The Healthy Workplace of the 21st Century: The Benefit of Organizational Wellness Programs on Employee Health and Absenteeism

Every year, obesity rates continue to rise and have reached epidemic proportions throughout the United States. The costs associated with obesity are staggering and many researchers feel that the workplace should be the new front line in the battle for a healthier workforce. Employers must take action to address this worsening health crisis and help reduce spiraling medical costs and absenteeism rates. This capstone reviews the current literature on wellness programs and discusses different companies' approaches to wellness programs that have special emphasis on nutrition and physical activity. It also provides strategies and recommendations for companies eager to initiate a comprehensive, dynamic and directed wellness program to improve the current and future health of their workforce.

A Sound Investment for Employees and Their Employers: Retirement Planning, Reinvented

Offering competitive health and wellness benefit programs is ever challenging for companies, as industry leaders continually devise ways to innovate and deliver high-value programs to attract and retain employees. Financial stability is a form of wellness, and yet companies offer limited finance-related benefit offerings. Employees are commonly given access to retirement savings plans and college savings plans, and yet employers do not typically incorporate educational components into benefit programs. Research presented in this paper examines the financial issues impacting the lives of young workers in the United States and makes the case for a new recruitment and retention tool: a dynamic, practical benefit program designed to engage employees in their financial planning early and empower them to make informed decisions.