Evaluating wellness; EBN's new survey of wellness trends reveals continued interest in health promotion and financial fitness, but questions remain

It's a wide but representative group with some real hands-on experiences in the challenges and rewards of wellness undertakings - 57% currently have a wellness program, and another 31% are either thinking of or are on their way to implementing a wellness strategy. As a result, they're well-versed in what works, and also what wellness -related, cost-saving measures might better be avoided among those companies still on the fence about wellness' overall positives. "It's unclear to me that [wellness-driven] consumer-driven health plans and other types of high-deductible health plans sustain better engagement, ownership and improvement in the health status of their enrolled members," noted one respondent. "It's simply a mechanism for shifting costs from the employer to the employee. What are the best-in-class employers doing to positively influence their employees' engagement and sustainment of improved health outcomes?" "My current organization stopped being the 'police' of what wellness is," she says. "Wellness is something different to everyone and [we found that] letting people know what activities are available in the area for them to participate in seems to spread healthy living more than a formal program. We also gave everyone a flat amount of wellness money in January and asked them to use it for something that promoted their health - home treadmills, ski passes, bicycles, yoga classes. By not locking people into narrow criteria of what the money could be used for, each person chose what made them happy and feel better. Isn't that what wellness is about?"