Changing the conversation from wellness to total wellbeing
By Claire Thayer, November 10, 2016
This week, Robin Bouvier from Aon’s Health Transformation Team, spoke in a HealthcareWebSummit webinar, co-sponsored by WebMD Health Services, on More than Meets the ROI: The Value of Investing in a Healthy Workforce. Today’s forward thinking companies are moving towards a culture of health and changing the conversation about employee wellness from a ‘benefit’ to instead looking at health as a business imperative that’s integrated across all aspects of the organization.
Robin shares some perspective on general health of the workforce and somewhat surprisingly, the younger generations are not necessarily healthier:
|
Baby Boomers (1946-1964) |
Generation X (1965 -1978) |
Millennials (1979-1996) |
Tobacco Use |
18% |
21.1% |
26.5% |
Obesity |
33.3% |
32.8% |
30.9% |
Depression |
16% |
16% |
20% |
Debt |
$29,317 |
$30,039 |
$23,332 |
Robin tells us that wellness is evolving to an all encompassing, total wellbeing approach: “Wellbeing means having the appropriate resources, opportunities and commitment needed to achieve optimal function, health and performance for the individual and the organization.” Total wellbeing interconnects:
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Emotional – attitudes and everyday living
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Physical – energy to complete daily living tasks
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Financial – confidently manage everyday and future finances
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Social – connections to others
Robin cited recent study findings of the impact of total wellbeing:
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81% less like to seek out new employer in next year
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41% less work missed because of poor health
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69% of consumers say wellbeing programs health them get or stay healthy
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22% more profitable as organizations
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10% higher customer ratings
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½ point higher performance rating by supervisor
From the new Aon Hewitt 2016 Financial Mindset Study, Robin identifies employee needs by financial stage as:
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Security: 30%
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Foundation: 25%
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Growth: 36%
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Freedom: 9%
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