Employee health and wellness programs deliver four core benefits: improved well-being, increased productivity, reduced healthcare costs, and improved retention — with 83% of large employers offering programs aimed at helping employees identify and manage health conditions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.1
Five trends are shaping the space: hybrid workforce benefits, AI personalization, mental health, total wellbeing strategies, and preventive care as a cost-control tool.
Cardiovascular disease is a prime target for these programs, since work-related factors contribute to 10-20% of CVD deaths in working-age adults, and traditional lipid testing can miss early risk.2
Epigenetic testing (like Epi+Gen CHD™) is a complementary solution to traditional risk calculators that can help identify an individual’s risk for a coronary heart disease event including a heart attack, outperforming standard lipid-based screening.3
Employee health and wellness programs are workplace initiatives funded by employers that are designed to improve the physical, mental, and financial health of employees. Many large employers offer wellness programs to help workers and their families identify and address health risks and unhealthy behaviors. According to a 2025 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 83% of large employers (200 workers or more) offer programs in at least one of these areas: smoking cessation, weight management, and behavioral or lifestyle coaching.1
Over the years, employers have increasingly focused on employee well-being as a strategy to attract and retain top talent. Prospective hires anticipate corporate wellness programs as part of their compensation package, and organizations need to rise to meet these changing expectations.
As a result, understanding what employees desire in wellness programs is critical. Successful wellness initiatives don’t just check boxes but are built around the changing needs of employees and are structured to encourage utilization.
By improving the health of workers and their families, employee wellness programs in turn have four chief benefits: improved well-being, increased productivity, reduced healthcare spending, and improved retention.
Improved well-being: Workplace wellness is a growing focus area among employees. In the American Psychological Association 2023 Work in America™ Survey focused on psychological health and well-being, 92% of workers reported it was very or somewhat important to them to work for an organization that values their emotional and psychological well-being.4 Corporate wellness programs represent key opportunities to meet this emerging priority in the workplace.
Increased productivity: Improving employee well-being through workplace initiatives can have important impacts on productivity. Research by Oxford’s Saïd Business School found that workers are 13% more productive when happy.5 They’re also less likely to burn out, turnover, and take sick days. The key takeaway? Employee wellness can have measurable effects on an organization’s bottom line.
Reduced healthcare spending: Wellness programs represent strategic opportunities to target cost centers, such as preventable or chronic medical conditions. By investing in workplace benefits that target common chronic conditions, such as hypertension, mood disorders, diabetes, heart disease, and asthma, employers can minimize workplace absenteeism and support a healthier workforce.
Improve employee retention: While employee wellness programs can reduce healthcare costs and improve return on investment (ROI) by targeting key cost centers, the ROI on employee retention and recruitment may be larger. The cost of burnout in the workplace is significant: On average, voluntary turnover due to burnout cost companies 15% to 20% of their total payroll, according to Gallup.6 Thus, developing well-rounded plans is critical for retaining high-value employees.
Hybrid work has become a permanent fixture in the workplace. Employers increasingly offer remote work flexibility: 52% of U.S. remote-capable employees work in a hybrid environment and 26% are exclusively remote.7 Many organizations also comprise blended workforces with on-site, remote, and contract workers to meet operational needs.
As workplaces embrace hybrid structures, successful wellness programs need to adapt to accommodate in-person and remote employees. Considering remote workers when establishing wellness initiatives is important to create a more inclusive environment and reduce workplace isolation.
Benefits that apply to both in-person and remote employees, such as fitness or food stipends, or targeted resources for remote employees, such as home office equipment allowances, co-working space memberships, or internet reimbursements, can help support a blended benefit strategy. Strategies should be catered to an organization’s employee population and support overall organizational goals.
AI and advanced analytics can have several benefits throughout the benefit process. When enrolling in programs, AI can suggest personalized benefits based on an employee’s past benefit usage or answer commonly asked questions about plans.8 This can simplify confusion about program offerings and potentially increase usage.
With analytics, HR teams can also identify trends in benefit programs and areas with the most impact. Analyzing participation and utilization rates can help inform necessary changes to benefit designs to improve engagement and fill in potential gaps in programming.
Organizations are paying greater attention to the role of mental health in the workplace. According to the latest Wellbeing Diagnostic Survey by Willis Towers Watson, 3 in 5 companies have wellbeing fully integrated or core to their total reward strategy (compared to 1 in 9 companies in 2015).9 Employees also value organizations that focus on wellbeing: 92% of workers said it is very (57%) or somewhat (35%) important to them to work for an organization that values their emotional and psychological well-being.4
While increased attention on wellbeing in the workplace demonstrates a positive trend, mental health issues persist, with over half of employees (56%) reported having above-average levels of stress, while 37% have reported symptoms of anxiety or depression.9 The results signal that mental health will continue to be an important focus area for organizations seeking to deliver competitive and comprehensive benefits.
Organizations are increasingly taking a ‘total’ wellbeing approach. The meaning of wellbeing has expanded from simply maintaining good physical health or personal happiness to other areas, such as mental health or fostering social connections. A total wellbeing approach can also be more financially sensible than traditional, fragmented wellness programs.
A holistic wellbeing strategy that addresses physical, mental, financial, and social health offers a cost-effective path to improving retention, reducing absenteeism, and increasing productivity.10 Integrated benefits that incorporate these pillar areas simultaneously, such as lifestyle spending accounts with group goals, subsidized commuter and active transit programs, or establishing on-site care clinics, can help organizations target wellbeing more efficiently and holistically.
Preventive healthcare serves as a key mechanism for organizations to control costs and promote healthier workforces. According to Gallup, 75% of medical costs are accrued primarily due to preventable conditions.6 Organizations can incorporate preventive healthcare into wellness programs through a variety of offerings, including:
Preventive screenings for common chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Mobile health units that bring preventive care directly to employees.
On-site flu vaccination clinics to minimize workforce absences from the flu.
Wellness stipends for completing annual physical exams.
Education workshops to promote healthy lifestyle habits.
Chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States, as well as the leading drivers of health care costs.11 Thus, targeting chronic diseases through wellness programs focused on preventive care can help organizations maximize the impact of such programs.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in particular represents an area where wellness programs can stand to make a significant difference: among working-age populations, work-related factors contribute to an estimated 10-20% of CVD mortality.2 Employees aren’t the only ones that pay the price of a poor work environment — employers also bear both the direct and indirect costs associated with CVD. According to a study conducted by RTI International for the American Heart Association, an employee with cardiovascular disease costs their employer on average nearly 60 hours and over $1,100 in lost productivity per year than an employee without cardiovascular disease.12
The direct cost of poorly managed heart health in the workplace can also be significant for employers. According to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the mean direct healthcare cost per acute coronary syndrome (ACS) event exceeds $60,000.13
Wellness programs targeting CVD should combine medical and lifestyle interventions to identify and support those at risk. The key to implementing these strategies is to use effective methods to assess both initial risks and to monitor prevention and inform treatment for employees at high risk or diagnosed with CVD.
Currently, the CVD-specific benefits offered by employers largely focus on identifying and managing risk factors such as cholesterol levels. However, methods that rely on using risk factors as a proxy for disease can have limitations as they miss those who develop disease without such indicators.
As a result, a growing number of employers and their benefit consultants are seeking alternative preventive programs. Epigenetic-genetic testing as a health and wellness benefit presents an emerging opportunity for employers to support healthier workforces, in turn reducing costs indirectly through reduced absenteeism and increased productivity and directly through lower healthcare claims.
Preventive programming is especially important when it comes to risk for cardiovascular events, as about 1 in every 5 heart attacks are silent.14 By establishing health benefits that supports earlier detection of risk, employers can help prevent costly, potentially fatal heart attacks among employees.
Epi+Gen CHD™ is an example of an epigenetics-based test that estimates the risk of a CHD event, such as a heart attack, within the next three years. It is a test capable of identifying employees who are carrying silent risk for a heart attack, despite appearing healthy and may not present with traditional risk factors or severe symptoms. In direct head-to-head comparison, this test was able to identify more individuals at risk for an event such as a heart attack compared to traditional risk calculators that rely on risk factors.
Incorporating such a test into a broader wellness program benefits both parties. For employees, it offers a proactive approach to managing risk for a heart attack by providing personalized insights based on their molecular profile that can be targeted for treatment under the guidance of a provider. For employers, it serves as a cost reduction strategy by optimizing utilization (minimizing unnecessary visits while ensuring employees receive the care they need sooner rather than later) and preventing a serious, costly health event before it hits their claims. The result is a win-win: employees stay healthier and more productive, and employers reduce their healthcare spend.
KFF, “2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey.” KFF. Published October 22, 2025, https://www.kff.org/health-costs/2025-employer-health-benefits-survey.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Heart Disease and Work.” National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Last modified January 26, 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/heartdisease/about/index.html.
Dogan, M. V., S. Knight, T. K. Dogan, K. U. Knowlton, and R. Philibert. “External Validation of Integrated Genetic-Epigenetic Biomarkers for Predicting Incident Coronary Heart Disease.” Epigenomics 13, no. 14 (2021): 1137–1152. https://doi.org/10.2217/epi-2021-0123
American Psychological Association. “2023 Work in America™ Survey: Workplaces as engines of psychological health and well-being.” https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-in-america/2023-workplace-health-well-being.
University of Oxford. “Happy workers are 13% more productive.” October 24, 2019. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2019-10-24-happy-workers-are-13-more-productive.
Gallup. “Employee Wellbeing Is Key for Workplace Productivity.” Accessed September 2, 2026. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/215924/well-being.aspx.
Gallup. “Hybrid Work.” Accessed September 2, 2026. https://www.gallup.com/401384/indicator-hybrid-work.aspx.
Casey, Danielle. “Transform employee benefits education with AI.” WEX Inc. Published September 1, 2026. https://www.wexinc.com/resources/blog/ai-employee-benefits-education/.
WTW. “US employers prioritize wellbeing but miss the mark with employees.” Published October 31, 2024. https://www.wtwco.com/en-us/news/2024/10/us-employers-prioritize-wellbeing-but-miss-the-mark-with-employees.
MetLife. The Success Reset: MetLife's 24th Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study. New York: MetLife, 2026. https://www.metlife.com/workforce-insights/employee-benefit-trends/.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “About Chronic Diseases.” National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Last modified May 14, 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/chronic-disease/about/index.html.
RTI International. “Cardiovascular Disease Costs Will Exceed $1 Trillion by 2035.” Newsroom. Published February 14, 2017. https://www.rti.org/news/cardiovascular-disease-costs-will-exceed-1-trillion-2035.
Maedeh Zokaei Nikoo et al., “The Economic Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in the United States,” American Journal of Cardiology 270 (2026): 172–179, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2026.03.073.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Heart Disease Facts.” National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Last modified Oct. 24, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/heart-disease/data-research/facts-stats/index.html
