In the early going, a typical employee wellness program doesn’t have much impact on healthcare costs, health, quality of life, or job performance. This, based on data from a cluster-randomized study of employee wellness at BJ’s Wholesale stores. (Cluster randomization means the worksites, not the individual participants, were randomized.) Get the lowdown in my article, The 4 Factiest Facts Overlooked in the Latest Wellness Study Kerfuffle.

But rumors of wellbeing’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. A cluster-randomized study of Gap stores showed that stabilizing worker schedules led to increased sales and — while it’s no panacea — enhanced employee wellbeing, especially sleep. (A separate major study confirmed that unstable schedules are strongly linked — more strongly even than low wages — to workers’ psychological distress, sleep disruption, and unhappiness.) The contrasting results from these studies, building on previous research, surely will persuade business leaders to prioritize organizational strategies over health behavior modification products.

Stable schedule infographic