Workforce Obesity: What Can You Do?
| Source: https://safetydailyadvisor.blr.com
What can you do to help workers maintain a healthy weight and keep your bottom line healthy at the same time? Read about a company that's helping its workers lose tons of weight. |
| Employees of Health Care Services Corporation (HCSC) lost more than 53,000 pounds last year. HCSC is the owner and operator of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
According to Senior Vice President Dr. Paul Handel, that amount tops the company’s 20-ton weight-loss goal. A robust wellness program including fitness centers, classes, and healthy cafeteria food are part of the solution. "Many employers have viewed wellness programs as a nice extra when times are flush," says Handel. "We believe that the obesity epidemic and the rising toll of diabetes now make them a strategic imperative." Financial incentives are an important part of the HCSC strategy. In addition to tying wellness to annual bonuses, the company offers employees additional incentives of up to $200 a year for taking an annual wellness exam and logging their physical activity. Great news! BLR's renowned Safety.BLR.com® website now has even more timesaving features.
Other StrategiesThe key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, says the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), isn't about short-term dietary changes. It's about a lifestyle that includes: · Healthy eating; · Regular physical activity; and · Balancing the number of calories consumed with the number of calories the body uses. According to CDC the first step in maintaining a healthy weight is to look at the current situation. Body Mass Index (BMI) is one way to measure weight. BMI calculations are based on height and weight: · A BMI of 18.5 signifies being underweight. · The range between 18.5 and 24.4 is considered to be a normal weight. · The range between 24.5 and 29.9 is considered to be overweight. · A BMI between 30 and 40 is considered to be obese. · BMI of 40 and greater is considered to be morbid or extreme obesity. Your employees can calculate their BMI by going to |
Want to Win the Wellness Game? Start with Good Communications and Fun
For many employers, wellness has become a no-brainer. The challenge, many employers discover, is getting employees on board and keeping them on the right track.
The solution, experts say, is to keep employees informed and keep it fun.
"The goal of wellness workplace programs is to improve health and slow health care costs," said Amy Gallagher, wellness expert with Cornerstone Group in Warwick, R.I. "And to get there, a clear communication strategy is a must."
Gallagher noted in a recent blog post on GoLocalProv that employers need to be aggressive and proactive when promoting their programs.
"Don't be shy when rolling out a wellness program; make it an event," Gallagher wrote. "In a kick-off meeting, position the program as an employee benefit the employer fully supports and be sure to involve leadership."
Gallagher also suggested discussing the importance of wellness with employees and clearly defining the activities and expectations.
Once the program is rolling, employers should consistently remind employees of the initiative and provide online portals and tools to boost participation.
Like any activity, it's more fun when it's a game. And wellness is no exception, according Limeade Inc.'s Henry Albrect in a recent Society for Human Resource Management report.
In the article, Albrect noted that while employers may want to be aggressive with their programs, securing buy-in from employees and making participation voluntary will generate better results.
"Traditional wellness programs often fail to achieve lasting change using a heavy-handed reliance on high incentives to drive goals passed down by the company," Albrect wrote. Programs that rely on games that appear to serve the participants' interests -- not the company's -- tend to fare better, he noted. Also, social games -- contests that involve people with whom workers already interact and know -- can be particularly effective, he said.
Like any game, the players -- not just the employer -- will want to know the score, wrote Gallagher of Cornerstone, a Member Firm of United Benefit Advisors.
"After a cycle of activities is completed, be sure to report back to employees on progress and results. Share where the population health risks are, how future activities and participation will help reduce them and any new program goals or offerings. Don't forget to survey employees to gauge their satisfaction with the program -- perhaps the most important result of all."
Are rules and regulations around alcohol going to make a difference?
By Penny Ferguson
As an HR director or business leader, are you drawing any parallels between the Government’s approach to dealing with the problems of binge drinking and the way our organizations attempt to create behavioral change?
This may sound like a strange question, but for me there are so many things that resonate, and my question is this: are rules and regulations the most effective way to change the way people behave?
The Government obviously believes so. Binge drinking is, without question, a serious and growing problem, but Government is only dealing with the symptoms, not the cause. Why do individuals feel the need to go out and binge drink?
Probably because they think it's fun. How sad that we have become a nation where many people find fun in a bottle rather than more healthy pastimes. Those who passionately pursue activities and hobbies are much less likely to be among this number, perhaps because they're focused on a sense of purpose and belonging.
Just putting in numerous rules to remove from someone something they want, without their having something worthwhile to replace it with, I have never known to have any significant impact on behaviors. Usually, it just makes them devious, trying to find ways round it. You could therefore argue that you may be creating even more problems for the broader community.
Where will they get the booze from if they don't have the money to get it? If it's 'the only way to have fun', they'll surely find a way – steal either the drink or the money to buy it, maybe?
The same thing is true in our businesses. When we continually create rules and structures to stop people doing certain things or behaving in certain ways, they often invest huge amounts of time in finding ways to get around them.
However, if we focus more on helping people to see how they can really contribute and how they uniquely make a difference to their team and the organization, we may create sustainable change. We may begin to inspire people to embrace their role so they get much more from every working day, which in turn may positively impact on their performance.
Let me put this into a context. How many companies have you worked at where a communication problem was dealt with by appointing consultants? How much real change resulted? Most of the time, when people are asked that question, they respond, 'not a lot' or 'nothing at all'.
So, your problem is that individuals are not communicating and you put in a system to sort it? That won't work. If each and every individual took 100% responsibility for communicating, you wouldn't need a new system anyway.
At home, and I will admit sadly to this being very true of me for many years, you love your children very much so you keep telling them 'what to do' and what 'not to do'. Effectively, you are educating them into not thinking for themselves. You are actually teaching individuals how not to be responsible.
To change the culture of drinking, or to change any culture for that matter, necessitates something very different from putting in new systems. I believe if this is the route the Government goes, then the impact will be negligible and, within a couple of years, they'll be looking to 'upgrade' or put in a new system and the problem will have escalated.
How often have you seen systems merely create a 'fix' rather than bring about lasting change within your organization?
David Cameron talks about responsibility but, if he just keeps putting in systems to tell people how to behave differently, then to my mind he clearly doesn't understand the true meaning.
I wish, for once, the powers that be would start addressing the cause rather than the symptom. Then, and only then, will we begin to address so many of our challenges.
How are you applying this principle in your organizations?