IMPLEMENTING WORKPLACE

WELLNESS PROGRAMS
WITH PURPOSE

A Step-by-Step Guide

While providing a comprehensive health insurance and workplace benefits

package is essential, it is also critical to offer assistance that supports people’s
whole health and well-being. This is even more critical today with many people
working remotely, often managing greater home and family responsibilities, while
also worrying about the uncertainty that the pandemic has caused.

However, when it comes to offering this support, every organization is different and what works well for one
business might not be as effective for another. So how do you know what will work for your employees and your
organization? How can you get buy-in from your internal stakeholders for wellness programs when budgets are
tight?

In 2020, Cigna commissioned the “Health and Wellness in Workplaces: What Works? – ROI Analysis of Health &
Wellness Interventions” report, which involved the largest systematic review of the impact of workplace wellness
interventions ever undertaken. Through detailed analysis of peer–reviewed academic articles and research
studies, the report examined data from over 100 academic sources to extract key insights and showcase global
best practices for implementing wellness programs at organizations of all sizes.

Drawing on the content of this report, we have created a simple set of guidelines on how to organize, develop
and evaluate wellness programs. This includes everything from justifying why you need such a program, to how
to measure and show the success of your program once it’s up and running.

The Evolution of Wellness

1990s Recent years COVID-19 and

Rise in healthy eating Personalized & holistic beyond
habits and physical health – focus on emotional Increasing priority
activities and mental well-being for organizations
WHY IMPLEMENT WELLNESS PROGRAMS?

Wellness programs support the whole health and

well-being of your employees, both as a group and as
individuals.

Beyond the positive outcomes for your existing

employees, implementing wellness programs also
makes your company more attractive as an employer.

Providing programs and benefits around health

and well-being is proven to give positive returns on
investment (ROI) for your company.

According to our analysis, although the ROI varied

depending on the structure and interventions offered
by a program, the majority of programs yielded high
returns by reducing healthcare costs, absenteeism,
and delivering improved employee retention rates
and productivity gains. These are some of the most
common parameters that companies adopt to
measure financial ROI on their wellness programs.

In one of the case studies reviewed by Cigna’s report, the annual cost saving due to higher job retention in a
depression outreach treatment program for a group of 304 participants was US$1,800, which exceeded the
annual program cost that ranged from US$100 to US$400.

GETTING STARTED ON YOUR WELLNESS PROGRAM JOURNEY

Before you start designing your whole health programs, or even decide to have one, understand your
organizational objectives and needs, as
well as the resources available to meet
them by asking yourself these questions:

•W
 hat are the unmet needs of our
employees? What are the health risks in
the organization that affect employee
well-being?

•A
 re employees back in the workplace
or working from home? How best
to deliver the program to as many
employees as possible?

•W
 hat have we done in the past? What
has worked?

•W
 hat is the utilization of existing
programs? What drives utilization?
What incentives work?

• What are our loss and cost drivers?

• What is our budget and timeline?

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WHAT ARE THE COMMON TYPES OF WELLNESS PROGRAM
TO CHOOSE FROM?
Once you’ve understood your needs and identified your objectives, it’s time to decide on what type of
program best addresses these. There are programs that target individuals of a specific profile, and ones that
are offered to the entire workforce.

Our research suggests that programs delivered at an individual level are most successful when they aim to reduce
specific health risks, while programs delivered to the entire workforce are most successful when they promote
healthy behaviors in general and develop a culture of wellness in the organization.

PROGRAMS FOR THE ENTIRE WORKFORCE

• Prevention programs – programs that provide preemptive care and promote health awareness such as
health screening, health risk assessments (HRA) and immunization initiatives.

GUIDE TO PREVENTION PROGRAMS

Drive reduction in absenteeism and healthcare claim costs
How they work: Preemptive care offered to majority of the workforce

PROGRAMS FOR INDIVIDUALS

• Case management programs – clinician-run programs that focus on managing an individual’s journey of care.
Generally used to support the management of complex medical conditions such as cancer, as well as chronic
conditions.

GUIDE TO CASE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

Drive reduction in absenteeism and increase productivity costs
How they work: Case manager coordinates journey of care to ensure best treatment for an individual

Average ROI for Conditions

Case Management
Programme

Complex
medical
conditions
e.g. cancer

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• Disease management programs – programs focused on supporting employees who are suffering from health
conditions, usually involving one-on-one or group coaching sessions over a three to twelve-month period
focusing on treatment adherence and healthy lifestyle habits to help improve the participants’ condition.

