exos performance - summer 2016

PERFORMANCE

THE HARD NUMBERS BEHIND SOFT BENEFITS

HOW TO HELP YOUR STAFF BECOME HEALTHIER TALKING WELLNESS TO THE C-SUITE

ELEVATING CORPORATE WELLNESS | SUMMER 2016 | TEAMEXOS.COM

Calculating the true worth of corporate wellness

2 | PERFORMANCE | SUMMER 2016 | TEAMEXOS.COM

It’s not just about corporate wellness. As an executive, you want employees to be happy, healthy, and high performing. And EXOS wants to give you the tools you need to create a performance culture that improves health, reduces health care costs, and strengthens the

bottom line. You want your team to succeed. So does EXOS. That’s why we created Performance magazine.

For over two decades, we’ve helped innovative companies improve the health and performance of their employees. Today, we bring our evidence-based methodology to over 1 million people across the world.

This inaugural issue of Performance will arm you with proven results and statistics to share with the C-suite — all so you can cultivate a healthy workforce that performs.

Jeff Terrill President, EXOS

INTEGRATING PERFORMANCE INTO YOUR COMPANY’S CULTURE

Providing food and beverages can go a long way in keeping employees happy and healthy. “The way we fuel and hydrate our bodies has a direct impact on the way we feel, the way we perform, the energy we have, our ability to

focus, and our long-term health,” says Amanda Carlson-Phillips, EXOS vice president of perfor-mance nutrition and research.

In a study conducted by online grocery retailer Peapod, 83 per-cent of respondents said having fresh, healthy snack options at work “is a huge perk.” Two-thirds of respondents between 18 and 34 years old said they would take a job “with better perks, including availability of snacks.”

While employees have the autonomy to eat and drink whatever they choose, Carlson-Phillips says, “When the best choice is the easiest choice, everyone benefits.”

4 5 Ways ... Employees Can Be More Active

5 Roundtable How Does Your Company Keep Its Wellness Program Fresh and Fun?

6 Case Study Cancer Treatment Centers of America

8 The Hard Numbers Behind Soft Benefits

12 How to Talk Wellness to the C-Suite

MYTH

FACT

of exercise — whether a relaxed walk or an outdoor

adventure — helps manage chronic illness, improve

mobility, and boost mood.

30

INSIDE

M INUTES P E R DAY

MYTH. Employees who spend more time at work do not necessarily get more done. A host of studies, including a recent one conducted by Oxford Economics, show productivity quickly diminishes without regular breaks from the office. Researchers say getaways increase happiness and job satisfaction, while a lack of time off has been shown to increase time wasted, mistakes, and resentment of co-workers. Because, after all, work plus rest equals success.

Employees with unused vacation days are more efficient.

Free Food for AllOffering free food at your office could mean happier employees — especially millennials

TEAMEXOS.COM | SUMMER 2016 | PERFORMANCE | 3

Out of Office5 reasons to skip the conference room for your next meetingADIDAS TRAIN & RUN*

Find effective cardio and strength-train-ing plans featuring

real-time coaching and voice feedback. Though the app was tested on elite ath-letes, it’s useful for anyone looking to get fit.

WELLNESSFX*

Create a wellness plan based on your goals and health.

Complete bloodwork through WellnessFX (or past records) and view your results — and find out what they mean — in a streamlined dashboard.

of employees who claimed to

have high stress levels at work

reported feeling less productive

and engaged at the office.

WEIGHT LOSS COACH BY FOODUCATE

Learn about what’s in the food you eat and how that impacts your health, no matter your goals. Interact with a supportive com-munity, and track food, activity, sleep, and mood.

STRAVA RUNNING & CYCLING

Track your activity, analyze your results, and compare to your past performanc-es, friends, and fitness pros. Strava downloads workouts from 50-plus compatible GPS devices.

Your employees are glued to their phones. Why not give them the tools to improve their health? Kevin Elsey, vice president of the EXOS performance innova-tion team, says the key is finding solutions that meet specific needs and remain useful once the novelty of a new app wears off. “Data for data’s sake is interesting for about a day or two,” he says.

