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Wellness Programs: Worth it or a Waste of Time?
There is little evidence to back up the conventional wisdom that wellness initiatives reduce healthcare costs or create healthy workforces. And it's questionable whether company incentives are able to prompt participation by employees who aren't already interested in healthy lifestyle choices. Such initiatives continue to gain adherents, however.
As more and more organizations adopt wellness initiatives, questions remain as to the effectiveness of such programs. Scottrade Inc., in St. Louis, for example, is one of thousands of companies across the country that offers a variety of health and wellness benefits to employees. At Scottrade, these include an on-site cafe and exercise facility, and reimbursement of wellness initiatives such as tobacco-cessation or weight-loss programs, gym memberships and home-fitness equipment. At IBM in Armonk, N.Y., employees can earn cash for a variety of healthy lifestyle choices -- eating right, exercising, stopping smoking and, even, helping their children adopt healthy lifestyles. Even smaller firms such as Heffernan Insurance Group in Walnut Creek, Calif., get in on the action. Its three-year-old program includes a weight-loss competition, smoking-cessation programs and the active promotion of employee participation in various health and wellness events. But, do these efforts really pay off in any measurable way? "It's probably a waste of time." So said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity in a recent AP story on the success of company wellness plans, and, most specifically, on the use of financial incentives to spur weight loss. He's not alone in that belief. "My perspective is that wellness programs are a waste of time and money," says Greg Szymanski, HR director for Geonerco Management, a real-estate development firm in Seattle. "I believe the general premise of wellness programs is that they're designed to help employers stem the tide of rising healthcare costs. This is, on the face of it, worthy," he says. "But, like most other aspects of people management, businesses face the Pareto Rule [also known as the 80/20 rule] when it comes to healthcare costs. Simply stated, 80 percent of the healthcare costs for any employer are used by 20 percent of the employees in the firm." While the multitude of companies engaged in the support of health and wellness activities proudly tout their results, Szymanski remains skeptical. "Much has been written about the ROI of wellness programs -- those writings become the ammunition HR departments use to justify their own programs," he says. "Having read some of the ROI literature, I wonder how realistic some of the numbers being thrown around are. "And, how do you really know if your wellness program was the impetus for an employee's behavior change?" Wellness, a waste of time? Them's fighting words to the many, dedicated -- you might even say evangelical -- proponents of corporate-sponsored wellness programs. According to MetLife's 8th Annual Employee Benefits Trends Study, the number of wellness programs have steadily increased for the past few years. Nearly four in 10 (37 percent) employers now offer such a program, up from about one-quarter (27 percent) in 2005. Among larger employers -- those with 500 or more employees -- the number jumps to six in 10 (61 percent), up from nearly one-half (46 percent) in 2005. The study also found that more than half (57 percent) of employees with access to wellness programs participate, compared to 46 percent in 2008. Another study, the 2009/2010 Staying@Work report by Watson Wyatt (now New York-based Towers Watson) and the National Business Group on Health, found that organizations with the most effective health programs had total returns to shareholders over a five-year period of 15 percent, compared with low-effectiveness companies, that reported negatives returns of 10 percent. There were a list of 10 items used to gauge the effectiveness of health programs, including encouraging employees to participate in healthy lifestyle programs and reducing lifestyle-related health risks in the employee population. Many companies that participate in wellness programs stand behind their results. "We see evidence that wellness programs do work," says LuAnn Heinen of the Washington-based NBGH. She works with NBGH members on their wellness programs and oversees the annual Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyle Awards. "Almost 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have some kind of wellness program; the large companies have reached the tipping point on this," she says, noting that the next area of opportunities are the small and medium-sized companies. Heinen admits, though, that incentives by themselves aren't the answer -- and that a focus on weight loss alone is challenging even for the medical industry. "Sustained weight loss is hard to show in any setting, including medical-office practices," she says. And, in fact, the MetLife study indicates that just half of the employees who participate in these programs do so because of the incentives; seven in 10 participate because they "greatly value the offering" or because they desire good health. The answer to the question of whether these programs are a waste of time may be, "it depends," sayexperts. And what it most depends on is why the initiative was implemented in the first place. Edward Trieber, managing director of Harris Rothenberg International, Inc., an EAP provider based in New York, says such initiatives "can be both worth it and a waste of time." "Depending on the program they can be great resources, but they represent challenges," he says. There are at least three factors that contribute to the effectiveness of these programs: * Effective promotion and clear explanation of the program; *Ease of accessibility; and *Ensuring that people use them "at the time of need." The lack of clear metrics makes it difficult to evaluate effectiveness, he admits. "Encouraging people to join gyms does not ensure that the will use them or use them effectively. Measuring how many times they go, or have them download heart rate data may make for a more compelling case." Patricia Driscoll, client development manager at Human Resources Inc., in Crofton, Md., says: "the answer will always be subjective and will change based on the expectations each company had for offering such benefits. "Many companies offer health and wellness programs as a way to lower their health-insurance costs," she says. "As we all know, insurance companies are actuarial in nature, so if they think that there is money or profit to be made by offering these programs, then maybe there is." Ultimately, as Driscoll suggests, the question of value must be determined by the employer based on their specific, and unique, objectives. "In order to determine if offering a health-and-wellness program is right for your company, you should establish the reason for adding one," she says. "Is it to save money on insurance? Is it a way to give back to your employees? Is it promoting a work/life balance, which helps retention of your best employees?" Heinen agrees. "We suggest that companies have a target in mind," she says. "Look at national benchmarks and how you're doing and see where your areas of improvement could be." Employers may choose to focus on such things as percentage of employees who do not use tobacco or percentage who are physically active, says Heinen. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' Healthy People 2020 guidelines is a good starting point to help target specific areas for improvement, she says. For companies that have more fully developed programs, Heinen suggests comparing claims costs for employees participating in the wellness program to costs for non-participation. "See if you can see a change over time in people who are participating year after year," she says.
Ultimately, says Heinen, success is more about culture than incentives. Companies need to "connect the dots" when it comes to implementing wellness programs that have a measurable impact, she says. "You don't hand out $100 to employees to lose weight and then serve doughnuts at corporate meetings in the morning. "What's your overall message? How are you creating a culture of health and wellness that will support employees." Carrie Trent, public relations manager at Scottrade, agrees. "There are numerous things we do here that do not 'bring in the money,' so to speak, but we do them anyway because that is our culture and the way we choose to do business. At Scottrade, we provide our associates with several wellness benefits and we will continue to do so because this is in the best interest of our associates, our customers and the entire firm." That old mantra from the '60s may apply here: "If it feels good, do it." And, when it comes to health and wellness in the workplace, whether the numbers back them up or not, the vocal majority are united in saying that it definitely does feel good. June 10, 2010 Copyright 2010© LRP Publications |
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© Copyright 2012 LRP Publications. All rights reserved.
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