Everyone wins with workplace health, wellness programs


Human Resources Management Ideas & Trends
August 10, 2005
Issue No. 612


Employee Health
With the population aging and the prevalence of illnesses such as cancer and heart disease becoming painfully common, it is time for HR to consider implementing a wellness program to encourage employees to undergo regular screenings. Everyone wins with wellness programs–employers win because healthier populations are more productive and, over time, employer’s health care costs may decrease. Employees win because they are healthier and will be able to enjoy their time off to enjoy life rather than trying to recover from something that threatened it. Further, wellness programs tune employees in to just how much employers genuinely care about their well-being. Surprisingly, only 11 percent of U.S. employers encourage health screenings through wellness programs. Perhaps this statistic is partially responsible for the fewer than 50 percent of adults that get early detection screenings as recommended by the American Cancer Society.
If the American Cancer Society’s recommended early detection screening schedule was followed, the five-year relative survival rate for many common types of cancers (breast, colon, rectum, cervix, prostate, oral cavity, and skin) would increase to approximately 95 percent.

Wellness programs are offered by large organizations, rarely small.
Small and even some medium sized organizations seem to understandably believe that wellness programs would be “nice to have, but they’re outside the realm of essential business activities,” reported Dr. Ron Leopold, vice president and national medical director of MetLife Disability. Large organizations however, are bigger and have “more hands on deck to establish issues of health in the working populations,” said Dr. Leopold. Small organizations should not be too quick to turn away from offering wellness programs because there are multiple not for-profit organizations nationwide, such as the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society that can provide assistance in creating a program that is both cost-effective and manageable.

No two wellness programs will be the same.
Don’t be too quick to look at a competitor’s wellness program as a model for your own. No two wellness programs will be the same because, to be successful, a program must be targeted to a particular population. Dr. Leopold provided as examples a department store with a working population comprised of a majority of women between the ages of 35 and 55 likely focusing its wellness program on breast cancer awareness and osteoporosis prevention, and an organization with a population made up mostly of men ages 40-60 focusing more on blood pressure screening and prostate checks. A wellness program should be created to achieve particular goals. Keeping the goals as the focus of the program will assist in targeting a specific population. Although a program should not give too much in depth medical information, it should:
-        Change behaviors where they need to be changed (e.g., obesity and smoking
-        Heighten employee awareness of the risks that coexist with the employees’ age and gender; and
-        Encourage employees to see their physician regularly.
-        A willingness to work with a specific organization, such as the American Arthritis Foundation or the American Heart Association, after your organization has selected a program, so that it is properly targeted to a particular population. Such organizations have wellness program experts and informational pamphlets, all of which can help make your program great.
-        A well-thought-out communication strategy. Placement and posting of materials is key and should be an HR priority.
-        The buy-in of senior management, which, Dr. Leopold stresses, is of “critical importance.” Associates who hear senior management speak to the importance of a wellness program will be more likely to buy into it themselves and will also get a glimpse into just how much the organization cares about employee well-being.

Attracting employees is easier than you might think.
A wellness program is only as successful as the number of employees that are attracted to it. It is likely that posting information about the program and distributing pamphlets will not be enough. Therefore, HR should be prepared to be creative. Dr. Leopold suggests using prizes and raffles. For example, an organization could raffle five I-Pods to a population in excess of 500 people. Competitions are often similarly successful, especially if your organization has more than one location, in which case you could create a weight loss competition between each branch. “Whatever you decide to do,” advised Dr. Leopold, “the message must be engaging. “Again, this would be a great opportunity to join with a group that specializes in wellness programs as they will be well qualified to help craft the message you seek to send.

The time is now.
The American Cancer Society took the lead in disease prevention efforts in May of 2005 when it launched the Great American Health Check (GAHC), a campaign intended to raise awareness about the importance of early detection in the fight against cancer. The initiative, made possible by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, with additional support from Quest Diagnostics, encourages Americans to get tested for cancer. Employers can benefit from GAHC because it has paved the way and has spotlighted the need for health screenings. Other factors illustrating the desirability of wellness programs include the fact that the economy is currently coming off of four years of double-digit healthcare inflation, which has resulted in healthcare costs having never been higher and the aging working population, since a wellness program will go a long way to offset future healthcare costs.

Utilize your organization’s health plan.
Quite often, HR is unaware of the resources that health plans offer. Perhaps the health plan has suggestions for how to entice employees to participate in the wellness program or even has suggestions for what the wellness program should include. “Medical carriers and health plans area great untapped resource for employers to see what can be coordinated for the benefit of employees,” encouraged Dr. Leopold.

Source: Interview conducted by CCH, Inc. of Dr. Ron Leopold, vice president and national medical director of MetLife Disability, on July 22, 2005. Dr. Leopold is also the author of A Year in the Life of A Million American Workers, a disability reference almanac.