WELCOAs Vision of a Well Workplace Takes Shape
Improving health is a difficult business. Over the past 15 years, we have seen this statement proved out time and time again. Health promotion takes patience. It takes creativity, thought, and resources. It takes vision. But anything worthwhile does. Consider the words of Glendon Johnson, retired CEO of John Alden Life Insurance Company and Chairman of the Board for the Wellness Councils of America.
Health is the pearl of great price. It is only after it is lost, that people value it most.
These words become even more poignant when you consider the reality of Americas current health status.
Status Woe
Recently the National Center for Health Statistics reported that the typical working American has approximately seven chronic health conditions. Consider also that the World Health Organization has described stress as an epidemic, stating that seventy-two percent of Americans experience frequent stress-related physical or mental conditions. Add to this the fact that most Americans are now overweight (twenty-two percent of which are obese), and it becomes quite evident that Americans need to get healthyand fast.
But there are significant challenges involved in improving the health of our nations citizens. While most Americans would agree that a healthier lifestyle would afford them certain benefits, many are unaware of what their health risks actually are. And even for those who understand the forces driving unhealthy behaviors, changing health habits that have become entrenched over several years is often an exercise that ends in disappointment.
To compound the matter further, we live in an environment that makes good physical health difficult to achieve. Our busy schedules encourage the consumption of quick and easy, high-fat foods. Technological advancements have all but eliminated the need for physical labor during the workday, and with the proliferation of escalators, elevators, and moving walkways, even simple movement is coming under attack.
But when it comes to improving national health, where do we start? Whats the best way to getand keepAmericans healthy? The answer, no doubt, is as complex as the question. But as a key component to a multi-faceted approach, worksite wellness is beginning to demonstrate its promise.
Workplace Wellness Works
For the past 15 years, WELCOAs vision of improved national health has found its roots in worksite health promotion. Through the implementation of its Well Workplace process into hundreds of organizations all across America, WELCOAs vision of a healthier America is beginning to take shape. As an initiative that clearly establishes benchmarks for building healthier working environments (explained in detail in the following pages), WELCOAs Well Workplace initiativealong with a growing body of evidence demonstrating the efficacy of workplace wellness programsis beginning to generate interest. And for good reason.
Why Workplace Health Promotion?
Again, most people work. In fact, of the nations 203 million people over the age of 16, more that 136 million are employed in the US workforce. This, in and of itself, is a good reason for using work as a medium for promoting a healthier lifestyle. But theres more.
According to Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American and respected Harvard economist, the average workweek has grown to nearly 50 hours. The typical employee now works the equivalent of one extra month per year as compared to his or her counterpart in 1970. More than one third of Americans are now working over 10 hours per day and thirty-nine percent are working on the weekends.
Health related concerns are not only an issue for employees, but for the nations employers, too. Health care costs are rising at an alarming rate. Double-digit percentage increases in health care premiums have been the norm for the past few years, and its not uncommon these days to see nearly half of corporate profits being consumed by health care costs. But it doesnt have to be this way.
A Better Way
The Well Workplace Awards initiative is designed to help organizations improve the health of their employees, and in so doing, reduce unnecessary health care expenditures. In short, Well Workplaces are meant to be better places to work. Because healthy living is incorporated into the very fabric of an organizations culture, and because employees are empowered to take control of their own personal health, Well Workplaces have happier, healthier, and more productive employees.
But is doesnt end there. The organization benefits too. Stacks of research validate the fact that healthy employees get sick less often, are more productive during the day, and stay with the organization for longer periods of time.
Benefits to the organizations bottom line are also not uncommon in Well Workplacesa direct result of an organization linking its health promotion objectives to its business outcomes. Well Workplaces invest in employee wellnessthe best ones invest in a healthy workforce as a means to corporate competitive advantage. Ultimately, Well Workplaces aim to become arenas for both employee and employer to enjoy the best of what work has to offer.
Sound too good to be true? Its not. Scores of companies all across the United States are taking WELCOAs vision of a healthy workplace and weaving it into their corporate cultures. Take a look at two case studies from WELCOA designated Platinum Well Workplaces.
Union Pacific Pulls Ahead
Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) has nearly 48,000 employees in 23 states throughout the US. Most employees are mobile, unionized, blue-collar workers. In 1990, UPRR determined that twenty-nine percent of their health care costs were lifestyle related (compared to a national average of nineteen percent), and that medical costs per employee were nearly double the national average.
Knowing this, UPRR began a self-care initiative at an annual cost of $50 per person. After careful implementation, the program achieved a net savings of $1.26 milliona benefit cost ratio (ROI) of $2.77 returned for every $1 invested.
Health risks were dramatically improved as well. Forty-five percent of employees in the treatment group lowered their risk of high blood pressure, thirty percent moved out of the at risk range for weight problems, and twenty-one percent stopped smoking.
After five years of targeted health promotion activities, UPRR has reduced the rate of lifestyle related health costs from twenty-nine percent to twenty-four percent. Whats more, they estimate that they have saved three times as much money through indirect productivity savings as they have in direct medical costs. Says Dick Davidson, Union Pacific CEO when referring to UPRRs wellness program, Its one hell of an investment.
High Achievement
UPRR isnt the only company that has seen tangible results come from its wellness initiative. Highsmith Inc. is also a great example of how a well-designed health promotion program can produce bottom-line outcomes.
Located among the cornfields of rural Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, Highsmith is a $55-million business that sells products to libraries and schools by catalog. The company employs approximately 300 people. Eighty percent of its employees are women, and the average age is 39. A Platinum Well Workplace award winner, Highsmith has achieved some enviable results from its wellness initiative.
Highsmiths wellness program began in 1989 when they realized that their group health insurance premiums had increased by fifty-three percent. It was then that Highsmith began an aggressive wellness program that, to date, has included building a walking path around its campus and offering its mini-university, a program that enables employees to sign up for a wide variety of continuing education classesmany of which are offered on company time.
Highsmiths concept of total employee wellness has enabled the company to bargain with its insurance provider, negotiating little, if any, increase in yearly health insurance premiums. Employee satisfaction at Highsmith has reached new heights as wella recent employee retention study revealed that the average length of employment at Highsmith was 14 years.
The two companies featured here are just samples of the hundreds around the nation that have begun the difficult task of creating workplaces that thrive in todays tough environment. They deserve to be congratulated and emulated as models of what a healthy workplace can be.
And while there is no single salve to soothe the nations health dilemma, one thing is certain: WELCOAs vision of the Well Workplace has emerged as a viable option for combating worsening national health and rising health care expenditures. As the nation continues to wrestle with the difficult health issues it faces, WELCOA will continue to offer forth its vision of what a Well Workplace is, and ought to be.