4 Apps to Drive Wellness Program Engagement

57P E R C E N T

M O R E T H A N

*adidas and WellnessFX are EXOS corporate partners.

Switch up your environment — and your mindset. Take a group outside, and you might just find participants are more relaxed and at ease, says Kristine Holbrook, senior vice president of employer health and wellness at EXOS. A more casual setting could relieve some of the tension of serious subject matter.

Work performance increases when employees are up and moving. Find a spot where participants can stretch out. For longer meetings, Holbrook recommends taking a few minutes to get up and stretch, walk a lap around the office, or do bodyweight exercises.

Stay alert and energized. A healthy dose of vitamin D might be what your group needs to recharge. Avoid the low energy of the afternoon slump with some time in the sun.

Ramp up efficiency. Holbrook encourages “walk and talk” meetings to get the conversation flowing. Use the hallways or take a stroll outside, then go back to a desk or active workspace to document anything that needs to be typed out. Bonus: Research from Stanford shows just four minutes of walking boosts creativity.

Pump up the ideas. Looking at something other than plain white walls could get creative juices flowing. A change in scenery will get employees thinking outside the box.


Want to help your staff become healthier? The gym may be your first thought. But really, that’s just one piece of the fitness puzzle. Learn more about the everyday ways you can guide your employees to better health and performance.

1 Uncover what makes your employees tick. To inspire lasting changes, help your employees understand the deeper meaning behind their health goals, says Craig Friedman, vice pres-ident of EXOS’ performance innovation team. The motivation of surface-level goals can only carry people so far, but digging deeper could have more long-term benefit. “When you’re presented with a choice to take the stairs or take the elevator, you look through that lens,” he says.

2 Give your employees options. “If your goal is to get people moving more and all you have is a fitness center, you’re going to fail the majority of the population of your company,” Friedman says. It’s not always about hitting the gym. Instead, he suggests giving employees different opportuni-ties to be healthy, whether that’s in the breakroom, in the cafeteria, or virtually for remote employees.

3 Make everyday life a little more active. Creating habits is much easier when new behav-iors are tied to existing activities, Friedman says. Challenge employees with a weekly habit linked with something they already do. Try it: Every time you get up to use the restroom, choose one on a different floor and take the stairs. Or use a tennis ball to roll out the arches in your feet while you sip your morning cup of coffee.

5 Ways Your Employees Can Be More Active

4 Practice what you preach. It’s easy to say activ-ity is encouraged, but employees need to feel truly empowered to take a midday stroll or lunch-time gym visit, Friedman says. This means getting rid of hurdles that may discourage activity, like worrying about taking too long of a lunch break. What’s one of the best ways to make your team feel supported? Employees are more likely to take exercise breaks themselves if they see their boss doing the same. “It changes the dynamic signifi-cantly,” Friedman says.

5 Let your employees help each other. Fitness or wellness challenges bring your team together, and many people thrive on that socialization, Friedman says. The trick is creating groups of people with similar abilities or goals. That creates natural role models and keeps participants encouraged. It’s also important to lead participants to what’s next (think: Wellness isn’t just about this monthlong challenge). “It’s about creating interest in activity that leads to other options,” he says.

BY ALLIE SELIGMAN5 WAYS

How everyday wellness at your office starts with everyday actions


THE MOTLEY FOOL

ALEXANDRIA, VA

“To keep people engaged, every month we focus on a

different challenge related to exercise, stress management, disease prevention, or nutrition. One month, we held a ‘Taste a Rainbow’ challenge, encourag-ing people to eat as many different colored fruits and

vegetables as possible. The color of produce is closely related to its nutrients, so variety is just as important as the number of servings. Another month, we encouraged Fools to hold active meetings — stand-ing, walking, or even doing squats instead of sitting. We record the results of our

challenges on Google Docs (though we’re currently building our own in-house dashboard) and while we do have winners, everyone who participates is rewarded.”

