HERO Position Paper on Value of Wellness Initiatives How to Assess the evidence on “What Works”

In 2014, HERO asked recognized experts to address the question, “Do workplace health promotion (wellness)programs work?” Their collaborative paper provides an overview of the substantial evidence base indicating that well-designed, comprehensive workplace health and well-being (HWB) initiatives yield high participation rates, sustained behavior change, improved health and workplace performance, and positive economic outcomes. Despite substantial evidence supporting the value of best-practice HWB approaches, the media coverage of occasional studies reporting negative findings has caused confusion about what really works in wellness. This commentary aims to provide HERO members with tips to help them critically examine research on the effectiveness of “workplace wellness.”

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