Employee Health and Wellness: Investing in Your Workforce with Big Returns

Today, prioritizing employee health and workplace wellness is no longer a luxury reserved for Fortune 500 companies. It’s a strategic imperative even for smaller companies. The good news is that investments in worker wellness can pay dividends in increased productivity, lower turnover rates, and significant savings in healthcare costs. 

Still, for many small and mid-sized employers, the challenge lies in implementing impactful programs without breaking the bank. That’s where innovative partnerships, including with Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), come into play. PEOs enable even the leanest companies to punch above their weight when it comes to employee health and wellness.

Affordable Strategies for Improving Employee Health

Companies have a lot of options when it comes to implementing wellness programs. The most popular tend to include things like smoking cessation programs, mental health programs, and some kind of physical activity program (like access to in-person or virtual fitness classes). 

Other types of programs include:

• Weight management programs
• Mindfulness and meditation programs
• Stress management programs
• Lifestyle spending accounts (for use on health-enhancing services and products)

Additionally, employers can try to incorporate healthier options into day-to-day experiences. For example, they might implement walking meetings or subsidize wearable fitness devices to encourage movement throughout the workday, or they may move away from vending machines or on-site food options that favor junk food over healthy snacks. For instance, employers can also collaborate with local farmers’ markets to deliver fresh produce to the office, promoting healthier eating habits without incurring significant costs.

Real-World Returns on Wellness Investments 

Research on the effectiveness and ROI of wellness programs is, admittedly, mixed. Business Insider, for example, reports on at least one study that found few positive benefits (and some negative impacts). 

The issue here, however, is that most workplace wellness programs aren’t well implemented. “Evidence for the effectiveness and cost-savings of workplace wellness programs (WWPs) is varied, likely due to the variability in program design, as not all WWPs meet the five-point criteria of a ‘comprehensive WWP’ set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” write researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center. 

Properly designed wellness programs, however, often do produce impressively quantifiable benefits. 

“Well-designed and comprehensive WWPs can effectively impact employee health and lead to a positive ROI and cost-savings for employers,” write the same researchers in a study of the impact on cardiovascular disease specifically resulting from workplace wellness programs. “Across all risk categories, cost-savings were [$1,224 USD] per individual or [$4.90 USD] ROI for every [$1 USD] spent.”

That ROI comes from a variety of sources, like 56% of employees taking fewer sick days and employees being 1.5x more likely to remain with their employer, reducing turnover costs. (In fact, 77% of employees would consider leaving a company that did not demonstrably focus on their well-being.) 

Altogether, nearly nine out of ten companies see some kind of positive ROI from their wellness programs, reports HR Executive. If nothing else, they please the workforce, making the employer more attractive and cultivating greater loyalty and morale. “When employees feel they’re being invested in and supported, they’re more likely to experience greater job satisfaction and an improved sense of well-being,” Charlie Tharpe, a professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business, told Business Insider. 

In other words, wellness programs do more than just lead to better health and fewer sick days. They become an essential element of a company’s branding and culture. If you want to position yourself as a company that cares about its workforce, offering wellness-related benefits powerfully substantiates that claim.

In turn, employees work harder and produce better work. "Salesforce operates under the belief that employees must be to do well" says Molly Ford, the Vice President of Talent Connection and Engagement at Salesforce. 

The Role of PEOs in Transforming Employee Benefit Programs

That’s all well and good for a large organization like Salesforce, but what about smaller employers that may struggle to provide these benefits without draining their resources?

Here, companies can focus on starting with small steps—offering mental health resources, partnering with local gyms to encourage physical activity, or providing education on nutrition and self-care. 

Taking wellness initiatives much further, however, can feel like an insurmountable challenge for small and mid-sized businesses. This is where PEOs step in as game-changers. By pooling resources from multiple employers, PEOs negotiate competitive rates for health insurance, retirement plans, and other benefits typically accessible only to larger organizations. These partnerships enable smaller businesses to offer a robust suite of benefits, including wellness offerings, making them more attractive to top talent.

Consider a small technology startup with 50 employees. Without a PEO, the company might struggle to afford high-quality health insurance, much less added worker wellness programs. By joining a PEO, that same startup gains access to a broader range of employee benefit offerings, including comprehensive healthcare, mental health support, and wellness incentives, at a fraction of the cost it would incur independently. 

Beyond cost savings, PEOs also bring expertise in what offerings to select and how to implement them effectively.

Overcoming Challenges in Wellness Implementation

So, effective wellness programs don’t require extravagant budgets. Instead, they require a smart, strategic approach that puts the focus on employee needs. “Companies need to ask: What’s the composition of our workforce? What would appeal most to our employees? And what’s most consistent with our brand?" says Tharpe. In other words, the program must fit the company.

To that end, employers should solicit employee input when designing wellness initiatives, ensuring that the offerings align with their needs and preferences. For example, while some employees might appreciate yoga classes, others might prefer access to financial wellness resources or virtual mental health counseling.

Additionally, by starting small and scaling over time, employers can build a sustainable approach to employee health. This can also help with low participation rates. Make it easy for employees to participate and communicate frequently about any new wellness initiatives.

Looking Ahead

Ultimately, businesses that invest in their workforce’s well-being will be better positioned to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape. For employers still on the fence, the message is clear: prioritizing employee health isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s a strategic advantage. Whether through affordable internal initiatives or partnerships with PEOs, investing in workplace wellness creates a ripple effect that drives long-term success. In the end, a healthier workforce isn’t just a happier one; it’s a stronger, more resilient foundation for your business’s future.

CoAdvantage, one of the nation's largest Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), help small to mid-sized companies with HR administration, benefits, payroll, and compliance. To learn more about our ability to create a strategic HR function in your business that drives business growth potential, contact us today or learn more about our benefits and workforce wellness services.