The Secret to the Health of a Working Nation: The Wellness Program

It has become clear, especially with recent events in Washington D.C., that health care in this country is an issue that needs to be dealt with. For decades, time and money have been spent on care post-illness rather than investing those resources into prevention. The current wave in health care reform is trying to shift the focus. Employers are following suit by bringing health care into their workplace through Corporate Wellness Programs.

Some companies are skeptical as to whether the data that is out there is reliable. Yet many of the people who are proponents of Corporate Wellness Programs have been in the health and wellness field for decades, and have done extensive research with regards to wellness at work. One of the leading voices in the field, Dr. Ron Goetzel, Vice President of Consulting and Applied Research for the Medstat Group (a research organization dedicated to the study of Workplace Wellness) states:

“There are some in the industry that believe that wellness programs are simply a fad, (yet) we are spending more and more on the treatment side of health, essentially taking care of the problems that were not prevented through health promotion /disease promotion/ prevention”.1

Furthermore, people who are skeptical often hear stories of wellness programs that are unsuccessful. Yet they are unsuccessful for good reason. It is an age-old adage in business that in order to be successful in business, you find what you are good at and stick to it.

Most companies are successful at their profession, yet when it comes to wellness programs they implement and fail miserably. This is for two reasons:

1. Companies are not in the wellness business. This means that they are trying to implement a program that is not in the company’s area of expertise. For example a car company may be an expert on cars but they don’t know wellness, so it is no surprise when their wellness program fails. Would one go to a wellness practitioner to buy cars? In order to have a program be successful it is necessary to consult with someone or bring in a team of experts who make wellness their business. They know how to asses a company correctly and ensure that a program runs smoothly.
2. The other issue that prevents a company from being successful is that most companies do not have a comprehensive wellness system in place. Again, just as a business plan is necessary for a business to be successful, a “wellness plan” is necessary for a wellness program to be successful. Not knowing this, many companies do what is known as the “splatter effect”. This means they implement a single program such as a walking program. Programs like this often fail for they are not catering to the direct wants and needs of the employee.

Wellness Needs The Following

In order for a wellness program to work, a comprehensive system that provides a program and guidelines for employees to follow needs to be implemented. All wellness programs that are currently successful implement a variation of the following model:

1. The Health Risk Assessment (HRA) - The first step that is key to a working wellness program is the HRA. This survey evaluates the health of an individual. Based on that information, a company is able to evaluate what risk factors an individual has. An employee cannot fix a problem if they do not know where it began in the first place. The HRA, when done properly, will pinpoint the exact risk factors that individuals within a company are dealing with. This was the case with Johnson and Johnson, where employees that had taken the HRA were able to identify their risk factors, which led to a $225 a year in savings for health care costs for each employee per year.1
2. Wellness Coaches -The next step is to address those risk factors. The approach that has recently been popular is the use of Wellness Coaches. These coaches are specially trained to be able to analyze and review the HRA in order to create and guide the employee through a plan of action. The wellness coaches not only provide a line of support but also a line of education.
   
   By having companies provide employees with the resources to learn about their risk factors and act on them, it aids in the employee’s ability to stay motivated to create change. Furthermore, it has been proven that, due to natural human behavior, humans are more likely to be accountable to someone else rather than themselves. Therefore, by having a health coach holding them accountable to a plan that is customized to them, whether it be an exercise plan, nutrition plan, etc. , accountability will allow for employees to create lasting healthy lifestyle change.
   
   Once this cycle of action and accountability begins, it is important that a Wellness program implements support programs that encourage the employee to carry out their action plans. These programs need to be catered to an employee’s needs and often includes the following: Stress Management programs, Financial Wellness program, Weight Management, Smoking Cessations, and Fitness and Nutrition programs.
3. Incentive Program – The question has been answered with regards to keeping employees active, yet the question remains, how to get employees to participate initially and to continue participating?
   
   In order to fully lock in participation, a comprehensive wellness program needs to implement an incentive component. According to American psychologist Frederick Herzberg, who became one of the most “influential names in business management” and social motivational theory states that human beings need to feel “job enrichment,” or rather that they are being rewarded for their efforts.3 This evaluation of human behavior with regards to “motivation theory” illustrates that employees are more likely to do something if they see a possibility for personal gain.
   
   Just as the case with Johnson and Jonson, they saved $225 a year per employee when they offered employees $500 to do an H.R.A and had high participation, whereas Citibank only offered a $10 incentive and had a participation rate of only 54%.1
   
   Yet an incentive program is not enough. It must be a correctly crafted incentive program. A correctly crafted incentive program will correctly motivate employees to participate. According to Dr. Goetzel, When Johnson and Johnson first implement their wellness program, they offered a $500 incentive for people to take the HRA. Yet in order to keep the incentive, if the assessment revealed that they “were at risk”, they had to enroll in the wellness program.
   
   This approach allowed Johnson and Johnson to ensure that their participants were following through with the program so that they were not simply wasting money. It’s been proven that just throwing money at an issue is not an effective way of solving the issue.
   
   Although every company varies, a review of scores of published studies on worksite wellness found that the Return on Investment (ROI) is $3.48:1 due to reduced medical costs and $5.82:1 due to reduced absenteeism.2
   
   In the end, the employee is the company’s most valued asset. If the backbone of a company is ill, it is going to cost more money to have it function than if it is healthy. With current reforms and with the predicted exponential rise in health care costs, companies cannot afford to wait to get their backbone healthy.

Where does a company begin?

The first step is to do research and contact a wellness provider that is able to begin assessing the company’s needs. When researching providers make sure that they provide the elements listed above; a comprehensive integrated program that assesses (HRA), educates and supports (Wellness coaches), and incentivizes (incentive program).

It is becoming more and more difficult to argue against the data. Wellness programs that are comprehensive in scope fully attend to the needs of the employees. They provide motivation and resources that allow the employees to change their habits toward a healthier lifestyle. Although the statistics are new, time is of the essence; health care costs are rising and becoming more and more unsustainable. It is time to act.

About Tri Wellness:

Tri Wellness was founded on a lifelong vision to create social awareness of preventative health measures in the workplace. They are compromised of a team of committed and experienced health professionals, who stand ready to deliver high quality and innovative programs and services aimed at alleviating the current health crisis in America, one company at a time. Tri Wellness has proven that good health is good business.

Specializing in comprehensive workplace health solutions, Tri Wellness works with companies of all sizes to bring preventative health initiatives to their employees. Using a systematic approach to corporate wellness, they are able to achieve high levels of participation in their programs, with dramatic results. And they do all of this in the name of improving lives and saving companies money.

Tri Wellness is a privately held company located in Carlsbad, California, 30 miles north of San Diego.

For more information about Workplace Health Solutions, please contact:

info@triwellnesstoday.com
www.triwellnesstoday.com

Citations:

1. Hannicutt, Dr. David,; Goetzel, Dr. Ron. The Bottom Line. A Welcoa Expert Interview. http://www.davidhunnicutt.com/pdf/Goetzel%20INTERVIEW.pdf
2. The Health and Economic Implications of Worksite Wellness Programs. An American Institute for Preventive Medicine White Paper. http://www.healthylife.com/template.asp?pageID=75
3. 20) Herzberg, F.I. 1987, 'One more time: How do you motivate employees?', Harvard Business Review, Sep/Oct87, Vol. 65 Issue 5, p109-120 (note: the reference to sales numbers is in the abstract written by the editors.)