Creating a Culture of Health

Transcription

1 Creatig a Culture of Health Creatig a culture of health is vital to improvig the health ad productivity of your workforce ad your bottom lie. To establish the right foudatio, you must have the right programs i place ad make sure your health strategy fits ito your workplace culture. This white paper presets how to create a culture of health: what it is, why it s importat, how to costruct oe ad how to uderstad people s behaviors to ifluece chage. It cocludes with a success story that illustrates a culture of health put ito practice. The iformatio i this white paper is best used i cojuctio with health maagemet programs that affect behavior chage ecessary for health improvemet ad lowerig costs. What is a Culture of Health? Simply put, a culture of health is a workplace culture that supports health improvemet. Creatig this type of workplace eviromet eables employers to be more successful at chagig uhealthy behaviors tha a culture that igores or does ot seem to value health. A culture of health is more tha just a glossy poster of the food pyramid i the luch room or a corporate discout at the local gym. It s a larger effort that affects the etire orgaizatio its framework, its leadership ad the overall behaviors of its workforce. Layig the Groudwork I order to make health improvemets that will improve your orgaizatio s bottom lie, your commitmet to a culture of health is paramout. For support, try parterig with a expert i this area to help move you from coceptualizatio to implemetatio. The right parter will also help you idetify opportuities for health improvemet, use programs that effectively egage idividuals ad apply methodologies that are prove to chage behavior. CIGNA helps employers build the framework to implemet such a culture. We take a cosultative approach to uderstadig the goals of your orgaizatio, as well as the health status ad eeds of your employees ad their families. We apply our experiece to your iitiatives, icludig: Icetive strategies Beefits desig Commuicatio strategies Oce this groudwork is effectively laid, CIGNA ca the idetify opportuities withi your workforce, egage people, help chage behavior ad, ultimately, reduce risk, lower costs, ad improve health ad productivity. We ll be your log-term parter to create ad sustai a culture of health /10 1

2 How to Create a Culture of Health 1. Itegrate Key Compoets A. I m p e r a t i v e s Your culture of health must be aliged to the orgaizatio s busiess imperatives. This ca help offset the amout of moey required to drive behavior chage at the idividual level. A culture of health ca also be itegrated ito performace goals, busiess scorecards or other measuremet tools. B. L e a d e r s h i p Leadership support from the top dow is essetial for chagig beliefs ad values. First ad foremost, orgaizatioal leaders must both support ad show their support for maitaiig good health. This support eeds to be heard from the CEO s ow voice ad show through iitiatives that cascade dow through the raks of the orgaizatio. This will help directly reach your workforce at all levels. C. C h a m p i o s Havig health champios broadcast their success is importat. But equally as importat is the eed for these champios to be represetative of all levels withi the orgaizatio. Showcasig champios at the seior level, as well as at base levels, allows for the message to reach the overall orgaizatio, as well as specific worksite locatios. 2. Develop the Right Strategies Strategies to create a culture of health are largely drive by two ifluecers: Employer Ifluece: How your orgaizatio affects the health of your populatio ad promotes healthier behaviors. Vedor Parters Ifluece: How your vedors create ad commuicate programs that implemet lastig lifestyle improvemet ad behavior chage to maximize health ad well-beig. Employer Ifluece + Vedor Parter Ifluece = Healthy Workforce Employer Ifluece The statistics make it soud easy: create a program, implemet it i your orgaizatio ad start movig the eedle toward improved health. But just because people kow somethig s good for them, does t mea they ll chage or eve uderstad how to chage their behavior. A employer must create the right eviromet ad provide the right programs for meaigful chage to occur. 2

