Question

What can organizations do to counteract the high costs of employees who are obese?

Answer 1

Maintaining a normal body weight may no longer be just a matter of personal health. New research show has shown that it pays for companies to promote healthy lifestyle choices among its employees. According to a recent study obese employees cost companies more money than their fit counterparts in lost workdays, higher medical costs, and more workers' compensation claims. The researchers had found that obese workers filed twice as many workers' compensations claims as workers who fell within the recommended Body Mass Index (BMI) range.



Obese workers have been found to average 11.65 claims per 100 workers, compared to 5.8 claims per 100 for non-obese employees. As a result of these claims, obese employees had seven times higher medical costs, for an average of $51,019 per 100 employees. This has amounted to literally billions of dollars being spent on medical claims made by obese workers. The most listed common causes of injury among obese workers were falls, slips, and attempts to lift something.

Obese employees were not the only ones found to cost employers money. Employees who were less than physical fit also cost employers huge amounts of money due to a loss in productivity.

Employers need to understand that while we all know obesity is bad for the individual, it is not solely a personal medical problem-it spills over into the workplace and has concrete economic costs. Studies have also found that obese employees lost 13 times more days of work, than their leaner counterparts, averaging 183.63 days lost per 100 employees. Experts advise that the results of this study should be a wake-up call to employers.

Given that there is such a strong link between obesity and workers' compensation costs, maintaining healthy weight is not only important to workers but should also be a high priority for employers. Work-based programs that are designed to target healthful eating and physical activity should be developed and then evaluated as part of a strategy in order to make all workplaces healthier and safer.

When employers are considering the best options for fitness programs, it is crucial that the company promotes the employee wellness programs among all employees, not just the overweight ones. Employers should be cautioned that any program that they adopt can not be discriminatory. The employee wellness program and especially the fitness components should be set up in a way to encourage all employees to take advantage of it.

It is also critical that employers do not take this as a license to discriminate. Sadly studies have shown that obese workers make nearly $1.20 less than their counterparts. Many experts suspect that this is a subtle way that employers hope to make back some of the money that obese workers can cost them in health care and other insurance premiums.

This shows that it is not only crucial for the employer to provide support and help for their employees to lose weight it can mean a lot in the wallet of the employee as well. Employee wellness programs with a fitness component have been found to help all workers achieve better health and meet weight loss goals. Employers who are looking at skyrocketing health insurance costs would do well to consider setting up a program within their company. In addition it has been found that employees who feel supported in their weight loss and fitness goals at work tend to have a higher success rate than those people who are going it alone.

While small businesses tend to be highly cost-conscious when it comes to paying for health coverage, (due to more limited resources) every study suggests that investing in employee wellness programs could ultimately help companies save money. It has been found that the cost of wellness programs may very well pay off for businesses in terms of reduced health care