Employer Wellness

As employers today continue to compete in the worldwide economy, expense containment strategies will be increasingly valuable. Controlling the rising expense of employee ill health is becoming a priority for corporate leaders. The emerging corporate culture in America is one which has an employee population centered in health, safety and wellness.

Implementing a corporate strategy for Employee Health Promotion Programs and disability management makes great corporation sense. The following eight-step process ensures a strategic, integrated, needs-driven and results-oriented approach.

The following process works best in corporations with strong leadership and a long-term commitment to employee health.

1. Identify Your Workplace Health Promotion Program Champion

This person must be a leader in your organization and a strong advocate of health. Most often this is an individual who actively pursues his or her own personal quest for good health.

The program champion must have the resources and authority to propel the program forward. The program champion’s key role is to make sure the strategic plan for health is aligned with the company’s objectives, strategic focus and company values. For example if the organization promotes that “our strength is our people” the wellness program must corroborate how pushes will nurture and protect that significant resource.

2. Form Your Company Health Promotion Program Strategy Team

The Workplace Wellness Program Strategy Team must include decision makers and stakeholders from areas of the business that are able to effect health and the company’s bottom line. These areas may include; finance, human resources(HR), training and development, health services, compensation and benefits, employee assistance services (EAP), marketing, facilities, health and safety, rehabilitation, cafeteria or food services and the union. A team of six to eight representatives is recommended.

The role of the Strategy Team is to cultivate and enable the strategic plan, look for opportunities to encourage health, ensure the program is integrated into key areas of the organization, streamline efforts, maximize business resources and program evaluation.

3. Complete an Company Health Audit

The purpose of an Employer Health Audit is to evaluate your existing programs and services, physical environment and policies & procedures that support health. It is also significant to look at your employer culture or “how things are done” around the employer.

Members of the Strategy Team complete the Audit independently and then meet to discuss their assessment. During the assessment process, health problems and opportunities are discussed in preparation for the development of the strategic plan.

4. Analyze Your Organization’s Cost Pressures

Cost pressures are identified by analyzing a number of areas including; benefit expenditures, Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) claims, prescription drug usage, type of paramedic claims, absenteeism data and EAP utilization. This process helps to target areas that are able to be positively impacted by a Corporate Wellness Program and to provide a baseline for evaluating change.

5. Conduct a Health Risk Appraisal or Employee Needs & Interest Survey

The next step is to determine your employee’s health risks, interests and readiness to change. A confidential health risk appraisal can accomplish a myriad of goals and objectives. It provides a baseline from which to measure personal lifestyle changes, provides employees with relevant health information, motivates employees to take charge of their health and assists in program planning. Most health risk appraisals offer individual reports and a corporate report identifying elevated-risk areas in the corporation.

Many corporations opt to administer customized needs and interest survey to evaluate employee needs. The benefit of this approach is that the corporation is able to gather information on the employees’ perceived wellness needs and program interests. This information can be incorporated into the strategic plan. Administering a survey also has the added benefit of fostering a sense of employee ownership to the program.

6. Design Your Strategic Plan for Wellness

The strategic plan should incorporate information gathered from the Organization Health Audit, your organization’s expense pressures, and health risk appraisal data or employee survey results. The strategic plan should include your program mission, three or four objectives and several drives under each goal. The strategic plan provides a framework to encourage, reinforcement and evaluate “best health practices.”

It is also valuable that the plan align itself with the vision, goals of the organization.

The sample strategic plan that follows was developed for blue jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. (Canada) Inc. Levi Strauss & Co.’s mission statement and aspirations (how workers interact with each other in a organization environment) guided the development of the plan.

Levi Strauss & Co.’s aspirations include the following statement: Most importantly, we want satisfaction from accomplishments and friendships, balanced personal and professional lives, and to enjoy our endeavors. The wellness program plan included a number of components to ensure that it embraced this statement including the following:

1. A vision statement, which tied in with the company’s aspirations.
2. An incentive system to encourage and reward the accomplishment of healthy milestones.
3. A recognition system to applaud effectiveness.
4. Friendly competitions between Levi Strauss & Co. locations to ensure an enjoyable environment.
5. Opportunities to take part in small group educational programs to advance group backing.
6. Initiation of support groups for employees completing wellness programs (i.e. smoking control support group).
7. Programs concerning work and family balance.

