Being unhealthy is no fun. Whether it's a recurring cold, a spare tire or two around the waist, or that hacking smoker's cough, being unwell is an anchor around your neck that can drag down your personal life and happiness.
It's not particularly good for your job, either. According to the Global Wellness Institute's (GWI) "2016 Future of Wellness at Work" study, the "economic burden of unwell workers -- in both medical expenses and lost productivity -- is enormous, possibly reaching 10-15 percent of global economic output." In the U.S., the institute estimates that the costs of chronic disease, work-related injuries, stress, and worker disengagement adds up to more than $2.2 trillion each year. Just counting workdays missed due to chronic disease, the cost to U.S. employers is $153 billion a year, according to research firm Gallup.
Numbers like these, along with the skyrocketing cost of health insurance, are why CEOs have been willing -- even eager -- to invest in employee wellness programs over the past decade. In just the last two years, the number of respondents to Incentive's annual "Safety and Wellness IQ" survey who say they have a wellness incentive program grew from about 40 percent to 50 percent -- a number that matches what GWI found in a recent survey of U.S. workers.
Actually Do It
Those CEOs are also demanding more from these programs. Early wellness efforts often amounted to a website with articles about exercise and nutrition, along with links to other online resources and health coaches or nurses who could advise employees based on a health-risk assessment (HRA) survey.
The HRA is now just a starting point, says Peter Hart, CEO of Montreal-based employee engagement firm Rideau Recognition. Originally, he says, clients were offering incentives for taking an HRA because it boosted participation, which was a first step in using the wellness program at all. "Which made sense," Hart says. "But as these programs are maturing, it's not just taking the HRA, it's participating -- are you doing something [to improve your health]? There's an evolution to these things."
That evolution is well underway, according to Incentive's "2016 Safety and Wellness IQ" survey. Just 8.2 percent of the respondents now say getting the HRAs filled out is the primary goal of their wellness program. That's compared to nearly 60 percent saying it is improving employees' health and fitness, and 16.5 percent aiming to reduce healthcare costs (see additional results on page 20).
Nor are modern wellness programs just for people who are unhealthy. When companies originally began offering HRA-focused wellness programs, they soon found they had a lot of employees with chronic health conditions, says John Pierce, wellness advisor for Jacksonville, FL-based Yo-Fi Wellness, which runs incentive wellness programs for clients as well as third-party incentive providers. "It was 5-10 percent of their employees," he says. "Then human resources departments started saying, 'What are we doing about the rest of the employees, to ensure they don't become less healthy, and fall into chronic conditions?'"
For one thing, you make wellness programs more enticing. Yo-Fi's wellness programs are participation-based and outcome-based, Pierce says, and awards are given for completing challenges and reaching goals. Its online wellness portal doesn't just contain weight-loss and disease-management advice, it has healthy cooking, yoga, and meditation courses. And it relies on videos rather than text in order to appeal to Millennials.
"A lot of companies are creating challenges [for wellness participants], creating teams of people," agrees Hart. "Teams are much more effective. Why does Weight Watchers work? Because you've got groups of folks together."
It's important that these challenges are not just one-offs, he adds. "You're constantly creating events to keep the program fresh," Hart says. "You've got to create ongoing communication campaigns."
From Wellness to Well-being to Results
"I believe what you are seeing is the maturing of the wellness movement in business," says Rodger Stotz, chief research officer of the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF). "For one thing, leading companies are now calling it 'well-being' and are adding additional elements -- for example, financial education, stress management, and life-stage planning."
This shift has been embraced by Virgin Pulse, part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Started as a provider of wellness programs aimed at getting employees to participate in healthy activities and measuring the results, it has shifted its focus to "well-being programs that support the whole employee," says Chris Boyce, Virgin Pulse's CEO. "Basic wellness programs are a positive first step. They show that employers care about the health of their people. But this approach tends to focus on disease management over prevention and often engages only a small part of the workforce. Ultimately, wellness doesn't change everyday habits."
One Virgin Pulse client, Ascend Performance Materials, has 2,300 employees in five plants across the U.S., 81 percent of whom are enrolled in the well-being program. But this program from the Houston-based manufacturer of chemicals, polymers, and fibers doesn't stop at the factory door. Forty-six percent of employees' spouses or significant others also participate, which helped Ascend win the top spot in the Houston Business Journal's healthiest employer ranking in 2014.
Those "holistic well-being programs" don't just benefit the employees, Boyce says. "The second benefit is measurable improvements in business outcomes like productivity, employee engagement, and thriving corporate cultures. Participation and engagement rates are important to measure, but the real value comes in measuring outcomes. We work with employers who measure the Value of Investment (VOI) of their well-being programs in metrics related to retention of top talent, worker's compensation claims, safety issues, and absenteeism. These things all affect the health and success of the business."
The GWI's "Future of Wellness at Work" study comes to the same conclusion, noting that "while one benefit of this more comprehensive approach is improved health and better habits across all areas of life for the employee, the second benefit is measurable improvements in business outcomes like productivity, employee engagement, and thriving corporate cultures."
It's vital to understand that these wellness programs take time to show results, says Hart. "You've got to have a long-term perspective," he notes. "You've got to look at this as a three-to-five-year project. Make sure that there's some sort of marketing program to keep it fresh, and there's some sort of reward [model] to make people want to participate. And publicize those rewards. If you're doing it to get results in three months, forget about it."
The Carrot or the Stick?
Wellness and well-being programs got a huge boost from the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), which raised from 20 percent to 30 percent the portion of healthcare costs that can be dedicated to rewards.
But not all companies offer employees incentives for participating in a wellness program or achieving healthy goals. Some charge higher insurance premiums to employees who don't participate or reach goals in wellness programs, while others offer premium discounts to those who do -- which amounts to much the same thing.
This is not a good idea, says Mike Donnelly, president of Chicago-based Hinda Incentives. "Well-being is a journey and requires a mental and emotional connection due to the difficulty of adapting the behaviors associated with wellness (regular physical activity, healthy eating, mindful winding down each day)," he adds. "We believe that it takes the support of non-cash incentives, and most importantly the community of people that surrounds that individual, to fuel and incent the employee to integrate wellness behaviors into their everyday routine."
At the same time, a huge award budget is not necessary, says Hart, whose company advocates both formal recognition and points-based awards redeemable for merchandise, gift cards, travel, and event tickets. The awards should be wellness-related, he adds, suggesting things like sneakers, fitness equipment, and healthy dining.
"Make sure you're not giving them [gift cards to] the Cheesecake Factory or something like that," Hart notes. "It's so basic and obvious, but in some cases people haven't thought it through, and they're handing out these incentives that are totally inappropriate. They ought to be wellness-related and create a virtuous circle."