Clearly some employers are axing programs, according to Laura Pickering, executive director of the New York Business Group on Health.

Under stress most organisms revert to type. In business, this means short-term thinking. The hunkered-down defensive position is about survival. Anything that looks like a cost and can be cut, will be cut.

The downturn won’t last forever

However, enlightened management will have made provision for naturally occurring economic cycles. It’s at times like these that organizations demonstrate their commitment to employee well-being. The value in almost all companies today is the people who work there. The downturn won’t last forever. Sooner or later employees will have greater choices of where they want to work.

The living organization

We think of employees as being healthy or not, but the organization itself is a living entity. It has a predictable growth and decay pattern. New growth is more likely to happen when the organization is agile, flexible, and open to change.

Employee health is a long-term project. If workplace-wellness professionals can’t convince management that sick, poorly nourished, exhausted employees are not only unproductive, but are more likely to be a financial burden on the company, then it’s not the program that is at fault.

Consequences

What are the consequences of eliminating programs? Is this elimination permanent or temporary? Is the program costly in terms of money or time? This is an important distinction. When bosses want to eliminate a program what do they think they are saving? Would they be open to a program that costs time and not money?

Something is better than nothing

During a causal conversation I was told of a company whose employees would stretch in the hall for ten minutes twice a day. How expensive is that? It gave the employees a sense of community, fun, and well-being. Employees received a stamp in their wellness passport. At a certain number of stamps they were rewarded.

Those employers who demonstrate their commitment to employee health and well-being will be the places of choice for the best talent.

The University of Oklahoma recently completed a pilot program using low-cost Easy Desktop Yoga for a number of employees who work at their computers all day. Even in these economic times  OU just expanded their program by purchasing a second set of licenses.

Those companies eliminating programs are operating in emergency mode. Chronic emergency is harmful to  individual and organizational health.