TAKEAWAY: Shake it up.

ZAPPOSLAS VEGAS, NV

“In addition to our on-site gym, fitness classes, and

other efforts, once a quarter we hold an off-site Wellness Adventure. In January, we took about 30 employees skiing in 10 to 20 inches of fresh snow at Mount Charleston, near our Las Vegas headquarters. It was

open to everyone from experienced skiers to novices, with free lift tickets, rentals, and even coaching. The idea is to do something active that you may not have tried before. It’s not just about physical fitness or reducing health care costs. It’s also about reducing stress by

getting out of the office, and building Zappos culture by getting people from different departments together around a shared interest.” TAKEAWAY: Get out of the office and have some fun.

AQUARION WATER CO.

BRIDGEPORT, CT

“With an average employee age of 50 and

short-term disability rates going through the roof a few years ago, we decided to focus on wellness and fitness in a concerted way. In addition to putting exercise equipment in a number of our locations and

subsidizing gym memberships, we organize group events such as our ‘Lose to Win’ program — where employees form teams of five to 10 and compete to see who can clock the most miles walking, using pedometers we supply. It’s a great way to build team and company spirit in an

organization with operations spread across a wide geo-graphic area.”

TAKEAWAY: A little competition can be a very good thing.

Kelly Maher, Zappos’ Wellness Coordinator

Charles V. Firlotte, President and CEO

Samantha Whiteside, Chief Wellness Fool

BY CHARLIE SLACK roundtable

To succeed, wellness and fitness programs must be collaborative and fun rather than

top-down and dictatorial. Here’s how some companies are meeting that challenge

How does your company keep its wellness

program fresh and fun?


At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), employees treat every patient like their own mother. This philosophy is so ingrained in its culture that CTCA registered the trademark

“Mother Standard” of care. But this commitment can have a downside — it can make it tough for employees to take care of themselves.

“The employees are extremely loyal and work long hours,” says John Golden, EXOS president of product. “The doctors and nurses weren’t taking care of themselves. When they were faced with the choice of exercising or treating a sick patient, exercise would get sacrificed.” CTCA had been relying on a digital program to help improve em-ployee health, and despite the $1,500 to $1,800 average cost per employee,

results weren’t good. They turned to EXOS for help. In 2013, EXOS launched a 12-week pilot program at CTCA’s Zion, Illinois, location, which did not have an on-site fitness facility. Instead, CTCA rented out a gym at a school to make an impact companywide.

For the pilot EXOS targeted employ-ees who exercised three times a week or less (nearly half did not exercise at all), struggled with pain or movement problems, and/or couldn’t find the time to commit to a wellness program.

CREATING A PROGRAM THAT WORKSWorking with the CTCA culture, EXOS designed a program focused on movement, nutrition, and vitality — and one that didn’t require a daily com-mitment. “We wanted to help them

recapture a bit of what they used to have: their youth, spark, and energy,” says Nick Anthony, EXOS director of performance coaching. “It had been years since just about anybody had taken care of themselves.”

EXOS scheduled training sessions three times a week. They offered education, tools, and strategies — like reminding people to stay hydrated and to add colorful vegetables and fruit to their plates — in the breakroom or at lunch-and-learn sessions.

On the first day, 150 people from all parts of the company, from account managers to oncologists, filled out an evaluation to measure their baseline vitality, movement quality, nutritional knowledge, and body composition. They also provided their blood pres-sure, blood lipids, total cholesterol, and blood sugar measurements.

For some employees, it had been years since they last invested in their own health. So that’s why each session started with basic recovery exercises, using techniques like foam rolling and

BY STEPHANIE THURROTTCASE STUDY

A busy day at work can cause the best of us to skip the gym. But for staff at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a long day can make a big difference in a patient’s life. EXOS stepped in with a plan to help caregivers find time to take care of themselves

Take Care, Take Charge

Cancer Treatment Centers of America transformed its wellness program with a simple facility and equipment — no bells

and whistles required for major results.


