Benefits for Business

What a Fitness Program Can Do For Companies

Decrease Absenteeism: In Economic Benefits of Enhanced Fitness, Roy J. Shephard reports that several studies link employee fitness to lower absenteeism, with absenteeism reduced anywhere from one-half to five days per year for each employee in a fitness program. Some of the companies that had reductions in sick time after starting an exercise program include:

The New York Telephone Company. It estimated annual savings of more than $3 million from reduced absenteeism and medical treatment costs following the introduction of its wellness program.

Johnson & Johnson. After one year of its wellness program, sick leave decreased 9% for participants, compared with a 13% increase in the control group.

Bonne Bel. Two years after it instituted a fitness program, absenteeism had declined by 50% , according to Good Health from Employees and Reduced Health Care Costs for Industry, published by the Health Insurance Association of America. It also received a refund of $36,000 from its insurance company because of the reduction in sick claims.

Mesa Petroleum Company. A 1986 cost-benefit analysis of its fitness program showed exercise adherents had fewer sick days than non-adherents. Absenteeism savings per employee were $156 in 1982 and $303 in 1983.
 

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Canada Life Assurance. A ten year study (1978 to 1988) of the effect of exercise on absenteeism found a 39% decrease in absenteeism in the most active participants of the company’s fitness program, versus a 29.7% increase among sedentary employees.

Reduce health care costs and claims: Many companies are looking for employee fitness programs to help them control skyrocketing medical costs:

For every $1 the Prudential Insurance Company spent on its fitness program, it saved $1.93 in health care costs for each employee who participated.

Tenneco found that employees active in its fitness program had fewer health care claims than non-active employees-58% less for men, and 44% for women.

Control Data Corp. found that non-exercising employees paid many more visits to the doctor than did exercisers. The results of a four-year study of 15,000 employees found that people in the high-risk fitness category (walking less than on-half mile or climbing fewer than five flights of stains four times per week) made 14% more health care claims than those in the moderate risk category (walking 1.5 miles weekly or climbing at least 15 flights of stains four times per week). Moreover, employees I the high-risk category used 30 % more hospital days and were 41% more likely to have annual claims exceeding $5,000 than those in the low-risk category.

Control turnover: In a study conducted one year after the start of Canada Life’s fitness program, annual turnover during a 10-month period was 15% for active fitness participants, as opposed to 15% for other employees, with an average recruitment and training cost of around $5,00 for each new employee that had to be hired (from “Influence of an Employee Fitness Programme Upon Fitness, Productivity, and Absenteeism, ”Economics, 1981). A 1982 study of British Columbia Hydro employees revealed a turnover rate of just 3.5% for fitness program participants, compared with a company average of 10.3%. And, after the opening of the Tenneco fitness center in 1982, the company found that salaried employees who exercised had an 85% chance of staying with the company for at least two years, compared with 73% for non-exercisers.

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Build morale: A corporate exercise program can create employee loyalty even if they don’t use the program. Data collected from workers at the World Headquarters of Campbell Soup Company in Camden, New Jersey, indicated that the company the company’s health and fitness center tended to symbolize corporate concerns and goodwill even to those workers that didn’t exercise.

Recruit new employees: A survey of 130 graduate business students reported on in Business magazine, revealed that 77% of the students preferred to work for a company that provided a fitness center for employees, and 71% said it would influence their decision if they had to choose between two otherwise identical job offers.