A sound health policy for your company. What is the return on investment? Looking back at Healthy Company 2011!
On March the 31st BrandNewDay organized Healthy Company, a conference about occupational health. Theme of the day was the return on investment of a sound health policy for your company. About 100 employers, HR managers and directors, occupational physicians, prevention consultants and others responsible for health and wellbeing of employees, gathered in the Provinciehuis of Leuven for a series of most interesting lectures. Belgian and international academics shared their expertise, and leading HR managers of several companies presented their practical knowhow with a case study.
'The greatest wealth is health' said Patricia Ceysens (Vice-chairman Open VLD), in her opening speech. In the world of business, this quote from Vergilius, a Roman poet born in 70BC, hit the right note. Because healthy people are more productive and get sick less often.
'One day of sick leave costs a company about 134€', said Prof. Dr. Luc Dekeyzer (Director of the Knowledge Centre at SD Worx and Professor at the KULeuven). Companies can save a lot of money if they succeed to reduce sick leave and raise performance. One way to do that is to implement strategies for ‘engaging’ employees. Engaged employees are satisfied at work, but also committed to the company. They feel energized, and are willing to go the extra mile to do a great job. The Engagement study of Sd Worx has shown a clear link between engagement and health promotion. Organizations with a focus on wellbeing can benefit from up to 44% more satisfied and engaged employees than organizations without such a focus. This is an important way to save money. Recently, it was published that Johnson & Johnson saved $250 million on health care costs by investing in employee wellness programs. And this is without considering the return of investment from higher productivity.
Arjella Van Scheppingen (occupational health researcher of the TNO institute of the Netherlands) agrees: 'Doing business the healthy way', has lots of benefits for companies. Not only towards cost effectiveness, but also organizational benefits e.g. attractiveness at the labour market, improving company image and organizational culture”. Van Scheppingen emphasized the importance of optimal adjustment to the specific company concerns, a search on parallel interests, alignment between health and company concerns, and close cooperation with company representatives.
'When implementing a health policy, make sure to include interventions to also target excessive alcohol intake', emphasized Dr. Bart Garmyn from Securex, ‘You don’t have to be an alcoholic to have alcohol raise your blood pressure and your risk for chronic diseases like cancer. And the impact of alcohol use on productivity and absenteeism is often underestimated’. Dr. Garmyn recommends companies to use ‘AUDIT’ (Babor, Sauders et al., 1989), a freely available 10 - item questionnaire to identify hazardous drinkers. He introduced the use of evidence based ‘brief interventions’ to reduce excessive alcohol consumption.
In the afternoon, Rachel De Rudder, HR-manager of 'The Healthiest Company of Belgium' awardwinner of 2010, Durabrik (constructions), presented a inspiring case of how to implement a sound health policy. 'Not an easy job in a company where most employees are male and not that interested in health', De Rudder said. What helped, she explained, is to step away from the idea that health is the purpose. Health was never the explicit goal of the company policy, but a consequence of a value-driven entrepreneurship based on the model of 7 levels of consciousness by Richard Barret. De Rudder illustrated with many practical examples how a search for values resulted in a true cultural transformation, symbolized by a new building where everything was built around these values (e.g. bridge to the future, window to the world). This value driven approach made it possible to successfully implement several health initiatives (camino walking events, mindfulness sessions, fruit, vegetables & soup for everyone, ...).
Charlotte Sabbe (HR manager at Electrawinds) had a similar story. The startingpoint of Electrawinds Health Program, was the company's 'DNA', their mission statement and company values. Electrawinds wanted to create a unique working environment which stimulates employees to perform and grow. Since there is a direct link between health initiatives and employee satisfaction, a budget for a health program was approved. Sabbe emphasized the importance of assembling a Health Support Team, consisting of initiators and internal ambassadors from all over the company. The current health policy of Electrawinds focuses on three domains: Eat well (e.g. 'Fruit your day', 'Soup@Work'), Move well (e.g. fitness tests, aerobic sessions), and Feel well (e.g. Quit smoking sessions, monthly communication meetings). With some clear numbers Sabbe showed that implementing a health program in the company was a true win-win situation: the return on investment is significant.
Next case was brought by Bart Lambrechts, HR director of Carglass (winner of the Best Belgian Employer Award of 2011). Lambrechts talked about the 'circle of Success' in which 'delighted employees' create 'delighted customers' which create 'delighted shareholders' which create 'delighted employees' and so on. He emphasized the three main determinants of delighted employees: social responsibility, positive leadership and – last but not least - a healthy mind and body. That's why, in 2007, Fit for Life was born, a health program with a wide range of health activities. Lambrechts shared some of the strategies he used to increase participation rates. Among them the use of a mascot called 'Tommy' paper and digital communication tools and a buddy role system in which colleagues motivate each other to participate. (employees that motivate and support other employees) who drive engagement; working around a consistent theme, and working with consistent measurements and output. He also emphasized reaching out to the families of employees to make a health initiative succeed.
One of the international speakers was Alistair Dornan, Right Management, a leading expert in the field of Occupational health. ‘We are entering the human age!’, he said, emphasizing that the most important asset of any organization is its employees. A good retention policy is crucial, and for that you need to engage employees and strive for ‘workplace wellness’. ‘I like models’, Dornan said while explaining the Wellness & Productivity Management model he works by. Dornan also introduced a ‘Delivery Framework’ to successfully implement a sound wellness policy in a company. He recommended strategies such as working with ‘champions’ (employees that motivate and support other employees) who drive engagement; working around a consistent theme, and working with consistent measurements and output. He also emphasized reaching out to the families of employees to make a health initiative succeed.
Star of the day was Prof. Dr. Victor Strecher (Health Media Inc. – Johnson & Johnson) who came all the way from Michigan to talk to us about using e-health to create a culture of health in the workplace. He educated us about the efficiency of combining high tech (e-Health) with the high touch of live coaches. Best results are booked with a highly tailored approach. One of the central elements in the digital coaching system of Health Media, is using pictures and stories in which people can recognize themselves. With eye tracking experiments, this highly tailored approach has shown to be very effective: people were two times more likely to be convinced by a message when it matched their profile. Strecher emphasized that the benefits of digital health coaching are very clear: digital health coaching makes it possible to reach out to a large number of people, it can be used anonymously, and is available 24h a day. It has proven to be very cost-effective for companies to implement a health program in their companies. This is the obvious way to go for the next generation of healthy companies.
