Employers remain committed to health care amid recession

Employers are hanging on to health care benefits including employee wellness programs, despite financial challenges created by the economic recession, according to a new HR and benefits survey by Towers Perrin.

Even in the face of salary and 401(k) cuts and freezes, many companies are still investing in employee wellness as a part of their workplace “deal” with employees, said the close to 500 HR and benefits executives surveyed.

"Employers recognize that we can't keep doing the same things and expect different results," said Dave Guilmette, Managing Director of the Towers Perrin Health and Welfare practice.

"So we're beginning to see leading companies taking steps to change the system from the inside out, focusing on new benefit designs, incentives for employees and providers, new technologies and new ways to measure and deliver the value of workforce health."

The survey suggests that employers and employees are now looking at health care as more of a shared responsibility between the two.

According to the survey:

• 53% of respondents are trying or considering new benefit strategies they would not have considered before the economic crisis hit.
• 70% of employers are increasing communication to address employee concerns
• 57% of employers are not cutting back on investments in benefit communication and education
• 50% of companies have or will introduce or increase investments in wellness and health promotion in 2009 and 2010

Employers are changing their ways regarding participation incentives and penalties for nonparticipation. Almost one-third (32%) of companies in the survey have or will introduce or increase financial incentives for wellness or health promotion activities within the next two years. Nearly half (45%) are considering introducing or increasing penalties for nonparticipation in wellness or health promotion activities.

"In previous economic downturns, investments in benefit communication and employee wellness were among the first to get cut from a benefit program," said Guilmette.

"The firm commitment to and increasing investment in employee wellness we’re seeing today shows that more employers are beginning to recognize the long-term financial benefit and business advantage they can achieve by improving the health of their employees."

Has your company been able to avoid cutting back on wellness programs, despite the recession? Does your company punish employees who choose not to participate?

Are hard times improving employee health?

In the past few years we’ve been witness to layoffs, cutbacks, furloughs and a number of other tough decisions among the long, long list of recession repercussions. But even through all the difficulties, some people are actually using this time to make positive, healthier changes.

New research shows that the recession is causing many workers to adopt healthier lifestyles. A recent survey by the National Business Group on Health of 1,500 workers ages 22 to 69 found a majority said that a healthier lifestyle is more important now than it was to them just one year ago.

One third of survey respondents said they are exercising more and about half say they’re eating healthier. The survey also found that 44% of respondents were eating fast food less often.

Whether you’re just trying to live healthier or wanting to cut back on health care costs, making healthy decisions regarding food and exercise is one of the simplest ways to get started.

Unfortunately, many of us spend most of our day inside office buildings where unhealthy junk food lurks around every corner and the thought of getting a workout in during lunchtime sounds more like a joke than a great idea.

So, lets skip the jokes and instead focus on some real-world tips for staying healthy at work:

• Get outside. Even if it’s only for five minutes at a time, grab your walking shoes and take a quick stroll around the building. If possible, set aside 15 to 30 minutes for a walk in the sunshine everyday.


• Pack your lunch. Bringing a brown-bag lunch from home will help you eat healthier and cut costs. If you’re not into the assembly, buy a week’s worth of healthy frozen meals at the grocery store to keep in the office freezer.


• Snack smart. Offices are full of snacking dangers, from vending machines to the office manager’s candy dish. Curb the urge to seek out these dangerous snacks by keeping a stash of healthy snacks like fruit and nuts at your desk.


• Say no to Joe. Though certain studies have shown that drinking coffee is healthy, drinking too much can be harmful. If you usually drink more than three cups of coffee a day, try to cut back by alternating each cup with a glass of water.
  

Do you have any other advice for making healthy choices at work? Leave a comment and share your tips and tricks for workplace wellness.

Why it pays to stay healthy at Target

Target Corp., the largest discount retailer next to Wal-Mart, is testing a new employee program aimed at improving wellness and lowering health care costs, by paying employees to participate.

As part of the new pilot program, Target will pay employees to undergo a health screening and follow recommended steps. Executives hope to turn it into a larger program to help the company and employees save money on health care.

Right now, the program has only been offered to about 4,000 Target employees, including 10% of workers at their Minneapolis headquarters, a distribution center and 11 stores.

"We're going to measure biometrics progress through time," said John Mulligan, vice president of Target Pay & Benefits, in an interview. "How are the average cholesterol scores of our population? How are the average blood pressures of our population?

