Other components that set the initiative apart from others are its focus on readiness to change and commitment to confidentiality and privacy  through aggregrate reporting so employees cannot be personally identified.

One interesting observation of the initiative to date is that it’s not just “healthy” people participating. Also, although Wellness Profile Assessments are offered annually, Bourgoin notes that employees feel so compelled by the information they receive, they feel they need time to work on their personal risk factors and their wellness goals and feel they don’t need to repeat the assessment as frequently as thought.

Early results of the initiative are reflective of the literature on wellness, particularly for gender differences in participation and generational health issues, such as smoking rates and safety practices, for the under 25 employee population.

In subsequent years of the initiative, Bourgoin notes they need to focus on enhancing communication/promotion strategies and incentives to reach the desired goal of 100% participation in the initiative. They also need to focus on retention of younger employees and integrating HR practices with the Workplace Wellness initiative. This would also include taking steps to enhance managerial skills to deal with mental fitness in the workplace – a cornerstone of GNB’s Workplace  Wellness initiative.

The Workplace Wellness initiative costs $22 per employee per year which Bourgoin says is “not a lot to invest.”

Moving forward, Bourgoin says they are looking at the “mobilization of data” and the “freedom of employees to shape it” in ways that fit their needs and interests so it becomes meaningful to them.

Research demonstrates that HRAs are valuable to the success of workplace wellness programs. HRAs are critical to raise awareness, motivate, set goals, measure results and identify issues. They are the first step in implementing a workplace wellness strategy and allow for programs to be designed to address employee-identified issues.

When HRAs include clinical screening for BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose, as well as a follow-up by a health professional to review results, participation and engagement are increased.

The interactive basis of social media allows for employees to move from passive recipients of wellness messages to actively take part in setting and achieving personal wellness goals. Social media can also be used to coach employees by helping them identify their wellness needs and set and achieve personal goals. Coaches are easily accessible through social media and employees get answers to their important questions quickly. From research we know that participation is heightened if activities are group-oriented and foster positive peer pressure, camaraderie and positive recognition. Many wellness challenges and activities can be completed as a team allowing employees to compete in a friendly manner and reach goals individually and as a group. A social media component in wellness challenges encourages this group orientation as employees use it to talk with each other, offer wellness tips, exchange information they find helpful and post wellness events.

Creative Wellness Solutions has used social media successfully through GoWell™, CWS e-portal, with its interactive capabilities such as newsfeeds, buddy lists, challenge talk boards, interest groups and targeted coaching.  Team members encourage and motivate each other to reach challenge milestones and receive wellness points. Employees share their interests and events happening in their community, exchange recipes, tips, organize a sports event or go on a yoga walk together! As having a support system is essential to motivate employees to make lifestyle changes, social media builds relationships with coworkers and creates a network of wellness champions that are simply a click away.

It might be worth asking what it is about your program that will make people engage.  Is it interesting or mundane? Is it fun? Would you participate? What is it about your program that encourages people to commit to it?

It’s important to realize how valuable participation is to the success of wellness programs. It is the first and foremost measure of the success of your program. It’s as simple as this: if people aren’t interested, they won’t participate, no matter how beneficial the program may be.

And, high participation rates reap their own benefits.  We know from research that ROI and employee participation are linked, with participants showing greater ROI and lower turnover -rate compared to non-participants.  A gold standard to aim for is that at least 60% of employees will take part in an annual Health Risk Assessment and two wellness activities. As many program providers know, understanding the culture and the needs of your employees is the biggest battle.  And, the best way to do this is through a Health Risk Assessment. When this happens, winners are created on both sides of the equation.

Employers today face a tough market as is without the added burden of investing in programs that do not pay off. Wellness programs in particular can be viewed as a risky investment as employers pay for something that is ultimately left up to employees modifying their behavior. On the other hand, many employers feel compelled to invest in these programs due to a sense of corporate citizenship, personal values and beliefs, or simply to appear more desirable to future recruits.  Research has demonstrated that the workplace is a logical mediator in employee health. While cost-cutting may be prevalent in recent business practice, it should never be at the expense of programs that provide a value-added to the company.  And without measurement and evaluation it’s not possible to document the benefits.