Reports of neck, shoulder, or back pain dropped from 94 percent to 10 percent, while about a fifth of partici-pants said they missed less work due to health issues by the end of the pilot program.

Daily habits also improved. A third said they ate more fruits and vegeta-bles, and four out of five participants had more confidence — unsurprising considering their lowered abdomen measurements and body fat percent-ages. All in just 12 weeks.

The pilot’s success led to a perma-nent program at CTCA with a full-time supervisor, two coaches, and a dietitian on-site. Employees and their spouses can now join the program at any time and participate for as long as they like.

The offerings have similarly ex-panded. Participants now have access to stretching classes; cooking demon-strations; outside events such as a bike ride, a 5K walk/run, and a running clinic; small group training where four to six people get personalized atten-tion; and a holiday survival challenge every winter.

CTCA caregivers give patients their all. And now, they can give that same standard of care to themselves, too.

CHALLENGECancer Treatment Centers of America wanted to boost employees’ overall health. But the organization was spending a lot of money on a digital platform and not seeing positive results.

SOLUTION In 2013 EXOS designed a pilot pro-gram that brought exercise, nutrition, and education together to help CTCA’s employees get healthier. The program was so successful — saving the company an estimated $856,910 in avoided insur-ance claims — that CTCA expanded the program.

self-massage to help alleviate aches and pains. From there, coaches led participants through core movements to build flexibility, mobility, and stability. Similarly, yoga-type positions helped warm up the body and build balance.

“A lot of it was getting their bodies going again, recapturing that pain-free movement,” Anthony says. “At the beginning, after we would walk around the track. That’s all most people could do. They were in so much pain, and we didn’t want to intimidate them. We wanted them to feel success.”

As participants grew more con-fident and more fit, the program introduced strength routines and more intense cardio. But exercise is just one piece of the puzzle. Participants also met with an EXOS dietitian monthly to keep their nutrition habits on track.

A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE Over the 12 weeks, Anthony checked in with participants. “I asked people, ‘How’s your sleep, your mood, your productivity, your relationship with your spouse, your sex drive?’” People said they were sleeping better, taking fewer medications, and in less pain.

And the numbers backed it up.

KEY RESULTS

For more information or additional outcomes data on this program, please contact [email protected].

80 of staff said the EXOS program gave them more confidence

31 reported feeling less tired at the end of the day

24 felt less sad or stressed

21 said they missed less work due to health issues


CALCULATING THE TRUE WORTH OF CORPORATE WELLNESS A

funny thing happened on the way to perfect health. Even as science has eradicated disease after disease and surgeons replace rusted hips as rou-

tinely as mechanics change spark plugs, Americans are suffering from a host of afflictions related to the sedentary ways we live and work — and to the ever-rising stress of modern life.

Today, 36 percent of Americans are obese, versus 13 percent in the 1960s. Diabetes has similarly jumped to 9 percent from 2 percent of the population. Those conditions in turn are linked to issues ranging from heart attacks to stress to circulatory problems. At a time of supersized portions and virtual rather than physical activity, a 21st-century catchphrase says it all: “Sitting is the new smoking.”

As any employer knows from experience, the costs are more than personal. Missed workdays now account for more than $225 billion in lost productivity each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s $1,685 per employ-ee, per year. Obesity alone results in an estimated 450 million lost workdays.

SOFT BENEFITS

HARD NUMBERS

BY CHARLIE SLACKBEHIND

THE


“The U.S. health care system is built to treat and manage disease, not prevent it,” says Jeff Terrill, president of EXOS. Given the ever-rising costs of those treatments, thousands of U.S. companies have sponsored workplace wellness programs built upon the assumption that promoting healthy living will reduce their costs.

