Why bringing illnesses into the office is worth it

For fear of infecting your entire department, you’d never encourage a sick Finance employee to come into the office. But what if you could cut costs by bringing healthcare functions on-site?

The big boys are doing it — companies like Toyota, Pepsi and Sprint Nextel are seeing major savings (for employer and employee alike) by bringing health clinics on-site. They handle routine services like flu and allergy shots, check-ups and programs for common, chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma. A few are even committing to long-term programs for weight loss and smoking cessation.

But if your company doesn’t have the massive resources of these businesses — and let’s face it, most don’t — there’s still the option of contracting the function out to a nearby, off-site clinic. It won’t be quite the same as having employees stop by before or after a shift to take care of their medical needs, but it still gives them a centralized place to find anything they need.

A report from Watson Wyatt and the National Business Group on Health found that 29% of companies either have or plan to an offer on-site health center, and that 70% of those companies cited “reducing medical costs” as the main reason for doing so.

How much can a company expect to save? Plenty, and it won’t take too long to see it: On-site programs should expect at least a 3:1 return on investment within the first three years of its introduction. That includes lowered healthcare costs for both a company and its employees and the increase in productivity from fewer employee sicknesses.