So what is measurement and evaluation and why is it so critical?  Put simply, it tells the before and after story of your program. What changed? What are the results? Where did you succeed? Where do you need to improve? How does it benefit the organization?

So, what do you need to measure? You need to measure health (e.g. changes in wellness scores, health age, and risk status, etc.) and economic indicators (absenteeism, health claims, ROI). And, critical factors that will affect your results are participation and engagement.

More on these in another blog . . .

Take these 6 Compelling Points for example.

Research in Workplace Wellness over the past 3-4 decades clearly demonstrates that:

1. Lifestyle related risk factors and behaviours of employees, as well as unhealthy work environments and practices, drive costs.
2. Productivity decreases with the number of health risks.
3. Absenteeism increases with the number of health risks.
4. Healthcare costs increase with the number of health risks. Changes in health care costs follow changes in health risks – if you decrease the number of health risks, you decrease your costs as well.
5. There is an inverse relationship between health care costs and wellness score.  As one decreases, the other increases.
6. The do-nothing strategy of waiting for sickness then paying for treatment is a failed strategy.

And, from our research, it is clear that employers pay more for unhealthy employees. This fact, coupled with the natural tendency of individuals to flow from low risk to high risk, over time, further emphasizes the gap between costs associated with low and high risk employees. Therefore, intervening while individuals are still at low risk mitigates the increase in costs that occur as those individuals move to high risk categories.  In a healthy company the largest proportion of employees have either  zero or one risk factor, indicating lower overall costs for the employer.  Unfortunately research shows that too often the largest proportion of employees have 2 to 3 risk factors, resulting in a higher cost for employers.

An effective workplace wellness strategy is to stop the migration of people to higher risk and keep low risk people at low risk. As previously demonstrated, having the majority of employees in low risk categories cost the organization significantly less in terms of health care costs and results in a more productive and engaged workforce.

Where does your organization fit? Does it fit the pattern of a healthy company?

Watch for our White Paper on Building the Business Case at www.wellnesssolutions.ca for more information.

CBC recently released two stories, “Productivity Killed by ‘complacency”: TD” and “Productivity Gains Slowing”, reporting on the decline in Canadian workers’ productivity since 2003. Both stories define productivity as “the amount of goods and services produced per every hour of work.”  The articles site that Canada’s GDP output per capita has fallen from 5^th place in the world to 11^th place.

There’s no doubt that productivity is a driver of GDP and that it is an indicator of a country’s standard of living.  However, Canadians are facing two paradoxes: We are working longer hours (Canadian Index of Wellbeing, 2010) and producing less; and we are spending more money on healthcare and yet getting sicker as a population with climbing rates of obesity, inactivity and its related diseases as well as instances of musculoskeletal problems, such as joint and back pain, and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

In part, we believe this paradox is caused by a lack of understanding that health is not just a personal, but an economic issue as well.  The recently released NovaKnowledge “Health, Safety, and Prosperity” Report Card indicates that literally billions of dollars are lost in our economy due to wellness related issues such as absenteeism, disability (including physical and mental health claims), and health care costs. It is simply unsustainable. The type of “either/or” thinking that we’ve been using about health as a strategic driver has faulted us.  We cannot use this type of thinking to solve our current health situation.  Wellness and economics are not a dichotomy, but rather two interrelated concepts that are dependent on each other for prosperity both in health and economic terms. It is time we think of the relationship between health and economics. We need to solve both sides of the equation in order to find a balance.

Workplace Wellness programs go a long way in improving productivity as it relates to health. At their core, workplace wellness programs are about combining health with economic drivers.  Research clearly shows that healthy employees are productive employees.

While sometimes blood pressure is caused by genetic factors, and commonly develops as we age, it is largely a modifiable risk factor that can be controlled and/or managed through a healthy lifestyle.  As the study reports, there is a clear correlation between instances of high blood pressure and instances of obesity. Additionally, high blood pressure can act as a gateway into the development of many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and stroke.

Clearly, high blood pressure in youth is a cause for concern.