BOTTOM-LINE BENEFITSBut do such programs really pay off on the bottom line? For years after wellness programs began in earnest in the 1980s, hard numbers were difficult to come by. After all, attaching dollar figures to the absence of illness, or to an improved sense of well-being, is no easy task. Yet as the wellness movement matures, a growing body of statistical evidence has emerged supporting the idea that even incremental health improvements brought about by such programs can result in dramatic cost reduc-tions for a company. For example, the CDC estimates

companies can save up to $103 per year for each employee who loses just 1 percent of excess weight.

Such programs “eliminate costs from health care and worker compensation claims,” Terrill says. “They’re less sick, they have less pain and more ener-gy. They become more productive.”

Businesses have become wiser, according to William Baun, wellness officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center. “It’s not about one number — it’s about a culture of health, about finding ways to engage em-ployees,” says Baun, who co-authored an influential 2010 Harvard Business Review article whose findings included one company where 57 percent of employ-ees at high risk for health problems related to obesity, stress, and other factors emerged as low-risk workers at the end of a six-month wellness program — with a savings of $6 for every dollar invested in the program. Another company’s program cut lost workdays by 80 percent (for a savings of $1.5 million) and cut workers’ comp insurance in half.

Percentage of companies currently considering tying health benefits to employees reaching biometric targets

48


Researchers have even found correlations between worker health and a company’s stock performance. Three studies in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in January 2016 found that com-panies with successful wellness programs outperformed the S&P 500 stock index by 7 percent to 16 percent each year.

FINDING THE RIGHT PROGRAMAs encouraging as these findings are, what’s equally clear is that wellness initiatives vary widely in their effectiveness. Simply having a program isn’t enough, Baun notes. When programs fail to pro-duce results, it’s often because they focus too narrowly on one area of health, such as exercise, or seem dictatorial, or don’t have the full, emotional buy-in of company leaders, he says. That’s when individual workers tend to lose interest and drop out.

Successful programs, by contrast, focus on an individual’s full life, from what they eat to how they feel about work to finding

ways to reduce stress. Crucially, they also work hard to ensure that workers are not passive participants, but become motivated to take control of their own health.

Weight-loss diets that treat food and calories as enemies are often doomed from the start, says Amanda Carlson-Phillips, vice president of perfor-mance nutrition and research for EXOS. An individual starts off with the best intentions, then gives up at what seems an impossible exercise in self-depriva-tion. Carlson-Phillips encourages participants instead to understand why they eat, and how to maximize the benefits. “It’s really about changing people’s perspec-tives about food. It’s not about calories to be avoided. It’s a means to improve their life, their energy and re-silience. It’s about how you fuel your body for activity throughout the day,” she says. “That’s a real paradigm shift for many people.”

Nutrition is one of the four cornerstones of “human performance” in EXOS’ approach. The others are mindset (clear goals and knowing what it takes to

get there); movement (both exercise and incidental activity such as walking); and recovery (resting and recharging, mentally and physically).

Evidence suggests that such a comprehensive approach can elevate the effectiveness of a compa-ny’s wellness efforts by instilling new values that can help workers adopt better behaviors for years and decades to come.

During a 12-week study involving employees at a major health care system, many at high risk for heart disease and diabetes, workers using the EXOS program in combination with the organization’s existing wellness program saw their body fat drop by 22 percent, compared with 2.3 percent for those just enrolled in the existing program. EXOS participants’ tri-glyceride levels went down by 22 percent (versus 6.9 percent) and their peak VO2 (oxygen intake) increased by 19.6 percent, compared with 4.6 percent. Taken together, these and other improvements resulted in an estimated health cost savings of nearly $860,000.

THE LONG-TERM BENEFITSWhatever gains a company may experience across its workforce, the joy of any wellness program still comes down to one person, one life, and one improved outlook at a time, says Craig Friedman, vice president of EXOS’ performance innovation team. Friedman cites one woman in her 50s who, after years of struggling with obesity, was planning to undergo gastric bypass surgery. In order to meet a weight-loss requirement before having the procedure, she enrolled in a wellness program. Within a couple of months, she’d not only lost 20 pounds but gained a new sense of direction.

