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Wellness In The Workplace
November 2006 - Vol 1, Issue 5
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Workplace Wellness Challenges
teamwork

Achieving Workplace Wellness Through Teamwork

It’s no real secret that teamwork benefits employees as well as the employer. Teams tend to create their own identity, become self-regulating and evolve over time to promote and maximize their potential. The quality of relationships among team members, and teams, develops and in turn, further optimizes performance. A conscious contribution to a shared purpose enhances motivation. Interaction among members with a shared purpose boosts “work life.” Team members care about their “mission” and each other. Teams tend to save time, money and are more productive. Developing the team’s identity improves and sustains a high level of performance.

What does this have to do with a workplace wellness program? Plenty. Fostering teamwork creates a work culture (in this case wellness) that values collaboration. In a teamwork environment, people understand and believe that their decisions and actions are greater when done cooperatively. This is true for wellness programs that are based on and promote achieving wellness through teamwork and friendly team competition (What LoneStart calls its Team Esteem Program).

But, how do you make teamwork happen? How much time does it take? And frankly, who has the time to do it? It’s easier than you think.

No matter what you call your team-based workplace wellness effort—continuous improvement, total quality or self-directed teams—your bottom line is still reducing health care costs and improving the long-term health and wellness of your employees. This means having the best information possible to motivate team members, and an easy-to-initiate program to motivate administration.

The following questions will help define why teams are important, how they have the ability to take on a life of their own, and why they work so well to achieve workplace wellness goals. (By the way, the answer to each question should be a resounding “yes.”)

  • The Context: Does the organization support the concept and the team? Has the organization bought-in to the expected outcome?
  • Commitment: Do team members want to participate on the team? Do team members perceive their service as valuable to the organization and their own health? Are team members excited and challenged by the team opportunity?
  • Take Control: Does the team feel it can accomplish its goals? Does it have sufficient information for program participants to do so?
  • The Consequences: Do team members feel a part of the overall wellness effort? Do they feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are incentives and recognition provided when teams are successful? Can team members see their impact on overall success?
  • Cultural Change: Does the organization recognize that the more it can change its climate to support wellness teams, the more likely it will be to reach its health and wellness goals? Does the organization recognize that a collaborative team-based wellness program empowers team members to achieve their goals in a shared environment that increases the probability of success?

In a team-oriented environment, each team member contributes to the overall success of the wellness goal. And, while on separate teams, members are unified with the other teams to accomplish the overall wellness objectives. The bigger picture drives team actions and success—while the team function exists to serve the bigger picture. Yes, at the end of the wellness competition, there will be a winning team, and a winning individual—but more importantly, everyone wins.

food choice
  • Eating just 100 fewer calories a day can prevent the average American's two-pound annual weight gain.
  • If an overweight individual loses 5 to 7 percent of their weight through better nutritional choices and increased physical activity, they can prevent or delay pre-diabetes from progressing to type 2 diabetes. (At 180 pounds this means a loss of only 9 to 13 pounds.) The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommends instead that "the goal should be to reduce body weight 10 percent" (18 pounds if an individual is considered overweight at 180 pounds).
  • For every two pounds a hypertensive patient loses, there is a corresponding 2.5 / 1.7mm decrease in blood pressure. "That's the equivalent of some drugs," notes Brad Pifalo, MD, a medical director at Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Patients with hyperlipidemia who lose 10 pounds reduce LDL 12 percent and increase HDL 18 percent. On the financial side, medical journals last year reported that pharmaceuticals cost $123 a month less for diabetics who lose 6 to 10 percent of weight, and that a 1-unit increase in body mass index (BMI) boosts all health costs 1.9 percent over 18 months.
  • A well-planned and implemented employee wellness initiative will yield a 3-to-1 to 10-to-1 Return on Investment.
DJS
DJS International, Inc.

An interview with Melissa Sekin Meyer, DJS International Services, Inc. DJS recently initiated the LoneStart Workplace Wellness Strategy

Why did you decide to initiate a Workplace Wellness Program?

It was an evolution for us. We’ve watched helplessly as our insurance premiums skyrocketed during the last several years. We considered moving to a more consumer-driven health plan, versus the traditional insurance we currently have (and we may still eventually make that move), but it seemed a drastic and somewhat unfair move to make without at least providing our employees with more education about how to be healthier, as well as how to be better consumers of health care.

We started trying to promote wellness in small ways around the office. We offered financial incentives for smokers to quit smoking. We encouraged use of our insurance company’s extensive online wellness offerings. We started a company wellness newsletter and began disseminating tidbits of heath information, with references and links to more exhaustive resources. But we found that giving people information in print and website references just didn’t work; the information was there, at their fingertips, but they weren’t following up on it. They needed more. They needed a definitive action plan, and they needed some real, tangible incentives to motivate them to follow it. For many, it seemed that improved health was just too undefined, too lofty a goal to aim for without some kind of concrete steps to get there. But, the bottom line was that our employees -- our most valued company asset -- needed to become healthier, for their own sake and for the company’s sake. And they needed to understand both WHY they needed to do it, and HOW to do it. Eventually, we realized we couldn’t take on the task alone, and needed some type of outside wellness program in order to reach employees in a meaningful way.

