Before I left the corporate world and struck out on my own, I worked at a large multi-billion
dollar financial firm. Each month, a 6-page wellness newsletter would be dropped off on my desk
detailing how to live a healthier life. I dutifully read the bits I found interesting and then
tossed it in the circular file cabinet. Now, I am not knocking the newsletters; they generally
contained good information and, if you followed their advice, would probably lead you to a healthier
life. The problem was that I seemed to be in the minority. My five minutes of wellness
reading per month was much greater than my coworkers who pitched the newsletters on sight. With
skyrocketing healthcare costs and two-thirds of the American workforce overweight, is handing out a
monthly flyer and calling it a wellness program enough?
You can't really blame the Human Resource departments who generally administer wellness
programs for the lack of options. The whole wellness phenomenon is something relatively new in the
workplace and, like most corporate initiatives, derives from the need to reduce costs and improve
productivity. While the prospect of reducing costs with wellness programs has existed for many years,
two important changes in the workplace have increased potential returns to the point where they can
no longer be ignored: the rise in healthcare costs and obesity.
According to the latest Towers Perrin study, the 2008 cost of healthcare will rise 7 percent to
average $9,312 per employee. Workers can also expect their contributions to rise 8 percent to $2,040.
While there are many factors contributing to the increase in healthcare costs, the one that stands out
and is most controllable is the dramatic rise in obesity; the key source of a multitude of health
problems. The CDC has found that obesity in America has more than doubled in the past 30 years from
15 percent to 33 percent. Some of this rise can be traced to employment itself as it has a direct
relationship to the modern, sedentary, office environment. With people spending the majority of their
waking hours either working or commuting, it leaves very little time for healthy activities.
A recent study by Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America found that only 35 percent of employees
believe that they have access to a wellness program and, of those who do, only 50 percent have
participated in the offering. Even more troubling is that half of those who participate quickly lose
interest. An additional study by webMD looked at the effectiveness of these programs. It found that
as participation level rose, the effectiveness of these programs increased dramatically: from a
cost-benefit ratio of 2:1 for sparsely-used programs up to almost 20:1 for high-participation programs.
So now the big question for the employee wellness administrator is: how do I get my employees to
participate and stay interested in my program? In the Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America study,
68 percent of employees suggested cash, gifts and additional vacation days as an effective motivator.
This can be as simple as offering employees $100 to take a health screening or be more in-depth by
offering employees an incentive to reach a certain level of fitness and then providing recurring
incentives to maintain that level. An alternative version of this method allows the company to choose
a high deductible health care plan and then reimburses workers who meet target health measures and
complete health and wellness activities.
Besides using financial incentives, you can structure the wellness program itself to provide
motivation by making it fun and rewarding. A popular program feature such as a fitness challenge
can promote your wellness program and also be self-motivating. An employee wellness challenge
provides a medium for workers to improve their health while participating in friendly competition.
These challenges are typically modeled after the President's Challenge from the President's
Council on Physical Fitness where daily activity is logged, or based on the popular The Biggest Loser
TV show where competition is measured on percent of weight loss.
A good idea is to combine the challenges so that people who do not need to lose weight can also
participate and become healthier. A prominent feature at >
wellness4one.com allows wellness
administrators to build a program that challenges users on most weight lost, body fat lost and / or
most exercise time accumulated. However the challenge is constructed, it provides reinforcing
motivation to continue trying to get healthier after the first few months pass by and the easiest
gains have been realized.
One of the best ways to increase participation is to offer wellness time during the workday.
By taking a half-hour out of their daily schedule to join a work-sponsored walking group or attend
a smoking cessation class, employees can improve their health while getting a needed break. The
worker is allocated time to become healthier and the employer gets healthier employees and the
prospect of lower insurance costs; a classic win-win proposition.
The one aspect that every study agrees on is that corporate wellness programs are effective. Even
if you do a poor job at creating and promoting your program, you should still expect a return on
investment of two to one or better. Therefore, there is no reason why every workplace does not
implement some form of wellness program. Promoting the program and getting employees involved is the
next problem. This is especially true when you consider that the higher the program participation
rate, the higher the ROI. Monetary and benefit incentives can catch employee attention and help them
find motivation where it might otherwise be lacking. Adding multi-faceted fitness challenges in your
wellness program can help with program adherence even without other incentives. Allowing time for
workers to pursue wellness activities while on the clock removes many obstacles as well. While
developing a wellness program that fits your workplace and getting employees involved may not be a
simple task, it is well worth the effort.