Ultimately, the woman chose to forgo surgery and stick with the wellness program. While not everyone experiences that kind of revelation, the long-term benefits seem clear — both for her and her employer. She avoided the risk, pain, and lost work time associ-ated with surgery, as well as the life-changing dietary restrictions that follow gastric bypass.

Less tangible but no less important were the gains in self-esteem. “She was mastering the process, building skill, and building confidence,” Friedman says. “She discovered that she had more control than she had ever given herself credit for.”

114Increase in health insurance premiums for a family of four, since 2000

$17,545Average premium for employer-sponsored health plan for a family of four in 2015 (up 4 percent from 2014)

62Of insured Americans who get their coverage through workplace health plans

Sources: CDC, Kaiser Family Foundation, Society for Human Resource Management, Willis Towers Watson

BY THE NUMBERSWHY INVEST IN WORKPLACE WELLNESS?

“ IT’S NOT ABOUT ONE NUMBER — IT’S ABOUT A CULTURE OF HEALTH, ABOUT FINDING WAYS TO ENGAGE EMPLOYEES.”

WHAT’S THE RIGHT WELLNESS PROGRAM FOR YOUR COMPANY?

VISIT TEAMEXOS.COM/UPGRADE FOR MORE INFORMATION.


WELLNESSHOW TO TALK


C-SUITE

IN THIS AGE OF

skyrocketing health care costs, a transient work-force (one CareerBuilder survey found 74 percent of employees are either looking for a job or open to a new opportunity), and calls for cost con-tainment, workplace wellness initiatives are in the spotlight — and not always for good reasons.

“Often with execu-tives there’s a high level of frustration with what they have currently and skepticism that there’s something out there that could really work,” says John Golden, president of product at EXOS. “The options can be over-whelming and they don’t want to abandon what they’ve already invested in,” he says.

HEALTH-BASED INITIATIVES MAY NOT BE A TOUGH SELL, BUT ENCOURAGING EXECUTIVES TO INVEST IN THE RIGHT SOLUTION MIGHT BE. THESE TIPS CAN MAKE YOUR JOB EASIER

BY JANET LEE

TO THE


1THE ROI DATA IS THERE. Yes, executives are going to want to know that the money they invest in

wellness will pay off. There have been numerous studies looking at this issue, with most showing positive returns.

One frequently used average in the wellness arena is around 3-to-1 ROI, but not in the first year. It may take two to four years to see those returns, especially if you’re talking about a reduction in health care costs, which is a lagging measure. Also, there are many ways to calculate ROI, depending on the factors you’re tracking (health care costs, absenteeism, workers’ comp claims and so on) and the time frame.

“If there’s a need to quantify it, we certainly encourage it,” says Bill Bourque, president of account man-agement and field operations at EXOS. “But there’s much greater acceptance now that there’s value in developing a wellness program and there’s less need to justify it from an ROI standpoint.”

2SAVVY COMPANIES WANT VOI. Value of investment, or VOI, includes factors like employee

retention, morale, job satisfaction, and engagement and productivity. “It can include a variety of measures and it’s really up to management to decide what they care about,” says Paul Terry, Ph.D., president and CEO of HERO, the Health Enhancement Research Organization.

One aspect that virtually all execu-tives are interested in and that underpins every program is employee engage-ment. “What percentage of the staff can you get to participate and at what level for how long,” Golden explains. “If we can get 40 percent of them participating at least once a week for more than 12 weeks, that’s a win for everyone.”

Terry describes the above as enage-ment with a small e, but companies should also consider and pay attention to engagement with a capital E: “It’s how engaged employees are with the company’s overall mission, do they love their jobs, are they in the flow of work. These are the things that separate great companies from good companies.”

3YOU’RE NOT BUILDING A WELLNESS PROGRAM. YOU’RE CREATING A CULTURE.