Why did you choose LoneStart?

After a little research, LoneStart emerged as a clear common-sense approach. The grass-roots feel of the LoneStart philosophy paired well with what we’d been trying to get across to our employees: We have to take action for ourselves. Insurance rates are rising in large part because we are getting unhealthier. We need to make changes and stop waiting for the government, or the insurance companies, or anyone else to solve the problems--problems that we helped create by depending on health care to fix the conditions we’ve developed as a result of our own unhealthy lifestyles.

LoneStart’s approach seems to have the perfect blend of encouraging that personal responsibility without laying blame; looking to the future without fretting over the past; and -- through small but meaningful lifestyle changes -- changing lives without turning them upside down. And with all this, it still has the key element of a little fun. The fun part of LoneStart for us is the team concept, and it’s what really makes it work for us. Furthermore, we loved the LoneStart concept that living a healthy lifestyle is not about suffering, starvation, deprivation, or even will power. It’s about common sense, and outsmarting one’s own bad habits with empowered knowledge and action. And it doesn’t even require a degree in rocket science, or a fancy gym membership.

(The following questions are answered in the downloadable PDF. Click Read On below.)

  • What do you hope to accomplish with this program?
  • How are your expectations being met so far?
  • What has been easiest? Most difficult?
  • What recommendations would you make to other companies looking for workplace wellness solutions?
  • Are your employees having fun with the program, or do they see it as something they have to do? Does it seem to be an opportunity they appreciate?
turkey
Following are some of the highlights and holiday support tips from our “Get Me Through The Holidays” newsletter for you to share with your employees. (Download the PDF here.)

Did you know that on average people gain five to seven pounds during the holiday season, or that eating just three Christmas cookies a day can add 1.5 pounds in a week? Here’s still more good news to ruin your holiday meals. A 3.5 oz. serving of roasted turkey breast (white meat without skin) has 115 calories; 3.5 oz. dark meat with skin, 221 calories; 3.5 oz. roasted dark meat without skin, 187 calories; one-half cup mashed potatoes, 111 calories; one-half cup bread stuffing, 198 calories; one-half cup cornbread stuffing, 175 calories. As for portion sizes, a 3-oz. serving is about the size of a deck of playing cards; a single ounce of turkey, about the size of a matchbox; and one cup, about the size of a baseball.

Now, consider the “average” holiday dinner and pre-dinner snacks. Experts say this consists of: one mixed drink, one glass of wine, a stalk of celery stuffed with cream cheese, a cracker with cheese, one ounce of chips, one teaspoon of dip, half a cup of waldorf salad, six ounces of white and dark turkey, half a cup of stuffing, half a cup of cranberry sauce, half a cup of mashed potatoes, half a cup of gravy, half a cup of green bean casserole, half a cup of sweet potatoes, a dinner roll, a pat of butter, and a slice of pecan pie with whipped cream. This is the basic, first pass, no seconds holiday meal. And remember, half a cup is about the size of a computer mouse. Visualize your plate. Are your portions really that small?

And now, chew on this. The meal described above comes to about 3,000 calories. You’ll need to walk 29.15 miles or 58,300 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps, to walk that meal off. That’s not your leisurely stroll around the block. (The average American will consume between 3,000 and 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat.)

But, all is not lost. You can make it through the holidays in good shape. The secret is Moderation. Not denial, not avoidance and not reckless abandon. The following tips from the LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative will help.
  • Take a small serving of food. Eat slowly. Enjoy the flavor. And, enjoy the company at the table. Before you automatically go back for seconds of anything, wait five minutes. Then limit your seconds, if you must have them, to only three things, and small servings at that. Ask yourself, "How will I feel ten minutes from now?"
  • Sit up straight to eat. You will eat 10 percent less.
  • Hold in your stomach. You will build abdominal muscles, burn calories from the effort, and eat less.
  • Start a new tradition. Take a family walk before dinner. No, it won't make you hungrier but it will take the edge off of your building appetite. Then, instead of the traditional after dinner "Oh I ate too much nap," organize another family walk, or football game, or anything. Do something active.
  • For dessert, eat a small sliver of pie. You will have the same great taste experience, but 10 minutes later you won't be mad at yourself. Instead you will feel a sense of accomplishment for not going overboard with dessert.
  • Try to maintain a "nutrition journal" over the holidays. Jot down everything you eat and you'll be surprised at how fast those little bites add up to an extra 500 to 1,000 calories a day.
  • Don't put your goals on hold until January. Start now. You'll prove to yourself that when you work at health through the holidays, you can do it anytime.
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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 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