Good morning.
Companies are getting creative about wellness. And there's some compelling new evidence that offering generous perks and subsidies that encourage workers to relax and recharge could offer big cost savings over the long haul. Erin Prater recently dug into the topic for Fortune. She writes:
Andrew Davis, an actuary at global financial services firm Deloitte, makes a comfortable living. But he might not have thought of outfitting his 62-acre plot of land near Clear Lake, Minn., with a solar generator—or planting a fruit orchard there—without the company’s well-being subsidy.
The benefit allows employees up to $1,000 annually for items that can improve their health and wellness. It covers the obvious, like gym memberships. But it can also be used for purchases that improve mental health, like musical instruments, and items that nurture the earth, like solar panels.
Prater reports that this idea is taking off. At a recent meeting of 30 chiefs of environmental health for major corporations, “almost every one of them had begun developing, or had developed, a total worker health approach.”
How will employers benefit?
Physically and emotionally healthy workers are generally more productive and creative—and if they live longer, they may work longer before retiring.
What’s more, many employers are self-insured, meaning they have a “huge amount to gain” financially by promoting illness prevention, Dr. Asif Dhar, vice chair and life sciences and health care industry leader at Deloitte and a coauthor of the report says. Cancer and many other chronic conditions are far easier—and less expensive—to treat in early stages.
The report's authors offer some guidelines to crafting a total worker health plan at any company, and make a case that with programs like these, average lifespan could increase from 76 to 90, with a far higher percentage of the group enjoying those later years in good health, a concept known as "healthspan."
I'd love to hear what any CFOs out there think about adding these benefits. Is it a hard sell to be adding benefits, even if there's a long-term cost savings that could result? You can email me below and read the full story here.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
