Employee Wellness Programming Using SAS® Enterprise Guide®

More businesses are utilizing employee wellness programs to improve the health of their employees (improve productivity levels, reduce absenteeism and reduce disability claims) while reducing health care costs. The success of any wellness program depends on three main rudiments: 1) identifying factors that driving up the healthcare cost within the organization such as: smoking, diabetes, back pain, or other chronic conditions. 2) Engagement level of employees in the wellness programs 3) Barriers to achieving expected engagement level. The real challenge for any wellness program is to incorporate data from different e.g. Health Risk Assessment (HRA), demographics, medical claims data, and qualitative input to build a comprehensive wellness program which incorporates the needs of the business population. Promoting health and wellness is a process, so it requires ongoing evaluation and monitoring to ensure employee satisfaction, and to ensure it is meeting the needs of employer along with supporting positive health behavior among employees. SAS® Enterprise Guide® is a comprehensive tool for reporting and analyses which aids wellness program development and adaptation. We describe the use of the Enterprise Guide to identify trends in medical conditions and predict future needs of the program.