Korea urged to improve wellness program
By Kwon Eun-young
Korean companies are strongly advised to pay more attention to, and invest more in, improving employee wellness programs in a bid to boost productivity, according to a global HR expert.
He pointed out that there are various ways to yield productivity benefits to a firm but a wellness program is considered one of the best ways to improve productivity as it can make employees healthier and thus the firm enhance employee engagement and reduce the cost of medical plans.
“When they become healthier, you will get all the benefits with the healthy workforce. So employers now pay attention to the problems what the employees are doing behind the desk.” Carl Redondo, a lead consultant from global HR consulting firm Aon Hewitt said in a recent interview with Business Focus.
According to Redondo, employee health was considered as a personal problem in Korea but the issue is evolving as an important concept to be dealt in the employer’s level as competition among major firms in Asia to attract talents has been heating up.
“When the wellness problems were related to nutrition, there were not many things that employers can do. But now the problem you see is obesity, smoking and drinking alcohol. These are related to our life style. Employers can tap into those problems and change employee’s behavior" he added.
He added that it is important to develop personal health database and establish global standards in wellness programs in order to analyze their problems in a timely manner and reduce employees’ claims.
“When a lot of employees claim “cold,” you can find why they are suffering from it. It can be because of the office location or it can be related to the stress related problems. After finding it you can make a change,” he said.
However, the consultant said that there are several hurdles that prevent Korean firms from improving wellness programs ― employees’ reluctance to share personal information and extremely tight working schedule.
Redondo, who leads Aon Hewitt’s Health and Benefits practice for Asia Pacific, said that Korean firms focus on their corporate culture to resolve the issue.
In his view, since most Korean companies have hierarchical culture under which senior managers can influence their employees in various ways, the managers can play important roles in encouraging the employees to participate in developing wellness programs.
The Shanghai-based consultant also stressed that companies should focus more on mental health problems as they are becoming as serious as physical health issues at workplaces.
“Big issues in Asia are about very long working hours and a lot of stress. However, talking about mental health is a taboo in Korea. Having a counseling system would be necessary,” he said.