Welcome to the inaugural print edition of Corporate Wellness Magazine. For six years now, Corporate Wellness Magazine has been the signature online publication for the Corporate Health & Wellness Association and a reliable resource for news, innovations and trends and the shared success stories of employers, agents, consultants, service providers and related industry stakeholders.
Corporate wellness is no longer health jargon. The concept of adapting health and wellness into the workplace experience to address significant health problems has made great strides since a group of forward-thinking employers founded the Corporate Health and Wellness Association close to a decade ago.
By now, most of us have taken part in some sort of physical activity or task linked to health insurance coverage. Perhaps, you've participated in a screening program to identify health risks, intervened to control chronic conditions, or promoted strategies that benefit employee well-being.
The breadth of your involvement - no matter how substantial - continues to be heard. Your methods and observations - from the most effective to those somewhat deflating - have been identified and shared through one of our communication channels that demonstrate your investment in corporate wellness programs can help to maintain levels of affordable coverage and increase workforce productivity.
The Corporate Health and Wellness Association, a nonprofit 501(c)6, is the only national employer-founded organization that aims to foster collaboration, promote education and raise awareness within the industry.
Fit for the Job
- CHWA's commitment to sharing case studies and best practices is evident in some 100 webcasts, which it hosts annually to coincide with published whitepapers, roadshows and engagements across the.
- As an outgrowth of the identification and evaluation of these case studies and best practices and in collaboration with partner employers and wellness professionals, we have developed comprehensive training programs that have encouraged and helped launch worksite wellness programs across the Certification is awarded only to those participants who exhibit advanced knowledge and pass a rigorous exam. Just this year, in alignment with employer demand for healthy eating and physical activity curriculum, we added two designations focused on Corporate Fitness and Corporate Nutrition.
- Some of the ideas and best practices of our partner members have been compiled and chronicled in "Engaging Wellness: Corporate Wellness Programs that Work" which provides insight on how to implement and measure a corporate wellness.
- CHWA taps into the thoughts of more than 150,000 readers of Corporate Wellness Magazine and C-suite executives, human resource professionals and insurance leaders whose influence has helped to enable our social media databases to reach more than 1 million industry play Our reach continues to expand, adding thousands of thoughtful and provocative insurance executives and human resources managers weekly to our 500,000 LinkedIn members in the 30 groups we manage.
Simply put, CHWA - backed by our pledge to forward transparent and accurate and credible data on wellness issues, particularly as it pertains to return-on-investment - is now the most influential forum for employers and insurance executives in the United States. In the last decade, we have found that the best wellness programs lead to both discounts on health insurance and lifestyle changes.
Concerns about costs and the effectiveness of wellness programs will remain at the forefront of all those who have invested in employee health. As well they should. Employers in the United States are expecting a 4 percent increase in 2015 healthcare costs for active employees, according to Towers Watson.
But, while 71 percent of all employers who offered wellness programs, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, found them to be "very" or "somewhat" effective, not all support this public optimism. This doesn't mean that employers aren't right. What this does mean is that more targeted approaches - and patience - are needed.
To this end, the Corporate Health and Wellness Association will continue to push the envelope, to determine which programs work and those that do not. There will be new partners to collaborate with, creative strategies to advance and novel technologies to support those measures.
Your endorsement through the years has allowed us to build the Corporate Wellness Conference and the Employee Healthcare & Benefits Congress into the largest annual gathering of agents, brokers and consultants, and service providers in the United States. We are grateful for your support.
Our challenge will be to continue to design educational opportunities and programs that evaluate which blueprints work best - and then share the benefits with you. Even though those outcomes will continue to evolve, be assured. Our concern and commitment to your health - and that of your bottom line - will remain our number one job.
About the Author
Jonathan Edelheit, JD Editor-in-Chief,Corporate Wellness Magazine
