Employee Health Screening

Looking for incentives to get overweight workers to buy into a health promotion program? A recent published study  suggests many workers are even willing to pay much â.” or all â.” of the cost themselves.

Roughly 35 percent of firms with wellness programs focus on providing workers with convenient access to weight loss resources.

A poll of 1,352 workers by the Strategies to Overcome and Avoid Obesity Alliance found that many individuals  would gladly chip in for the cost of the health promotion program if they believed it would help them lose weight. What workers want -

o  confidential support and counseling

o  Access to a professional nutritionist or fitness trainer, and

o  onsite fitness programs.

Until recently, only big companies were able offer such health promotion programs as part of their wellness benefits.   But the fastest growth of these health promotion programs in the last two years has been in smaller firms (sometimes with as few as 50 full-time employees).

The majority of firms split the cost with staff members. Generally, staff members pay up to about 25% of the cost. But some plans are fully employee paid.