OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to identify areas of consensus in response to proposed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Genetic Information ...Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 regulations on employer-sponsored health, safety, and well-being initiatives.
METHODS:The consensus process included review of existing and proposed regulations, identification of key areas where consensus is needed, and a methodical consensus-building process.
RESULTS:Stakeholders representing employees, employers, consulting organizations, and wellness providers reached consensus around five areas, including adequate privacy notice on how medical data are collected, used, and protected; effective, equitable use of inducements that influence participation in programs; observance of reasonable alternative standards; what constitutes reasonably designed programs; and the need for greater congruence between federal agency regulations.
CONCLUSION:Employee health and well-being initiatives that are in accord with federal regulations are comprehensive, evidence-based, and are construed as voluntary by employees and regulators alike.
The following ten strategies were identified in Workplace Well-Being Factors That Predict Employee Participation, Health and Medical Cost Impact, and Perceived Support, a study by the Health ...Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) that was recently published in the American Journal of Health Promotion. Employers and well-being professionals can use these strategies to refine their approaches to well-being and help their organizations realize outcomes. 1.Demonstrate Organizational Commitment to Health and Well-Being Organizational leaders at all levels are more likely to actively support employee health and well-being when such actions are aligned with the values and business goals of the organization. Organizations communicate this alignment through development of a mission/vision statement that supports a healthy workplace culture, including employee health and well-being in organizational goals and value statements, and ensuring that senior leaders correlate the value and importance of health to broader business objectives. 2. Walk the Talk and Actively Support Employee Health and Well-Being Higher levels of organizational and leadership support lead to higher levels of participation in activities like biometric screenings and health assessment completion, as well as improved employee perception of well-being initiatives.
Purpose.
Examine the long-term impact of a telephone-based weight management program among participants recruited from worksite settings.
Design.
Pre/post quasi-experimental design comparing weight ...loss and related behaviors between program completers and noncompleters.
Setting.
Ten large private-sector and public-sector employers.
Subjects.
Overweight or obese participants (n = 1298) enrolled in a telephone-based weight management program.
Intervention.
Individually tailored telephone-based weight management coaching program that included up to five calls over a median of 250 days.
Measures.
Weight, body mass index, and lifestyle behaviors assessed via health risk assessment at baseline and 1-year follow-up.
Analysis.
Chi-square and one-way analysis of variance procedures were used to assess between-group differences in weight and associated behaviors, with criterion for significance set at p < .05.
Results.
Among weight management program participants, 48% of program completers and 47% of noncompleters lost weight, but program completers averaged 2.6 times more weight loss than noncompleters. Improvements in physical activity, eating habits, and overall health status were reported for completers.
Conclusion.
The weight loss attained among participants who lost weight, along with the improvements in physical activity and nutrition practices, suggests that a telephone-based weight management program of modest intensity can have a positive impact on the health of obese or overweight worksite participants. (Am J Health Promot 2011;253:186–189.)
Objective: Growing evidence demonstrates a relationship between excess health risk and preventable productivity loss. There is a need to quantify how much lost productivity is avoidable through ...employersponsored health management interventions. This study introduced the Normal Impairment Factor (NIF) to recognize the amount of productivity loss that cannot be mitigated through health management interventions. Methods: A health assessment questionnaire was administered to 772,750 employees, representing 106 employers within five industry sectors. Researchers used multivariate regression procedures to examine the association between preventable health risks and self reported productivity loss. Results: Back pain, mental well being, and stress risk were the strongest predictors of on-the-job productivity loss. A strong association was also detected between the number of health risks and productivity loss ranging from 3.4% for those at lowest risk (the NIF group) to 24.0% loss for those at risk for eight risks. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the utility of the NIF in estimating the level of productivity loss that cannot be regained through health management interventions.
The Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) and Population Health Alliance (PHA), formerly known as CCA, recently published Program Measurement & Evaluation Guide: Core Metrics for Employee ...Health Management, a core set of metrics for the evaluation of employee health management programs. Adapted from the source document.
The Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) and Population Health Alliance (PHA), formerly known as CCA, recently published Program Measurement & Evaluation Guide: Core Metrics for Employee ...Health Management, a core set of metrics for the evaluation of employee health management programs.
Employers invest in health coaching programs to improve employee health and mitigate health care cost increases but evidence suggests employee participation in these programs is not reaching the ...level necessary to yield desired health and financial outcomes. Based on an ecologic model, the purpose of this retrospective quantitative study was to assess the influence of employee-level and worksite-level determinants of coaching program engagement. Drawing on secondary data sources, a random sample of 34,291 employees from 52 U.S. companies was used to detect significant relationships between 11 independent variables and 4 dependent variables using multivariate logistic regression models. Study results were consistent with the tenets of an ecological model, finding worksite and employee variables were significant predictors of engagement in coaching programs. Employees were more likely to enroll in any coaching programs if they were older, female, and in poorer health. Overall, with the exception of variability in senior leadership support, all of these predictors were associated with enrollment in phone-based coaching programs: Employees had fewer environmental supports for health, clear financial incentives for participation in coaching, comprehensive communications, and comprehensive programs. Once enrolled employee program completion was influenced by the employees being older, not using tobacco, working at a company with strong communications, and having fewer environmental supports for health. The social change contributions of this study include using empirically derived variables to plan employee health policy, target the allocation of resources, and promote health coaching programs in which employees enroll, engage, and complete.
Related: Corporate wellness is having its moment in 2017 A new report and video from the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) identifies six promising practices for effectively integrating ...wearables into wellness programs. Remove financial barriers While many people have discovered the value of wearables, more than half of Americans still believe the devices are too expensive, and that may be enough to keep them from participating in a wellness program. The employers who participated in...
In addition to these impressive participation goals, BP realized other positive outcomes: · Employees involved in the “Million Step Challenge” earned more points and stayed more consistent with their ...participation in BP’s overall well-being program than those who were not involved. · “Million Step Challenge” participants had a lower level of physical activity risk, and showed greater health improvements than their non-participating co-workers. · Since the program launched in 2013, challenge participants have improved their overall health risk status by more than 6% and their physical activity risk by 17%. Most recently, the company contributed to a collaborative report spearheaded by HERO (the Health Enhancement Research Organization), called Wearables in Wellness: Employer Case Studies on the Use of Wearable Tracking Devices in Wellness Programs. While the world waits for more research on the connection between wearable technology and long-term health outcomes, the experience of companies like BP provides preliminary evidence about promising practices that drive sustained device use and program participation.
