A growing number of companies think it is very important that their employees be healthy and plan to do something about this.

A new study from Towers Watson found that three out of four companies said workforce health and promoting health and well-being will be more of a priority this year and next. In addition, 87 percent said it will be a higher priority over the next two to four years.

According to the federal government, Americans work about eight hours a day. Now, I say "according to..." because the government actually put out a study last month confirming what we already know: we spend a third of our lives at work.

The workplace is our second home. Our employer is our second family. That is why the safety net employers provide for employees matters.

Tired of dealing with higher health care costs, employers are shifting their strategies toward making their employees healthier. One tool in their arsenal is the onsite wellness clinic.

As I reported earlier, the Midwest Business Group on Health in a survey estimated that 60 percent of employers plan to expand or start a program. Wellness has slowly been catching on with employers who want to create a healthy workplace culture and who understand that costs from lifestyle-related chronic illnesses are eating up health care dollars and costing the economy $1 trillion a year.

One of the biggest winners under the health care reform law are wellness providers. Employers generally fear the new health care reform law will increase their health costs and, according to a new survey, that is one reason why many are planning to invest more in keeping employees healthy.

There's also another reason. The new law allows employers to increase the amount of money they can use to get people to comply with wellness programs and health goals. Previously, rewards offered to people who enroll in a weight-loss program, for example, could not total more than 20 percent of the person's premium, according to this primer by the Department of Labor. Under the new law, the threshold is now 30 percent. That takes effect in 2014.