Health yields far more than savings

This is the fifth year that Providence Business News has sponsored the Healthiest Employers recognition program. And nothing strikes me so much as how during that short time span, the concept of workplace wellness has moved from a nice fringe benefit to a central tenet of so many businesses.

The cynical among us may believe that so many companies are providing wellness programs because they are proven to lower company insurance premiums (savings that are often passed on to the employees who have earned them).

But if you read story after story in this special section, it’s just as much, if not more so, because companies have come to recognize that their interests in maximizing performance aligns perfectly with the impulse of working people to have a good life, one with the least amount of stress possible.

Of course, some industries are stressful by nature. But there is no reason that an employer in this day and age cannot figure out a way to improve the lives of its workers while also improving its own bottom line.

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Healthiest Employers surveyed and judged this year’s competition, as it has for every one of our healthy-employer awards programs. The judgments rendered by the company are its own, and they reflect years of studying health and wellness. The reports the program generated based on that experience for all participants, not just the 28 companies that are recognized here, may be the most important piece of the program.

Community support for the Healthiest Employers program, just like employee support for corporate-wellness programs, is a prerequisite for success. We are thankful once again for Tufts Health Plan, presenting sponsor of the Healthiest Employers, as well as partner sponsors the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and USI Insurance Services.

Mark S. Murphy

Editor

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