Johnson and Johnson's Health and Wellness Program

Moreover, within two years of implementing HWP, J&J witnessed a decline of 15% in employee absenteeism rate. Peter Soderberg, President, J&J explained the rationale behind implementing the program⁷, "Our research time and time again confirms the benefits of healthier, fitter employees. They have fewer and lower long-term medical claims, they are absent less, their disability costs are lower and their perceived personal productivity and job/life satisfaction levels are higher." Ron Z. Goetzel (Goetzel), Vice-President, Consulting and Applied Research, MEDSTAT Group⁸ added, "There's a growing body of data indicating that corporate wellness programs lower medical costs for employees."⁹

Moreover, according to the estimates of Mercer¹⁰, the US industry expenditure on the medical and disability bills of employees was rising significantly. In 1998, companies had paid an estimated $4000 per annum per employee as healthcare costs, and that rose to $5,162 in 2001 and around $5,700 in 2002. Apart from other health related problems (Refer Table I), stress at workplace was considered to be one of the main reasons for this high expenditure. Work stress led to problems like nervousness, tension, anxiety, loss of patience, inefficiency in work and even chronic diseases like cardiac arrest and hypertension. As a result of these health problems, absenteeism increased and productivity of employees declined.