A new report, authored jointly by Aon Hewitt, the FuturesCompany, and the National Business Group on Health, supports anemerging thesis that stress poses the greatest riskto employee well-being.

The study divided the concept of “well-being” into fourcategories: physical, emotional/mental, financial, and social.

In a survey of 2,320 adults, the most common priority for mentalwell-being was stress reduction, cited by two-thirds of workers.Similarly, the top priority for physical well-being was getting enough sleep, cited by70 percent of employees.

Both of those goals are undermined by stressful workenvironments or inflexible schedules, twoissues that researchers at Harvard and Stanford recently suggestedwere key contributors to negative health conditions among workers.That study floated the idea that corporate wellness programs, whichtypically focus on getting employees to lose weight throughexercise and improved diet or to stop smoking, may not be aseffective at reducing health issues (and thus, employer healthcosts) as an initiative targeted at reducing stress would be.

The Aon Hewitt study showed that the youngest workers aretypically the healthiest. Just under 50 percent of millennialsreported being overweight or obese, compared to 66 percent of GenXers and 71 percent of Baby Boomers.

However, it may not just be youth that is benefitingmillennials. They also appear to be more health-conscious. Forinstance, 53 percent of them said that they worry that unhealthyhabits will catch up to them later on, compared to 42 percent ofGen Xers and 31 percent of boomers.

And contrary to tradition, it’s the youngest workers who appearthe most concerned about finances, with 61 percent of millennialssaying that finances was a source of stress, compared to 53 percentof Gen Xers and 31 percent of boomers. That undoubtedly hassomething to do with the high levels of student debt that burdenyoung college grads today.

Because of their apparent concerns about staying healthy,millennials were the most likely to say that a wellness programaimed at physical, mental, financial, and social well-being wouldmake an employer more attractive. Fifty-one percent of millennialssaid that they were more likely to stay with an employer with sucha program, compared to 41 percent of members of the other twogenerations.