Companies That Promote a Culture of Health, Safety, and Wellbeing Outperform in the Marketplace

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this research is to test the hypothesis that companies distinguished by their commitment to their workforce’s health, safety, and well-being outperform in the marketplace. Methods: To test this, we analyzed the real-world stock market performance of an investment fund of publicly traded companies selected on evidence demonstrating their pursuit of a culture of health, safety, and well-being. Results: This fund outperformed the market by 2% per year, with a weighted return on equity of 264% compared with the S&P 500 return of 243% over a 10-year period. Conclusions: Employers, fund managers, and fund investors would be well served by including strategies that assess a company’s commitment to the health, safety, and well-being of their workforce when evaluating investments in their enterprise and portfolios.