The Wellness Workplace: A Brave New World

If there is a brave new world on the frontier of our corporate consciousness it must surely be the land of employee wellness programs. Owners and managers worldwide are recognizing the connection between employee health and productivity, and therefore bottom-line profits, and yet very few companies are confidently embracing wellness options.

Perhaps part of the reason for that is the difficulty in relating nationwide costs directly to an individual employee, or individual workplace. Numerous studies have linked various illnesses and conditions with reduced productivity - also known as presenteeism, which can be defined as being present at your job but with reduced productivity because of your condition - and absenteeism, which of course is simply being absent from work because you are unwell. But what does that mean in real dollars in your workplace?

Estimates are that un-wellness directly costs the US economy $260 billion per year. If we assume a workforce of 100 million people this would be $2600 per person per year. One can expect similar figures on a percentage basis in countries throughout the Western world. Multiply that by the number of full-time employees in your company and you have a reasonable estimate of the real costs to you. This does not include interdependent losses, such as those that occur for instance when a department manager is absent, and dependent staff are less productive than they would be if he/she was on the job.

The top 11 health risks related to productivity are poor diet, high body mass index, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, excessive stress, overdue preventative visits, lack of emotional fulfillment, high blood pressure, to­bacco use, diabetes or high blood glucose, and alcohol use.

So while we may know in our hearts that our employees would be more productive if they were healthier, as HR professionals we have difficulty evaluating and proposing an investment in this area in terms of its bottom-line benefit, and then choosing appropriate programs.

Fortunately this question has not escaped notice by researchers and today we have many well-designed studies that have applied actual numbers to wellness issues in a variety of occupations and age groups. For example, in a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 2007 the overweight were 32% more likely, the obese 61% more likely and the morbidly obese 118% more likely to miss a day of work than those without weight issues. These figures do not include workplace costs due to disability and early retirement.

You can find some of these studies on our website at www.keepcanadaslim.com/index.cfm?page=corporate or by doing a Google search.

On the other hand it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look around your office and realize that people who are stressed and depressed, overweight and with low energy, or just plain sick with a cold or the flu and are still at work are less productive than they would be if they were healthy.

So let's start with the given that healthier workers are more productive and see if we can design a workplace wellness program that makes sense both financially and physically. This could perhaps start with a budget. If unwellness is costing your company $2600 per person per year, perhaps an initial investment of 20% or $520 per person per year would be a reasonable starting point.

Given that wellness is a personal responsibility, and that not all employees require the same program I would recommend that you include a user pay portion if possible. For instance a matching 50% program would turn $520 into $1040. This user pay concept ensures buy-in by the participants and this buy-in ultimately determines the success of any program. It also helps target corporate funds toward areas of wellness that would be best received and therefore most appropriate as a starting point.

According to the Wellness Council of America (WELCOA), there are seven steps to a successful employee wellness program. They are as follows: 1. Capturing Senior Level Support; 2. Creating Cohesive Wellness Teams; 3. Collecting Data to Drive Health Efforts; 4. Crafting an Operating Plan; 5. Choosing Appropriate Interventions; 6. Creating a Supportive Environment; 7. Consistently Evaluating Outcomes.

The important thing if you are to lead your company to the brave new world is to get started. The size of your employee force will determine the complexity of your challenge. Don't try to impact every health risk at once. Start with one program and achieve a level of success before moving on to a second concern. Given that most HR people are not wellness experts, at some point you will need to reach out to professionals who can help you in these areas. Fortunately there are just as many wellness professionals looking to fill your needs as there are HR people with needs to fill.

Let's bridge that gap and get our people, our companies, our communities and ultimately our countries moving forward to a healthier more productive future.

Lee Fairbanks is the President of Keep Canada Slim Inc., in Hamilton, Ontario and can be contacted at www.keepcanadaslim.com, by emailing bigskinny@keepcanadaslim.com or by phone at 905-628-0279. Keep Canada Slim offers custom-designed corporate wellness programs for companies of all sizes.