Healthy, wealthy and wise
Are health and wellness programs an
Rx for the productivity revolution?

It's a vicious cycle: Companies expect more out of employees than ever before; higher-demanding jobs bring on stress; added stress causes illnesses; illnesses lead to lost days at work; and absenteeism impacts productivity - the very thing that employers want to maximize.

Add confusion over consumer-driven health care and more expensive and complicated benefit plans to the mix, and the diagnosis might seem bleak: employees who may be resentful, apathetic and prone to illness. Any one of these symptoms can lead to lost productivity and dash an employer's hopes of gaining a competitive advantage.

The cure: Instead of focusing on the potential negative impacts of consumer-driven health care, health savings accounts and other changes in employee benefits, savvy company leaders can use these new concepts as opportunities to invigorate the health and wellness of their employees, which just might have the added bonus of improving the health of the overall organization.

Healthy employees; healthy company
Two major challenges facing organizations are employee productivity and health care cost containment. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, a growing number of employers are implementing health and productivity practices and seeing lower costs, reduced lost time and improved worker health. And the National Business Group of Health says employers can achieve a potential return on investment of three-to-one, or $300 for every $100 spent per employee, on implementing preventive services and health improvement programs.

"We believe that up to 70 percent of health risks are modifiable and can be reduced with lifestyle behavior changes," says Zachary J. Meyer, MHA, senior vice president of Ceridian's Commercial Employee Assistance Program and Work-Life services. "When we help employees reduce risk, the number of benefits claims decrease, in turn helping to keep cost increases down."

Here's to your health!
In the 1980s, when wellness was first coming into vogue, employers thought they were doing a good job if they put a blood pressure machine in the lobby. Today's wellness programs are much more sophisticated and creative. They run the gamut from helping pay for gym memberships to offering healthier meals in the cafeteria; and from sponsoring annual marathons to providing flu shots - and everything in between.

Highly motivated organizations create even more incentive for employees to get healthy by tying wellness objectives to compensation. Just like any other performance competency, they rate and evaluate employees on how they're doing relative to their wellness plan.

As consumer-driven health care becomes a bigger part of the health equation, employees will need to watch out for themselves. As they continue to take more responsibility for their own health care and the associated costs, they will have a more vested interest in preventing illness and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

"The greatest challenges of modifiable health risks are weight management, stress/depression and tobacco use," says Ronnie Bragen, Ceridian product manager.

Some of the more popular wellness and prevention initiatives offered by companies include:

• Incentives for employees to live healthier lives
• Reduced insurance premiums for employees who participate in health screenings
• Reduced insurance premiums for nonsmokers
• Waived and/or reduced deductibles and copays for preventive care
• On-site fitness facilities or discounts to area fitness clubs
• Weight management programs
• Workshops on health and wellness such as smoking cessation
• On-site health fairs with free laboratory testing/health screening
• Flu shots
• On-site massages, paid for in full or subsidized
• Corporate fitness clubs such as walking, biking and hiking
• Health screenings on an ongoing basis
• Walking trails around company grounds
• Shower facilities for employees who bike to work or workout on site
• Information on healthy eating in the cafeteria
• Pedometers provided to employees, motivating them to take 10,000 steps a day - the level that walking provides sufficient exercise

Obesity: The #1 health concern The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 65 percent of the U.S. adult population is overweight. Supporting research suggests that obesity is of greater concern for health problems and health care spending than smoking and drinking combined. Obesity places individuals at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, musculoskeletal conditions, stroke, cancer and depression, thereby greatly reducing the potential for quality of life and work performance once these chronic medical problems are introduced. Obesity accounts for about 9.1 percent of total annual medical expenditures. The loss to employers is estimated at $1.3 billion per year in terms of associated health care, sick leave, life insurance and disability costs, and 30 million lost workdays are attributed to obesity annually.

First steps You can't change what you don't measure, so assessing the current state of your employees' health is a good first step on the path to improved health and wellness, Meyer says. Ceridian Life Health Assessment powered by Trale is an online assessment tool that identifies and evaluates at-risk individuals based on their lifestyle behaviors and health conditions. Ceridian Life Health Assessment (LHA) goes beyond a traditional health risk assessment by globally integrating health and related psychological, interpersonal and life event issues, and then assesses their impact on employee absences and productivity. In addition, the LHA generates data that profiles the health of a company's employee population and demonstrates the relationship between health and productivity. The reports detail health status and

risks, stages of readiness for change, the presence of chronic conditions and diseases, and the levels of absence and productivity risks in your population. The assessment also establishes important baseline information for gauging the effectiveness of current and potential health and wellness programs.

