October 9, 2006
Creating a Healthy Bottom Line
Seventy-four percent of workers in the U.S. say cookies, cake and/or candy are served as company meetings and other functions. Sixty-three percent say vending machines in their offices are mostly loaded with salty and sweet snacks.
The nation’s workers have a weight problem and, for many years, employers have done very little to change it. In fact, as the statistics attest, some may have been doing the opposite.
That, it seems, is changing in some quarters.
Businesses that used to put high calorie foods out for workers are now replacing those items with fresh fruit and salad. Company cafeterias are also making it easier for workers to make the right nutritional choices by a) putting more better-for-you items on the menu and b) charging higher prices for those items that are seen as less than optimally nutritious.
The associate medical director at Pitney Bowes headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Dr. Brent Pawlecki, told the Chicago Tribune that sandwiches in the company’s cafeteria come with carrots and celery.
“They can still get chips if they ask, but carrots and celery is the default choice,” he said. “We try to make it easy to do the right thing.”
Cafeteria pricing also reflects the health position Pitney Bowes is taking. A veggie wrap, for example, costs $2.49 compared to pizza that rings up at $4.48.
“What I’d like to see is that my salmon would be much less expensive than my cheeseburger and fries,” said Dr. Pawlecki.
LuAnn Heinen, director of the Institute on the Costs and Health Effects of Obesity, said Pitney Bowes is not alone in making this business decision.
“This is coming from the top, and there’s an endorsement as a business objective. It’s not a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘need to have,’ ” she said.
Pitney Bowes, for example, estimates it saves $3 in local medical costs and more productive employees for every dollar it spends on worker wellness programs.
The need employers feel for workers to take care of themselves has even led some to develop bonus systems for employees who do just that.
Dell Computer’s “Well at Dell” program allows workers to earn money towards “health rewards accounts” for completing wellness programs. The money earned by workers can be used to reimburse them for co-pays on visits to the doctors and prescription drugs.
Discussion Questions: How effective have corporate wellness programs been? Are there specific programs that you think are worth modeling by other companies?
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No, no, anything but cookies at meetings!!!! I think task forces must be formed and a series of newsletters put out. This is all so Dilbert….
Innovative corporate wellness programs need to be developed over the long term to determine if they are really effective for the company as well as the associates. These types of programs are still in their infancy and are rarely studied and evaluated.
Small changes along the way to encourage a healthy lifestyle would include making sure tasteful and healthful choices are offered at a corporate cafeteria, vending machines, corporate events and everyday meetings. Working with a dietitian can be very worthwhile or aligning with an organization like Weight Watchers assists associates to learn and make changes.
Physical activity is an equally important component of health and here companies can also make a difference. Wouldn’t it be great to see if a “coffee break” could change from standing around the coffee machine to a “water break” where associates would move around, climb stairs or stretch at their desks and then get a delicious, cold water? I like mine with a slice of lemon.
Very few of them work because so few exist. Of course, there’s the old standby of banning smoking in office buildings. But it really isn’t enough.
I think most of the innovative programs are coming out of technology companies like Dell. They seem to have a workforce more in tune with healthy living. But wellness programs alone won’t do it, nor will rewarding people for certain behaviors. This needs to be part of a national debate on healthcare reform.
Unfortunately, the major corporations that have a breadth of lines and know how to leverage them are the ones to gain vending machine placement.
But, if the vending machine companies don’t meet the needs of their customers, the unhealthy machine feeding monsters can be replaced. Cafeterias can supply fruits and “better foods for you,” for students, employees in office and manufacturing facilities and with innovative food wagons. Look what YUM Brands has committed to in California school districts.
Once, again, the responsibility lies within the family household, to teach better eating habits…and the family unit shouldn’t be forced to comply, as the federal government is beginning to intrude. Hmmmmmmm….
My experience working in corporate America shows very few people change their habits even when there are personal and professional incentives to do so. A number of years back, I worked at a company that offered to help pay for local gyms. Very few employees took the company up on the offer.
I suppose that doesn’t mean employers shouldn’t keep trying. The health costs associated with doing nothing are clearly too high to bear.
“Making it easy to make healthy choices” is certainly a good strategy. However, that might mean subsidizing those healthy choices because, typically, the healthy choices are more expensive. As long as people have to pay more money or drive out of their way to make healthy choices, only committed people will make the choice. To move beyond that crowd, the healthy choices need to the easy choices.
