WHITE PAPER Wellness that Works How program integration can maximize participation and create a culture of total health and wellness Written by the behavioral experts at eni www.eniweb.com
Successfully Integrated Wellness and Behavioral-Health Programs Maximize: Program Participation Total Productivity Employee Engagement Healthcare savings Return-on-investment Satisfaction and Retention
Summary: The current economic climate is creating great challenges for employers to do more with less. To meet these demands, benefit professionals must get creative with new wellness programs and providers, and leverage existing resources to keep their workforce engaged and productive while lowering rising stress levels and healthcare costs. Integrating components of a comprehensive wellness program with those of an Employee Assistance Program, work/life services, and medical benefits leads to maximum value, increased participation, and superior health outcomes. This whitepaper outlines practical ideas and advice about integrating services to create a dynamic solution that fosters a culture of total health by introducing a whole-person approach to health and wellness. Highlights and statistics provided refer to the highly-successful case study from a longstanding eni client, who is a leading provider of payroll, human resource, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses. Routinely recognized as both a fit-friendly workplace and a Best Company to Work For, this client was seeking a way to capitalize on their already robust employee benefit portfolio to offer a best in class wellness offering that maximizes benefits to both the employee and the employer.
Create a Culture of Total Health and Wellness 2009 was unquestionably one of the most challenging years that Corporate America has seen in recent memory. The uncertainty of the economy has placed a heavy burden on the entire workforce, but has undoubtedly created a shift in the role of Human Resource and Benefit professionals, who are often forced to balance the new and challenging demands of their corporation with the stress and disengagement of a leaner workforce. Despite the fact that this role has proven to be demanding, many executives have risen to the challenge and found new opportunities and avenues to reinforce the bond between corporate goals and human capital that makes their company stand above the rest. One powerful resource that has created successful results while boosting engagement and doing more with less is the corporate wellness program. Corporate Wellness initiatives have grown in importance, particularly within the past year, as employers are expected to maximize resources in an uncertain economic climate. Once considered a nice thing to do, comprehensive wellness programs are now receiving recognition from senior management executives as a legitimate and powerful driver for reducing healthcare cost increases and improving productivity. With proper assessment, planning, implementation and integration, employers are able to maximize participation and engagement by creating a positive and noticeable shift in their corporate culture towards the total health and well-being of employees and their family members. A popular trend with employers is to integrate wellness services with the behavioral health services provided by an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), since both services seek to create and sustain true behavior change.
Health and Well-Being in the Economy Health insurance expenditures are the fastest growing expense for employers large and small and will continue to rise in 2010. Employees who are worried about being laid-off are reacting by increasing utilization of their healthcare coverage while they can still afford it. The increasing psychological stress associated with economic uncertainty is also presenting physical symptoms. Employees often do not make the mental-physical connection and seek treatment for their physical health while the root cause remains unaddressed and therefore untreated. Without proper intervention, employees struggle with a loss of focus and energy, and an increased risk for depression, absenteeism, and presenteeism. In an effort to ease the burden of these high costs, organizations have tried a number of different strategies, most with little or no results. The answer to significantly decreasing healthcare cost increases while simultaneously boosting employee productivity lies in a corporate cultural shift toward a preventive and healthy lifestyle, otherwise known as a Wellness Program.
What is a Wellness Program? By definition, a wellness program is structured in a way that offers services focused on the promotion and maintenance of healthy living, rather than correcting or treating the results of unhealthy habits. In summary, it s extremely proactive instead of reactive. It s important to recognize that there are a vast number of ways to structure and implement a wellness program that can include anything from simply paying for health club memberships and gym sneakers to a fully engaged multi-faceted program with health screenings, educational components, and incentivized activities. The complexity of a wellness program should reflect your organization s unique wants and needs, and should be customized to fit your corporate initiatives.
Assess Needs Survey employee interests in the types of wellness programs, organize HRA s, or Health Risk Assessments, to educate employees on their potential health risks, and include biometric screenings to identify early disease indicators. Encouraging Participation Regardless of the size and extent of your wellness program, the biggest obstacle of making any wellness program work is getting employees to participate. To get the most out of your program and encourage participation carefully consider your employees individual wants and needs. Following are some suggestions to achieving a high level of engagement in any wellness program. Assemble a Team Establish a wellness team that includes both employees and managers to implement and promote the programs goals. This helps get employees on board, attaches wellness to familiar faces and personalities, and creates a group mindset toward healthier living. Communicate Effectively Create a campaign that is far reaching, targeted, and consistent to your specific workforce. Refocus branding efforts internally to include newsletters, email blasts, and posters to create awareness and increase interest. Provide Incentives Offer rewards that focus employees attention and motivates them to work towards a goal. Directly tie the rewards to activities, like offering incentives for a fitness program that reduces healthcare premiums. Celebrate Success Announce active participants who have engaged in the program at all levels. Host corporate events to recognize both individual and group successes. Match your celebration to your company s corporate culture and initiatives. Create a Wellness Culture Promote wellness throughout the entire organization whether it s banning smoking from the building, stocking vending machines with bottled water, or allowing time during lunch for outdoor walks. These small details will reflect wellness in every aspect of your corporation and create a health centered attitude across all levels of your organization.