3 Cosider a small regioal pilot to test differet welless strategies. Here are some examples: 1 A large brokerage firm kew may of their employees worked late fuelig the eed for fast food. To ecourage healthy eatig, they arraged for healthy dier meals that employees could order, pick up ad take home to eat with their families. 2 Drivers of a large truckig compay had oe mai route they drove every day. A welless statio was set up for employees to use their break time to eat healthy sacks, lift weights ad exercise. 3 Members of a uio worked with a uio leader to hold focus groups to determie which healthy optios were importat to uio members. I m p e r a t i v e s Compoet A: Kow Your Orgaizatio What do you kow about the people who work for you? What are their geders, ages, marital statuses ad icomes? O average, how may childre do the members of your workforce have? Is your populatio uio or o-uio? Do people trust you ad the programs you provide? What has igited morale i the past, ad why do you thik it worked? What s your commuicatios strategy ad how do you commuicate it with your employees? What works? Does your leadership team uderstad health ad welless, ad do they promote it? Do you kow your health care claim treds? Compoet B: Choose a Appropriate Media Approach What you commuicate to your workforce is as importat as how you commuicate it. Callig people o the phoe ad sedig s sometimes is t eough or effective based o your populatio. Cosider who you re commuicatig to: where they work, where they live, what their socioecoomic status is. The thik about what you re commuicatig. It eeds to be said i a way that motivates ad egages your particular audiece. Fially, choose a media approach with multiple chaels that are all appropriate for the eeds of your workforce. Your workforce may be o the road, o the phoe or may ot have computers where they work. Whether you call their cell phoe while they re commutig to work, at home after their kids have goe to bed or reach them olie durig their luch break, your programs require multiple ways to appropriately reach these idividuals. L e a d e r s h i p Compoet C: Promote Grassroots Efforts Are your grassroots efforts promoted at the CEO level to show compay-wide support, but ru by your frotlie staff to make egagemet easy? Do these programs tie ito your busiess strategy? Does your workforce clearly uderstad your health strategy ad their role? Most importatly, do your lie supervisors support your strategy? You ca have the best program, but if your lie supervisors do t let people off their phoes or away from their workstatios for the time that s required to participate i these programs, the program will ot be successful. 3

4 5 C Five key questios to ask your vedor parter: 1 Are your solutios itegrated? h a m p i o Compoet D: Fid ad Create Champios Are there people withi your orgaizatio who ca successfully tout your welless program? Examples: idividuals who have lost weight, cacer survivors, athletes who uderstad the visio of health or frotlie staff who have the creative motivatio to rally their team. Vedor Parter Ifluece Your vedor parter eeds to be able to address both the mid ad body of the idividuals who work for you. 2 How do you measure egagemet? 3 How do you measure outcomes? 4 What solutios do you offer for the healthy portio of my populatio? Compoet E: Make Sure Your Vedor Solutios are Prove ad Seamless It s very importat to uderstad that whe you have multiple vedors, your workforce may be receivig multiple calls ad multiple mailigs. That ca be very cofusig ad they may woder, Who do I call? Whe? Why? If o oe is prioritizig their health ad well-beig optios, they may feel overwhelmed ad uiterested. As the employer, it s your resposibility to reiforce parterships amog vedors. Whe you re reviewig programs, are you spedig moey o people who do t eed it? Aalyze your reports to make sure programs are touchig the right people at the right time to drive substatial ad sustaiable chage. 5 What s your expectatio of the employer to drive usage of the programs? Compoet F: Make Sure Your Programs are Focused o the Idividual Programs have to be meaigful withi your whole orgaizatio ad to each idividual. The more you uderstad what motivates people aroud their health status, the more successful you ll be i defiig programs that are useful. 3. Uderstad Your Orgaizatio To uderstad your orgaizatio, you must first uderstad your workforce. Our strategy to make people active participats i their health is rooted i developig a holistic uderstadig of each idividual. This meas kowig people s prefereces, eeds, motivatio ad ways i which they wat to egage with health improvemet support. 4

5 Uderstadig Behaviors It s ot just about physical health or tellig people what to do it s about uderstadig the big picture situatio that may be impactig a perso s health. We work to uderstad why someoe is t followig the appropriate care maagemet. For example, is a idividual usig eatig as a copig mechaism for deeper issues? Or are they dealig with the impact of puttig their family s care before their ow? Uderstadig Prefereces Does most of your workforce work from home or are they o the job site? Are they active or do they sped the day sittig at a desk? Do they have access to a computer or the Web? All these factors will help you determie the best way to commuicate telephoe, worksite, Web, social media or through health care professioals. Accommodatig your workforce s prefereces is key i makig sure they all get the message. Uderstadig Beefits ad Icetives Desigig the right beefits pla ad programs depeds o the eeds of your workforce. The desig of your beefits should help istill health improvemet motivatio ad elimiate the barriers uique to your orgaizatio. Depedig o your orgaizatio, icetives ad disicetives may be aother way to motivate people to egage i healthier behaviors. Which approach will be most effective i your orgaizatio s culture to ispire behavior chage? Maybe both. How well you kow your orgaizatio determies your beefits ad icetives strategy. If the programs have bee effectively commuicated to your workforce ad are trusted by them, the your workforce is more likely to egage ad participate. This meas oly miimal icetives may be required. How to Chage Behavior: Buildig o a Culture of Health Meaigful behavior chage depeds o a perso s readiess to chage, as well the support they receive alog the cotiuum of egagemet. Creatig a culture of health eables you to provide the right support, as well as create a eviromet i which your workforce ca kow the full rage of services available to them. With over 30 years of behavioral expertise, CIGNA has a prove approach that draws upo itervetios ad techiques from several behavior chage models. CIGNA's staff is traied i behavior coachig skills to egage ad assist people i makig positive ad empowerig choices that are importat to them. Our method is called CIGNA CARE Coachig. CARE stads for Collaboratig, Affirmig, Respectful ad Empowerig. Idividuals workig with CIGNA ca expect to cosistetly work oe-o-oe with the same coach i order to develop a relatioship with that perso. 5

