Wellness is a big part of today's employee benefits landscape. Employers are paying more attention than ever to employee health—and with good reason. Business owners are keeping a close eye on hard costs, and employee health risks, such as diabetes and obesity, can drive up their overall health care expenses.

Employee wellness costs could continue to rise, due to changes in the health care landscape. Brokers are in a position to help prepare clients for these changes by serving as a resource for those customers who are establishing or maintaining an employee wellness program. Here are four ways you can add value:

1) Get started

Employers establishing an employee wellness program from scratch might not understand all the ways it can benefit their workforce. Work with them to develop a strategy that makes use of offerings from their health and disability insurance carriers. Many of these carriers offer disease management, employee assistance programs and health coaching—all are a great foundation for a successful employee wellness program.

2) Set goals

A good wellness program includes measurable goals. Encourage your clients to define and set goals for the program, and offer insights into what some of your other customers are doing. Arm them with information to help them stay competitive with other employers in their industry or community.

3) Gather data

Participation data from carriers might not be formatted for easy comparison with customer metrics or goals. Find out what format will be most useful for the client. Then work with carriers and vendors to package it. Being proactive and presenting valuable carrier- and vendor-provided data will come in handy when it's time to crunch numbers.

4) Maintain and evaluate

Help analyze metrics based on employee data to determine if the program is providing a return on investment. Keeping customers updated on educational sessions or new materials from carriers may seem like a small thing, but to a busy HR professional, being in the loop about new insights and program updates is invaluable.

Brokers can be valuable resources to help their customers develop and manage an effective wellness program. You have the ear of carriers and can uncover additional resources available to them through their health care or disability plans. Maintaining that connection with a client can help save them time and money as they move toward a healthier workforce.