The Importance of Using HRAs to Know Your Organization’s Wellness Status

Want to know how HRAs can help you get a clear picture of your employees’ health status? Read on. 

Imagine working on a project for an important client. Your team is on crunch time, and everyone is already tense. Suddenly, one of the team members critical to the execution of the project goes on sick leave. You lose a valuable client. Everyone in the organization suffers the consequences. 

What could have prevented such an incident from happening? The answer: Conducting a comprehensive health risk assessment (HRA) for each of your employees. 

Corporate wellness programs play a huge role in developing holistic wellness within organizations. A survey showed that 79% of workers agree that wellness programs positively affect their lives. HRAs remain one of the most overlooked aspects of wellness programs. 

Interestingly, a report that investigated workplace wellness programs showed that fewer than half (46%) of organizations carry out active clinical screening or complete health risk assessment for their employees. This means that most organizations are in the dark about their employees’ overall health status.

What Employee Health Means for Your Business

Many employers do consider employee health, mainly because healthcare costs are skyrocketing. Research from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust found that the average cost of health insurance premiums for families reached $22,221 in 2021, increasing by 4% from 2020. Take note that employers pick up a huge percentage of this cost. 

Beyond the costs, however, are a lot more numbers that must be taken into account. Employee health impacts more than just healthcare costs. It affects everything else, including absenteeism, overall company culture, performance, productivity, and workplace health and safety. 

This is why employers globally have turned to employee wellness programs to identify chronic conditions, prevent stress and burnout, address poor engagement, and other organizational challenges unique to their operations. 

Identify Chronic Conditions

Chronic conditions can lead to absenteeism, which can also cost businesses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic illnesses and health practices such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, and lack of physical activity cost $36.4 billion annually due to people being absent from work. With HRA data, both employers and employees can better understand their lifestyle choices and how they impact their current and future health. For example, an employee with high cholesterol levels can get curated messaging to help them manage, and additional resources to help them stick to their programs. 

Prevent Stress and Burnout

Knowing the current health status of employees gives organizations a better overview of the possible risk factors each team member has. With this data, they can place their employees on tasks, locations, and other demographic criteria to ensure they perform their best without worrying about their health. Ultimately, this will help them achieve their goals while preventing unnecessary stress and burnout. 

Address Poor Worker Engagement

Declining health leads to higher worker disengagement, a costly expense for an organization. A study conducted by Gallup uncovered that businesses lose up to $550 billion annually due to disengaged employees. These disengaged employees don’t necessarily quit their jobs—their illness may mean they need to work where they are offered a benefits plan. They often continue working with flagging health, which affects their focus, morale, and productivity. 

Utilizing an HRA can help direct employee health initiatives to address these corporate challenges. Objective data contained within HRAs are critical in identifying, planning, and developing wellness programs—and they are also essential for tracking, monitoring, and supporting long-term wellness and employee retention. 

Employee Health Risk Assessments as Business Strategy

Health risk assessment initiatives help build the framework for wellness programs. The health information gathered can determine a company’s bespoke health strategy. This ensures that they can identify employees at risk and develop the appropriate programs that will guide them to adopt healthier lifestyles.

For instance, organizations can do a mental health assessment in their workplace to assess a team member’s risk of developing a mental illness. With this, they can design appropriate intervention strategies, such as coaching and counseling. In turn, this helps the company save on costs of absenteeism, employee turnover, and productivity. 

These HRA findings can provide organizations with actionable data that can help them manage the overall health of their employees on a more holistic level, not only physical health but also mental, emotional, and financial wellness. With insights from HRAs like Wellness Checkpoint, businesses can turn employee health into a winning business strategy that dramatically improves their bottom line. 

Connect with us if you want to know more about CoreHealth’s Health Risk Assessment modules that can be incorporated into your corporate wellness programs.

About CoreHealth