Workplace Wellness

By Iris Shedlock

Your management team sits around the conference room table for its usual Monday morning ritual to discuss company business. Today’s agenda: how to create a leaner (no pun intended) and more profitable company. You and your team come up with all the obvious ideas, such as cutting back on company trips or reducing year-end bonuses.

However, when was the last time you thought about getting your employees healthier? What does that have to do with profitability? Obesity is growing faster than the GDP, and your employees’ expanding girths affect your company’s bottom line.

Thirty-two co-morbidities have been linked to obesity, including birth defects, certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, liver disease, osteoarthritis and sleep apnea. These chronic conditions can be costly to treat using conventional medical protocols and typically are of long duration. Pharmaceutical expenses are increasing due to the use of multiple drugs in addressing coexisting conditions, and obese workers spend 36% more on medications than the non-obese.

As reported by CIGNA, 26% of short-term disability claims for chronic health conditions accounted for 52% of the STD-related medical costs, with musculoskeletal conditions being the No. 1 driver of cost. And don’t forget related costs involved due to an absent employee, such as hiring a temporary replacement, additional training and employee overtime.

Studies have shown obese employees are at least 1.74 times more likely to experience high-level absenteeism than their leaner coworkers.

Okay, you say that you don’t have a problem with short-term medical leaves. Recent studies show that “presenteeism” may be an even greater economic burden than absenteeism, direct and indirect health expenditures, and short-term disability payments combined. “Presenteeism” occurs when employees are physically at work but cannot productively function due to health conditions.

These escalating costs show not sign of halting in the future because the fastest growing group of obese Americans is those who are at least 100 pounds overweight. Do not be myopic here. Your next generation of employees, who are now children, are not immune to the obesity trend.

By now, you should be taking a serious look at your employees, managerial team and yourself. Put down that donut and coffee and listen up. You cannot afford to be passive. In fact, the best way to get your company team to improve on their lifestyle choices is to start at the top of the company hierarchy. Lead by example to avoid the “Do as I say, not as I do” philosophy.

Consider these options:

• Hire someone to create a formal Corporate Health Program based on your company’s needs and goals.

• Convert a spare room into a modest on-site gym that employees can use before or after work, or at lunchtime.

• Replace the junk food in the vending machines with healthier choices. Or, consider removing the machines completely and instead offer a food cart with bottled water, fruits, nuts and seeds free of charge.

• Invite guests to give lunchtime talks on issues such as fitness, diet, natural health therapies and time management skills.

• If you have an on-site cafeteria, make sure you offer a healthy menu.

Compliance to company programs can be low, so offer incentives. Incentives can be financial rewards, prizes such as tickets to a sporting event, employee recognition awards and gift certificates to restaurants offering healthy menu items. Providing Web-based tools to track progress, journal writing books, pedometers and discounts to sporting goods stores can all improve compliance.

Offer to subsidize health club memberships, private wellness counseling and health-related products, such as dietary supplements, hand weights, portable trampolines and instructional videos and audiotapes.

Hold company-wide meetings to show your employees the connection between their health and the company’s “health” because their health will inevitably affect their benefits and perks.

Another option is to design your health care plan so it adds a premium onto the employee’s share of medical benefits when their body-mass index exceeds the normal limits (it can be removed when BMI is in the acceptable range), if they do not choose to participate in your company’s health promotion program, or if they participate but do not incorporate the strategies into their personal lives.

The end of the workday should not mean the end of health promotion. Consider making employee participation a requirement for employment, but remember that it must include everyone so as to avoid discrimination.

In the long run, your company’s financial costs in implementing health promotion strategies for your employees should be much less than having to pay for knee surgery or multiple drug prescriptions. A little creativity can pay off for both your employees’ and company’s health.

Iris Shedlock is a Family Wellness Specialist who owns Palmetto Family Wellness, a company providing individualized wellness programs for weight loss and other chronic health conditions. E-mail her at iris@palmettofamilywellness.com.

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