The Oregon Healthy WorkForce Center held it’s first annual Partner’s Luncheon in Portland on Friday. Over 125 people attended to hear keynote speaker Larry Chapman of the Chapman Institute in Seattle present “An authoritative look at the ROI of worksite wellness.” He described the evidence basis for the high return on investment (ROI) of workplace wellness programs measured in dollar savings to the organizations. In a conservative meta-analytic review of 22 published, scientifically rigorous studies: $3.27 was saved in medical costs for every $1.00 spent on the programs and $2.73 was saved in absenteeism costs for every $1.00 spent. In a broader sample of studies published by Mr. Chapman, the overall savings were greater. The slides will be available on the Oregon Healthy WorkForce site in the coming week.
After the talk, registrants rolled up their sleeves and answered questions posed by the Healthy WorkForce Center about what was important to measure in intervention studies to improve “Total Worker Health” (Occupational Health & Safety and personal wellness) being carried out by the Center and what were the best ways to motivate people to change or improve their safety, health and wellness behaviors. The picture below shows the groups at work.
Early registrants were from Labor, Industry (construction, diverse services, manufacturing, health care, transportation), Government (state, county, city), Academia (all large Oregon universities), and K-12 education; a more complete list of the sectors represented will be available on the Partner’s Luncheon page of the Oregon Healthy WorkForce Center.
