 Business
Case Template
This template has been provided to help people prepare documentation
for their own organization. It is for reference only and will have to
be expanded and adapted to suit the needs of each organization.
Detailed data related to current benefit costs, age of workforce, absenteeism,
injury costs, etc. can be collected from your own organization. This type
of information is needed to demonstrate the financial incentive for your
organization to invest in active lifestyle strategies.
Things to consider before you start
- The majority of companies currently offering employee fitness programs
do so through memberships in high-quality athletic and fitness clubs.
- Typically, only large companies -- those with more than 1,000 employees
-- find it cost-effective to build and operate on-site facilities.
- Small businesses could consider working with community organizations
and resources.
- One in five members of fitness clubs join as a result of company sponsored
programs -- 83% of clubs offer special corporate rates.
Conclusions that have been reached by researchers
- Comprehensive health promotion and disease management programs are
evolving quickly.
- Large gains have been made over the past two decades.
- Quality of life issues are increasingly important to workers.
- Disease prevention is the fastest way to reduce overall health-care
costs.
- The data suggests that businesses should get involved in employee
health programs — it's in their own best interest.
- The question is no longer whether companies should get into worksite
wellness programs, but how best to design, implement and evaluate these
programs for optimal results.
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Setting up your Business Case
Background
The costs of physical inactivity
The benefits to employers/employees of physical
activity
Why the organization should consider the idea
Principles to guide the development of a program
Recommended scope and objectives of the program
Cost of recommended program
Projected cost/benefit analysis for the organization
Measurement, outcomes, and evaluation
Anticipated overall results
Sample mission statement
Background
This section should include:
- The health benefits of physical activity; and
- A statement about why your organization should consider developing
an active living strategy.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
The costs of physical inactivity
In essence, this section projects or forecasts the costs of physical
inactivity to your specific organization.
This section should include:
- Trend data on benefit programs;
- Specifics of costs in your organization;
- Statistics on absenteeism;
- Statistics on staff turnover and the cost of recruitment; and
- Statistics on the aging workforce and its potential impact on the
organization's benefit programs.
For example, if you know that 80% of the employees in your organization
are over 50 and that health-care costs for those over 50 are twice as
high as for those who are 25, you can forecast the additional cost to
your organization as your workforce ages.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
The benefits to employers/employees
of physical activity
This section should include:
- Known benefits;
- Links to productivity and cost savings; and
- Results/findings from a few Canadian studies to include health, economic,
and work environment evidence.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
Why the organization should consider the idea
This section should include:
- Workplace culture;
- Results of any internal surveys indicating morale issues, etc.; and
- A recommendation for a workplace survey to determine what employees/union
think of the idea.
Depending on how this idea came into being in your organization and the
current stage of your workplace wellness programs, you may have the results
of the workplace survey in hand before you start.
If you have not checked out this idea with employees and their unions,
then a workplace survey to see if the idea is supported is a critical
first step. These programs cannot succeed without employee support.
In fact, you may have to do the Business Case in two stages — the
first to get senior management interested and secure permission to proceed
with a workplace survey; and the second to do a full-fledged cost/benefit
analysis.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
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Principles to guide the development
of a program
This section should include:
- Overall health policy and strategic positioning;
- Leadership requirement;
- Staff involvement requirements and plan;
- Communications initiatives;
- Integration;
- Participation strategy;
- Benchmark research requirements; and
- Measuring success activities.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
Recommended scope and objectives of
the program
This section should include:
- In-house facilities or not;
- Group activities or not;
- 'Event-based' program or not;
- Length of pilot project;
- Education/marketing activities;
- Professional or volunteer leaders; and
- Physical activity and fitness appraisal, as well as counselling.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
Cost of recommended program
The costs will depend on the type of program that you intend to initiate.
Researchers have concluded that you need to establish benchmarks and measures
up front so that you can measure results over time.
These costs need to be built into the program up front. It is estimated
that, over five years, you should see a return on investment of $3.43
for every $1 invested. To achieve this, you will need to measure the progress
of participants to those of non-participants.
Things that contribute to your return on investment:
- Reduced turnover;
- Increased employee satisfaction/morale;
- Reduced rates of absenteeism, particularly incidental rates of absenteeism;
- Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease;
- Reduced number of muskuloskeletal injuries;
- Reduced health-care claims;
- Increased organizational effectiveness; and
- Less stress-related illness.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
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Projected cost/benefit analysis for the
organization
Check out Trends & Impact -- The basis
for investment decisions to help you develop this section. Your
own organizations' statistics will have to be mined. You will need:
- Current data on absenteeism;
- Current turnover rates;
- The average age of employees or a complete chart showing the age of
each employee;
- A history of health and dental claims for your organization;
- A history of Workman's Compensation Claims;
- The cost of Insurance and WCB to your organization;
- Copies of any research that has been done on morale, etc.; and
- Any data on what competitors are doing.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
Measurement, outcomes, and evaluation
This section should tell the organization how you will measure results.
Typically, performance measurement
enables an organization to:
- Determine if a program has been implemented as planned (process
measurement);
- Determine if a program has met its quality assurance criteria (process
measurement);
- Assess if a program is attracting the volume of participants that
it intended (process measurement);
- Document the individual employee health impacts of a program (impact
measurement);
- Identify the health outcomes of a program as it relates to disability
management and absenteeism rates (outcome measurement);
- Determine the cost/benefit of a program (outcome measurement);
and
- Establish whether an ongoing commitment to the program is justified.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
Anticipated overall results
In this section you will need to explain the overall results you are
anticipating for your organization.
Remember to include quality of life aspects that will help to make your
organization an 'employer of choice'.
Setting up your Business Case Menu
Sample mission statement
You may use or adapt the following mission statement when developing
your business case for active living in your workplace:
'To create a workplace environment which encourages employees to incorporate
physical activity into their daily routine and which values active living
as an essential part of both personal and corporate well-being.'
Setting up your Business Case Menu
Business Case Studies
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