Positive Return on Investment (ROI)
Workplace Health & Wellbeing Programs
Positive ROI. The positive return on investment (ROI) for 'effective' Workplace Health & Wellbeing Programs is established. ASK YES for background research (PwC studies/Comcare/EAPs). Here is the return for each $1 spent:
- $2.3 to $10.1 for Health & Wellbeing Programs
- $2.3 for Mental Health promotion and programs
- $1.3 - $4.7 for selected mental health interventions at work
- $5-10 for Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
Reducing Costs
- Absenteeism and presenteeism
- Lost productivity
- Turnover
- Physical injury claims
- Psychological injury claims
- Improved health & wellbeing of employees
- Better performance & capability
- Customer satisfaction
- Staff retention and morale
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Reputation, Employer of Choice
Implementation challenges may include:
- Time, budget and support
- Leadership engagement (& active participation)
- Building the business case
- The right program - tailored
- Managing resistance and cultural change
- Employee engagement, participation rates and follow through
- Maintaining momentum and consistency
- Measurement and evaluation
A 'process approach' to design:

- Use a robust "process approach" to design, deliver, review and improve your program
- Bring people and providers together to talk about the programs (regularly)
- Collaboration: Ask, survey, assess; champions and working parties
- Careful use of language and messaging
- Ensure quality programs and providers
- Make it easy – accessible, understandable, WIFM
- Groups, buddies and teams – shared activities/sense of belonging
- Educate and support leaders to have those 'conversations'
- Invite Exec level participation and visibility
- Connect the dots under 1 program title (create an identity and brand)
- Maintain momentum, visibility and updates across time
- Share success stories and publish data
- Create conversation tools to help leaders and staff talk about wellbeing
- Provide scripts, tips and guides to help build confidence in leaders
- Hold some roundtable discussions to gather interest and ideas
- Take a business case to leadership teams
- Offer a simple solution to commence
- Provide information and education
- Group events and toolbox sessions
- Engage naturally positive wellbeing champions
- Newsletters, tips and tools
- A calendar of events
- Partnership with professional health providers
- Advice from colleagues and consultants
- Change in health-related behaviours
- Prevention – awareness, collective mindfulness
- Early intervention and treatment
- (perception of) Support from leaders
- Change in culture and communication
- Despite 'engagement' being a significant topic, it remains a challenge for many organisations
- It takes time, good conversations, supportive leadership behaviours and consistent follow through to build trust and positive culture
- A well planned wellbeing program, with employee contribution, is an opportunity to WARM UP and CONNECT people to leaders & culture.
Key points of Research
In 2005, a study1 comparing a healthy worker to an unhealthy worker found:
- healthy workers to be 3x more productive (49 effective hours worked per month for an unhealthy worker compared to 143 hours for a healthy worker)
- healthy workers had 9x less annual sick leave (2 days annual sick leave for a healthy worker compared to 18 days for an unhealthy worker).
- workplace stress is responsible for a loss of 3.2 working days per employee per year
- workplace stress-related presenteeism costs almost 2x the cost of workplace stress-related absenteeism
- stress-related absenteeism and presenteeism costs Australian employers a total of $10.11 billion annually.
- causes an average of 6.5 days of productivity loss per employee per year
- has an estimated annual cost of $34.1 billion to the Australian economy (2009-2010).
2 Medibank Private 2008, The cost of workplace stress in Australia, Medibank Private, Australia.
3 Medibank Private 2011, Sick at work: The cost of presenteeism to your business and the economy, Medibank Private, Australia.
In 2018, KPMG and Mental Health Australia published ROI research regarding selected, evidence-based mental health interventions fo the workplace.