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Wellness In The Workplace
August 2006 - Vol 1, Issue 2
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Workplace Wellness Challenges
manintie

Is Your Company Too Small to Benefit From A Workplace Wellness Program?

Consider this: If a Fortune 500 company has 150 people a day out sick, there are still plenty of people at work to cover for them. But—if you’re a small company with six employees, and two are out, you’ve lost 33 percent of your workforce. Covering their absence puts an added burden on your remaining employees.

What might obesity and overweight be costing your company?

If you have 20 employees your health care related costs due to obesity and overweight are likely in the range of $14,000 annually, including direct medical and pharmaceutical expenses and costs associated with lost productivity. If you have 150 employees, this cost increases to approximately $105,000 annually. With 500 employees you could expect to pay almost $350,000, and with 1,000 employees, $700,000 (of which $285,000 is due to lost productivity).

The problem is that the $14,000 burden on the company with 20 employees may represent a greater challenge than that faced by larger organizations. The need is just as acute and the resources to deal with it may be even more scarce. As you know, effective employee weight loss and wellness programs must be proactive, reality-based and achievable. They must be designed to meet the specific needs of your employees and they must work within the conditions, constraints and capabilities of your organization.

There is a solution.

There is good news. At first glance it may seem as if the implementation of a weight loss and wellness strategy will be a lot of work—work you don’t have time to take on—work only accomplished by large companies with a dedicated wellness staff. Not true. That’s why we’ve developed the LoneStart Workplace Wellness Express Program. It puts the burden on us—not you. (Learn more about the LoneStart Express)

And more good news. Small businesses have an inherent advantage when it comes to instituting effective workplace wellness programs. The smaller the employee count, the easier it is to change workplace culture. And changing the culture is what you’re after. The following 6 Steps apply to changing the employee culture in general, but should also be a part of the strategy for change brought about through a workplace weight loss/ wellness program such as the LoneStart Workplace Wellness Initiative.

  • Identify the required outcome of change.
  • Create a shared vision and common direction.
  • Provide the enabling structure.
  • Acknowledge how the advantages of change outweigh the disadvantages.
  • Keep employees involved.
  • Reinforce the new behaviors.

While this may sound burdensome, it’s not. It’s what we do so you don’t have to.

No company is too small to save the money it ends up spending on what are mostly preventable conditions such as obesity and overweight. And no company is too small—or too large—to guarantee its culture reflects its vision and mission.

For more information on how the LoneStart 21-Day Employee Challenge will help you address issues of overweight and obesity, and incorporate these positive changes into your company culture, please click the “contact us” button under Quick Links on the left. We’ll immediately send you program information on this highly effective strategy.

sick man graphic
This is not an ‘it’s nice to be thin’ issue. It’s a business issue that directly affects the bottom line. It’s also a sensitive subject. Anything that drives health-care costs is cause for concern, but employers may be apprehensive about identifying individuals who are obese and overweight because there’s a perceived stigma and they have a fear of appearing discriminatory.

One thing is for certain. If you leave things alone, they are only going to get worse. Most people gain weight over time, and increasingly, they are gaining too much weight. And most don’t know what to do about it. One other thing is for certain. It’s costing you money.

Obesity’s health consequences present challenges to all employers by increasing health care costs, and for small and medium employers by making any health coverage even less affordable. This is particularly evident when the indirect and direct costs of obesity are considered in conjunction with the link between obesity and the expensive to treat chronic health care conditions.

The solution is to offer a positive, voluntary weight loss / wellness program with incentives for those who are motivated to take advantage of them—with no "disincentives" in place for those who are overweight. You don’t want to set up an atmosphere of blame, but you do want to encourage all employees to make healthier lifestyle choices—for their own good as well as for the company’s bottom line.
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Hardeman County Memorial Hospital

Just about to conclude the first of three 21-day LoneStart challenges, Hardeman County Memorial Hospital has already seen results. “I can tell just by looking at some of the participants that they’ve lost weight, but what I really see is a change in attitude,” says Scott Nail, Hardeman County Memorial Hospital administrator. “This has been a surprisingly easy way to help our people become accountable for their actions and choices, and I sense that they feel good about what they are accomplishing.”

At Hardeman, 66 percent of employees are participating, and several joined after the program started, not wanting to be left out. “This greatly exceeded my best expectations,” says Nail. “My main reservation as I was considering this program was that the planning and implementation would strain our administrative resources. We didn’t have excess staff capacity to manage another program, and the truth is, that this has required very little effort on our part. That’s been a real pleasant surprise!”

Says Nail, “our perception has changed.” He says he sees employees talking about and making positive behavior changes. He sees groups walking during lunch breaks, and several employees are actually walking to work instead of driving. Birthday celebrations involve fruit rather than ice cream. As examples he points to one staff member who has begun following the program’s recommendations for portion control. Another, who consumed as many as a dozen sodas a day, now has no more than two. Both say they feel better about their health and their progress, and they intend to do even more to make better choices.
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We'd like to offer a round of applause for our Advisory Panel.

The LoneStart Wellness Initiative is fortunate to have the support and guidance of a select group of individuals who are concerned about the epidemic of obesity, overweight and inactivity and share the conviction that a positive, honest and realistic strategy based on personal responsibility can effectively address this epidemic, one person, one group, one organization at a time.


Each of these individuals is an accomplished and respected professional. They have honored us with their support.

We appreciate their willingness to lend their guidance and insight as we continue to develop and promote our strategy to meet this important challenge.

  • Todd D. Buchanan, MD, Dripping Springs Family Clinic
  • Rebecca Gray, RD, LD, CNSD, Baylor University Medical Center
  • Corrie Kirkendall, RN, Nocona General Hospital
  • Willard J. Pannabecker, PhD, St. Edward's University
  • Ann Weber, PhD, University of North Carolina at Asheville

If your organization is willing to take responsibility for promoting healthy lifestyles and a healthy work environment, LoneStart is an effective, low-cost and easy-to-administer employee wellness program, which functions equally well as a stand-alone initiative or as a high-impact jump-start to existing or proposed employee wellness strategies.

Contact us today to find out how the LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative will change your workplace.

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Please forward this newsletter to friends and associates who will benefit from a workplace wellness strategy such as the LoneStart Wellness Initiative.

A Challenge. An Opportunity. A Solution.
The LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative
phone: 512.894.3440