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. 2013 Dec;16(6):397-405.
doi: 10.1089/pop.2012.0114. Epub 2013 Mar 12.

Overall well-being as a predictor of health care, productivity, and retention outcomes in a large employer

Lindsay E Sears  1 , Yuyan Shi, Carter R Coberley, James E Pope
Affiliations

Overall well-being as a predictor of health care, productivity, and retention outcomes in a large employer

Lindsay E Sears et al. Popul Health Manag. 2013 Dec.

Abstract

Employers struggle with the high cost of health care, lost productivity, and turnover in their workforce. The present study aims to understand the association between overall well-being and these employer outcomes. In a sample of 11,700 employees who took the Well-being Assessment, the authors used multivariate linear and logistic regression to investigate overall well-being as a predictor of health care outcomes (total health care expenditure, emergency room visits, hospitalizations), productivity outcomes (unscheduled absence, short-term disability leave, presenteeism, job performance ratings), and retention outcomes (intention to stay, voluntary turnover, involuntary turnover). Testing this hypothesis both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, the authors investigated the association between baseline well-being and these outcomes in the following year, and the relationship between change in overall well-being and change in these outcomes over 1 year. The results demonstrated that baseline overall well-being was a significant predictor of all outcomes in the following year when holding baseline employee characteristics constant. Change in overall well-being over 1 year also was significantly associated with the change in employer outcomes, with the exception that the relationship to change in manager-rated job performance was marginally significant. The relationships between overall well-being and outcomes suggest that implementing a well-being improvement solution could have a significant bottom and top line impact on business performance.

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Figures

<b>FIG. 1.</b>
FIG. 1.
Model of well-being improvement and employer outcomes. Rx, prescription.
<b>FIG. 2.</b>
FIG. 2.
Overall well-being and domain change for employees receiving a comprehensive well-being improvement intervention over 1 year. A series of paired-sample t tests revealed that overall well-being and domain improvement were statistically significant (P<0.01).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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