Health disparities can have a negative impact on employees’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being as well as place a heavy financial burden on companies. The American Heart Association, a global advocate for longer, healthier lives for all, launches the Health Equity in the Workforce initiative in partnership with the Deloitte Health Equity Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation to enhance employee wellbeing and lessen health inequities across the country.
Insights from various business executives will be combined with the most recent scientific findings as part of the Health Equity in the Workforce program to create guidelines and tools that will assist improve workplace health equity. Employers and community organizations will be brought together to spur action, tools will be provided to measure the effects of health equality strategies, and organizational successes will be recognized to spur change.
The project seeks to improve the health of 10 million American employees by 2025, or around 10% of the workforce who make less than the median income for the country.
“The proof is unmistakable. It is both morally right and economically necessary to create an environment where all employees can succeed “said Nancy Brown, president and CEO of the American Heart Association. The program “Health Equality in the Workforce” provides corporate executives with a workable framework for addressing workforce health inequities as well as a network of leaders to help them have a greater effect.
A long cry from the reality that previous generations of Americans have encountered, health equality is the condition in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to live a healthy life. Health and well-being are highly individualized experiences, with economic, environmental and social conditions-;including years of structural discrimination and systemic barriers-;contributing to disparities in health outcomes.
Research shows that addressing the drivers of health inequities can help employers improve workplace well-being, increase employee engagement and productivity, and lower health care costs. Health inequities account for roughly $320 billion in annual U.S. health care spending and counting, according to recent analysis from Deloitte.
