|
|
|
Keeping Your Employees Healthy
Beyond medical insurance: These programs can draw you a healthy bottom line
|
Business New Haven
6/20/2000
By: John Florian
|
Is this the text of your annual speech to employees about health care?
“As I'm sure you know, health costs are rising, and that means insurers are always charging us more and more!…Um, sorry about that outburst. Anyway, we have to pass the extra expense along to you.”
And that's it: Your program starts and stops with costly medical insurance. Sound familiar? If so, you might get stuck in a dinosaur age of the way companies treat health care. And that could trigger major headaches, because:
• Sick employees weaken your bottom line;
• Health-related benefits perk up job hunters when they shop around in today's tight employment market;
• Current employees are a happier, more productive lot when they know you're concerned about them; and
• It's been amply demonstrated that keeping your employees healthy is a good business investment.
A growing number of regional employers get the big picture.
“We want our employees to be as healthy as possible, because healthy employees are productive employees,” says Karen Stockla, vice president for intellectual resources at American Skandia, the national financial services company headquartered in Shelton. “It carries over to the employees' well-being.”
Jim Greenwood, chief financial officer at Spectrum Plastics in Ansonia, a manufacturer of a variety of plastic parts, gets to the point. “If an employee is not functioning for you, you have to replace that employee. So it's very important to have healthy employees.”
Adds Don McManus, manager of New Haven's Downtown Health & Racquet Club: “For every dollar you spend on a wellness program, you'll get it back twofold in reduction of absenteeism and insurance costs. The healthier your employees are, the less they'll miss work. They'll have fewer injuries and be more productive.”
Even if your medical insurance plan is the best around, there's more you can do. And fortunately, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to implement programs beyond traditional medical insurance.
What's available? Plenty. For instance, your program checklist could include: screenings for health danger signals, educational sessions, substance-abuse counseling, discounts for health-related products and education, memberships in fitness clubs and classes and, of course, ensuring that employees have safe work environments.
Here's a sampling of what companies are doing nationally and regionally to keep employees healthy and productive. Perhaps it'll spark an idea you'll want to use, too.
A Healthy Mission
First, your health care program won't heat up if it gets only lukewarm attention.
Success depends on top-level commitment. And a new national survey finds that health care is indeed climbing to higher levels of corporate concern.
Regardless of company size, keeping employees healthy has become a “stated mission or goal” of an average of just over half of the firms surveyed in the 1999 National Worksite Health Promotion Survey. Nine out of ten employers view poor health as a potential threat to business success, and one-third place it near the top of business priorities. Just 12 percent claim it is “not a business priority at all.”
The survey reports on worksite health care trends other than traditional insurance plans. Where health care is part of “a visible corporate mission,” programs are more prevalent, are used more by employees, and face “fewer perceived barriers to success,” the survey finds.
By industry type, those in the transportation, communications and utility sectors are most likely (58 percent) to include health care in their corporate mission, according to the survey. Least likely (43 percent) to put that priority in writing are wholesale and retail businesses.
How Do You Compare?
Apparently, most surveyed companies figure it's a good business investment to keep employees healthy. In fact, that's cited most often (84 percent) as a reason for offering health-promotion programs.
Other reasons for sponsoring such programs are to “improve morale” (77 percent), “reduce health care costs” (76 percent), “retain good employees” (75 percent), “attract good employees” (67 percent) and “improve productivity” (64 percent).
Not surprisingly, rising health care costs are a “concern or major concern” to 94 percent of the survey's respondents. But there are differences on other issues. For instance, companies with the largest worksites have greater concerns than others about the health of their aging workers. Service businesses are more likely than others to be concerned about health matters relating to employee recruitment and retention. They also offer more stress-management and fitness programs.
Meanwhile, worries about occupational injuries and accidents are highest among manufacturing, agriculture and construction firms. Spectrum Plastics, for instance, gives employees a $70 annual allowance to buy safety shoes during visits from the “shoemobile,” says CFO Greenwood. Nationwide, manufacturing worksites in the survey also tend to emphasize programs for kicking smoking and other substance-abuse habits.
The survey polled companies throughout the continental U.S. with 50 or more employees. It was conducted jointly by the Association for Worksite Health Promotion, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Disease Prevention & Health Promotion, and William M. Mercer Inc. (The survey report is available from the Association for Worksite Health Promotion, 847-480-9574, www.awhp.org. Customized reports are available for a fee from William M. Mercer Inc., 612-897-8800, www.wmmercer.com.)
