Take APQC’s new, complimentary Employee Wellness Program Assessment. Then, find improvement ideas using our Employee Health and Wellness Resource Collection.

Nearly a year has passed since my last blog post on employee wellness programs. As June is National Employee Wellness Month* in the United States, I want to share some of the research that I have come across since my last post on this topic.

Today, 70 percent of U.S. employers offer an employee wellness program according to a survey published in 2012 by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. However, employer wellness programs do not always offer the kinds of wellness support that employees most desire, reports the Principal Financial Well-Being IndexSM—Wellness Summary 2011.” Employers believe that the most important elements of their wellness programs are educational in nature (e.g., online or printed wellness information), but employees say their preferred wellness program components are those that support them in actually carrying out health-improving activities (e.g., on-site preventative screenings and on-site fitness facilities).

Perhaps an indicator regarding the future of employee wellness programs—employers are taking a broader perspective in how they approach wellness. According to WorldatWork’s 2012 Total Rewards and Employee Well-Being survey, employers are considering financial health, work-life effectiveness, and the workplace environment and stress as key components of employee wellness initiatives.

Learn more about employee wellness programs using APQC’s collection of resources. Take APQC’s assessment** to single out strengths and areas for improvement.

APQC Employee Health and Wellness Collection
 Best Practices in Employee Wellness -- June 2011 HCM Community Call**
 Best Practices in Employee Wellness -- June 2011 HCM Community Call (Slides)**
 Employee Wellness Programs: Fact Sheet
 Employee Wellness Programs: Resource List
 Building a Culture of Health: El Paso's Innovative Wellness Program
 Health and Productivity Management: Six Foundations for Success
 Best Practices for Managing Employee Health and Productivity
 Best Practices for Measuring Employee Health and Productivity

*National Employee Wellness Month is sponsored by Virgin HealthMiles, the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance, the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, and WorldatWork.

** Free to nonmembers. Find out if your organization is already an APQC member. If it is, you can register for access to APQC’s Knowledge Base content.