Measuring ROI Like any investment decision, a wellness program should impact the bottom line. Measuring the return on investment of a wellness program has traditionally been difficult for providers and organizations, mostly because the ROI of a wellness program manifests itself in several different forms. To simplify the answer, wellness programs are a financial investment, as well as an investment in human capital. Financially, a direct effect can be seen in the decreasing number of health insurance claims submitted by employees as well as an overall reduction in health insurance costs. Cost saving employee absenteeism can also be measured among organizations to demonstrate a programs impact. Yet, the investment in human capital proves to be the front runner for a wellness program s ROI. Active engagement in a program boosts employee morale, creates higher job satisfaction, lowers turnover rates, and ultimately increases productivity from a group and individual standpoint. The return on these variables can be extremely significant for an organization and the results should be demonstrated by a wellness provider that has the ability to successfully track and measure these benefits. According to an article released in TIME, the Wellness Councils of America, a nonprofit research group, found that on average every dollar a company spends on helping their employees get healthier it can expect to save $3 in healthcare expenses. Yet, like any business investment, what you get out of a wellness program is a direct result of what you put in. ROI, in the same fashion, depends on the extent of your unique wellness program and its specific components. Generally, the ROI of a wellness program is not immediately seen and can take several years to see significant results. However, once the return is identified, you ll not only see an impact on the bottom line, but you ll also have a healthier force of employees and a better place to work.
Happier, Healthier, more Productive Employees Taking into effect all of the components of a successful wellness program from implementation, fostering engagement, and finally measuring results, eni has been able to design uniquely customized wellness programs on a national level for companies both large and small for over 25 years. The following program information is from a case study of one of eni s longstanding customers, who integrated a corporate wellness program with their existing EAP and Work/ Life program offered by eni. Educate, Engage, and Empower. If you would like to learn more about eni s wellness program, we want to hear from you. visit our website at www.eniweb.com
A Solution Above the Rest: CASE STUDY The program began with a close collaboration between the eni team and members of the participating company staff to develop a program that would meet their specific corporate goals while energizing and engaging employees as individuals. An incentive program spurred participation with genuinely valuable rewards, such as eligibility for lower health care deductibles and a points system that involved monetary rewards for higher level participation. The minimum requirement for participation was the completion of three steps: 1. A biometric screening event, either at the on-site screenings coordinated by eni at the branch locations, or with employees personal physicians. 2. An online Health Risk Assessment questionnaire. 3. Commitment to being a non-smoker or to signing up for a smoking cessation program sponsored by the company. How our Wellness Program Increased EAP Usage 2007 Work/Life Requests 2008 2009 150% total increase 270% total increase EAP Cases
In January of 2008, eni launched an in-depth wellness program designed to suit the needs of large business clients. The flagship program included a Fortune 500 leading provider of payroll and human resource services with more than 12,000 employees in more than 120 branch locations across the nation. By designing a customized, highly interactive wellness program, eni helped their client achieve amazing results. Participation levels exceeded 85%, a stellar figure compared to the average of 30% participation for wellness programs nationally. And while employees benefited personally from a successful wellness program, the company received relevant, actionable data to help reduce the costs of health care, absenteeism and other modifiable factors. The program placed priority on helping each individual become more aware and active in pursuing a healthier way of life. All participants could access lessons, articles and resources through their individualized web portal, as well as receive live assistance from health professionals, including their health coaches and personal wellness coordinators. The points tracker system was a key element that put employees in control of their own personal wellness programs. By logging on to a password-protected, personalized wellness homepage, participants were able to track their health related efforts and to earn points throughout the year. They earned points for a wide variety of activities, from staying up-to-date with appropriate medical screenings and attending health and wellness seminars to working out on their own and meeting other fitness goals. Employees earned monetary rewards based on their level of participation. More than 85% of all employees participated in the program to some extent, with more than 75% completing all three of the minimum requirements. The results demonstrate an exceptional response compared with typical corporate wellness programs that can generally expect to involve no more than 30 The synergy shows that offering programs not in silos but as a total package creates a greater level of employee engagement. percent of their population with traditional wellness offerings. In addition to the great participation rates, the company was also able to accumulate aggregate data on specific risk areas for their population at large. eni was able to identify modifiable risk factors that most affected employees and focus programming to target topics that were of greatest concern. The company also experienced an unexpected result from the concentrated focus on a wellness program: A marked increase in EAP participation. The wellness program increased employees awareness of their existing personal assistant and clinical care management benefits, which eni also provides. These services help to round out the wellness benefit. Engaging these offerings helps to decrease work/ life-balance-related stress and promotes emotional well-being - important aspects that fall under the umbrella of a holistic wellness approach. The keys to the success of this program were highly individualized service, excellent promotion and a high level of management involvement. Throughout the year, there was extensive promotion to make the program very visible to the employees and encourage their involvement. Wellness Coordinators were readily available to assist with questions, via both phone and e- mail, and HR representatives and frontline managers became informed and supportive advocates of the program. Employee response was overwhelming; positive feedback poured in from all over the country from employees who were excited about the new wellness initiative. There was a wide range of positive feedback with many expressing appreciation that their employer was concerned about their health and wellbeing. Others noted that the program stimulated an awareness of previously unidentified health risks that they will now be able to address. To learn more about maximizing employee engagement, wellbeing, and productivity visit www.eniweb.com.
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