In health-oriented companies, wellness should permeate every aspect of cor-porate life. “It doesn’t happen just in the gym or one area,” Bourque says. “You have to create an ecosystem to support wellness, from policies to a fitness cen-ter to the cafeteria to healthy vending machines to creating welcoming stair-cases so employees are more motivat-ed to use them over the elevator.”

These all take courage and convic-tion and speak to a broader corporate culture — and they engage more people.

4WELLNESS-FOCUSED COMPANIES PERFORM BETTER.

Healthier and more engaged and satisfied employees means greater productivity.

A large 2009 Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM) study across a variety of industries found that health-related productivity costs are more than twice as much as medical and pharmacy costs. Back and neck pain, obesity,

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WELLNESS COMPANYWIDEWhile 85 percent of companies with more than 1,000 employees have wellness programs (according to a 2013 Rand Corp. study), only 60 percent of those employees are aware of them. Here’s how to get the word out:

Create touch points. Lunch-and-learns (or, even better, “walk and burns”), impromptu focus groups, surveys and stretch breaks are all opportunities to gather information on where people are in terms of health and wellness and where they want to be. “You have to look at both their health risks and their interests so people are eager to participate,” Terry says. If you can meet them where they are, you increase engagement and success.

Change your launch strategy. Organizations have traditionally used company-wide campaign cycles to launch new wellness initiatives. Golden instead suggests rolling out new programs in a wave fashion where you target certain populations that you think you can impact, create results and then move on to another group.

Lead from the C-suite. Executives should be front and center in modeling healthy behavior. And there’s sound reason behind it. “Because they are on planes all the time, they need to have athlete-level energy levels,” says Ogden Reid, Intel’s vice president of human resources, in a February 2016 article in The Wall Street Journal that features EXOS’ work with Intel. Once they’re on board, Bourque says, “The key is how you leverage that leadership to permeate the organization.”


depression, and arthritis — all of which can be addressed with wellness pro-grams — are significant causes of lost productivity, whether due to absentee-ism or presenteeism.

Another JOEM study, this one conducted by HERO, compared a simulated portfolio of 42 publicly traded companies that had scored highly on its proprietary rating of best practices and compared it to the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index. The high-scoring group outperformed the S&P by almost 50 percent over a six-year period.

5IT PAYS TO INVEST IN INTEGRATED PROGRAMS. “Point” solutions — limited, narrowly

focused, often cookie-cutter options — that work for a portion of the popu-lation but not the company as a whole, generally do not perform as well as integrated programs.

“We had a company that was spending $390 per employee per year on blood workups and the executives were tired of paying for it because every year the results came back and the employees weren’t as healthy as they were the year before,” Golden explains. On its own it seems like a reasonable option, but without sup-port, education, motivation, and a way to make sure you’re targeting the right people in the right way these limited programs can fall short.

This frustration led the company to reach out to EXOS to create a program that cost about 40 percent less and engaged each employee more often with a digital assessment, in-person consultation, personal training, nutrition counseling, and more — meaning bet-ter return on health and investment.

“It doesn’t mean you have to abandon what you’ve already invested

in,” he adds. “What they needed is an ecosystem that connects people to the right solution for them.” That’s when you start to see higher engagement and value.

6IT WILL HELP YOU RECRUIT MORE COMPETITIVELY (AND DO IT LESS OFTEN).

People don’t stay at their jobs the way they used to, especially millennials, 58 percent of whom expect to leave their job within three years, according to one survey.

Benefits and the company culture do matter. Increasingly, workers are looking for variety and creativity in benefits options and health is part of that. A 2012 survey conducted by Harris Interactive found that 45 percent of employees indicated they’d be more willing to stay at their jobs if there was a wellness program — a 5 percent increase over the prior year.

ARE YOU INVESTING IN THE RIGHT SOLUTION?

VISIT TEAMEXOS.COM/UPGRADE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

A 2012 survey conducted by Harris Interactive found that 45 percent of employees indicated they’d be more willing to stay at their jobs if there was a wellness program — a 5 percent increase over the prior year.

45

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