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Wellness In The Workplace
November 2009
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Holiday Poster

The Holiday Poster is Here!

. . . And the holidays are on the way. The LoneStart Wellness annual holiday poster is ready for distribution. If you would like to receive a pdf of the 11 x 17 poster with your logo included, please CONTACT US. We'll need your logo in a JPEG format. There's no charge and you can print and distribute as many as you like. It's a great jumpstart to a healthy, holiday season!

Index
A Well-Being Index?

We're not making this up. It's more than an idea, but- how will it be used?

Designed to be the Dow Jones of health, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index aims to determine the correlation between the places where people work and the communities in which they live and how it affects their collective health and well-being. The Well-Being Index provides survey data to examine the direct and indirect key drivers of the wellness and health issues that affect us all. It is designed to provide insight into how these factors influence the financial health of organizations, corporations and communities. In fact, some wellness experts predict employers might eventually have access to well-being indices that could capture and even forecast, the physical, psychological and social health of our entire workforce. In other words, an organization with a higher well-being score might be considered more competitive and a better risk, due to greater productivity and lower health care costs on the index.

A Well-Being Index addresses the problem that there are so many variables tied to wellness and corporate performance that it is difficult (if even possible) to narrow well-being down to one thing. By making the case for the correlation between a healthier workforce and the bottom line, it may start to undo some misconceptions about measuring ROI on wellness and health improvement programs. The collected data will help employers make the link between wellness and corporate performance, and let them benchmark their wellness programs against their goals and peers.

During the next 25 years, the Well-Being Index will collect and measure the daily pulse of the nation's well-being and provide best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. The Well-Being Index, now in its second year captures a random sample of people's well-being at the close of every day. The index hopes to look at how those factors impact the financial health of corporations and communities.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said, "Imagine what it would be like if your community knew what its health index was like, and you knew that the neighboring community had a better health index. That would become an issue for the mayor and civic leaders. Soon, things will start to happen, and health in that community will change."

It has become obvious that a healthier workforce is an important business strategy. Soon, it appears we will be able to prove it.
Stress


Stressed Out Now . . . Just Wait

You probably already know that stress is a growing problem in the workplace, especially this time of the year.

It's that time. In addition to the economic climate and uncertainty, it's the time holiday bills, family pressures and conflict, and non-stop social commitments all come together to create a perfect storm for an even more stressful environment. Stress at work becomes compounded by stress in an employee's personal life. Consider that:

  • One of every five workers reports feeling extremely stressed a work.
  • Stress is a leading cause behind absence from work - and stress-related absence is increasing.
  • Three-quarters of business executives say stress adversely affects their health, happiness and personal life, as well as their work performance.
  • Health care expenditures are nearly 50% greater for workers who report high levels of stress.
  • 55% to 75% of all illnesses are thought to be stress related.
  • 88% of employees say they have a hard time juggling work and life.
  • Stress costs American employers approximately $200 billion a year in absenteeism, lower productivity, health care and workers compensation costs.
  • Between 75 - 90% of visits to primary care physicians are related to stress.

Stress plays a role too, in the national discussion on health care, health care reform and the effects of chronic disease on health care costs. Yet the effects of stress on chronic diseases are more difficult to see (than smoking, overweight or obesity) since chronic diseases take time to develop and can be influenced by factors other than stress. Research shows however that stress plays a developmental role in chronic health problems such as cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, immune function, workplace injury, and psychological disorders.

So, what can you do? Numerous studies of "healthy" organizations have found that policies benefitting employee health and wellness also benefit the bottom line.

Job stress is defined as the "harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the employee. (CDC) Job stress is sometimes seen as nothing more than being "challenged" on the job and the two concepts are often confused. But "challenge" is not necessarily a bad thing. Challenges energize an organization's employees both psychologically and physically, and motivate them to learn new skills. When a challenge is met, employees feel relaxed and satisfied. Meeting challenges is an important ingredient for healthy, productive work. Challenges, when presented in a positive way, can actually reduce job stress.

NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) has identified several organizational characteristics associated with both healthy, low-stress and high levels of productivity:

  • Recognizing employees for positive work performance
  • Opportunities for advancement within the organization
  • Providing opportunities for social interaction among workers
  • An organizational culture that shows it values its employees
  • Upper management actions that are consistent with stated organizational values

Forward-thinking organizations recognize that workplace wellness is critical to their long-term success, and that stress plays a role in workplace wellness criteria. By developing a healthy Culture of Wellness, organizations can improve their current and future outlook through an organized and systematic approach to wellness.

If your organization is participating in the LoneStart 63-Day Team Esteem Challengee, refer to page 50 of the "Discovering the Power of Self" handbook for "stress-reduction" tips.
Wolf
Beware of Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

Our national conversation on health care is raising everyone's awareness that wellness (individual, organizational and societal) is no longer an issue that can be ignored or even deferred.

We're all beginning to realize that we have finite health care resources and that the key to any sustainable delivery system is to reduce demand for services. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we can eliminate as much as sixty percent of the $2.5 trillion we spend on health care each year if we address three behaviors: Smoking, level of physical activity and nutritional choices. In fact, according to The Conference Board, overweight and obesity now cost us more than smoking.

This increased awareness has resulted in a new wave of wellness offerings, some from opportunistic special interests (we'll call them "wellness wolves") that are promoting their newfound commitment to wellness and prevention by advancing strategies that are outmoded, expensive, ineffective - and even damaging.

This may be a unique moment in time in terms of our collective interest in and willingness to take charge of the pressing public health issue of overweight and obesity. The danger lies in employing strategies that create the expectation of success without providing the essential toolkit to achieve sustainable change in vital wellness behaviors. Failure means further alienating that segment of our population that most needs to take charge of their personal health and wellness - and doing so at considerable expense with little to show for the effort.

During the past four years we've put forth the following questions for organizations considering a wellness strategy:
  • What programs do you currently have, and are they working?
  • Why are you willing to invest in wellness, and what outcomes are you hoping for?
  • Does your wellness strategy create rather than remove barriers to participation?
  • Are health assessments really necessary to achieve results? (They are expensive and often raise "red flags" among participants - Is this program being done "For me" or "To me?")
  • Will an "on-line" program achieve desired behavior change, or will it become a time-consuming distraction that burdens your organization and employees? (We've found that a nuts and bolts, high-touch, low-tech approach has broad appeal to most at-risk employees.)
  • What will happen and how much will it cost if you do not invest in wellness?

We've all learned (sometimes the hard way) the importance of being smart, informed consumers. During these next months and years we'll see many new wellness players and programs. Be wary of those "big, bad wolves" that may be motivated more by their own profitability than your success, and remember that wellness, and creating a Culture of Wellness within your organization is an ongoing commitment - one that reflects your commitment to your employees, and their commitment to their own personal health.

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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