"We're willing to make the bet that if we see those numbers improve, we will see the financial benefit of that to our team members and to Target. Both of us will share in the cost savings." (Reuters)

Target employees enrolled in the new program were paid $25 to undergo a biometrics screening that included measuring cholesterol, glucose and triglyceride levels, as well as blood pressure, height and weight. Employees were also required to fill out a health risk assessment and register for the program online.

Once completing those steps, employees were given a tailored health plan and were paid $50 each quarter they followed the plan’s recommendation. Employees could also earn $25 for visiting a doctor for annual preventative care.

So far, the program seems to be a success, with 59% of eligible employees at Target’s headquarters completing the first three steps to enroll. Of those who are enrolled, 38% remain “engaged” in the program each quarter.

Target executives are still analyzing the program to see whether they should offer it to all 350,00 of their employees.

“We're trying to engage 350,000 people in caring about their health, their family's health and do it in a way that makes getting and staying healthier easier," said Jodee Kozlak, Target's executive vice president of human resources.

In 2005, Safeway CEO Steve Burd developed a health care plan for his company, similar to Target’s new plan, focused on changing employee behavior and improving the company’s overall wellness to keep health care costs under control.

Over the past three years, most companies have seen about a 16% increase in family premiums, while health care costs for Safeway increased by only half a percentage point. Health care coverage costs among employees enrolled in the wellness program fell 11% after only one year.

In today’s economy, companies are continually searching for ways to cut costs. Finding ways to cut health care costs generally falls in the top spots on that list, but is paying employees to stay healthy the best way to go?

Does your company offer monetary incentives to encourage employees to live healthier? Do you think employee wellness plans like these are the right way to reduce health care costs, or are they going too far?

Training is key to preventing the flu at work

As of this morning, there have been 64 confirmed cases of swine flu in the U.S., including 45 in New York City, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In response to the intensifying outbreak, President Barack Obama said that swine flu is a cause for concern, but not a cause for alarm. Because government officials don’t yet know how widespread the flu may be in the U.S., they are focused on aggressive planning and precautions.

The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have developed a planning checklist for businesses, especially large businesses, to use in the case of a swine flu pandemic.

“In the event of pandemic influenza, businesses will play a key role in protecting employees' health and safety as well as limiting the negative impact to the economy and society,” the agencies said in a statement at PandemicFlu.gov. “Planning for pandemic influenza is critical.”

Along with how a pandemic could impact business operations, the checklist also includes valuable information that any organization can use to educate and inform employees on the dangers of the flu.

Officials suggest that businesses complete these tasks to communicate to and educate employees:

• Develop and disseminate programs and materials covering pandemic fundamentals (e.g. signs and symptoms of influenza, modes of transmission), personal and family protection and response strategies (e.g. hand hygiene, coughing/sneezing etiquette, contingency plans).
• Anticipate employee fear and anxiety, rumors and misinformation and plan communications accordingly.
• Ensure that communications are culturally and linguistically appropriate.
• Disseminate information to employees about your pandemic preparedness and response plan.
• Provide information for the at-home care of ill employees and family members.
• Develop platforms (e.g. hotlines, dedicated websites) for communicating pandemic status and actions to employees, vendors, suppliers, and customers inside and outside the worksite in a consistent and timely way, including redundancies in the emergency contact system.
• Identify community sources for timely and accurate pandemic information (domestic and international) and resources for obtaining counter-measures (e.g. vaccines and antivirals).

Educating and training employees on the dangers of the flu, including swine flu, is the best way to prevent illness within your organization and calm employees’ fears about a potential outbreak at work. Be prepared to answer employees’ questions and concerns, and prepared to squash any misinformed rumors that may be circling the office.

Whether your business is preparing for a natural disaster like a hurricane or flood, or a health crisis like the flu, your success will ultimately be determined by the information and training your workforce receives. Ensure that everyone in your organization knows what to do during a crisis. Your business depends on it.

Is it time for businesses to start getting involved? Is your company actively preparing for a swine flu outbreak? What types of informational materials/training have you provided employees with?

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Rising health care costs, are wellness programs the answer?

In response to rising health care costs, one of the nation’s largest grocery store chains is tackling obesity among its employees with a tough company health plan developed to help employees make positive behavior changes.

After taking a look at the numbers, Safeway CEO Steve Burd determined that obesity was at the root of a large chunk of the company’s health care costs. Obesity was a common factor among chronic conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer, plaguing his company and causing increased health care costs.

To reduce obesity rates among his 200,000 employees, Burd developed a health care plan in 2005 that was focused on changing employee behavior to improve the company’s overall wellness.

"What is the revelation Safeway had two years ago that completely transformed our thinking? That 50 to 60 percent of all health care costs are driven by behavior," Burd, Safeway's CEO since 1993, said in an interview. "If you design a health care plan that rewards good behavior, you will drive costs down."

