Wellness at Work Saves More than Just Health Premiums

With the passage of health care reform and the complexities of the 2,000-plus page legislation, it's hard not to get caught up in the frenzy about the effect it will have on businesses and individuals. One component is clear, changing behaviors and consumer awareness is the key to managing health care costs for employers.

CEOs, CFOs and HR Professionals need to place health and wellness as one of their top business priorities. The real cost of poor health is more than just what you see in costs for your health benefit renewal. Businesses are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of poor productivity due to poor employee health. Poor eating habits, smoking, use of alcohol and a sedentary life-style are contributing factors. Top health risk factors in the workforce today are stress, obesity, excessive alcohol, high blood pressure and high cholesterol-all of which can lead to chronic health conditions. And treatment for chronic diseases consumes roughly 75 percent of national health care spending. According to research from the Integrated Benefits Institute, for every dollar spent on health care, employers are spending three on lost productivity. Employees who have more than four risk factors statistically have a productivity loss of 27 percent.

Changing an organization's culture to embrace health and wellness is neither quick nor without investment. Health and wellness must be approached from several angles. The most notable is implementing a wellness program in the organization. An effective wellness program is one that is robust enough to drive behavior changes. Programs won't work unless employees participate. Participation in any wellness program must be voluntary. That said, incentives are a critical tactic in driving involvement. When you incent people to get involved with the program you want to make sure they remain involved. A hearty incentive program will entice employees who may not otherwise engage in a wellness program to do so. That hearty incentive will then keep them motivated for fear of losing that incentive.

Most successful wellness programs include a health coach, whose job it is to reach out to employees regularly. This not only keeps the employees on task, but it creates accountability. This is a vital part of the program's success. The health coach and the program must educate employees, track their goals and assist them with the development and follow-through of their health improvement plan. Measuring outcomes is necessary for showing employee progress. Your wellness program should include biometrics and health risk assessments. Both of these benchmark where the employee was when the program began and charts their progress for a year. With a well-designed program, it is common to see significant improvements in weight loss, blood pressure and other common risk factors even within the first year. 

A formal wellness program gives organizations the greatest financial benefit. It is not, however, the only angle. Organizational culture must support health and wellness. Simply put, this means taking a hard look at your policies and practices and changing those that do not support your new culture of health and wellness. Consider the conflicting message that is being sent when allowing smoking on your premises, providing unhealthy choices in your company cafeteria or vending machines and promoting unhealthy work styles. These are just a few examples of practices that will work against your goal of promoting health and wellness. If you really want to get serious about your culture, think about a smoke-free workplace, embracing company sporting programs, job rotation, ergonomic work assessments, stress reducing activities and health promotion communication strategies. If you want to change your culture, consider having a wellness committee that would have the support of the top leadership and include management, employees and an outside wellness advisor.

Organizations who successfully implement a culture of health and wellness benefit from lower health care premiums, lower workers comp premiums, higher employee productivity and improve employee morale.

Laurie Glaude, PHR, is practice leader and vice president of human resources at Clark & Lavey Benefits Solutions Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Chronic Disease Overview.

2 Workforce Health and Productivity Summit: A Blueprint of Action