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By: Stephenie Overman

The majority of organizations surveyed by the International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans do offer some type of wellness initiative, at least basic
education programs, but many don’t know if the efforts are paying off.

Organizations tend to start with “almost informal programs,”
says foundation senior information specialist Kelli Kolsrud. “They
start modest, almost patchwork, then evolve into more formal, integrated
programs.”

Sixty-two percent of the 464 respondents offer some sort of wellness
initiative, either in a stand-alone program (36%) or as a part of their
group health plan (26%). Just over 43% of the 53 Canadian organizations
in the survey offer some form of wellness initiative.

Forty-six percent of those organizations that offer wellness programs
use in-house staff, 11% hire outside vendors, 4% rely on employee volunteers
and 39% use a combination.

The most prevalent initiative offered by employers, according to the
survey, is wellness education/resources at 80%, followed by health screenings
(74%), subsidized flu shots (70%), health risk assessments/appraisals
(68%) and smoking cessation programs (60%).

More than 80% of those responding said they have an average employee
participation rate of 50% or below.

Only 13% of the organizations surveyed give cash incentives, while
35% reported that they give merchandise, often wellness-related items
such as water bottles and gym bags, Kolsrud says. And 25% give gift
cards or certificates, again often to sports-related stores.

Improved employee health (44%) was the benefit most often cited by
the organizations polled, followed by improved employee morale (43%),
lower health care claims or costs (29%) and reduced absenteeism (18%).

Fewer organizations listed higher productivity (15%), reduced workers’
compensation claims or costs (7%) and reduced turnover (6%). “There
are lots of variables that go into turnover and productivity,”
Kolsrud says, making them difficult to measure.

Forty-one percent of the respondents don’t know what advantages their
organization derives from their wellness program. Part of the problem,
according to Kolsrud, is that many organizations “don’t do a lot
of benchmarking to start. They don’t do data-gathering before they start
to get a good comparison, even though they are spending money”
on these programs.

Educating health care consumers

IFEBP survey participant Elaine Johnson came to appreciate the importance
of basic wellness education several years ago when she began looking
into consumer-driven health insurance for Lake County, Ill. government
workers. She realized the county’s 2,800 employees weren’t ready.

“The key to success is employees being consumers, in their being
educated,” says Johnson, the county’s employee services manager.
“I did a survey and found our employees were not educated.”
They generally didn’t know, for example, the true cost of prescription
drugs.

“Before we could go into a new plan, we had to do new communication
and education,” she says. That led, two years ago, to a wellness
initiative that now includes a weight loss challenge, a “get moving”
program, a smoking cessation program, a health fair and a 5K run.

“We can’t have our own fitness club, but we are trying to get
local clubs to give discounted rates,” she says. “We’re trying
to be as creative as possible with limited resources.”

And, “we’re trying to incorporate the family this year,”
she adds, because dependents account for much of the company’s health
care costs. “We’re having the health fair on a Saturday so families
can participate.”

Another survey respondent, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit DART, began
its wellness program last year and has stepped up its efforts this year
with “more intense, comprehensive” efforts, according to Teana
Bush, human resource project manager.

Almost 10 percent of the 3,200 employees take part in various health,
wellness and financial education programs. More would participate, Bush
says, if the budget were bigger.

The DART incentive program allows employees to earn points for activities
such as working out, attending lectures and getting an annual physical.
Every point equals one dollar, which can be turned in for gifts from
the wellness store and, at the end of the year, for a cash payout.

“We try to encourage them to eat healthy, drink water, exercise,”
says Bush. “Behavior change is what we’re after. That takes a little
while … Wellness starts slow, but gets big. It can make a giant impact.”

Another survey respondent, ODS Companies, also is in the second year
of its program. ODS, a Portland, Ore., medical and dental insurance
provider, kicked off the initiative with a talk by Robert Sweetgall,
president and founder of Creative Walking, Inc.

“We did it on company time to show that it’s important enough
that we’re willing to pay for it,” says Dr. Mera, vice president
and medical director. A senior vice president also spoke at the opening
event, to reinforce upper management’s support.

The company chose a walking program because it can include both active
and sedentary members of its 800-member workforce, Dr. Mera says. “We’re
not just handing out pedom-

eters. We have a kit with a log book” that allows walkers to take
cross country “virtual journeys.” Some walkers have already
logged enough miles to reach Iowa City, Iowa, on their “journey”
to Portland, Maine.

For every 100 miles, walkers get a choice of gifts such as socks, ear
muffs or fanny packs.

And to help employees “understand their own medical conditions
rather than blindly going to doctors,” ODS offers Healthwise Knowledgebase.
The online resource offers easy-to-understand information about common
health problems and guides people through the decision-making process,
according Dr. Mera. “Physicians know if the patient is involved,
the outcome is likely to be better.”

ODS also focuses on nutrition through a Weight Watchers program. That
program, which began before the wellness initiative officially started,
has had 130 participants who have lost “over 3,000 pounds aggregate.”

Dr. Mera himself has learned a few lessons about wellness programs
along the way. “Upper management has to be the driver. It has to
be on company time. It has to be simple and inclusive, and there has
to be some kind of incentive to get people to participate.”

ODS, DART and Lake County all offer health screenings. Robert Szarzynski,
an employee relations specialist for the county, notes that it is taking
advantage of a local hospital mobile health unit that visits libraries,
schools and businesses to offer basic screening.

Lake County also included health risk assessments at its first health
fair. “It was voluntary. If employees wanted more testing, they
could pay the difference,” Johnson says. A summary of the health
fair results has allowed her “to see where we have to focus our
wellness efforts. It’s really helped us accumulate information for what
we’re going to do for this coming year.”

Taking the pulse

Calculating a wellness program’s true return on investment may be difficult,
but Dart, Lake County and ODS are making the attempt.

ODS conducted a baseline measurement before the program started and
expects to be able to measure some results by the end of 2006, Dr. Mera
says. “We going to look at planned personal leave and unplanned
leave, to see if there’s any change. We’re going to get feedback from
employees to see how satisfied they are with various components of the
program.”

Teana Bush hopes that DART’s screenings eventually will help identify
the problems that are contributing to “a lot of death claims from
heart disease and cancer in individuals who are young in age.”

Bush sees the wellness program as a retention tool, because in the
transportation industry health problems such as high blood pressure
can cost an employee his/her commercial driver’s license.

That’s why DART is considering launching a disease management initiative
to address the problem of high blood pressure. The goal would be to
add a new disease management initiative each year for problems such
as high cholesterol or diabetes.

Johnson and Szarzynski hope to have hard numbers by the end of next
year, but in the meantime they’re seeing anecdotal evidence that the
Lake County wellness program is beginning to work. In the company cafeteria,
“the line for the salad bar is now longer, and they’re requesting
low-fat food,” Johnson says.

“We see people asking for programs, participating in them and
self reporting on successes,” Szarzynski adds. “The first
step is getting the mindset changed.”

The health risk assessments will allow Lake County to track claims
for conditions that are preventable, Johnson says, and to focus more
attention on those areas.

Still, she notes, while high-risk employees are always welcome to participate
in the program, “it’s going to take a lot; I’m not going to see
a quick turn around” with people in that group.

“Now I’m trying to target where I’ll get the most bang for the
buck. Our focus is on those who are healthy and those who are borderline.
Those will keep my cost down, so we want to make sure they stay healthy
long-term. I can stabilize costs if I don’t see any more shifting”
into the high-risk category.

Stephenie Overman is an Arlington, Va.-based freelance writer specializing
in HR issues and a frequent contributor to E.B.N. Copyright 2006
Thomson Financial, All Rights Reserved