Ivy Hartman: Wellness maybe the resource to boost your small business’ bottom line, that’s coming from our guest today Dr. Bob Hoffman and Dr. Jason Deitch co-authors of the best selling book “Discover Wellness, How Staying Healthy Can Make You Rich.” Gentleman, thank you for joining us on sbtv.com today, okay, what is the latest research on worksite wellness programs, tell me what it works that wellness program is also.
Dr. Jason Deitch: Well let’s start with the latest research basically there is substantial wealth of information that absolutely shows that depending on the type of wellness program you initiate, you can be receiving anywhere from a $1.50 to $15.00 return for every dollar you invest in a worksite wellness program. And there certainly are a variety of different choices that employers can choose from—everything from doing on site walking programs, onsite educational programs to more advance programs like telephonic wellness coaching services for employees to access, onsite wellness web-based programs that employers can give their employees access to.
There is a whole wide range but the one important thing for everybody to realize is that this is an investment in your people. And the more you invest in our people, the greater the return in your invest will be.
Dr. Bob Hoffman: Isn’t it crazy how so many business owners invest in their physical structure, in their machinery, in their tools and things of that nature. But they somehow never were told to invest in the most important part of their business—their people, their working capital, it’s the most important part of the business. And the fact of the matter is, it’s not only is it the right thing to do, not only is it a kind thing to do, not only is it desperately needed, but the payoff is enormous. It’s just flat out enormous. And our job is to help small business owners find ways to implement whatever makes sense to them, to drive their company to increase profitability, increase productivity, have a better retention tool to keep your best employees, have a tool to attract the best employees because you're offering something different, better, and unique.
And it’s a very easy process and the research out there about it is just never ending. We go on to sites like Google, almost every day and on a daily basis you could probably download six articles about corporate wellness. Wellness in the small business, it’s an endless process. There are organizations out there that support it and there are companies just like ours that are designed to specifically work with company, small businesses to help them with this process.
Ivy Hartman: You’ve mentioned small business several times just now in our dialogue. But to me a Health and Wellness Program as too many of our viewers may just say that’s a big business benefits. So how can you, can you describe the impact that it would have on a small business.
Dr. Bob Hoffman: Well according to all the indicators, that we have found is the average return on your investment is six to one. So if you invest a thousand dollars, you’ll save $6,000 in expenses. That’s a no brainier in my world and the truth of the matter is, is that companies that are helping the huge corporations, the Fortune 500 companies and I think the latest research is about 86% of them have wellness programs now. They're not interested in small business because it’s not cost effective to them. That’s when we come in, because we are interested in small business like you are interested in small business.
And the truth is, about 80% of all employees in America worked for small business and they need help, they need direction, they need wellness programs, they need a change in the culture and they need to become educated. And it’s a very important process but it begins with the CEO driving that and wanting to drive that and seeing the benefits of it.
Ivy Hartman: Would you like to take it back on the implementation of this program in a small business level?
Dr. Jason Deitch: Well I think you know, the good news is that it can be very easy and not have too even cost any money. It’s a shift and understanding really in the leadership of the company. An employer really needs to understand this. We talked about in the title of the book, how staying healthy can make you rich—employers really need to embrace that understanding that if they're looking to truly increase their wealth and the productivity of their business, they’ve got to make sure that they're taking good care of the people that are working for them and giving them access too and incentivizing them too make better lifestyle choices, only pays off for the employer.
So starting with a mindset shift and then working with companies whether they do their own research on the internet or whether they speak to us as consultants to help them implement oftentimes, no cost programs, again depending on their specific culture, it’s again the most easy thing that people can do. And again, as Dr. Bob said, it’s a good thing to do. So it’s good business and its right.
Dr. Bob Hoffman: And you know what every small businesses looking for that competitive advantage and sometimes just having a telephonic health coach wellness system that your employees can call or having an online assessment measuring the health and wellness or the sickness and disease of your work force is all that you need to get that advantage over your competitors, and in today’s marketplace that’s a must.
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Ivy Hartman: When you’re talking about wellness, in aligning your wellness with your employees and making sure their alignment that way, wellness goes beyond just a physical well-being of their employee also. When you talked about taking care of your employees, let’s thing about that, what other aspects of well-being should we be looking at for our employees?
Dr. Bob Hoffman: Well there is a relationship well-being, there is economic well-being, there’s a spiritual well-being—it goes on and on. And you know part of this culture, I will give you a simply tip, could boil down to something as simple that when you're interviewing, asking question about people level of wellness, finding out how wellness is important to them., you know one of the questions I ask all the time when I interview is give me three examples of how you’ve made yourself a better person this year.
And I don’t even care what the answers are I just want to know that they're committed to being a better person. So some people when you asked a question like that, you know, they’re eyes rolled back and they go “That’s a really good question.” I know that that’s not who I'm looking for. Most people fortunately in today’s day and age instantly come back with the response, “You know, I'm taking a Spanish class in the high school. At night I'm volunteering in the hospital.” They come up with answers and you know those are the kinds of key employees your company is going to thrive with.
Ivy Hartman: Thank you both for being here if you would like more information, you can pick up the book “Discover Wellness, How Staying Can Make You Rich” or you contact the doctors through DiscoverWellnessCenter.com and keep it right here on sbtv.com where small business is our only business.
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