"Although health benefit costs increased an average of 10 percent last year, employers with health risk assessment programs were better at managing their costs, with some reporting increases as low as five percent," says Rob Kramer, Ceridian product manager. "These savings were accomplished, in part, by getting employees involved in disease management programs aimed at living healthier lifestyles, including weight management, exercise and smoking cessation programs."

The key to a successful LHA is participation, so company leaders might want to provide incentives to complete the assessment. Some companies deposit cash rewards into employees' Flexible Spending Accounts or offer health benefit cost reductions after they complete the assessment.

Customize a program to meet your needs Once you have LHA data, you can begin to understand the key issues that impact your employees' health and wellness and customize a program that meets the needs of your workforce. And before you ask, "Is this any of my business?" - don't worry. You aren't expected to ask employees to weigh in every day or hand out nicotine patches to employees on a smoke break. While it's OK to show your concern about your employees' health and well-being, it's not OK to use potentially disparaging information gathered from assessments or your own personal observations about them. In fact, due to HIPAA compliance, you won't receive individual results for your employees - only summary information about your overall employee population.

Productivity drains According to a 2005/2006 survey sponsored in part by the National Business Group on Health, issues that most affect employee productivity are: Stress (72 percent) Personal/family issues (59 percent) Chronic medical conditions (58 percent) Unscheduled absences (57 percent) Presenteeism* (49 percent) Lifestyle medical conditions (49 percent) *Presenteeism is lost productivity that occurs when employees come to work, however, their performance is subpar because they are ill or not focused on their work.

Employees who complete the assessment are assured that their individual information is confidential and will not be shared with their employer. "And, when a coach calls to recommend some local weight-loss programs or free smoking cessation classes, for example, the employee can always opt out," Kramer says.

"As employees are being asked to take more control of their health care benefits and costs, companies have a great opportunity, really an obligation, to offer the right resources so their workers can make the best decisions possible," Meyer explains. "While we don't know everything about how consumer-driven health care and health savings accounts will impact companies and their employees, we do know workers will have questions. And rather than direct those questions to the company's benefits folks or to the health care plan administrators, who might have underlying motives when offering advice, we advocate using impartial Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) - the perfect complement to our Health and Productivity Management Program."

The LHA is just one component of Ceridian's new Health and Productivity Management program. The program offers a wide array of integrated services designed to improve employee health, reduce absences and health claims, and increase productivity. "Employees only need to remember one phone number, no matter if they have questions about how to file a medical claim, where to get discounts for local fitness centers, how to reduce their blood pressure or any other health or wellness issue," Meyer says. "Plus, we can advise managers on how to get their employees back to limited-duty work following illnesses, track absences, counsel their employees who have chronic health issues and much more."

Other components of the Health and Productivity Management program include:

• Ceridian Leave Administration Services powered by Absentys tracks and administers employee absences, including FMLA, paid time off and casual absences. It also has an analysis tool that helps employers understand absence drivers and support interventions to target them.
• Ceridian Life Enhancement Services has a toll-free phone number that provides access to psychosocial, wellness, disease management and disability management services.
• Employee group interventions conducted on-site, such as health fairs, health screenings and healthy lifestyle courses.
• Organizational effectiveness interventions (such as assessments of culture and job functions) designed to create an environment promoting health and wellness.
• Employee interventions, including life enhancement coaching, disease management coaching, disability management, and a 24/7 nurse hot line for employees who self-refer or who are identified through the LHA.
• ROI analyses to help employers understand the impact of these productivity services. The analyses can also identify recommendations for program changes, furthering program effectiveness.

Simple steps for the office fitness program Spring is a popular time to look at ways to get in shape. And company-sponsored fitness programs are becoming more and more common. Start a program to shed pounds and shape up in your organization with these seven steps: Secure the support of top management. Appoint a wellness coordinator to oversee the fitness program. Collect pre-program data. Create a simple plan and set simple goals. Choose the appropriate intervention. Create a supportive environment. Carefully evaluate outcomes and results. Source: Small Business +

Take the lead Company leaders don't need to start a rock climbing program or publicly state their goal to lose 25 pounds, but they can show their commitment to health and wellness by leading by example. Remember, employees may notice if you take the stairs instead of the elevator or if you choose a healthy salad for lunch over a cheeseburger. Show employees that you support health and wellness and that it's an important initiative within your organization. This could include financial support, involvement in strategic planning, public backing of cutting-edge health management programs and ideas, and supportive remarks during employee meetings and workshops. Spring may be the perfect time to shape up, but Ceridian is committed to offering the tools and strategies to help you achieve your health, wellness and financial goals year- round.

Although corporate wellness and prevention initiatives may require additional spending today, they may lead to significant cost savings, not to mention healthier, more productive employees, in the long run. Whatever you decide to do, remember that the health and happiness of your employees has a direct impact on your company's financial health.