Over the past three years, Safeway has been successful in their wellness efforts, with overall health care costs only increasing by half a percentage point. Most businesses have seen about a 16% increase in family premiums during the same time period.

In 2006, one year after the plan was put in place, the company reported that health care coverage costs for employees enrolled in the new plan fell 11%.


How the plan works

Safeway employees are put through a series of tests each year to measure body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, cholesterol and if the employee smokes.

The difference in premiums between employees who are not overweight and are non-smokers and those who are is about $1,500, with employees paying the difference.

If employees manage to lose 10% of their body weight and quit smoking, Safeway will reimburse employees for the difference at the end of the year.

Employees aren’t expected to accomplish the challenge on their own and Safeway has set up help along the way. Insurance pays for preventative health care services including annual physicals and well child check ups. The company also pays for smoking cessation programs, nutrition counseling and gym memberships.

To test his plan, Burd invited 30 large, self-insured businesses to replicate the Safeway wellness model. He also brought his plan to Capitol hill with Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, promoting the Healthy Americans Act.


What’s your opinion on Safeway’s employee wellness plan? Is it the right way to reduce health care costs or do you think it’s going too far?

How to cut costs in your personal budget at work

You’ve heard the spiel before - we’re in a recession, your 401(k) is losing money, companies are laying off workers left and right, and we’re all worried about it.

Instead of worrying about everything you have no control over, concern yourself with the parts of your life that you can do something about - starting with how you choose to spend your money.

When you factor in coffee, lunch and all those snacks out of the vending machine, the office has a way of taking more cash out of our wallets than we’d like. Controlling your personal spending habits at work is a great way to start cutting costs in your personal budget.

In a recent New York Times Q & A, author Eilene Zimmerman shared some great ideas for slicing your own budget at the office. Here are a few of the best:

• Leave the plastic at home. Leaving credit cards at home helps you to curb impulsive spending. Determine how much money you can afford to spend at work each week and put that amount of cash in an envelope. If that’s all the money you have to spend, you’ll think twice about your lunch order.


• Brown bag it. Cut down on food costs and improve your health by bringing lunch from home. A survey conducted in October by ConAgra Foods found that workers spend an average of $6.60 a day on lunch. By bringing food from home, even two or three times a week, can help you cut down on food costs.


• Skip the vending machines. For the cost of a few items out of the vending machine you could afford to buy an entire box of snacks from the grocery store. Get a few co-workers together and set up a snack pool. Each person donates snacks like granola bars or pretzels to share with the group and keep your stash of snacks in a central location in the office.


• Brew your own. “If you skip the twice-daily coffee your can save $30 a week. That’s $120 a month and about $1,500 a year.” Pick up a French press (usually less than $20) and brew your own great cup of coffee whenever you want, for a fraction of the cost of a store-bought latte.


• Take a look at your health benefits. Talk with human resources to ensure you’re making the right benefits enrollment decisions. Starting a flexible spending account would allow you to use pretax income for out-of-pocket medical and health expenses. Using pretax income will give you about a 25% savings and reduces your taxable income.

We’d like to add one more to the list - just say no to bottled water. Not only does it help you go green at work, it could help you save a lot of money. Americans spent more money last year on bottled water ($15 billion) than they did on iPods or movie tickets. Buying a reusable water bottle will help you stop wasting money and reduce your carbon footprint.

Saving money at work comes down to making conscious decisions on the little things you buy everyday. Give yourself strict limits, stick to them, and you’ll be saving money in no time.

New FMLA rules: What you need to know

On Monday, November 17, the U.S. Department of Labor released the first set of revisions to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The new regulations implement the new military leave law and make several changes to existing FMLA rules.

Regarding military leave, the new FMLA rule:

• Expands FMLA protections for family members caring for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty. These family members may take up to 26 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period.


• Employees may also take up to 12 weeks of FMLA job-protected leave for a “qualifying exigency” related to a family member in the military to manage their affairs. “Qualifying exigencies” include for example, short-notice deployments, military events, counseling, childcare and post-deployment activities.

Other notable changes:

• Serious health condition. To qualify for FMLA leave for a “serious health condition,” an employee or family member bust be incapacitated for more than three consecutive days and make at least two visits to a health care provider. The two health care visits must occur within 30 days of the period of incapacity. The new rules also clarify that “periodic visits to a health care provider” for chronic serious health conditions is at least two visits to a health care provider each year.