I don’t think that companies are driving the wellness issue, though they can contribute to the progress. If faced during a meeting with the choice of eating nothing or cookies, many employees who lead healthy lifestyles will still opt for the cookies. If instead they are given a healthy choice, many will stick with their healthier lifestyle. By changing the mix of snacks and meals available to employees, companies can reinforce healthy choices. While there is a lot more to health than simply eating right, it certainly helps.
On a larger scale, programs to get employees to exercise, stop smoking and engage in healthier lifestyles have had mixed success. As with many employee oriented programs, having a strong reward system certainly helps.
As schools move towards healthier foods, employers will eventually see more employees who want healthy snacks and meals having grown up with them. So overall, the more the trend can be encouraged, the better off businesses and individuals will be.
One cost-effective wellness program if there’s a medical plan: helping people stop smoking. Another one: when an employer gives space to Weight Watchers to hold meetings on the premises, it costs the employer nothing, since the participants pay the meeting fees. Some employers make deals with local exercise clubs to get discounts for their employees. For some employers the “wellness program” starts within the application process: they don’t hire people they perceive to be health risks (overweight, smokers, cancer survivors, etc.)
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No, no, anything but cookies at meetings!!!! I think task forces must be formed and a series of newsletters put out. This is all so Dilbert….
Innovative corporate wellness programs need to be developed over the long term to determine if they are really effective for the company as well as the associates. These types of programs are still in their infancy and are rarely studied and evaluated.
Small changes along the way to encourage a healthy lifestyle would include making sure tasteful and healthful choices are offered at a corporate cafeteria, vending machines, corporate events and everyday meetings. Working with a dietitian can be very worthwhile or aligning with an organization like Weight Watchers assists associates to learn and make changes.
Physical activity is an equally important component of health and here companies can also make a difference. Wouldn’t it be great to see if a “coffee break” could change from standing around the coffee machine to a “water break” where associates would move around, climb stairs or stretch at their desks and then get a delicious, cold water? I like mine with a slice of lemon.
Very few of them work because so few exist. Of course, there’s the old standby of banning smoking in office buildings. But it really isn’t enough.
I think most of the innovative programs are coming out of technology companies like Dell. They seem to have a workforce more in tune with healthy living. But wellness programs alone won’t do it, nor will rewarding people for certain behaviors. This needs to be part of a national debate on healthcare reform.
Unfortunately, the major corporations that have a breadth of lines and know how to leverage them are the ones to gain vending machine placement.
But, if the vending machine companies don’t meet the needs of their customers, the unhealthy machine feeding monsters can be replaced. Cafeterias can supply fruits and “better foods for you,” for students, employees in office and manufacturing facilities and with innovative food wagons. Look what YUM Brands has committed to in California school districts.
Once, again, the responsibility lies within the family household, to teach better eating habits…and the family unit shouldn’t be forced to comply, as the federal government is beginning to intrude. Hmmmmmmm….
My experience working in corporate America shows very few people change their habits even when there are personal and professional incentives to do so. A number of years back, I worked at a company that offered to help pay for local gyms. Very few employees took the company up on the offer.
I suppose that doesn’t mean employers shouldn’t keep trying. The health costs associated with doing nothing are clearly too high to bear.
“Making it easy to make healthy choices” is certainly a good strategy. However, that might mean subsidizing those healthy choices because, typically, the healthy choices are more expensive. As long as people have to pay more money or drive out of their way to make healthy choices, only committed people will make the choice. To move beyond that crowd, the healthy choices need to the easy choices.
I don’t think that companies are driving the wellness issue, though they can contribute to the progress. If faced during a meeting with the choice of eating nothing or cookies, many employees who lead healthy lifestyles will still opt for the cookies. If instead they are given a healthy choice, many will stick with their healthier lifestyle. By changing the mix of snacks and meals available to employees, companies can reinforce healthy choices. While there is a lot more to health than simply eating right, it certainly helps.
On a larger scale, programs to get employees to exercise, stop smoking and engage in healthier lifestyles have had mixed success. As with many employee oriented programs, having a strong reward system certainly helps.
As schools move towards healthier foods, employers will eventually see more employees who want healthy snacks and meals having grown up with them. So overall, the more the trend can be encouraged, the better off businesses and individuals will be.
One cost-effective wellness program if there’s a medical plan: helping people stop smoking. Another one: when an employer gives space to Weight Watchers to hold meetings on the premises, it costs the employer nothing, since the participants pay the meeting fees. Some employers make deals with local exercise clubs to get discounts for their employees. For some employers the “wellness program” starts within the application process: they don’t hire people they perceive to be health risks (overweight, smokers, cancer survivors, etc.)