6 How oe health advocate coected with oe perso to create lastig behavior chage: recogitio I kow who you are ad why you are cotactig me. kowledge I am aware of my health risks as you are. capability Your guidace gives me realistic choices that ca be practically implemeted i my life. expectatio. I kow how to get a hold of you if I am cofused, fail at chagig, get i trouble or experiece a setback. trust You are credible, ad what we discuss is importat to me.. cotrol I ca cotrol my health ad well-beig, ad the health care system aroud me.. power I am empowered to stay healthy ad vital. A Case for Welless: Loudou Couty Govermet Here s oe example of how CIGNA assisted a employer i creatig a culture of health that helped lower risk, icrease productivity ad reduce health care costs. Sice 2005, the Loudou Couty, Virgiia govermet has collaborated with CIGNA to improve the couty govermet s employee health status ad reduce overall health care costs. Together, they have developed ad implemeted a robust welless program that has improved employee use of prevetive care optios, health care costs ad disease treds. As a result, Loudou has eared atioal recogitio for its iovative welless program, icludig the America Heart Associatio Start! Fit-Friedly compay gold recogitio, ad recogitio from the America Heart Associatio (AHA) Gold Award i Alliace for Iovatios magazie. Welless Challege Employees were challeged to participate i health improvemet activities. Participatio could ear each employee up to 175 poits, which could be redeemed for deposit ito their flexible spedig or health savigs accout. Loudou Couty Govermet is a excellet example of a welless program that s well-desiged ad implemeted, directly impactig ad improvig the overall health ad well-beig of its employees ad their families. Results Year 1 Reduced tred: 10% to 6.5% 10% icrease i prevetive care 4.4% icrease i office visits 2.8% decrease i ER visits Results Year 2 13% decrease i high cholesterol risk 14% decrease i elevated cardiac risk ratio 28% decrease i catastrophic claims ($50,000+) 36% fewer catastrophic claims tha peers 24% took health assessmet vs. <1% for peers 57% households use pla website for beefit ifo 6

7 CONCLUSION Loudou Couty Govermet is a excellet example of a welless program that s well-desiged ad implemeted ad directly impacts ad improves the overall health ad well-beig of its employees ad their families. Creatig a culture of health starts by layig the groudwork committig your orgaizatio to creatig a workplace culture that supports health improvemet. This icludes kowig the eeds of your populatio ad applyig them to your icetive strategies, beefits desig ad commuicatio pla. After you ve got this foudatio, you icorporate your ew missio ito the key compoets of your orgaizatio: your busiess imperatives ad leadership roles, ad by establishig health champios. Strategy developmet is also key ad depeds o combiig your employer ifluece with your vedors parter ifluece to create prove, seamless programs that meet the eeds of your populatio. Oce you fully uderstad the eeds of your orgaizatio ad have the right compoets i place, you ca create lastig behavior chage that moves idividuals alog the cotiuum to better health. "CIGNA" ad "CIGNA Care Coachig " is a registered service mark of CIGNA Itellectual Property, Ic., licesed for use by CIGNA Corporatio ad its operatig subsidiaries. All products ad services are provided exclusively by such operatig subsidiaries ad ot by CIGNA Corporatio. Such operatig subsidiaries iclude Iteratioal Rehabilitatio Associates, Ic. (Itracorp), CIGNA Behavioral Health, Ic. ad vielife Limited / CIGNA