Chronic illnesses – whether diabetes, heart disease, obesity, arthritis, or cancer – not only slow down our lives but they are extremely costly to businesses too.

Employees with chronic illness risk factors usually inflict more cost of absenteeism on business than their colleagues and struggle to stay on top of professional responsibilities.

Beyond the cost of absenteeism, employees with chronic illnesses also tend to require and use medical services often taxing them more in prescription costs and out-of-pocket expenses besides driving overall healthcare premiums upward for businesses.

The good news is many of these chronic diseases and conditions are preventable by making healthy lifestyle choices and embracing preventative behaviors that lower vulnerability to these diseases and improve vitality.

Preventative care plays a significant role in employees’ long-term health by warding off health problems or lowering incidences of chronic illness among employees enabling them to reduce health risks and achieve better health while curbing the financial burden of health care.

A well-executed workplace wellness strategy not only saves business money in the long run but can help employees seek prompt and proactive care and stay focused on their health goals as well as set them up for a journey toward increased productivity and happiness.

In today’s article, we’ll explore how employers can embrace a preventative, proactive approach to employee wellness.

What is Preventative Care?

We likely engage in some form of preventive healthcare frequently, whether regular exercise or deciding against an extra slice of cake at a party to protect our health and prevent future health issues, consequently improving our well-being.

True preventive care, however, entails rather more. It includes the stuff we do such as health screenings, blood pressure checks and immunizations when we’re feeling well (before we get sick) to avoid or delay the onset of disease and stay healthy.

This is done for early detection and treatment of serious health conditions when they are most treatable and initially may not have any symptoms, like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and more enhancing chances of full recovery. 

Tackling these health scares early helps employees to stay on a healthy track, keep existing health conditions in check, and reduce the risk of developing other health complications.

What are The Benefits of Preventative Care?

Dividends from encouraging employees to embrace healthier behaviors that enable them to achieve better health outcomes supersede reduced medical expenses.

Motivating healthier behaviors can yield excellent results for your business too. Let’s look at some benefits of preventative care.

1. 1. 1. Improve the quality of life.

Chronic diseases can profoundly reduce the quality of life for employees and their families, affecting the enjoyment of life, family relationships, and finances.

Sadly many people are reactional with their health, hesitant to see a physician and spend money on their health until it’s completely inevitable or a problem starts to arise and their health begins to fall apart.

This is perversely counter-intuitive and does not help as the longer chronic conditions go undiagnosed, a whole lot more resources are required to treat and manage it even frighteningly becoming lethal.

But preventive care can drastically improve quality of life as it allows one to catch potential health problems early before they became real scares and treat them much easier with fewer resources and minimize their likelihood of developing into life-threatening conditions.

1. 1. 2. Reduce healthcare and claim costs

Not only do employees with chronic disease risk factors incur more healthcare costs than other staff members, but they also increase the price of providing health insurance for the office.

You could be wondering why it is so. Usually, corporate risk premiums are largely pegged on previous claims of the group, and illness that affects just one or a handful of employees could elevate the entire team’s claims as a result adversely impacting the premium underwritten against the risk.

Therefore, implementing comprehensive workplace wellness programs that encourage employees to proactively embrace health behaviors, improve their health and reduce elevated health risks also allows the business to reap a significant return on investment in the form of reduced healthcare and claims costs.

1. 1. 3. Bolster productivity

There is no doubt that healthy employees are more productive.

Given the direct correlation between health and engagement in the office, employees who are sick are less likely to focus and concentrate on the task at hand, hindering their productivity and ability to get work done efficiently, not forgetting the sick leave entitlements that business has to cater for.

However, preventative care that helps employees to detect a variety of illnesses, even when outward symptoms are not visible, allows them to take steps to eliminate the risk of becoming sick in the first place, reducing the number of workdays lost tending to illness resulting in overall increased productivity for the business.

Ways to Practice Preventive Care

There are countless preventative perks employers can offer to boost the physical and mental health of their employees.

If you are a starter, you can offer group health insurance that includes extended benefits of physical health screening, immunizations and mental health support. 

Another worthy pursuit is to promote adherence to age-related screening such as mammograms for women over 40 years and colonoscopy for adults above 45 years.

Employers can also encourage employees to be more active by offering standing desks, besides leveraging technology such as Old Mutual’s Go Plus app to raise awareness about wellness and encourage and reward healthy physical activities.

Another cost-less approach is to work with employee benefits specialists (such as Seftugo) to overlay actual claims and isolate groups of individuals already carrying the risk of chronic illness in order to provide targeted intervention i.e. chronic disease management and ensure they are able to manage and maintain a quality life.

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Preventive care is a powerful and cost-effective form of healthcare that equips employees with resources and tools to combat preventable illness and allow them to stay positive, engaged, and determined to do their best at their place of work.

Furthermore, it’s a proactive way to invest in employees, the business’s ongoing success, and the cornerstone of the workplace wellness programs upon which a business promotes a healthier and more productive work environment. If done right, it has the potential to result in long-term benefits for the employer as well as the employee.