Delaware Employment Law Blog

Employee health and wellness is spreading beyond corporate giants. Small businesses are joining together to share ideas and resources as part of a corporate-health strategy.  Health and wellness programs are attractive (or should be) to small employers for a variety of reasons. 

For one, smaller business are more vulnerable to attendance problems. It's a matter of statistics--when staffing is lean, an out-of-work employee can cause a chain reaction of problems that affect the entire organization.  Consequently, these businesses benefit from having a workforce that is less afflicted by health problems.

From a different perspective, wellness plans can be seen not only as a preventative step that benefits employers but also as an additional benefit to employees.  In tough economic times, employers are less likely to offer big bonuses or large annual increases.  Yet, employees value wellness programs, leading to increased employee retention and improved recruitment efforts.

Although small-businesses may be fairly new to the employee-wellness scene, the idea is not a new one.  For additional reading on employee-wellness programs, see these earlier posts:

1. State Employees Will Go From Fat to Fit--Or Else

2. Health vs. Privacy: Employers Continue to Juggle Both

3. What Does It Take to Be "Best Place to Work"?

4. Three Days of the Bar Exam and the Next Great Wellness Benefit

5. These Pumps Were Made for Walkin'

6. Are Employers Getting Pushy About Weight Loss?

7. Employers Should Know that Cancer Screening Saves Lives . . . And Money

8. More Employers Giving the Gift of Wellness--via gift cards

9. Employee Blogs as Part of Corporate Wellness Programs?

10. Employees, Prepare to Get Healthy, Like It Or Not!

11. DelaWELL, Delaware’s Health-Management Program, Wins NASPE Award

12. DOL Offers Compliance Checklist for Wellness Programs

13. Are Today's Wellness Programs Running Out of Steam?

14. A Role Model for Wellness Programs: ING Direct