Convenient Check-Ups
House calls are “in” again - if you're an employer. Health screenings for things like blood pressure, cholesterol and cancer are offered onsite by 30 percent of the nationally surveyed companies. It's most common at larger worksites, where three-quarters of the employees have access to such screenings. But visits to smaller sites are growing like cropsy. Regionally, it's literally rolling along.
“A company's human-resources person can call me or Griffin Hospital, and we'll come out in our van and check blood pressure, cholesterol, body fats, hypertension - just about anything done at a hospital that we can transport,” explains Daun Barrett.
A registered nurse, Barrett is the busy coordinator for the mobile clinic program run by the Valley Parish Nurse organization and sponsored by Derby's Griffin Hospital. A grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven put the van on the road last October.
The van's visits are free, except for cholesterol screening, for which a company recently paid, says Barrett. “We'll also set up a table for educational materials and help people with a variety of things, like nutrition and referrals to physicians,” she notes.
“I'll go anywhere in the van for a company,” says Barrett. “Just call me [203-732-7584]!” But senior and community centers, town halls, pharmacies - even monthly visits to some Wal-Marts - get the engine going, as well.
Health Fairs Are Fine
Health screenings are often conducted during company “health fairs,” which seat employees in educational classes about health issues. In the national survey, 35 percent of the companies reported offering “some sort of awareness education at the workplace.” Topics include HIV/AIDS, nutrition, cholesterol, prenatal care and work/family balance.
“We usually hold a health fair once year,” says American Skandia's Stockla, who oversees compensation benefits and human resource systems. A recent fair this spring, which included the Parish Nurse/Griffin Hospital van, might be followed by another this fall, she says. And every month, classes are held on a variety of topics, including alternate health care and how to manage stress.
“We want all our employees to be well informed,” says Stockla. A company intranet binds American Skandia's 1,300 Shelton employees with health information. This includes the texts of health talks that employees might miss.
The popular health screening van also rolls into Iroquois Gas Transmission System, where about 90 Shelton employees oversee a conduit that carries natural gas from Canada to Long Island. Health screenings are part of the company's annual health fair, which takes place in conjunction with the United Way campaign each October, explains public relations representative Ruth Parkins, who makes it all happen there.
“It's a very successful health fair,” she says. “We hooked up with Griffin Hospital, which provided us with excellent speakers for mini-seminars throughout the day.” Others spoke on holistic and naturopathic medicine, stress-reduction and yoga. Griffin's chef even gave a demonstration in the conference room “that filled the air with garlic,” Parkins laughs. The 30-minute seminars were followed by question-and-answer sessions. Blood pressure and cholesterol screenings were given, too.
The purpose of the health fair, says Parkins, is to make employees aware of health issues and options. It's also where employees who skip annual physical exams can get health screenings.
What's involved in creating a successful health fair? “A lot of organization,” says Parkins. “You first have to make sure there will be enough employees interested in hearing the speakers, who will be giving up their time at no charge. We certainly want to make sure we have an audience for them.” Advance bulletins and sign-up sheets determine the interest, and about 20 employees attended each seminar last October, says Parkins. “Not all could take time off to attend every seminar.”
Overall, some 30 percent of the employees participated. “And it definitely had management support,” Parkins notes. “We start planning the health fair about three weeks to a month before the event,” she adds. Speakers are initially contacted at least two months ahead of time.
Companies Get Physical
American Skandia and Iroquois Gas Transmission are among many companies located in a sprawling Shelton office park complex built by developer Robert D. Scinto, where employees have access to an on-site fitness center charging only $10 for a member identification card. That's a perk in itself. But TranSwitch Corp., a maker of computer chips for telecommunications, even pays that fee for employees, says Jean Wargo, HR representative for TranSwitch.
Elsewhere, company memberships in off-site fitness clubs are boosting employee morale as well as muscles. For instance, New Haven's Downtown Health & Racquet Club logs about 40 corporate memberships, with companies ranging in size from big Bayer Pharmaceuticals in West Haven to “a start-up biotech company that joined two months ago with just two people, and now already has eight or nine employees,” says club manager Don McManus. “Competition for new employees is tough and they wanted to attract the best people,” McManus says of the biotech firm. “Job candidates are looking for perks, and this membership is now in their benefit package.”
Membership fees are based on the number of employees, and payment options cover a variety of scenarios. McManus gives the best rate to corporations that he can bill just once a month for all registered employees. But other companies opt to foot the bills individually with employees through bonuses, or to work out something through payroll deductions.
