Investing in People: Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives

Chapter 5. Employee Health, Wellness, and Welfare

We often think of vital human capital decisions being made by business leaders and their HR colleagues, but some of the most important talent decisions in every organization are those made by employees themselves. Employee decisions that affect their health and wellness have profound effects that are often overlooked. This chapter shows how to capture and evaluate these effects.

More than two decades ago, a 4-year study of 15,000 Ceridian Corporation employees showed dramatic relationships between employees’ health habits and insurance-claim costs. For example, people whose weekly exercise was equivalent to climbing fewer than 5 flights of stairs or walking less than half a mile spent 114 percent ...