JULY 2021HR TECH OUTLOOK8Over the past 30 years I have seen the wellness landscape evolve from a needs only (fix it when it's broken) to a "whole life"-based approach to wellness. At the beginning of my career, companies focused on offering a basic indemnity medical plan, which does not even exist in today's market. Occasionally, companies would offer a dental plan, possibly a vision plan but rarely any sort of wellness program. All of these plans required a trip to the Human Resources office for a summary of benefits and benefit enrollment completion.At that time, companies did not understand or appreciate the need to provide employees and their dependents a wellness program. The few companies that did offer a wellness program did not offer anything close to what a wellness program is today. Wellness providers were also few and far between 20 plus years ago. The wellness companies that were around were often small boutique firms that offered a specific wellness program with few options; they had very limited reporting capabilities and struggled to prove the return on investment (ROI). There was no track record, and companies were hesitant to implement wellness programs due to costs and an unproven approach to reduce costs.As wellness programs began to emerge in the corporate landscape, they were generally started regionally with limited scope on improving an employee's overall health. These initial programs were created for specific needs (e.g. smoking cessation or diabetes) and did not address the holistic quality of life of employees. There was no technology available to allow companies to gather information on program utilization or the success of the programs in controlling costs. Without the tools to prove ROI and the inability to track usage, coupled with the overall nature of the "non-black and white" nature of wellness it was hard to sell management on investing in such programs.In the late 1990's, with the support of computer technology, wellness programs began to extend on a nationwide scale. It might be hard for current Benefits Managers to comprehend, but when I started in this field, fax machines were the only method of communicating documents or sharing information. Email capabilities did not materialize until the mid-1990's, with a slow adoption rate. As technology progressed, regional wellness providers expanded their offerings, large well-known medical providers entered the market and some even started their own separate companies entirely focused on wellness.As we entered the 2000s, wellness programs started to really take hold and expand nationally. Computer technology was leading the way. No longer was there a need for employees to make a trip to the Human Resources office to sign up for benefits or to learn about a (often sensitive) wellness program details. Websites were developed, email systems were operational, and wellness providers now had several years of data to support their theory that wellness programs would lower healthcare costs and improve the quality of life for employees. Technology was permitting management to demonstrate the ROI of wellness programs.Corporate Wellness from Fax Machines to BotsDavid O. Keys, Director, Global Benefits, The Hershey Company [NYSE:HSY]By
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