Your clients should recognize that a healthy company is a profitable company. If their workers are chronically ill and taking time off due to sickness, the bottom line is sure to suffer—especially small companies.
Small businesses face more challenges than the large corporations with huge cash reserves to help them through financial crises. They're also more susceptible to market fluctuations, have fewer clients to support them and generally have more transient staff. On the flip side, they also make up 70 percent of the businesses in the U.S., so as goes small business, so goes the economy, according to business consultant Jim Muehlhausen, author of "The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How to Avoid Them."
When employees are absent due to illness, profits suffer and so do your clients and their customers. Employers are emerging from the health care crisis as health care costs continue to rise and employee's become unhealthier and lead unhealthy lifestyles that result in the development of more serious health conditions. Wellness on a corporate scale is one of the high hopes for the health care industry in lowering costs and making health insurance more affordable. Employees and their families need to become engaged in their health and learn to live healthy lifestyles every day.
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Engaging in healthy behavior is one of the only chances of reducing the serious health conditions that will develop later in life, according to Corporate Wellness Magazine. Some wellness plans will be voluntary and some will not depending upon the employer. Signing up for one as an employee may be the best option to help improve and monitor your personal health care situation when the program is offered on a voluntary basis. Companies who promote wellness initiatives are providing a great way for their employees to cut down on the amount of time off due to illness and help them increase personal and business productivity and profit.
Another option can be to offer employees the ability to access wellness services through independent market channels if the employer does not want to administer a plan through the company. For small businesses, the cost can be more than their bottom line can handle. Portability of the plan is also a big question if the employee leaves or gets laid off from the job. Individual health insurance including wellness modules can be too expensive in that case. However, the need to stay healthy does not disappear.
Discount plans are also a great way to receive very good savings with participating fitness centers, chiropractors, complementary alternative medicine, and other wellness modules, such as weight loss management and smoking cessation. Savings can be 20 percent to 40 percent and employees can use the services without waiting, and there are no penalties for overusing the services. Typically, the employee's entire family can use the plan. Combining a discount wellness plan with pre-tax plans (FSAs/HRAs/HSAs) are a great way to stretch those health care dollars to save even more money.
Wellness options are what the savvy employer has in his arsenal of health care benefits. Making the choice to include that kind of plan is the smart way to go regardless of the size of the business. Large, medium, or small, companies with workers who stay healthy will keep the business healthy. It's worth the investment of putting into place a wellness plan that will keep your workers working.
Brokers who provide affordable options to keep companies in good physical shape end up with clients who have great fiscal shape. Employers will love you for helping prevent their workers and their balance sheets from chronic ailments. It's worth your time to investigate all the options for health and wellness.
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