In this recent episode of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s A Healthier Michigan podcast, Cindy Bjorkquist, Director of Health & Well-Being at BCBS Michigan, shares why it’s important for employers to help employees attain not only good health, but true well-being.
Employers have been offering wellness programs, such as access to a gym, for years. But according to the National Business Group on Health, employers are increasingly looking for programs that support an employee’s well-being. Well-being programs go beyond a basic weight loss class; they offer tools to reduce financial stress, increase mindfulness or connect with community and social resources. There’s growing evidence that enhancing employee well-being can have measurable results on productivity, turnover and healthcare costs. One estimate shows that employees with higher well-being scores can save as much as $1,000 a year in healthcare costs.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBS Michigan) is helping employers make the transition from wellness to well-being with a new program, Blue Cross® Virtual Well-Being. Virtual Well-Being features live, 10- to 15-minute weekly well-being webinars — one for employers on Tuesdays and one for members on Thursdays — with downloadable content that focuses on a different topic each week, such as financial well-being, emotional health, exercise, nutrition and meditation. For employers, The Virtual Well-Being program focuses on topics that will help them improve employee well-being to boost performance, increase engagement and morale, and attract and retain high-value talent. Since the beginning of January, more than 1,000 employers and 2,900 members have registered for the webinars.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, an association of independent, locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.