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Global Perspectives

Employers are becoming more aware that their employees' health affects the financial "health" of their businesses. Increasingly, there is clear evidence that the enormous direct and indirect costs associated with major chronic conditions are, in large part, preventable. It is therefore important to focus on strategies that reduce the prevalence and cost of preventable diseases. As a result, innovative employers are providing their employees with a variety of Work-Site based health promotions and disease prevention programs.

Employee absenteeism reduces productivity, thus increasing costs for employers. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that comprehensive workplace health promotion programs not only lower healthcare and insurance costs, but also decrease absenteeism, and improve performance and productivity. In addition to immediately quantifiable cost reductions researchers have reported a variety of spin-off benefits: greater productivity, intellectual capacity, and reductions in disability and absenteeism. Such programs may also have a positive effect on worker morale and employee perceptions of the company, even in non-participants. These outcomes go beyond savings in direct health costs to provide non-health related ROI.