Fitter, Happier and More Productive: Why Your Enterprise Should Outsource Corporate Wellness Programs

Workplace wellness is a topic that’s been widely emphasized by businesses worldwide in recent years. Wellness programs include activities designed to support better health at work and include things such as medical screenings, incentives, behavior change interventions and fitness programs. A healthier and happier employee population improves the overall productivity of enterprises and lowers healthcare costs. Understanding the company culture and designing a program that meets the unique needs of employees is essential when designing a wellness program. The key question that needs to be answered when instituting an employee wellness program is whether you should conduct it in-house or outsource it to a third- party? There are a few things you should know before deciding your approach to build a successful wellness program for your enterprise.

Why Is Outsourcing Popular Among Enterprises?

Companies worldwide choose to hire third-party service providers to handle employee benefits administration. Workplace wellness programs are being outsourced to local fitness facilities and health clubs on a large scale. The decision of outsourcing depends on the number of employees and the revenue earned by the company. It is generally cheaper to outsource benefits administration if an enterprise has more than 20 employees. Outsourced wellness services can range from $4 to $12 per employee per month, based on the complexity of the services availed. For instance, a typical cafeteria plan averages between $300 to $400 for a small group, with a monthly fee of around $5 per month. A key factor that needs to be taken into consideration is the number of services availed to costs incurred. Wellness service providers typically offer services such as Health Risk Assessments (HRAs), onsite fitness and online coaching to businesses.

All Work and No Play

The key attraction of outsourcing wellness services is the expertise third parties bring to the business, which leads to an improvement in the quality of services that an enterprise can provide to its employees. Besides, employees tend to be more comfortable with outside healthcare providers as individual test results are usually kept confidential. Some major benefits of outsourcing employee wellness found by a corporate health and wellness consulting firm include reduced healthcare costs, lower absenteeism and returns on investment ranging between $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of the program being implemented. Deciding on whether to outsource corporate wellness programs or keep them in-house can be a challenge as companies need to consider the costs, savings in administrative labor, redeployment of expertise within the company and the improvement in employee morale. However, the resulting success which is measured by the bottom line and employee satisfaction makes the effort worthwhile.

Further Reading

• https://www.acefitness.org/certifiednewsarticle/2325/outsourcing-workplace-wellness-a-growing-trend/
• https://www.corporatewellnessmagazine.com/article/wellness-how-to-make-it-work-for-your-company
• https://www.trswellness.com/blog/item/64-leave-it-to-the-experts-the-advantage-of-outsourcing-your-wellness-program
• https://www.areadevelopment.com/laborEducation/aug08/Employee-benefits-outsourced-in-house.shtml
• https://www.reliasmedia.com/articles/112612-employee-health-programs-a-resource-is-more-cost-effective-than-an-outsource
• https://www.pacificprime.com/blog/outsourcing-employee-benefits-management.html
• https://www.wellsteps.com/blog/2020/01/02/what-is-wellness-program-definition/