The Shift is ON! –

Create a cultural transition to wellness and improve your company’s

bottom line

By Dr. Ken Kaufman

There is little doubt that employee wellness

programming is no longer just a luxury or perk, but

is quickly becoming a necessity. To control the

spiraling, out-of-control costs associated with

providing health care to employees, it stands to

reason that it is absolutely essential that

organizations attract and retain healthy, fit

employees and executives. As many organizations

grapple with the different wellness programming

options available, it is important to begin with the

end in mind. To realize the best return on your

wellness investment it is necessary to shift the culture

of your organization away from one of sickness and

low productivity to one toward wellness and record

breaking performance.

It has been shown in numerous studies that

employee wellness programs have become the most

cost effective strategy to insulate organizations from

the escalating health care costs that continue to effect

profitability. With the uncertainties of the recent

health care legislation looming, one thing is for sure -

companies that fail to incorporate employee wellness

initiatives will face tremendous challenges to their

profitability, productivity and workforce retention.

One of the shortfalls that I have noticed when

consulting with many companies is that they often

times implement wellness initiatives that are

disjointed and have no continuity. For example, one

organization created incentives for their employees

to take a health risk assessment offered through their

insurance carrier. In this instance, they paid their

employees $250.00 to take the assessment. As you can

guess, they had great participation with over 80

percent of the employees participating. After hearing

this, I asked the HR person, “What follow-up support

did you provide your employees after taking the

HRA?” The disappointing answer was, “nothing”.

Unless the employees that took the assessment and,

on their own, made some changes to improve their

health, that $250.00 per employee was wasted.

This is a common scenario that I have seen over and

over again. One program is offered that has no solid

progression to the next step. Many companies will

offer a diet program with no mention of exercise.

Others will offer a HRA with no support for those

identified to be at risk of diabetes or heart problems.

Still others will implement a walking program only

to have employees smoking while they are walking.

Getting the Bang for the Buck

Several factors need to be considered to get the

greatest ROI from an employee wellness initiative.

First, even before starting a program, careful

consideration needs to be taken in what programs

Benefits of a strategically designed

employee wellness program:

� Increased Profitability

� Increased Employee Productivity

� Decreased Health Claims Cost

� Decreased Workers’ Comp Cost

� Decreased Disability Claim Cost

� Improved Employee Performance

� Decreased Stress Levels

� Improved Employee Retention

“What follow-up support did you

provide your employees after taking the

HRA?”

--- “Nothing.”

your employees actually want. Starting a benefits

focus group with representative employees from

several departments will go a long way in employee

participation in any program you start. Studies show

that the more employee contribution you get in the

design of a program, the greater the acceptance you

will ultimately experience. Second, the program

needs to be strategically designed. One piece of the

program should naturally progress to the next step,

building momentum as you go. Scheduling a

biometric screening should be done before a health

risk assessment, simply because some of the

questions on an HSA require blood pressure,

cholesterol and blood glucose numbers. Holding a

health fair before a biometric screening and the HSA

makes no sense. If you have representatives from the

local diabetes prevention program available, many

employees may not even know they are at risk.

Next, it’s important to set up a sound incentive

program that awards credits and or cash for

participation each component of the program. For

example, cash can be earned by completing designed

wellness activities. Those activities can include biking

to work, participation with a community weight loss

program, taking diabetes prevention classes, taking a

health and fitness screening, nutritional classes, etc.

Reward credits can be awarded to reduce an

employee’s deductable, co-insurance or increase their

health savings account. This can include completing

a health risk assessment, receiving a preventative

adult physical, annual preventative gynecological

exam, routine eye exam or annual preventative

dental exam.

Its one thing to implement all these programs,

incentives and educational classes, but to generate

the maximum ROI, there needs to be a shift in the

entire culture of the organization. For anyone that

has attempted to loose weight and start exercising,

it’s very difficult when you come to work to have

several of your co-workers eating doughnuts for

breakfast and ordering pizza for lunch in the cubicle

next to you. A solid corporate wide policy transition

needs to take place that encourages healthier habits

and makes these habits the norm rather than the

exception. From the CEO to the secretarial pool to the

maintenance staff, the communication and

environment should reflect the goals of the company

for their employees. If that goal is to be highly

productive, healthy and full of energy and

enthusiasm, then a paradigm shift needs to take

place.

Components of a Sound

Employee Wellness Program

• Health Education

o Seminars/Workshops

o Health Fairs/Screenings

• Employee Engagement

o Benefits Focus Group

o Tracking Participation

• Support

o On-site Policies

o Incentives

o Employee Input

• Behavioral Change

o Tobacco Use

o Obesity

o Diabetes

o Stress Management

o Physical Fitness

o Nutrition

o Substance Abuse

o Depression