“We'll produce a flyer for their benefit package and talk at their health fairs,” says McManus. The club will also check blood pressure, heart rates and “body composition,” or fat-to-muscle ratio. “You might feel very good about the results,” McManus says, “but sometimes it's a wake-up call.”
Besides racquetball courts and scores of exercise machines, the club gets members together in classes. Cardio kickboxing sessions, which build muscle tone and heart rate, are popular, McManus says, along with cycling classes set to music. “It's a little more fun than biking by yourself,” he says. A massage therapist, access to a swimming pool, yoga, and three-day nutrition program are also offered.
Meanwhile, the Hamden/Greater New Haven YMCA in Hamden likes to move members outdoors, to a 35-acre center that hosts the Y's Teamwork Program. Companies use it, as well as church, student and other groups, says Ben Post, senior program director.
“Let's say you have a staff with a morale problem,” Post explains. “Maybe you need to get the unit to cooperate more on a given task, or to build camaraderie.” The program does this, says Post. “We've seen a lot of good results.”
The outdoor center also has pools, hiking trails, picnic areas and a summer camp facility. Back inside, the Y offers a range of exercise equipment, a “brand new” 25-yard swimming pool, fitness classes and child-care center open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. School children are even bussed to the facility from school.
Corporate memberships can be paid by a company monthly, Post says. “Or we'll work with a payroll deduction plan.” As an example, the Hamden Y participates in a statewide YMCA program for Connecticut state employees.
Making Worksites Safe
Allied Health, a West Haven outpatient rehabilitation facility that also subcontracts many related services, has an inside track to workplace safety and employee health.
“One of our services is providing on-site assessments - for example, in worker's compensation cases,” says Laurie Kendall-Ellis, president and owner of the 13-year old company, who for the past year has chaired the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce's Health Care Council. “We teach employees smarter ways to do their jobs, to avoid re-injury. So naturally, we make sure our own employees aren't injured,” she says.
“One of the perks of working here is medical knowledge,” Kendall-Ellis notes. This leads to things like ergonomic workstations and paying a massage therapist to sooth staff nerves. “We all go through tense times.”
How Insurers Help
As might be expected, the national survey finds fewer health-related programs at smaller worksites. But the smaller sites also tend to have greater employee participation than larger sites. And insurance providers are making it easier.
“The availability of health promotion to employees increases substantially if access through health plans is included,” the survey notes. “The inclusion of programs available through health plans increased access by ten to 40 percent.”
To Steve Glick, the extra programs insurers offer are “benefit-portfolio builders.” Glick is president of Coordinated Financial Resources, the Orange-based administrator of insurance benefits for the Chamber Insurance Trust, covering more than 7,000 member companies of chambers of commerce in Connecticut. Their primary carrier for health insurance is ConnectiCare, the health-care management company based in Farmington.
“The key thing for an employer today is that you have the ability to be creative,” says Glick. “You can customize a portfolio for your employees' needs. If you work with a good consultant, you can do this without a major investment.”
What might you tuck into such a portfolio? ConnectiCare's offerings, for instance, emphasize both disease management and prevention. Mary O'Connor, ConnectiCare's director of public relations, cites programs like BREATHE, for people with asthma; Diabetease, for diabetics; and HeartCare, for people diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Prevention programs help with nutrition and weight management, preparing for childbirth, and offer adult education about issues affecting teens. FitCare is yet another program that gets members into participating fitness clubs in Connecticut.
Dental and vision insurance is also increasingly popular, even when entirely paid for by employees. But some plans let employees pay in pre-tax dollars.
The Bottom-Line Payoff
Is there a real bottom-line benefit for all this effort? The national worksite survey found more than 50 percent of the respondents saying “yes” - they've demonstrated a return on investment “that was accepted as valid by senior management.” Satisfaction is higher (68 percent) among companies that include health in their mission statements.
In fact, some firms are so committed to health care that they pay employees to participate. In the national survey, employees in 18 percent of the largest worksites receive financial incentives, compared to ten percent of worksites overall. Ranging from a few dollars to over $1,000, the incentives “can promote initial change and provide an opportunity to develop more internal motivation [to remain healthy],” the report concludes.
And looking ahead, the report predicts an increase in worksite health programs. Which, according to Allied Health's Kendall-Ellis, is the right direction.
“Think of your staff's mental and physical health,” she advises other employers. “We want our employees to go home and enjoy life. If they're happy at home and enjoying the after-hours, they'll be happier here and do the best they can. Overall wellness of the individual should be part of an employer's responsibility.”
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
