Wellness Strategy Tips To Engage your Workforce Year-round Terri Goodbar, Benefits Consultant, ABB Jay Krishnan, Director of Product Marketing, GuideSpark January 21, 2015
Agenda How ABB, a fortune 500 global company, evolved their wellness program to engage employees year-round How to find creative ways to communicate your wellness programs to increase participation and give your employees the gift of good health. Ten tips to strengthen your wellness communications strategy. Terri Goodbar Benefits Consultant ABB Jay Krishnan Director of Product Marketing GuideSpark
ABB s Top Wellness Challenge TOP CHALLENGE: How to evolve the wellness program to be more engaging throughout the year and effectively communicate wellness information to dispersed employees ABB s Employee Profile Total global employees 150,000 (20,000 based in U.S.) Fairly large blue collar employee population without access to company email and some even without internet access at home Many work site locations around the country with relatively small employee populations Moved to a year-round wellness program that promotes healthy behaviors with on demand programs and financial incentives
2011-2012: One Time Engagement Complete Health Screening Employee Gets Entire Award Very fragmented No continual activity on wellness All an employee had to do to earn their wellness rewards was to complete a health screening and they received their entire reward. LESSONS LEARNED: One-time reward doesn t get year-round engagement
2012-2013: Year-round Engagement Moved to an activity-based approach for both employees and spouses Paid a portion of the wellness rewards when an employee/spouse completed both a health screening and a health assessment Earn the rest of their rewards throughout the year by participating in healthy activities Employee and spouse participation dropped off dramatically; 2-3% participation in ongoing healthy activities initially Reason: a new approach and employees not understanding (or paying attention to) the changes Found that spouses participate at about half the rate of employees Began recruiting wellness champions at locations to provide local support for wellness programs LESSONS LEARNED Focus on change management and over communicate any changes effectively Reward by activity facilitates year-round engagement
2014: Increase Reward + New Programs + Multi-channel Communications Increased the wellness reward potential that employees and their spouses could earn Added healthy activities for which they could be rewarded for participating Including volunteering and preventive care Communicate through multiple channels More focus on wellness champions at locations to encourage and promote local wellness programs and activities (utilize Yammer group to disseminate information and resources to wellness champions) Wellness at no cost free to employees and spouses to participate Most popular online programs: Eat Healthier, Get Active, Stress Less, Weigh Less LESSONS LEARNED Engage employees and spouse with incentives and communicate through multiple channels
ABB s Wellness Strategy Year-Round Rewards Program Communications Channels Employees & Their Spouses Health assessment Health screening HR Intranet GuideSpark videos Physical activity tracker Tobacco free Post cards Emails Phone coaching Preventive care Posters Gamification/ contests Volunteering & community events Wellness champions at 22 sites Yammer
Tracking ABB Healthy Activities to Earn Rewards Taking the Health Assessment Tracking physical activity Volunteering in community activity Completing a Health Screening Participating in online health journeys Tracking your healthy habits Remaining or becoming tobacco-free Working with a Health Coach Employees and spouses enrolled in ABB s HSA or Health Reimbursement plan are eligible for rewards
ABB s Wellness Incentives at a High Level Partnering with Redbrick Health to drive engagement Reward dollars are deposited into HSA or HRA which reduces out of pocket medical expenses Spouse has same opportunity to earn reward dollars as employee
How ABB Employees Earn Rewards Points system to promote a healthy lifestyle throughout the year
Gamification of Wellness Rewards Employees and spouses across all locations compete in wellness challenges to get more active and win valuable prizes Team of blue collar workers in Tennessee was one of the winning teams!
ABB Wellness Communications Posters FAQ (available in print or online) Online Rewards Page
ABB Educates Employees with GuideSpark Videos Wellness Overview Wellness: Know Your Numbers Wellness Program Wellness Incentives
ABB s Intranet with Multimedia Embedding wellness videos in the employee s workflow
ABB Results Summary Transformed the wellness program to be more engaging throughout the year Increased employee participation in online programs and other healthy activities by over 12% Employee Health Screening: 43% Employee Health Assessment: 42% Employee participation (online programs, physical activity, phone coaching, etc.): 32% Introduced a library of on-demand wellness videos that employees can access any time on any device Engaged the employee s spouses to participate in the wellness program
Wellness Strategy Playbook Jay Krishnan Director of Product Marketing
Top Wellness Challenges Lack of Employee Motivation Decentralized Getting Employees Attention Inconsistency Volume of Information Engaging Year-round
Wellness plays a HUGE role in: Reducing healthcare cost Increasing employee productivity & morale Retaining employees
Ways companies are solving for a healthier workforce Vending m/c with Healthy Foods Bike to Work Reimbursement 24/7 Video Chat with Physicians Incentive Lower Medical Contribution Color-Coded Label in Café Meditation Rooms Half-Day Fridays Company-Wide Fitness Friday Fitbit Race Take the Stairs Challenge Source: Greatist.com
Top 10 Tips to Strengthen Your Wellness Communications
1 Empower your employees to be wellness champions
2 Focus on preventive wellness
2 Examples of preventive wellness campaigns
3 Take a holistic approach go beyond physical wellness
3 The types of wellness programs that are important to employees:
3 Why financial wellness education? Problem: Financial stress decreases productivity. Employees who suffer from money worries tend to be less productive, less engaged, and can even raise employer health care costs.
3 Why financial wellness education? Solution: Offer an array of proactive financial planning tools that help employees better manage their money in the short term. 75% of companies are planning to focus more on financial wellness. (Aon Hewitt survey) Companies that offer financial wellness could save $3 for each dollar they spend (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report)
3 The benefits of financial wellness programs Source: SourceMedia Research, 2013
4 Help employees understand: what s in it for them Also: reinforce company s commitment to maintain employee privacy and confidentiality
4 Wellness Journey
5 Eliminate medical/wellness jargon. Humanize your communications.
6 Add gamification and incentivize with outcomebased rewards
7 Take a multi-channel communications approach Lunchtime Promotion Life sized characters Email Roadshows Brochure Webinar/ in-person meetings Post card with QR code Voicemail Notification Micro-sites with library of videos Wellness Communication Wellness champions
7 Wellness communications need to be Targeted Personalized Data Driven
7 Your employees get a lot of emails. How do you get their attention? Targeted Personalized Simple Short Relevant Mobile optimized THE Benefit Multi-media Call to Action
7 Email signatures are easy, effective, and free marketing. Visual signatures are even better.
8 Leverage trends (social, mobile, video, wearables)
8 Short Engaging Wellness Videos
8 Text healthy to 88202 Employee text healthy to 88202 Employee gets a link to your company s wellness video Employee watches the video on his/her mobile device
8 Pinterest
8 Closed Facebook Group
8 Wearables (Fitbit)
9 Cascade wellness messaging from the top by living it (not just talking about it)
10 Create a 365-day Wellness Strategy and measure your program success
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