The Flip Side Of Corporate Health And Wellness

Corporate health and wellness is important to the country’s workforce. There is certainly room for wellness programs. However, some groups do not support wellness programs in the workplace. Here are two common reasons why:

Privacy rights seem to be the main opposition to corporate wellness programs. Some people believe that employers have no right to tell employees to eat healthy or lose twenty pounds. This opinion seems to be made stronger by the hundreds of corporations seeking the help of law firms to implement more aggressive wellness programs. What a person does with his/her body is certainly a privacy issue. However, corporate wellness programs were initiated to be encouraging ways to help employees get fit by offering incentives and free health programs. If corporate wellness is brought back to its original mission and participation was not monitored or mandatory, there would be far less privacy issues.

Consequences rarely motivate someone like incentives do. Groups opposing corporate wellness programs are citing that some companies are threatening unhealthy employees with consequences for not participating or succeeding in their wellness program. An example of such a case is a company based in Indianapolis that began deducting $10.00 from each paycheck for every worker with a body mass index above 29.9 because not enough employees were utilizing the company’s wellness program. Employees are much more likely to participate in wellness programs if there are incentives such as cash bonuses, time off work or free products rather than the threats of consequences.

Although both of these reasons are valid ones to oppose corporate health and wellness programs, both issues can easily be resolved by bringing corporate wellness back to its main mission. These programs were not meant to invade privacy or punish unhealthy individuals, and the majority does not. They were and are meant to be a benefit to both the employer and employee. By encouraging and supporting program participants, companies will likely experience success.