This month marks the fourth annual National Employee Wellness Month, an initiative that was created to build awareness around workplace wellness and help business leaders learn about successful wellness strategies. It also provides a good opportunity to reflect on the progress of the employee wellness movement that has played out over the last number of years.
For companies across North America, spiralling health costs have transformed from an incidental expense to a serious liability. Across Canada and the U.S., a combination of poor lifestyle choices and increased workplace demands have resulted in decreased physical activity and heightened stress, both of which can result in higher costs for employers in the form of rising insurance claims, decreased productivity and increased absenteeism and disability issues.
Different organizations have approached the growing health crisis in different ways. Many companies in the U.S. have decimated their benefits programs and left employees to handle health costs on their own, although Canadian employers have been more restrained in this regard. Alternately, many companies have decided to view employee health as an investment rather than a burdensome cost. The companies taking this approach have met mixed results, but the logic is sound: treat employee health in a preventative manner and you can prevent future health problems and costs. However, some shortcomings of this approach are that the cost reductions can take several years to come into effect, and there hasn’t yet been a clearly established methodology to measure and calculate return on investment.
The 2011/2012 Staying@Work Survey, conducted by Towers Watson, had some interesting findings. Despite budget issues, ongoing economic problems and uncertainty surrounding healthcare reform in the U.S., the majority of survey respondents claimed to be committed to health and productivity strategies. Spending on health management programs has grown over the past two years and will continue to do so, but there has been a marked shift in how this spending is allocated.
Providing financial incentives for enrolling in wellness programs is becoming less common and more stringent; rather than simply reward enrollment, more employers are choosing to reward employees for completing multiple activities or penalize them for not taking part. While penalties are not permitted by Canadian law, the Towers Watson survey found that 26% of Canadian respondents are planning to offer financial rewards in 2012, twice the current amount. The study also found that these types of financial incentives can drastically increase participation in wellness programs, but strong leadership and communication are also essential in order to create sustainable behaviour change.
Unfortunately, only one-quarter of organizations surveyed in the Towers Watson study said they have managers and/or senior leaders stepping up as role models for healthy lifestyles—which is a key element of financially successful wellness programs. Another disappointing statistic from Canadian workplaces found in the study was a decrease in flexible scheduling, which is essential for creating a positive work/life balance and giving employees adequate time to participate in wellness programs.
These statistics are not entirely surprising. Sun Life Financial’s 2011 Buffett Wellness Survey showed that despite 97% of organizations recognizing that corporate success is directly related to employee health, only 26% have taken a strategic approach to wellness. The strategic approach—widely considered the surest way to create financial returns from wellness programs—is a five-point process that includes the following:
- commitment from top leadership;
- a workplace assessment to collect data;
- branding and communication;
- an incentive/reward plan; and
- ongoing evaluation of progress.
This is the approach developed by Sun Life, but two non-profit organizations—The Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) in the U.S. and The Healthy Enterprises Group in Canada—have also released their own strategic benchmarks that follow the same guidelines, with the notable addition of forming a responsible wellness committee. It’s worth paying attention to what these non-profits are saying; WELCOA has been studying results-oriented wellness programs for 20 years, and The Healthy Enterprises Group developed the very first ISO certification for health-oriented organizations.
It’s encouraging to see that, according to a survey by Aon Hewitt, 54% of Canadian employers are analyzing data to establish top cost drivers, and, according to Towers Watson, upwards of 60% are taking action to address the specific causes of employee stress. Even now, a major barrier to financial returns is the fact that too many employers jump into a wellness program without diagnosing their workplace first, thereby missing the opportunity to obtain insights for cost reduction. Performing a needs assessment to collect employee feedback also provides much-needed direction for the communication and incentive aspects of the strategic approach. Knowing what drives positive lifestyle choices is essential in order to encourage and actualize that kind of behaviour among employees.
So take advantage of National Employee Wellness Month to start a conversation in your workplace. Take a look at how forward-thinking companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Citibank, Xerox and PepsiCo have built wellness programs with strong financial returns—by adopting strategic approaches that start with leadership and follow through with solutions, communications and incentives that respond directly to employee needs and workplace data.
Peter Dehais is marketing coordinator at Loszach Report. www.loszach.com