GUIDE TO DISEASE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

Drive reduction in heatlhcare costs
How they work: Targeted support for employees suffering from a chronic condition

Average ROI for Conditions

disease management
programs

Chronic
conditions
Healthcare
e.g. diabetes
cost savings

PROGRAMS FOR INDIVIDUALS OR THE ENTIRE WORKFORCE

• Lifestyle management programs – programs that encourage positive health-related lifestyle and behavior
change among employees, for example, healthy eating, smoking cessation, weight management and fitness
programs, to reduce health risks over time. They can either be implemented for the whole workforce or target
at-risk individuals with a predisposition for certain conditions, such as pre-diabetic individuals.

GUIDE TO LIFESTYLE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

Drive healthcare-related cost savings, productivity gains and more
How they work: Encourage positive health-related lifestyle and behavior Average ROI for
changes for the whole workforce or at-risk individuals lifestyle management
programs

17%
Healthcare-related
cost savings

Examples: Healthy eating,

smoking cessation, weight
management, fitness programs

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HOW DO I IMPLEMENT AN EFFECTIVE WELLNESS PROGRAM?

In today’s interconnected world, It’s no longer enough to think about body versus mind, health versus sickness
or work versus life. All areas of life, from work and home, physical and mental health, to finances and family life
are deeply interlinked to one another. This means it's vital to implement an effective wellness program from the
beginning.

It's a great idea to lay out a long–term corporate wellness program. For organizations who are just starting
out, the most common approach is to build a solid foundation in the first one to two years by focusing on
employee awareness and collecting data which inform future planning. Prevention programs like immunizations
and health risk assessments are a good place to start. Lifestyle management programs that offer a basic
introduction to nutrition and physical activity are also popular choices in the early stages.

As you move further down the road, consider taking a more targeted approach and focus on programs
that address the key loss drivers such as absenteeism, work–related injuries or illnesses. These may include
musculoskeletal or back injuries and chronic medical conditions like obesity, which increase the risk of
developing diabetes and cardiac disease and drive medical plan costs.

HOW CAN I DRIVE SUCCESS AND ENGAGEMENT FOR MY

WELLNESS PROGRAM?

To get the best results from your wellness program, you need to be able to motivate people to participate as
well as stay on the program for a continuous period of time. Here are some key success factors that help drive
participation and engagement:

•L
 eadership support – visible championing of programs by senior and middle management is very
important when promoting employee participation. Programs with middle management support
yield a very high return on investment, averaging ten times the initial investment.

•U
 nderstanding organizational and personal health needs – mapping the organizational factors that
affect employees’ health and getting a good picture of employees’ health profiles is very important,
particularly for programs targeting specific segments of the workforce. You can do this by carrying
out health risk assessments and health screenings.

• Creative and culture-appropriate rewards – incentives come in many forms.

They can be participation or results-based; monetary or non-monetary. It's always important to
bear in mind that different incentives work in different cultural settings. Spotlighting, for example,
is a great way to reward and encourage participation in some cultures, but not such a good idea in
others so you must consider this in the context of your own workforce.

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HOW DO I MEASURE SUCCESS?

While many employers know they need to tailor their wellness programs to their objectives, you’ll be surprised
how often organizations overlook the monitoring and evaluation of the programs they implement.

It’s also understandable that some organizations find this step daunting given that some results are hard
to measure or might be attributed to multiple factors. However, this is a critical part of the work to improve
program offerings and make sure that objectives are met.

To make things a bit simpler, we can narrow our measurement parameters down to three categories:

•A
 ctivity – measures the level of employee involvement in wellness programs through participation
and engagement rates

•O
 utcomes – includes health outcomes of employees (through health screenings and self-reported
surveys) and financial outcomes like cost savings and improvement in productivity (through
insurance claims data, HR records on absentee hours and turnover rates etc.)

•Q
 uality – assesses employee’s satisfaction with the programs, usually based on
employee feedback

FINAL TIP: START SMALL, BUT AIM FOR THE LONG HAUL

Remember that ROI may take time to realize, especially for lifestyle management programs which aim to
shape long-term behavior. So, it is important to maintain program engagement over time while continuing to
measure for success in the long-term.

Health matters are interconnected. Those who take care of their holistic well-being lower the risks of stress,
poor mental health and depression. Because your whole health is affected by a number of different moving
parts, at Cigna, we believe it’s time for health and well-being services to reflect that.

Find out more about what makes Cigna trusted experts in health insurance plans today.

HOW CAN CIGNA HELP YOU BUILD YOUR WELLNESS PROGRAM?

At Cigna, Wellness Consultants work with our clients to go through their needs and objectives and design a
plan based on their risk factors and claims and health screening data. There will also be ongoing discussions
on program implementation balancing resources and timeline.

For more information about enhancing well-being and stress care for your organization, click below.

MORE INFORMATION

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