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Wellness In The Workplace
January 2009
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Viral Wellness?

You may have noticed our revised logo and recent references to viral wellness. We've also revamped our website, so be sure to give it a browse (www.lonestartnow.com). You might be wondering just what this "viral wellness" is all about. We know some illnesses are contagious. And studies have shown that overweight and obesity seem to be shared, and even promoted among certain groups. But it isn't just bad stuff that we tend to pass along. Behavioral scientists recently demonstrated that happiness is contagious. We've been proving that wellness can be spread from employee to employee, employee to family and organization to community. Most of us are familiar with the concept of "Viral Marketing," a term coined by Harvard Business School professor, Jeffrey Rayport in 1996. This marketing technique uses pre-existing social networks to increase brand awareness through a self-replicating, or "viral" process.

It takes time to build a culture of wellness. But, once we prove to ourselves that we can be successful, we tend to become enthusiastic advocates for the strategy that helped us meet our goals. This is how "Viral Wellness" spreads both within an organization and beyond to family, friends and community. So, here's to an "outbreak" of wellness. Please CONTACT US if you would like information on how to spread viral wellness within your organization.

2009
Wellness, like Beauty, is in the Eye of the Beholder

James Cabell, the late American novelist once said, "The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."

It's the beginning of a brand new year, a time when we're pretty optimistic about expectations for our organizations, our employees and ourselves. Our experience tells us that this is also the time that many organizations tend to move employee wellness up their list of program priorities.

We've learned that the success of an employee wellness initiative has a lot to do with how it's perceived by your employees. Do they perceive it as a punitive program that's being offered because of your concerns about cost-containment, productivity and profitability? Or do they see it as a positive, realistic and forgiving opportunity you're creating because you value them and have a genuine interest in their well-being? We've learned too that the former tends to breed pessimism and failure while the latter results in high rates of participation and success. Your employees must believe that your wellness initiative is being done "for them" instead of "to them."

Many of your employees may be pretty pessimistic about their prospects for personal health and wellness and believe that their current condition is something they've brought upon themselves. That's why when we present the Team Esteem Challenge a large component of the LoneStart Wellness message is that, "their current state of health isn't all their fault." We've all had plenty of help getting to where we are both individually and as a society. Some powerful social, economic and political forces over the last 60 years have virtually assured that we are now overfed, undernourished, sedentary and at increased risk for many preventable chronic illnesses, so we need to cut ourselves some slack. And, on the positive side, there are plenty of reasons for us all to be optimistic about our ability to take charge of our personal health and wellness. We're proving that modest behavior change can deliver significant results.

So if you're beginning a campaign to get your employees thinking about an upcoming wellness initiative, focus on the positive and present wellness as an opportunity instead of a burden. Long-term, sustainable wellness is available to all of us. We just need to stay positive, stay focused and stay with it.
target
What Can You Expect From a Wellness Program . . . Really?

If you've invested in (or are considering investing in) a wellness program, what return can you realistically expect? What are your wellness goals with respect to human and monetary capital?

The fact is, it doesn't take very much improvement to make a wellness initiative pay off. Less than a 1 percent reduction in risk factors is considered "better than break even." To put the amount of improvement and reduction in risk in human perspective, just a few extra pounds can dramatically boost your risk of heart failure. An average man, 5'10" is considered "modestly" overweight between 174 and 208 pounds. For every seven pounds gained, this modestly overweight man raises his risk of heart failure by 11 percent.

A recent study funded by the Centers for Disease Control found that employers can generally earn back the cost of a wellness program if they can reduce risk factors by less than .2 percent (and yes, that's point 2 percent, not 2 percent).

And, how do you make improvements in wellness? By focusing on improved lifestyle choices that reduce risk factors. It sounds simple - and in many ways, it is. If you are an average organization, chances are good that about 67 percent of your employees are overweight or obese. Targeting a wellness program to this population meets the wellness needs of the majority of your employees. When management embraces the program, you will have the high level of support that's critical to spark a change in your organization's wellness culture. If you can get employees' families involved, you will increase the success rate of your initiative. And, since your organization's health care costs are affected by dependent care costs, including family members in the wellness program will improve your R.O.I.

Finally, to make wellness work, you can't ignore it. If you leave things alone, they will get worse. Most people gain weight over time, and it takes time to lose weight as well. Even if your employee population is reasonably healthy today, they might not be in the future, unless you take steps now to begin to effectively create a long-term culture of wellness.
Cash Incentive
Does Cold, Hard Cash Really Work As a Wellness Incentive?

Will a cash incentive motivate your employees to lose weight - and keep the weight off?

We know it's hard to stay motivated. We know too, that what LoneStart calls the "personal motivational trigger" is what keeps program participants focused on the road to long-term wellness. Those triggers are different for each participant, but equally powerful - powerful because they are personal. But, organizations implementing the LoneStart Wellness 63-Day Team Esteem Challenge have found that cash incentives can provide an additional motivator to help pave the way along that road to long-term success.

Researchers at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine recently tackled the question of cash incentives and how they influence weight loss among obese individuals. Participants were divided into three groups. Group One was given $3 a day, plus matching funds for meeting weight loss goals during the 16-week study. Group Two was eligible to compete in a cash lottery for $10 to $100 a day during the study if they achieved their weight loss goals. The third group (control group) simply attended monthly weigh-in sessions.

The results: Group One lost an average of 14 pounds each. Group Two lost an average of 13.1 pounds each. The control group, Group Three, lost an average of only 3.9 pounds. The results of the study were published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Kevin G. Volpp, director of the Center for Health Incentives at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine said the study offers lessens to businesses about the value of cash incentives to encourage healthy behaviors among employees. "The goal is to design a reward system in a way to help people in the short term do what's in their long-term best interest," said Dr. Volpp.

We found this study particularly interesting because it reinforces the design parameters of the LoneStart 63-Day Team Esteem Challenge. Through our challenge, employees are divided into teams of three employees per team. For a period of 63 days (three 21-day intervals) employees compete for a team and individual cash prize. Through the teamwork framework, they support each other. During the 63-day challenge period, they receive support from their program facilitator, from LoneStart Wellness and from each other - and at the same learn and reap the rewards of substituting positive behaviors, making better nutritional choices and finding ways to work more physical activity into their individual lifestyles. As Dr. Volpp points out, it's about creating a system to begin to change behavior in the interest of long-term wellness. We say, it's about creating lifestyle changes that change lives.

If you're not familiar with the LoneStart 63-Day Team Esteem Challenge, CLICK HERE for more information, or contact us at information@lonestartnow.com.

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If your organization is ready 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 Wellness Initiative will change your workplace.

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

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LoneStart Wellness | P.O. Box 1188 | Dripping Springs | TX | 78620