Working towards wellness: The business rationale

ROI: Workplace Wellness

Each year the world’s most influential companies launch initiatives with the World Economic Forum to tackle the most complex challenges facing humanity. In 2007, the critical role businesses can play at preventing chronic disease was a key topic.

In collaboration with the World Economic Forum, PwC presents data describing the accelerating prevalence of chronic disease and offers a compelling business case for the role workplace wellness programs can play in combating this problem of epidemic proportions. Tangible results from existing workplace wellness plans in various countries and industries give insight into the business results that can be expected when implementing such a plan. These examples illustrate that organizations can drive change while reaping the dual benefits of improved financial results and heightened employee goodwill. With appropriate leadership, organizations can help drive change that will improve wellness, prevent chronic diseases and drive down of healthcare costs.

Because chronic diseases are responsible for more than half of all deaths in the world and are projected to account for two-thirds of all deaths globally in the next 25 years, PwC proposes that organizations have a clear interest in investing in wellness initiatives for four major reasons:

  • Chronic disease drives healthcare costs.
  • Productivity losses associated with chronic disease are even greater than the medical costs themselves.
  • Workplace wellness efforts can positively impact human capital investments.
  • Sustainability is threatened by the epidemic of chronic disease.

For more information on PwC involvement in the World Economic Forum‘s Working Towards Wellness initiative please contact:
PwC World Economic Forum Relationship Partner — Carrie Yu
PwC Working Towards Wellness Leader — Mike Thompson

For more information on the World Economic Forum‘s Working Towards Wellness initiative contact workingtowardswellness@weforum.org.

Of further interest

You can download other joint reports that resulted from the Working Towards Wellness private workshop developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization and launched at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos