February 2018 - Olavi Group

Of Synergies and Spreadsheets

When buying anything, whether it's a company choosing a vendor, a suburban soccer mom considering solar panels on a home, investing in stocks, or as a CEO considering an acquisition, the big and easy decisions are what you should focus on, not the slick presentations or the fancy math (or total lack of numbers). Is there a quick back-of-the-envelope ROI? What are the explicit and implicit costs? Since ~90% of health happens outside of intervention settings, you should focus on net value, or what ...

A Wellness Alternative

If gym memberships are a waste of wellness dollars (see Rand Study and IL Wellness study) , why not give a smaller after-tax amount for people to spend on what they want. One idea is equipment. Give employees $150 to buy running shoes, ski poles, yoga pants, entry fees to races, or new mountain bike tires. It's the ultimate in choice. Yes, some would waste it but dollars are already going down the drain. Employees would appreciate it and have a deeper respect for their company, truly pr ...

Corporate Goodwill

A study published in NBER last month has some interesting implications on workplace wellness programs. While only a one year study, it's unique since it's the only comprehensive randomized controlled trial on wellness. 1) There are diminishing returns on wellness incentives and it is lower than most think (after around $200 there isn't much of an impact). 2) As expected, healthy participants self-select into wellness programs. Spend was close to $1,600 lower for this group but that was not a ...