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Obese Employees Factor in on Bottom Line

By Andrew Voris

In the recent article "weight affects the bottom line" in the Raleigh News and Observer a Duke study says "obese workers cost employers more."

According to the article...

"...obese employees filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims, their medical costs from those claims were seven times higher, and they stayed out of work 13 times longer after a work-related injury or illness than did workers who are not obese, according to a paper published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine."

But it's not just the obese who are draining companies' profits. The article continues...

"Overweight employees took four times the number of days off after being injured or getting sick at work. Mildly obese employees took five times as many days off. The most obese employees took 13 times as many days off."

According to Dr. Ostbye...

"It isn't just an individual problem, but it is a society problem for sure," Ostbye said. "It is something that employers may want to pay more attention to, because it does affect their bottom line."

What employers are doing to fix this problem?

"As many as 40 percent of employers are giving workers products, cash or health insurance discounts to lose weight, said Laura Linnan, the study's principal investigator and a professor at the UNC School of Public Health."

So what can you and your company do?

As the article suggests, a web based program is the most economical and tends to get a good enrollment rate from employees. Here at BodyForm we ran a web-based employee wellness program with a local hospital that included monthly fitness assessments, emailed workout programs, and meal plans as well as a method for the employees to log their workouts and meals. The employer could then check the results of the employees via the web with a simple user name and password.

The employer reimbursed the $9.99 monthly fee to all employees that completed 70% of the workouts each month and also awarded the top performers in several categories with special prizes.

The whole program was quite the buzz and very successful. For more information on starting your web-based employee wellness program go to

http://www.myhitechtrainer.com/bodyform56/

About the Author:

Andrew Voris is a NASM certified personal trainer working out of his private office in Glen Ellyn, IL and out of Tri-City Fitness in St. Charles, IL. His websites are www.bodyformpersonaltraining.com & www.tri-cityfitness.com