How investing in employee wellness pays employers back
Making the investment in employee wellness has long been linked to lower absenteeism, better productivity, and higher job satisfaction. At the same time, many employers hesitate to implement these plans due to perceived high costs or implementation challenges. Thankfully, there are many virtual care solutions that can diminish these barriers, making virtual care as a workplace benefit a no-brainer for employers.
Link between health and productivity
It makes sense that healthier employees make for more engaged, productive, and efficient employees. Studies have shown that workplaces with effective wellness programs experience less absenteeism, lower healthcare costs, and increased productivity.
Poor health, mental health struggles, and the development of chronic conditions like obesity and diabetes costs employers over $400 billion each year in the US alone. This is due to things like reduced performance and missed work days.
Virtual care improves employee wellness
The misconception employers have is that offering comprehensive wellness benefits will require things like an on-site clinic and a lot of administrative oversight. The truth is, with the rise of use and adoption of telehealth, this has changed. You can now offer virtual care to your staff with little to no administrative burden.
Here are some ways virtual care could help your team:
- Lower costs: virtual care often costs nearly 25% less when compared to traditional medical office visits.
- Convenience and accessibility: employees can access specialized care from anywhere, and spend less time waiting to see a healthcare provider. In one study, over 84% of people found telehealth easy to use and effective.
- Higher utilization: virtual care has some of the highest utilization rates compared to other wellness benefits.
- Improved health: virtual care can improve both mental and physical health for your employees.
- Reduced carbon footprint: An employer study found that during 2 years of telehealth use, the employer saved its staff the need to travel 53.7 million miles, and that is only with 18% of their healthcare visits using telehealth.
With the right implementation plan and support, a virtual care plan can be one of the most impactful additions to your benefit portfolio.
How does investing in virtual care pay off?
A study found that employers with 100 or more workers saw a 47% return on investment (ROI) for their employer-sponsored coverage. That ROI came in the form of reduced healthcare costs, improved employee retention, and easier recruiting. Companies that take the time and care to prioritize employee wellbeing are also the most sought after for job hunters.
Virtual care, with its lower overhead, kicks up the cost savings even more. With companies like Agile Telehealth that remove the traditional barriers to implementing a virtual care program, it has never been easier or more affordable to add employee wellness benefits to your company.
Overall impact of employee wellness and virtual care programs
Many employers are realizing that in today’s competitive landscape, extra effort in the employee wellness domain is now expected. The data is quite clear: employers that invest in their staff’s wellness see lower rates of attrition and a happier and healthier workforce.
With the rise of virtual care options, the barriers that may have made adding wellness benefits a challenge in the past have now been reduced dramatically. Virtual care benefits for your team enhance healthcare accessibility, ensuring personalized care is available to everyone who needs it.
Fostering a culture of wellness helps attract top talent, reduce turnover, and boost job satisfaction. The focus is no longer on whether to invest in an employee wellness program, but on how quickly your company can implement one. It’s going to be key to staying competitive in the future.
Access better wellness for your employees with Agile Telehealth
At Agile, we provide employers with the opportunity to implement top-tier wellness programs for their teams—at little to no cost. How do we do it? By leveraging our extensive network of board-certified physicians and trusted pharmacy partners, we’re able to deliver customized wellness solutions and personalized compounded medications, like GIP, at a fraction of the cost of traditional benefits programs.
Interested in learning more? Contact us here!
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