I was recently on a panel presentation to a local group of HR Executives in Arizona. The topic was the future of employer-sponsored healthcare, healthcare reform and wellness plans. My portion included talking about common traits that organizations possessed that helped make their wellness programs successful. As we wrap up June, which also happens to be National Employee Wellness Month , of which WorldatWork is a proud sponsor, I thought I'd share those traits with you so you could determine whether your organizations share these traits as well. I hope you find them helpful as many of you move closer to finalizing next year's health and wellness programs and you begin planning for your annual enrollment periods.
Leadership Support -- this sounds like a no-brainer, but having leadership support can be the catalyst to help grow an organization-wide culture of health. Without their support, chances of seeing a measurable return may be in jeopardy. And it appears that having a culture of health is a significant factor of success. Want to see where your culture may be on this topic? Check out WELCOA and National Business Group on Health (NBGH) for resources & tools.
- Improve employee health - 85 percent
- Perceived value to employees - 79 percent
- Reduce medical costs - 77 percent
- Increase productivity - 73 percent
- Increase employee engagement - 72 percent
- Lower absenteeism - 64 percent
- Participation - 58 percent
- Health-care costs - 39 percent
- Satisfaction surveys - 34 percent
- Absenteeism - 21 percent
- Productivity - 8 percent
Provide appropriate incentives. In the early stages as organizations are attempting to get individuals to participate, incentives can be nominal such as gift cards, merchandise, etc. According to Lockton Benefit Group, you need at least $100 to get 75 percent to participate and typically $120 for HRAs and $130 for biometric screenings. But as your goal is to affect some form of behavioral change, your incentives should be tied more closely to achieving those results as employees move to the action stage of change where they are making modifications to their lifestyles. The debate is still on whether the carrot or the stick approach should be utilized. The WorldatWork survey respondents indicated that the two biggest areas that induced penalties were for smoking cessation at 11 percent and incentives at 9 percent.
Align wellness program with healthcare plan design. You can maximize efficiency and effectiveness of each of the plans this way. Ensure that preventive care is provided at no cost to employees and dependents, evaluate vendor performance guarantees, quality and cost. Consolidate vendors and reduce redundancies.
Understand the waiting game. Finally and maybe one of the most important for long-term success, is to understand that it may take two-five years before you see measurable results. Understanding this may be easier said than done. As with any behavioral modification, we as practitioners must understand that most of all. Be well!