Other reports indicate that nearly all Canadians (90%) will develop high blood pressure by the time we reach the age of 80 if we do not take serious steps to exercise more and limit our sodium intake. Currently, 20% of Canadian adults have high blood pressure and the apple does not appear to be falling far from the tree.

Another cause for concern; the trend is clear that high blood pressure will follow one from youth to adulthood. Our research at CWS establishes that the natural flow of individuals is from low risk to high risk. There is an urgent need for us to intervene on behalf of Canadian youth.  The school is the workplace of youth, and workplace wellness needs to be integrated therein.  While 1% may seem like an insignificant number, no child should grow up with the threat of heart disease or diabetes looming over his or her head.

The research has established a platform on which we need to take action. The do-nothing scenario is failing. The time to act is now.

This is the question that some experts are discussing as health reforms in the United States and the presence of workplace wellness programs are increasing in popularity. An article published in April 2010, in the New York Times discusses the possible downside to workplace wellness programs in light of new legislation from the Obama administration.

The new health legislation includes a focus on prevention and encouraging healthy living habits. This is a valuable goal that also includes incentives that can significantly lower health insurance for healthy individuals. Currently, these discounts cannot exceed 20% of an employee’s health premiums; but, will increase to 30% in 2014. A 20%-30% reduction in health insurance premiums is a great incentive to encourage employers to implement wellness programs. While lowering premiums for achieving health goals or maintaining a good state of health is the right way to go, incentives linked to health insurance require some checks and balances to ensure that all is being done in the interest of wellness.

As noted in my previous blog, “Insuring Prevention?,” linking  reductions in health risks to insurance premiums can have negative consequences. Thus, monitoring insurance premiums must go hand in hand with this health credit. Employers need to be watchful of insurance premiums so they are not increased to offset the fall in revenue for the insurer.

Making goals accessible for all is another essential component. For example, employees with pre-existing conditions, such as asthma, who cannot reach certain health goals, should receive reduced insurance premiums for the goals they can achieve.  Additionally, wellness programs have to be available at the workplace to enable all employees to improve their health.

Another issue is who decides what constitutes a “healthy” employee? Empowering individuals to set their own wellness goals in conjunction with established, evidenced-based criteria will make sure that employees are engaged and responsible for their decisions – it cannot be determined by the employer and certainly not by the insurer.  Employees, for example, may need to consult their chosen, licensed health care practitioner and have them verify that they qualify for the premium.

As the article notes, comprehensive workplace wellness is a long-term investment. It has to be viewed as more than a financial reduction in premiums. Workplace wellness is about empowering employees and organizations to incorporate wellness into their business strategy and create a culture of wellness that is positive for both employees and employers.

These estimates come with no proof that increased health care spending produces a healthier population. The paradox of paying more and more for health care while our health is not improving is because the current model of health care is based on “sick care.” Waiting for people to get sick and then treating them is not a sustainable strategy.

New Brunswick is faced with a double-edged sword, according to the article. While at one edge of the sword they have an ageing population, on the other edge is that this is the first time in history that the new generation is predicted to have a shorter life expectancy than the previous.

Sound familiar?

The health care challenges that New Brunswick is facing are becoming somewhat of a theme in provincial political discourse.  The article attributed increased health care costs in New Brunswick to demographics, chronic disease, emerging technologies, and inflation.  Similarly, in Nova Scotia, CWS data confirm that large proportions of Atlantic Canadian employees are overweight, inactive, and have on average over two modifiable health risk factors per employee.

Addressing these risk factors before they morph into chronic disease is at the crux of targeting spending effectively while simultaneously producing improved population health outcomes.

The problem with this approach?

According to the article, the CEO of the New Brunswick Health Council sees it as the politics of health care.  As quoted in the article, he states: “Sometimes decisions are made at the political level that are not necessarily the best investment.”

It’s time to start investing in prevention and wellness on a province-wide level.  We need to go upstream to find out who is throwing people in the river! Keeping healthy people healthy is one of the primary ways that provinces can get the biggest bang for their buck.  Focusing on wellness ensures positive returns on investment with an initial low cost.  When it comes to health care, politicians need to start seeing the bigger, longer-term picture.  Paying for sickness is unsustainable.