Three health benefits trends employers should watch in 2019
What you do with your employee benefits impacts health, productivity, profitability and your organization's bottom line.
Businesses that want to boost their bottom lines in 2019 need look no further than their employee health and benefits strategy. More than 50 scientific, peer-reviewed studies underscore the correlation between investing in employee health and improved financial performance.
Most recently, researchers found that companies with award-winning wellness programs also have award-winning stock prices, outperforming the Standard and Poor’s Index by 7 percent to 16 percent annually. Even if employee health initiatives did not directly cause a company’s stock to rise, emphasizing these initiatives are associated with high-performing companies.
Just because your company offers comprehensive health initiatives, however, does not mean employees will immediately take advantage of them. Many employees have been conditioned to only use health insurance when they need it, waiting until they are showing symptoms of sickness before seeking care. Moving to a preventative care model requires a change in behavior and thinking. Employers must think strategically about their offerings and consider the most effective ways to encourage participation in evidence-based preventive care programs.
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