Companies find great savings with benefits
Marriott reports 9-to-1 return on investment
Family-friendly benefits may not make every employee happy all the time, but a recent report by the Washington (DC) Business Group on Health (WGBH) underscores the fact that bottom-line benefits far outweigh any sporadic personnel problems they may cause. In fact, the financial benefits of such programs may ultimately serve to reinforce employee support.
"The real news here is that companies do report . . . significant return on investment," says Miriam Jacobson, director of WGBH’s Prevention Leadership Forum and a co-author of the report. "These programs are not just nice to do; they are a business imperative."
The report, titled Business, Babies & the Bottom Line: Corporate Innovations, and Best Practices in Maternal and Child Health, includes information on 22 corporate initiatives, including topics such as:
• maternity risk assessment and management;
• breastfeeding support;
• beepers for expectant fathers;
• prenatal education;
• child care resources.
Several companies shared information on their bottom-line results. Here are the highlights:
• Marriott International used a toll-free telephone line to improve communications with its multilingual work force in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Texas. Multi-lingual social workers offer counseling on issues such as child care and parenting, elder care, domestic violence, and drug abuse. Year-end 1995 reports indicated a 9-to-1 return on investment, convincing Marriott to take the service national.
• Motorola introduced "Special Delivery," an educational prenatal screening benefit, in 1991. Between 1991-1994, the program demonstrated a 3-to-1 return on the company’s $750,000 investment through a reduced pre-term birth rate and corresponding lower delivery costs.
• Sunbeam-Oster Appliance Company saw its maternity costs at two plants plunge from a per-pregnancy average of $27,242 to $2,893 after instituting a prenatal education program. Annual cost of the program: $14,000.
• Maternity benefits used to constitute 30% of health care costs at E.A. Miller, a beef-packing plant in Hyrum, UT. A prenatal screening and education program (for both parents) has reduced that figure to 10%.
Jacobson says results such as these can be used to build universal employee support for such programs. "If a company invests in prevention and health promotion, all of the employees can reap those savings; there will be more money available for raises and other benefits," she asserts. "It also demonstrates a sophistication on the part of the company, an awareness and sensitivity and a willingness to keep employees happy, healthy, and productive. In fact, I’ve never seen a program like this in isolation [from other health promotion initiatives]."
The key to success for such programs lies in "gearing them to your unique corporate culture and the unique needs of your employees and their families," says Jacobson. "An off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all program just doesn’t work." (The report noted several characteristics common to all successful programs. See p. 28.)
[For more in formation on Business, Babies & The Bottom Line, contact: Miriam Jacobson, Washington Business Group on Health, 777 N. Capitol Street, NE, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20002. Telephone: (202) 408-9320. Fax: (202) 408-9332. E-mail: [email protected].]
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