• Medical certification process. Employers have up to five business days to request medical certification after receiving an employees FMLA leave notice. Employees must provide medical certification within 15 days after requesting FMLA leave, including foreseeable leave.


• Employer notice requirements. Employers must provide employees with four different notices: general, eligibility, rights and responsibilities, and designation.

The new FMLA regulations will take effect on January 16, 2009. As an employer, you will be required to post a new federal Family and Medical Leave poster and update your FMLA forms to include several new forms contained within the latest regulations.

Before the new FMLA rules go into effect, you should inform your staff about the recent changes and revise your current FMLA policies, procedures and forms to reflect the latest regulations. Remember to post an updated FMLA poster as soon as one becomes available.

For more information, read this FMLA changes Q & A. If you would like to flip through the 700+ pages of the FMLA changes as they appear in the Federal Register, you can read the official document.

Training trends: Building trust, cutting clutter and cessation solutions

The November edition of Training Trends has landed in inboxes across the globe, sharing the latest tips, trend and buzz from the training industry. If you don't receive TrainingTime.com’s monthly newsletter yet, please take a minute to sign up.

Here’s a quick look at the November Training Trends newsletter:

Do Your Customers Trust You? Five Keys to Building Trust

As the economy continues to struggle, so do the profits and margins of many businesses in the U.S. and across the globe. Customers’ buying behavior has changed and businesses must use trust to develop customer relationships.


Give Your Reader a Break - Cut the Clutter

Work keeps us busy - for most of us, busier than we’d like. We need information, and we need it quickly. Most of us tend to get annoyed when it takes hard work to read a long, wordy business document. Use these tips to give your reader a break and cut the clutter.


The Worst Ideas in Stop Smoking Programs for Employees

employee smoking habits can cost your company big time. Smoking breaks and higher health care costs burn away at your bottom line. What are the best and worst ways to help employees kick the habit for good?

Please take a minute to sign up for Training Trends for the latest training information delivered to your inbox each month. For any HR and training experts our there, if you are interested in writing content for Training Trends or TrainingTime.com’s Learning Library, visit our “Write for Us” for information on how to contribute.

Preventing the flu in the office, six simple tips

As outdoor temperatures drop and winter starts rolling in, we’re reminded that flu season is just around the corner. An outbreak of the flu in any workplace drains attendance and productivity, not to mention putting employees at serious risk of developing dangerous flu complications.

Flu season in the U.S. generally lasts from November through March, and sometimes runs into early spring. Influenza or the flu is very contagious and is caused by viruses that infect the nose, throat and lungs. The best way to prevent the flu is by getting a flu vaccination each year, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

On average 5% to 20% of the U.S. population falls ill with influenza each year, landing more than 200,000 people in the hospital with flu complications. Sadly, about 36,000 people die from flu complications. Those at high risk for serious complications include the elderly, young children and people with certain health conditions.

Offices and personal workspaces can be breeding grounds for the viruses that cause the flu. Don’t let the flu bring your company’s productivity to a stand still one cough at a time.

Keep employees safe and healthy by working to prevent the flu from spreading in your office with the following six tips:

1. Vaccinate. Talk to every employee about getting the flu shot. Find a local flu clinic or look into hosting a flu clinic at the office. Vaccination is the best way to prevent the flu.


2. Educate. Inform employees about flu symptoms and benefits of the flu shot. Distribute information and hang posters on the dangers of the flu and the importance of getting the vaccination.


3. Review. Review your sick leave and absence policies to ensure you don’t punish employees for being sick. Employees who think they will get in trouble for missing work are more likely to come in to the office no matter how ill they may be.


4. Encourage. Encourage employees to take preventative measures like washing their hands often, keeping a clean work area and using tissues when sneezing or coughing.


5. Avoid. If the flu has found its way into the office, employees can minimize exposure by limiting face-to-face time, telecommuting and holding off on business greetings like shaking hands.


6. Stay. Employees who have the flu should stay home. If an employee has flu symptoms, but feels well enough to work, consider telecommuting until their symptoms are gone.

It takes a collective effort to keep the flu from affecting your workplace. With teamwork and education, employees will have the tools to help prevent themselves and their coworkers from falling ill.

Employee wellness training: New guidelines

Even during a financial crisis, investing in human capital through employee wellness is good business, say industry experts.

Soaring employee health care costs are a clear risk to growth, profitability and competitiveness. For those reasons, organizations looking to cut costs should not start by eliminating employee wellness, according to Jay Seifert, LoneStart Wellness co-founder in a recent MarketWatch article.