Other information that was analyzed and used to develop the plan included:

1. Organization demographics
2. Focus groups
3. Cultural audit
4. Top prescription drug report
5. EAP utilization
6. Employee benefit services report
7. Health and dental claims
8. Operational success summaries
9. Health risk appraisals
7. Prepare a Corporation Case to Support Your Plan

Your company case for wellness supplies the necessary details for approval at the management level. The company case includes:

1. The Strategic Plan for Health
2. A proposed program budget
3. Marketing strategies
4. Program leadership options
5. An implementation plan
6. Evaluation methodology.

In presenting the strategic plan it is valuable to highlight how the plan aligns itself with the strategic direction of the organization.

The program budget ought to include educational resources, marketing costs, rewards and incentives, leadership costs and supplies.

Marketing strategies must address how the program will be promoted and rolled out to various groups within the organization i.e. decentralized locations, elevated risk workers, older workers.

Program leadership ought to address how volunteers will be used, internal resources  and whether consultants have been proposed. All play an equally important role in the implementation of your wellness program.

The program implementation plan ought to incorporate the following types of programs that help create awareness of beneficial health practices, support  workers in making lifestyle changes and initiatives, which support long-term change.

Awareness programs foster an awareness of the effect of healthy lifestyle practices and arouse staff members to take the next step. Examples of awareness programs include posting educational posters, newsletter articles and lunch and learn seminars.

Lifestyle change programs are more inclusive and longer in duration. They are designed to support  workers in changing behavior. Examples of lifestyle change programs are diet education programs, stress management programs, back care classes and smoking control programs.

A supportive corporate environment encompasses everything from corporate policies & procedures, the physical environment and creating a corporate culture that supports good health practices. Follow-up sessions and support groups for workers who have completed 6-10 week wellness programs also offer a supportive environment for long-term change.

Analyzing the effectiveness of a Company Health Promotion Program is ongoing. A formal evaluation ought to be conducted annually and may include; re-administering steps three to five, program participation statistics and a year end survey to revisit “soft” concerns such as morale, program satisfaction and future program direction.

8. Solicit Input and Communicate Your Plan

Employee input is critical to the long-term effectiveness of your program. An Employee Advisory Committee should be formed to roll out the plan. Another key responsibility of this team is to solicit feedback from all echelons of the organization to ensure buy-in. Front line Manager’s Information Sessions and focus groups are also important. This group needs to buy-in to the notion that they play a key role in supporting beneficial health practices. Regular meetings are advised with front line managers to receive ongoing input, address concerns and orient new managers.

Conclusions

The World Health Organization’s definition of health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” In order for us to set up healthy workplaces, wellness initiatives must have a program champion, have employee ownership, be senior staff supported, outcome driven and strategically aligned with the overriding employer objectives of the organization.

Wellness initiative that embrace these qualities will have a beneficial influence on an organization’s bottom line. Canadian research points to numerous case studies where onsite programs have resulted in diminished absenteeism, cut claims and increased productivity.

Businesses who have embraced wellness as part of “how they do business” share one thing in common. They confirm a responsibility to their most valuable resource – their people. They understand the increased pressures associated with downsized businesses, a rapidly changing workplace, an aging work force and the challenge of balancing work and family obligations. And they share a common belief that healthy staff members are happier, absent less and more advantageous.

References:
Design of Corporate Wellness Programs by Michael P. O’Donnell. 1995. Published by the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Pro Fit-ability by Veronica Marsden. Group Healthcare Management. May 1997.
Meeting Expectations by Laura Mensch. Employee Health and Productivity. August 1999
7 Steps to Health Promotion by Daphne Woolf and Veronica Marsden. Group Healthcare Management. February 1996.
Published in The Journal of Health Promotion for Northern Ireland, Issue 9, March 2000