As employers increase investment in a healthier workforce, the results are paying off for all concerned
It turns out that when it comes to workplace health programs, it’s not enough to just do it. Faced with health epidemics among workers and rising health care costs, employers are investing money – and thought – into a healthier workforce. The trend is a shift from incentives to intentions that seems to be paying off for everyone.
What Moves Employers
Covering employee health care and staying profitable has become increasingly difficult, according to Greg Crowe, business health services director with Workwell Occupational Health at Bon Secours St. Francis hospital system.
“[Employers’] health care spending has become disconcerting. I mean, we’ve got a cultural crisis on our hands,” Crowe said. A wave of health epidemics more than 20 years in the making has finally crashed, and “it’s gotten into the employers’ pockets to the degree that they can’t ignore it any more.”
But people like Crowe who help employers implement wellness programs say there is also a growing desire beyond the bottom line to help employees simply live better lives. Jane McBride, director of the Business Health clinical rehabilitation and wellness program at Greenville Health System (GHS), said some of her clients’ companies are simply looking to reduce health risk factors among workers.
A Solid Investment
Companies with successful programs find that good health is good for business. The most common estimate is that every dollar spent on employee wellness nets a $3 return on investment.
The wellness program at Greenville-based manufacturer Hartness International has helped the company better control its health care costs, said John Hart, HR director at Illinois Tool Works, Hartness’ parent company. Hart headed HR at Hartness three years ago when the company sought a wellness program for its 450 employees, most of them males with an average age of 46 who do a mix of technical and highly physical jobs.
The program not only helped slow rising insurance costs, but resulted in lower rates of absenteeism, less turnover due to employee burnout, and better morale overall, Hart said. What’s more, it has been a literal lifesaver, preventing “major catastrophic illnesses because we’ve been able to catch the high diabetes up front. We’ve been able to prevent the heart attacks,” he said.
Health costs were a major motivator, but Hart said his management team from the very beginning considered the program a way to give back to the community, no different from its other community service activities.
What Motivates Employees
No matter whom you ask, money talks when it comes to wellness participation.
Crowe said programs that offer no incentives generally see 25 to 35 percent participation, mostly from the “worried well” who are already prioritizing their health. Add an incentive valued at $200 to $300 and participation can jump up to 70 percent.
Hart said the program at Hartness that offers a $130 discount on medical premiums for health screenings and another $130 discount for healthy action has about 80 percent participation.
That is a typical offering, but some companies get creative. Verizon has offered iPhones and tablets and a day off the phones for Greenville call center employees who participated in 5K races.
Competition has proved a great motivator, said Jessica Howard, wellness program manager at ScanSource.
“With a very competitive population, putting a challenge out and seeing the interaction between departments and even individuals sometimes is the best incentive. Bragging rights are hard fought here and well deserved,” she said.
On-site services such as fitness centers and group classes are a growing trend. ScanSource opened a clinic with a nurse practitioner available to family members.
“Many employees would try to work through an illness,” said Howard. “Now it takes no time for employees to set up a same-day appointment, visit with the nurse, and return to their desk with proper diagnosis and medication to help them on the road to recovery.”
Experts say a healthier work environment is a strong motivator for employees. Incentives like healthier dessert options in the cafeteria and banning smoking on the property are more and more common. One-on-one coaching is also a popular incentive, experts say, and crucial to making lasting change.
Employees are also more likely to participate when the objectives go beyond exercising and data tracking to serve their own personal goals.
“You figure out what they want to talk about,” advised Samantha Hooper, a health educator with the GHS workplace program. Maybe somebody who won’t or can’t exercise will discuss dietary changes. She said the tobacco cessation program is successful largely because it doesn’t encourage quitting, which might seem impossible, but only smoking less.
Penalties for behaviors such as smoking or non-participation in programs appear not to be prevalent among local employers.
Taking It Further
For employers, it pays to have a more all-inclusive view of health. A data-focused approach only goes so far.
“Before last year, it was only about knowing your numbers, but not the actions, so we continued to see our health care costs trending higher and higher,” Hart said. So the company widened its focus to behaviors. It tackled dietary choices by color-coding cafeteria items according to healthfulness and replaced most of the unhealthy sacks. Hartness became a smoke-free campus to decrease smoking during work hours and also began to deal with issues such as the effects of stress and even family behaviors.
“I think that’s where a lot of companies go wrong with wellness programs where they focus only on physical activity,” Hart said. “It needs to be more holistic.”
What Hasn’t Changed
Regular old physical fitness remains a big motivator, however.
Jane Witowski, manager of children’s advocacy programs at GHS, Greenville’s largest employer, said she joined its LoseWell program specifically to lose weight and maintain the loss. She succeeded, dropping an impressive 80 pounds.
She earned cash for lowering her body mass index, completing a certain number of classes and losing at least 5 percent of her total body weight.
“In my opinion, the whole program is an incentive,” she said. “To have a team of experts including a health coach, a registered dietitian, physician, and exercise physiologist available to educate and support me throughout the 12-week Lose Well program at no cost to me – that is amazing.” She said better health makes her more effective at work, and “a little extra cash in my pocket isn’t bad either.”
Those who work to mend the health breach are hoping workplaces will generate more Witowskis – or at least people motivated to change for good.
“To be frank, we’re meeting those needs with the hope of developing a relationship with that employee who works toward future behavioral change,” Crowe said.
And it’s not just about today’s workers.
“We’ve got to be thinking about the workforce we’re raising up now,” Crowe said. “What happens when this next generation goes to work, and what do they look like?”
