyles. The conventional approach of a technology driven approach often is limited in how it can inspire employees to continue a health lifestyle. I would definitely suggest a moderate amount of outside expertise to motivate and measure the progress of employee wellness.

In the end, this kind of attitude will undoubtedly pay off in terms of reduced health insurance rates, less employee sick days, enhanced employee productivity and a loyal work force. Remember, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Therefore, create a current baseline using appropriate metrics and measure company and employee results as you move into the future. The road to success should be a win-win situation created by aligning the incentives of the employee with that of the company.