What Do The Best Employee Wellness Programs Have In Common?   

Employee wellness programs are the best approach to reducing employer, employee and overall healthcare costs. For organizations such programs reduce costs by increasing worker productivity by lowering absences from work and direct medical costs. The result is a demonstrably improved bottom line.

The 2004 Ipsos-Reid conference survey conducted with WarrenShepell, Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO) found the main preventable contributors to employee absenteeism were:

• Depression/anxiety/other mental health disorders - 66%
• Stress - 60%
• [Negative] Relationship with supervisor or manager - 44%
• Co-worker conflict in the workplace - 28%
• Addictions or substance use/abuse issues - 20%

To address these issues, organizations undertook various measures including implementing leadership or management training programs (64%), implementing employee assistance or other wellness initiatives (59%), and delivering wellness or other training sessions.

Since then the premium growth rate have continued to escalate, outpacing the the growth in wages (greater than 3x) and inflation (just under 3x), according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released in September 2005. As a result there have been smaller take home checks for employees in companies having health care benefit plans; and, most alarmingly, overall coverage of employees has decreased mostly because of small businesses dropping coverage.

Such decreases in coverage will continue to worsen overall employee wellness because uncovered employees will fail to seek early care in attempt to avoid out of pocket costs.

Indeed, such a realization was impetus behind the Asheville Diabetes Disease Management project (now know as The Asheville Project). In a recent (August 2006) presentation about the project to the Rotary Club of Charleston, John Maill, City of Asheville Risk Manager, said the impetus behind the project was the realization that 80% of organization health care costs were caused by 20% of the employees. If you could reduce those costs through a targeted program of prevention, you should be able to reduce overall healthcare costs.

That lead to an experiment involving a group of pharmacists, an employer, a health-care system and two universities. The participants devised a comprehensive six month program targeting 46 diabetics and documented significant positive results in less than the initial period. That program has now grown to a nation-wide initiative expanded to focusing on four different chronic diseases.* The latest related initiative is a Diabetes Ten City Challenge (including Charleston, SC, the reason that John Maill's presentation here).

*For more information see http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/win2004/asheville.html

The most important findings from Asheville Project initiatives are that training, tracking and funding costs employees lead to lower hospitalization costs AND to lower absence from work. Combine those insights with the Ipsos-Reid conference survey r and the associated company reported initiatives and we can draw insights into the elements of a much wider program having the potential for a dramatic approach to improving national health and the health care coverage challenge.

  Natural Supplements for Diabetes & ED

*Consider this. Every state faces a similar challenge: how to deal with escalating Medicare costs. Drawing from the findings above, for our senior citizens we also must train, track and fund. And the key is applying a comprehensive wellness approach. Those with chronic ailments must agree to enter an appropriate programs. Others must pursue fitness programs aimed at preventing the onset of aging related impairments.

We believe that such a program should be centered on employee wellness programs with the following elements:

• the full commitment of organizations including management involvement, commitment and championship
• benefit program support to include premium and co-payment support to participants and their families
• comprehensive training of participants
• community, government, health care and educational institution involvement

The specific elements to be included are found in what is provided now by various support providers of existing employee wellness programs. Here are some of those from a survey I recently conducted:

The Microsoft Small Business Center offerings include an article by Phillip Harper entitled, "Shape up your company with a wellness program." He reports that the leaders at Highsmith, a Wisconsin-based marketer of supplies and equipment to schools and libraries, encountered the worst kind of sticker shock: a 53% rise in the company's health-insurance premiums. Management saw it as a harbinger of future problems unless steps were taken to keep a lid on costs and claims -- so they launched a workplace wellness program for about 200 employees which had a dramatic impact on the company's productivity and bottom line.

Just consider the impact at Highsmith.

• The strategy has helped the company keep a tight lid on health-insurance costs, with its premium rising just 3.1% in 2003 and 2.9% in 2002.
• Turnover also has slowed dramatically. In 2001, while the average employer in Wisconsin's Madison-Milwaukee corridor was losing 22% of its workforce, turnover at Highsmith was just 8.7%.
• As for the company's workers' compensation costs, they've actually gone down to significantly less than they we were paying in the early '90s."

Over time Highsmith broadened the program to address issues beyond physical health that can have a profound impact on a worker's sense of well-being. Highsmith now offers nearly 70 classes on subjects as diverse as resolving workplace disputes, coping with teenage children and caring for elderly parents.

Other results are presented at the Wellness Council of America's website. It there documents that ROI from employee wellness programs can exceed an order of magnitude (over $10 improvement in the bottom line for every $1 invested).

Here are other attempts at making employee wellness programs generally available in the community.

Universities

Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland has a typical University Wellness Center. It has a wellness facility (gym) and an education series. Here are descriptions of each:

Some Universities include Wellness program attendance as a graduation requirement. At  United States Service Academies participation in the sports program is mandatory. NOTE: Many military installations have wellness programs in which family members can participate.

Medical Centers

Medical centers typically have programs aimed to support (workforce) employee wellness programs. For example,

Fitness Centers

Increasingly established fitness centers are targeting corporate employees to expand their services. For example Club One is one of America’s leading club companies specializing in design, development, and operations of high quality, convenient fitness, sports and wellness centers. Here is how they market the use of their facilities to prospective corporate clients:

Here are what is offered in the Cooper Wellness Program:

In many cases the services being provided are not optimized to individual requirements. They simply are a potpourri of services from which individuals can pick and choose. We do not believe that SOME exercise and SOME improved nutrition is the answer. We believe that the best employee wellness program will aim to foster lifelong wellness for every employee.

To do this we feel that employee wellness programs must aim well beyond the workplace and target both employee families and the communities in which they live. To us wellness should be promoted and available anyplace/anytime.

Because everyone benefits from such employee wellness programs, we encourage companies to work with their local communities, and spiritual and political leaders to promote totally wellness-oriented communities.

If you might be interested in finding out more about what we might do for your company, or would like to be our representative in your community -- or just want to find out more -- please complete the following form.

PS: you can find out how to start your own personal wellness program here.

PPS: Interested in starting your own home based wellness business? Click here to learn how.

PPPS: Tell others what is happening in your community with the form below. Review what others are doing (after the form).

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