Evaluations of corporate wellness programmes need to expand beyond the conventional financial parameters of return on investment (ROI) and include physiological, psychological and social factors to truly gauge their effectiveness.

That was the conclusion from a recent roundtable - hosted by wellness giant Technogym - which gathered experts from a number of industries to explore the future of corporate wellness programmes. The group highlighted that the best corporate wellness programmes take into consideration a company’s unique profile, needs and objectives, and focus on sustained, consistent implementation that integrates wellness into its culture and DNA.

Corporate wellness programmes continue to grow in prominence, but methods to evaluate their efficacy remain underutilised. A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 90 per cent of US corporations don’t have sufficient data to measure the return they get on wellness programme investment.

The roundtable consensus was that initial engagement with wellness programmes is usually driven by organisational values and philosophy, instead of financial gain. However, the experts pointed out that while many organisations have a performance driven culture that demands benchmarks and metrics, wellbeing measures – such as a Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI) index, data from staff satisfaction surveys and employee turnover data – need to sit alongside business numbers for an accurate measurement of success.

The group noted investment in corporate wellbeing cannot be adequately assessed if only quantifiable measures are used. Many kinds of data are difficult to acquire, such as long and short-term absenteeism, productivity and staff engagement. Other measures of success such as enhanced company reputation, contribution to corporate and social responsibility (CSR) policies are difficult to quantify, and also exclude the employees’ experiences.

In establishing what factors lead to a corporate wellness programmes, the panel first sought to define what makes one. ‘An ongoing sustainable programme that includes the regular collection and evaluation of data,’ was the group view, drawing the distinction from arbitrary ‘health promotion’, which is usually marked by short term initiatives with little or no data collected.

Four factors were found to be key to the success of a corporate wellness programme:

1. Consideration of the corporate culture, values and aspirations

2. Consistent collection of data to evaluate the programme3. Quality and reach, both of the programme and of its implementers

4. A strategy of engagement with both management and workforce

The notion that the ‘reach’ or diversity of the programme is a key factor, echoes findings from a 2014 study by Corporate Wellness 365. The research indicated that businesses must provide employees with access to a broader range of fitness and wellness activities that go beyond traditional gym membership if they want to engage them with new healthy behaviours.

Leading the Technogym roundtable was Sue Pritchard of corporate consultancy Aditi Unlimited. She said: “This Corporate Wellness Roundtable white paper challenges some of the accepted barriers to considering and implementing corporate wellness programmes and offers some well researched, tried and tested methods for introducing them into organisational life.

“We benefited from the perspectives of those who have researched health and wellbeing for decades, alongside others who have led the field in implementing ground-breaking initiatives in organisation settings.”

The roundtable brought together representatives from academia, human resource and corporate wellness provision, including: Anna Daniels, founder of Daniels Fitness; Clayton Green, human performance programme manager at McLaren; Dr Dorian Dugmore, CEO of the Wellness Academy and director of corporate wellbeing at Perform at St George’s Park; Fabrizio Cecchinelli, marketing manager of health corporate and public divisions at Technogym; Gillian Pillans, research director of the Corporate Research Forum; and Prof John Buckley, programme leader at the Department of Clinical Science, University of Chester.

To download a copy of the Corporate Wellness Roundtable white paper, click here.