Corporate Health and Wellness and the Financial Bottom Line: Evidence From South Africa

OBJECTIVE: The research objective was to test the hypothesis that corporate health and wellness contributed positively to South African companies’ financial results. METHODS: The past share market performance of eligible healthy companies, based on Discovery's Healthy Company Index, was tracked under three investment scenarios and compared with the market performance on the basis of the JSE FTSE All Share Index. RESULTS: The evidence supports the hypothesis that a culture of health and wellness provides a financial advantage, in so far as the portfolio of healthy companies consistently outperformed the market over the selected simulations. CONCLUSIONS: Given the limitations of the investigation, namely small sample size, the brevity of the period of investigation, and the reliance on accessibility sampling, the research provides the first and preliminary evidence supportive of the direct financial benefits of companies’ wellness programs.