A Big Idea for The New Year: Ditch the Doom and Gloom - It Is Time For Worksite Wellness To Grow
Recently, the drum beat has been getting louder that worksite wellness doesn't work.
One recent article in Employee Benefit News declared that employer sponsored wellness programs were dead and suggested a post-mortem as to the reasons why it died.
Having spent 13 years employed by a state fire marshal's office and attending many autopsies for individuals who unfortunately died in fires, I have no problem stating unequivocally that WORKSTE WELLNESS IS NOT DEAD! In fact, I would argue that employer sponsored wellness programs will be in even greater demand in the future than they are today.
I have made no secret that I think many of the strategies and tactics we are employing today are not working and will never work.
So while I think looking ahead we need to overhaul our strategies and tactics, I remain convinced that wellness programs can deliver value to an employer.
I firmly believe that we can and should be doing better.
What makes anyone think that worksite wellness is dead is beyond me.
Employer sponsored wellness programs have been around since the late 1800's.
I finally took the time to revisit our field's history that I am aware of and it dates back to the Pullman Company (think train cars) in 1879 when they created an employee athletic association.
So do we really think that a concept that has been around since 1879 is suddenly going to disappear? I don't think so.
So what is all of today's doom and gloom about? It is about beliefs and specific strategies.
The central issues as I understand them are: • Today's worksite wellness programs do not, in fact, save the average employer with an average wellness program any money when it comes to health care spending (or insurance premium spending if you are fully insured) • Employees won't participate in wellness, so by golly, we will make them participate or they will pay a hefty price for not doing so (Think the Wellness or Else approach here) • The use of incentives (extrinsic motivators) will lead to long-term, sustained behavior change • The research associated with worksite wellness programs today suffers from two fatal flaws - the research methodologies used are not rigorous enough and participants cannot be compared to non-participants Every worksite wellness program coordinator would be wise to acquaint themselves with the arguments on both sides of today's issues and draw your own conclusion based on the evidence presented.
Stop being a Lemming.
Most worksite wellness coordinators have a college degree and many have an advanced degree.
Put your hard-earned education to work! Think critically about the published research and what is being written in articles and blogs today about our field.
Given the big direction it appears many employers are headed today, (Wellness or Else), I would ask you to seriously ask yourself if you chose a wellness related profession so you could penalize employees? I know I undertook my graduate education because I wanted to help people.
I suspect all of you did as well.
So the question we need to ask ourselves is punishing employees for not participating in a wellness program the best we can offer? For the future sake of our profession, I hope your answer, like mine, is NO! So where are we, as a profession, headed? I would argue that given the current state of employee engagement in work in this country and the world, we have a bright future ahead of us.
We do need, though, to lose our sole focus on physical health.
Our current focus on risk reduction and disease prevention and treatment will only get us back to the neutral or mid-point on the wellness - illness continuum.
Our goal should be bigger and greater! Our goal should be to help employees and organizations to thrive.
This will require us to move beyond our current sole focus on physical health and embrace wellness as it was originally conceived and designed...
a multi-dimensional concept.
Employee engagement is driven by many dimensions, only one of which is physical health.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is Let There Be Peace On Earth.
Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me...
Let there be peace on Earth, the peace that was meant to be...
Brothers all are we...
Let me walk with my brother, in perfect harmony...
Let us walk together into the New Year in harmony that we can and should be doing better for the employees and employers we serve.
Let's stop being ho-hum and let's go ho-ho-ho into the New Year.
In the coming year, I challenge you to join me in the worksite wellness evolution journey.
Merry Christmas and best wishes to all for a happy holiday season and bright and prosperous New Year for us all...
One recent article in Employee Benefit News declared that employer sponsored wellness programs were dead and suggested a post-mortem as to the reasons why it died.
Having spent 13 years employed by a state fire marshal's office and attending many autopsies for individuals who unfortunately died in fires, I have no problem stating unequivocally that WORKSTE WELLNESS IS NOT DEAD! In fact, I would argue that employer sponsored wellness programs will be in even greater demand in the future than they are today.
I have made no secret that I think many of the strategies and tactics we are employing today are not working and will never work.
So while I think looking ahead we need to overhaul our strategies and tactics, I remain convinced that wellness programs can deliver value to an employer.
I firmly believe that we can and should be doing better.
What makes anyone think that worksite wellness is dead is beyond me.
Employer sponsored wellness programs have been around since the late 1800's.
I finally took the time to revisit our field's history that I am aware of and it dates back to the Pullman Company (think train cars) in 1879 when they created an employee athletic association.
So do we really think that a concept that has been around since 1879 is suddenly going to disappear? I don't think so.
So what is all of today's doom and gloom about? It is about beliefs and specific strategies.
The central issues as I understand them are: • Today's worksite wellness programs do not, in fact, save the average employer with an average wellness program any money when it comes to health care spending (or insurance premium spending if you are fully insured) • Employees won't participate in wellness, so by golly, we will make them participate or they will pay a hefty price for not doing so (Think the Wellness or Else approach here) • The use of incentives (extrinsic motivators) will lead to long-term, sustained behavior change • The research associated with worksite wellness programs today suffers from two fatal flaws - the research methodologies used are not rigorous enough and participants cannot be compared to non-participants Every worksite wellness program coordinator would be wise to acquaint themselves with the arguments on both sides of today's issues and draw your own conclusion based on the evidence presented.
Stop being a Lemming.
Most worksite wellness coordinators have a college degree and many have an advanced degree.
Put your hard-earned education to work! Think critically about the published research and what is being written in articles and blogs today about our field.
Given the big direction it appears many employers are headed today, (Wellness or Else), I would ask you to seriously ask yourself if you chose a wellness related profession so you could penalize employees? I know I undertook my graduate education because I wanted to help people.
I suspect all of you did as well.
So the question we need to ask ourselves is punishing employees for not participating in a wellness program the best we can offer? For the future sake of our profession, I hope your answer, like mine, is NO! So where are we, as a profession, headed? I would argue that given the current state of employee engagement in work in this country and the world, we have a bright future ahead of us.
We do need, though, to lose our sole focus on physical health.
Our current focus on risk reduction and disease prevention and treatment will only get us back to the neutral or mid-point on the wellness - illness continuum.
Our goal should be bigger and greater! Our goal should be to help employees and organizations to thrive.
This will require us to move beyond our current sole focus on physical health and embrace wellness as it was originally conceived and designed...
a multi-dimensional concept.
Employee engagement is driven by many dimensions, only one of which is physical health.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is Let There Be Peace On Earth.
Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me...
Let there be peace on Earth, the peace that was meant to be...
Brothers all are we...
Let me walk with my brother, in perfect harmony...
Let us walk together into the New Year in harmony that we can and should be doing better for the employees and employers we serve.
Let's stop being ho-hum and let's go ho-ho-ho into the New Year.
In the coming year, I challenge you to join me in the worksite wellness evolution journey.
Merry Christmas and best wishes to all for a happy holiday season and bright and prosperous New Year for us all...