"Tumultuous times call for stabilizing influences, and wellness is such an influence," says Seifert. "Now is not the time to put workplace wellness and employee health on the back burner. In fact, now is exactly the time to begin to realize the financial and other benefits of a sustainable workplace wellness program."

Depending on the size of your organization, employee wellness programs are relatively simple and cost-effective to set up. Studies show that for every dollar spent implementing an employee wellness program, employers see an average reduction of $2.45 in medical claims.

Along with group wellness activities, offer employee wellness training to educate workers on the importance of living healthy lives. Use the latest set of wellness guidelines from the government to help get your wellness training off the ground and running.

With two and a half hours each week of moderate aerobic physical activity adults can gain substantial health benefits, according to the new Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This first-ever set of guidelines is designed so people can work physical fitness in their day-to-day routines with activities they enjoy.

"It's important for all Americans to be active, and the guidelines are a roadmap to include physical activity in their daily routine," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "The evidence is clear--regular physical activity over months and years produces long-term health benefits and reduces the risk of many diseases. The more physically active you are, the more health benefits you gain."

The guidelines advise adults to perform two and a half hours a week of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity, or one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous physical activity. For more extensive health benefits, double the amount of activity performed each week.

Examples of moderate intensity aerobic activities include walking briskly, water aerobics, ballroom dancing and general gardening. Examples of vigorous intensity aerobic activities include racewalking, jogging or running, swimming laps, jumping rope and hiking uphill.

Incorporate these guidelines into your employee wellness training and educate employees on the importance of physical activity to offset rising health care costs with healthier, happier employees.

For the complete guidelines visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website.


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Employee wellness programs gone wild

Employee wellness programs gone wild

If obesity were like the Olympics, Alabama would hold the bronze.

Following Mississippi and West Virginia, Alabama ranks third highest among the fattest states in the nation, according to an analysis by CalorieLab.

In a state weighed down by Southern fried delicacies, it’s no wonder that the state recently made headlines with a plan to start charging unfit, overweight state workers.

From Time.com:

“The state has given its 37,527 employees a year to start getting fit — or they'll pay $25 a month for insurance that otherwise is free.”

Alabama has seen positive results with a similar program encouraging workers to quit smoking, so they’ve remodeled the plan to target unhealthy employees.

“The State Employees' Insurance Board this week approved a plan to charge state workers starting in January 2010 if they don't have free health screenings.

If the screenings turn up serious problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose or obesity, employees will have a year to see a doctor at no cost, enroll in a wellness program, or take steps on their own to improve their health. If they show progress in a follow-up screening, they won't be charged. But if they don't, they must pay starting in January 2011.”

Alabama will be charging obese state workers, Japan is measuring employee waistlines, there are biggest loser competitions in the office and something called a ‘calorie tax’ ... what’s next on the employee wellness front?

Do you think wellness programs are helping employees or are they an ineffective and wasteful attempt to reduce health care costs?

How you can offset rising health care costs in 2009

The bad news: There will be a double digit rise in health care costs in 2009.

The good news: It’s the smallest increase over the past six years and you can do something to minimize the pain.

Heath care costs are predicted to rise more than 10 percent next year, according to an Aon Consulting Worldwide survey of insurers. It’s the smallest increase over the past six years, leading experts to believe that employers’ actions to improve employee health are paying off.

In order to save more money on heath care in the future, companies must spend more money on health care now, according to health care industry experts.

“CFOs have always viewed health care as an expense, but rarely as an investment” said Jerry Ripperger, director of consumer health at the Principal Financial Group. “But improving the health of your employee base, rather than simply providing reimbursements, is an exercise in risk management with a true ROI.”

Unless your company has the resources and staff size to warrant an on-site clinic, your best bet is to develop an employee wellness program. Relatively simple and cost-effective to set up, wellness programs have proven to be a healthy investment.

Overall, employers have seen a $2.45 reduction in medical claims for every dollar spent implementing an employee wellness program, according to Ripperger in Workforce Management.

Not only do wellness programs reduce the amount of employee doctor visits by improving overall health, they create more loyal and engaged employees.

According to the Maritz study, employees who participate in their company wellness program:

• have significantly higher job satisfaction levels,
• are more likely to remain at with the company long term,
• and are more likely to recommend the company as an employer to friends and family.
  

Even employees who occasionally participate in a wellness program feel more engaged with their employer than those who never participate. Active and sporadic participants also have lower absenteeism, taking significantly less sick-time than employees who chose not to participate at all.

What you can do: Start an employee wellness program with a high number of participating employees and you’ll have higher productivity and engagement, better employee health, lower absenteeism, and lower health-care premiums.