Lincoln Plating benefits from strategic wellness program

Stephenie Overman
Employee Benefit News • October 2005

By weaving wellness into its strategic plan, Lincoln Plating reports health insurance costs at 50% less than the U.S. average, and a seven-to-one total return on its wellness investment.

"This year we're off our sales plan and the company's asking where can we cut costs?'" according to Dan Krick, Lincoln-Plating's vice president, human resources. "Right now, health care is saving our bacon."

The company's concern for employee health has paid off in other ways as well. This year the SHRM/Great Companies to Work For Institute ranked the Lincoln, Neb. metal finishing firm as one of the 25 best medium-size companies to work for in America. In 2003, Lincoln-Plating, which employs about 450 workers around the clock, received a Platinum Award from the Wellness Councils of America.

Chairman and CEO Marc LeBaron "believes in wellness because of what it brings to the attitudes of people. When people are able to make changes they are better spouses, parents, employees. They bring that to the worksite," Krick says. He and wellness manager Tonya Vyhlidal spoke at the Society for Human Resource Management conference in San Diego in late June.

This past January, Lincoln Plating began offering its first consumer-driven health insurance plan with a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA); the company also offers a PPO. Health insurer Aetna predicted that about 15% of employees would choose the HRA the first year, but "when we had open enrollment last October, 70% signed up for HRA. Aetna tells us that's an all-time record," according to Krick.

He believes that the strong interest in the consumer-driven plan is based on the fact that at Lincoln-Plating, "people really know the status of their health. People say I know my odds. I know my health - I go through the [company's] health risk appraisals' so they're pretty confident.

"And," he adds, "they know that if they don't spend it all, they can roll the money over."

Spend some to get some

The award-winning wellness program first got off the ground about 15 years ago, when Lincoln Plating hired an on-site occupational nurse who did blood pressure screenings and handed out literature.

"It was simple, but it was the foundation of promoting the health of our people," Krick says. In 1999 the company hired Vyhlidal as full-time wellness manager.

"That gave focus to the program. We had a true champion with Marc [LeBaron], but we needed someone tactical," he says. Wellness is integrated into the benefits design, and wellness manager Vyhlidal is a member of the benefits committee.

Resources are as important as structure, Krick adds. "You may start small, but you have to spend some money to get some money."

Some of the programs are simple - and cheap. For example, the company promotes Wellness Wednesday with events such as a walk around the corporate campus. There are weight management and smoking cessation programs and yoga classes. Lincoln Plating offers a fitness reimbursement program, Krick says, but doesn't have it's own fitness center because "we've talked to a lot of companies that have fitness centers, and they don't see a lot of people in there."

Participation in the various activities help employees earn bronze, silver, gold or platinum status - plus "Well Bucks." Up to $40 worth of Well Bucks can apply to health insurance costs each quarter.

Just over five years ago, Lincoln Plating banned smoking from its facilities, and this year those who do not smoke receive discounts on their health insurance. The program is conducted on the honor system.

Awareness, then education, then intervention is the necessary progression, Vyhlidal says. That final step "is the most costly, but it changes behavior."

Krick adds: "We want a program that pulls rather than pushes. We have a mixture of both."

Lincoln Plating has integrated wellness into its performance management and compensation systems. "This is where HR people usually start scratching heads and say how?'" he says.

At Lincoln Plating, everyone gets quarterly health risk appraisals that include blood pressure screening and body weight, body fat and flexibility measurements. Each employee reviews the quarterly results with the wellness manager or occupational nurse and sets individual wellness objectives.

These objectives influence everyone's merit increase; for supervisor-level and above, it's also tied in with employees' compensation.

"Last year, it cost me between $500 and a thousand dollars for missing my wellness objective," Krick notes, adding that he's working harder to meet his goals.

When Lincoln Plating interviews potential new employees, "we talk openly about our wellness program ... We're a little nuts about it, and we don't want people to be surprised," Krick says. "We don't say we won't hire tobacco users," but he notes that the company tends to attract people who already are committed to a healthy lifestyle.

Potential employees "know about our program and know they can be rewarded for a lifestyle they already have. They know they can have lower health insurance costs by being active, and they find that attractive."

Carrying the culture to customers

The company even takes time to talk with customers such as Harley Davidson and suppliers about wellness, Krick notes.

"I wouldn't encourage other companies to jump in where we are, though. Take baby steps. Start building that culture," he says. "When we raise the bar, people are already with us. When we wrote our tobacco-free policy, the managers were originally more moderate, but the general population said you've got to make it zero tolerance.'"

In recent years, Lincoln Plating has capped its efforts with a mountain-climbing expedition open only to those who meet the highest fitness standards. They must be at the platinum level of fitness and not have smoked for at least six months.

This year, a July expedition was planned in which about 60 managers and employees were to climb Mount Bierstadt, one of 54 mountains in Colorado that is over 14,000 feet high.

"Only one percent of the U.S. population is fit enough to climb a mountain of that height. People climb on the company dollar, and there's a celebration afterward. I've been a part of three of them. It's something that is quite rigorous," Krick says.

He cites a forklift driver who said he quit smoking after nine years because he wanted to be part of the expedition.

"It's amazing," he adds. "People have given up lifelong habits to do this." - E.B.N.