Health Promotion As a Workplace Cause

Last week I wrote about creating health promotion programs in local communities, by focusing on kids and involving schools and basketball coaches. Of course our healthcare system cannot be fixed by taking care of kids alone. Today I would like to talk about wellness for working adults.

What are the key issues with workplace wellness?

The same issues and challenges of motivating healthy behavior need to be put in the context of employee-employer relationship. Employers usually pay for coverage. Sicker employees cost more. Yet they rarely appreciate employers' intrusion into their personal lives and habits. Wellness is good business, but it is critical to avoid forcing it down the employee throats and risking legal repercussions - think discrimination based on health conditions or habits.

Recent public/private initiative in UK may deserve a close look

PersonnelToday has a piece about balancing workplace wellness factors and suggests emphasizing minimally intrusive online programs. Here is how they describe the pros and cons:

One of the potential pitfalls of promoting wellbeing is that employers can seem too intrusive. If employees want to eat chips and drink too much caffeine, they may feel nannied by an HR initiative that appears to admonish them for their wicked ways. And not all HR staff are happy donning a tracksuit or power walking at lunchtime and exhorting colleagues to follow suit.

Online health promotion, however, leaves staff to make their own choices. And far from looking dull and stodgy, an online health promotion can seem cutting-edge and is likely to appeal to an increasingly internet-savvy workforce.

The emphasis should be on giving employees autonomy and respect:

Such an approach respects the autonomy of staff. "Organisations are made up of all kinds of people - some of whom are likely to be very private and introverted, and reluctant to join anything that seems like a club," says Diana Nye, commercial director of Vielife.

Equally, men and women have different attitudes to fitness, with men more likely to feel embarrassed to be seen counting calories or nipping to the gym. For them, the advantage of online health promotion is that no-one needs to know what they are up to. For those who prefer group dieting or jogging, the option to team up with colleagues is still there.

In my view, however the most effective workplace wellness programs would employ the most effective motivational tool known to the humankind: money.

If a case can be made that a dieting, gym attendance or smoking cessation reduces insurance cost, employers should negotiate the rates and pass on the savings to employee as a cash bonus. Yes, there are all these challenges of tracking the compliance and then the privacy of medical data, but this sounds like a great business opportunity for smart insurers to figure out how to do this.

I expect workplace wellness to be a critical part to any health reform.