productivity
How to Lower Health Insurance Costs
by TemPositions
The buzz around wellness programs and reducing health insurance costs through internal initiatives continues to grow. These programs have the potential to lower insurance costs, boost morale, and strengthen the bond between companies and employees. However, for real results, engagement at every level of the organization is necessary. HR plays a crucial role in crafting effective communications and activating leadership to inspire employee participation.
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Insights on Successful Wellness Programs
During a visit to TemPositions’ HR Roundtable Series, Ken Kane and Elissa Palmer shared their insights on launching successful wellness programs. Here, they emphasized the need for attendees to take ownership of the process and confidently present their case to both leadership and employees.
Making Wellness Programs Affordable and Effective
Many employers believe they can’t afford wellness programs, but any organization ready for positive change can embrace this challenge. The objective of a wellness program is to develop a healthier and more productive workforce. Thus, there are incremental and affordable steps that companies of any size can take to achieve this goal.
Understanding Wellness Programs and Their Benefits
Wellness programs focus on achieving optimum levels of health, social functioning, and emotional well-being. They provide education, guidance, and encouragement for employees to make healthier choices. What’s more, the prevalence of wellness programs continues to grow due to the significant amount of time employees spend at work and the impact it has on their overall well-being.
The Case for Wellness Programs to Lower Insurance Costs
Wellness programs deliver value to employers, leading to higher levels of employee engagement, productivity, and quality of work. Therefore, by improving physical and psychological health, these programs reduce absenteeism, workplace conflicts, and health insurance costs. So, employees see wellness programs as part of their employer’s duty of care, leading to increased loyalty, advocacy, and retention.
Driving Participation with Effective Communication
Despite the proven effectiveness of wellness programs, most companies struggle to achieve high participation rates. The barrier to participation is often due to messaging strategies. Employees need clear communication that demonstrates leadership’s belief in the program, their desire for employee benefits, and their expectation of responsible participation. Thus, sustained and effective communication is key to bridging the gap between leadership and employees.
Effective Communication Strategies
Wellness programs should address employees’ holistic needs for physical and psychological health. Recognition of employees’ achievements, monthly newsletters, wellness poster boards, and testimonials can be powerful communication tools. Also, events and initiatives centered around well-being can create a community that fosters engagement and participation.
Change Management for Wellness Programs
HR must carefully plan their communication strategies to ensure successful change management. They should consider the audience, their communication preferences, the emotional and factual content required, and the benefits of the change. Transparent communication, short and heartfelt messages, and emotional motivation can inspire employees to embrace behavioral changes.
Launching a Wellness Program: A Step-by-Step Guide
The success of a wellness program depends on a step-by-step approach. Leadership involvement is crucial, and incorporating wellness into performance evaluations and management practices can promote employee participation. Empowering influential employees to serve as wellness champions and forming employee-led committees can enhance engagement and provide valuable feedback. Employers should research low-to-no-cost activities, choose initiatives that address both physical and emotional well-being, and roll them out gradually. By starting small and building on success, companies can achieve long-term wellness goals.
Making the Wellness Case: How HR Can Help Lower Insurance Costs and Boost Morale
by TemPositions
The buzz around wellness initiatives, internal programs that encourage workers to live healthier lives, continues to grow. These programs can lower health insurance costs, boost morale, and forge lasting bonds between companies and employees. But to achieve real results, they require engagement at every level of the organization. HR must take the lead in crafting communications that can both activate leadership and inspire passionate, widespread employee participation.
Ken Kane (current Director at CERIPH) and fellow presenter Elissa Palmer (current District Sales Manager HR Services at Paychex) visited TemPositions’ HR Roundtable Series to share their insights into launching successful wellness programs. Together, they urged attendees to own the process and make their case with confidence—to leadership and employees alike.
Many employers believe they can’t afford wellness programs, Kane explained. But this challenge can be embraced by any organization that’s ready to commit to positive change. At root, the objective of a wellness program is to develop a workforce that is healthier and more productive. To achieve this goal, there are incremental and affordable steps that any company can take.
“What I’m going to talk to you about today is applicable whether you employ five people, 500 people or 5,000 people,” he stressed. “Your budget can be effective no matter how many people you employ. The principles remain the same.”
What Wellness Is and Why It Matters
Kane described company wellness (or as he likes to call it, “well-being”) as “a proactive and preventative approach designed to achieve optimum levels of health, social and emotional functioning.” For employees, these programs represent education, guidance and encouragement. They help workers learn more about the choices they can make to achieve all-around well-being.
There’s every indication that wellness programs are here to stay. A recent Mercer study found that 78% of large employers are now “interested in supporting wellness programs.” The prevalence of these programs continues to grow due to the extraordinary amount of time Americans spend at work and the effect their work experience has on who they are—and how they behave.
According to a study from Campbell, Converse & Rodgers, the average adult spends 1/4th to 1/3rd of their life in the workplace. And, it turns out, satisfaction at work accounts for 1/5th to 1/4th of peoples’ overall happiness. Happy workers, of course, are more productive and loyal. And over time, physically healthy employees will cost the company less in health insurance premiums.
As both speakers agreed, programs that focus exclusively on exercise or diet habits won’t deliver the same results as those that address employees’ holistic needs for all-around well-being. The best wellness programs improve both physical and psychological health.
“We’re not just skin and bones and muscle,” Kane explained. “We have physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs to function and perform well as human beings. And if one of those needs isn’t met, it affects our performance in the workplace.”
The Case for Wellness Initiatives
It’s likely that everyone at a company views wellness as a personal goal. But for HR to institute a formal wellness program, they’ll need to persuade leadership that it will benefit the organization. It is indisputable, both Kane and Palmer agreed, that wellness delivers value to employers. And thankfully, improved measurement strategies now make it easier for HR to make their case.
Companies with robust wellness programs enjoy higher levels of employee engagement. Their workers are not only more productive, their work is of a higher quality. Thanks to improved physical health, employees fall ill less frequently, decreasing absenteeism. And thanks to greater emotional stability, they don’t get into as many petty disputes or need as much discipline.
Increasingly, Kane noted, employees perceive wellness programs as part of the “overall duty of care” that companies have for their workers. And when they see their employers embracing this duty, they reward them with loyalty and advocacy. Businesses enjoy higher retention levels and—notably—reduced costs associated with recruiting and hiring.
Pay attention to these cost savings opportunities, Palmer stressed, as it will often be “the numbers” that persuade leadership to act. She cited a recent Harvard University Study that found mature wellness programs (i.e., those established and running for at least three years) will provide $3.00 of benefit for every $1.00 of investment. Other studies value the benefit as high as $6.00.
The State of Nebraska presents a compelling case study. The state saw its health insurance premium costs (across over 10,000 employees) rising by an alarming percentage each year and instituted a widespread wellness program. Over the course of the next three years, the state saved over $4.2M in claims. Their measurement plan wasn’t complex, but it did the job, Palmer noted. The state based its metrics on one simple question: “What happens if we do nothing?”
“Talk to your CFO,” she challenged attendees. “It might be helpful to say, ‘Listen, our claims are growing by 22-26% every year, let’s try this.’” In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) established that one in seven Americans now manage a chronic disease, she explained. In that context, the relatively low cost of trying something might get consideration.
Driving Participation with Communication
In spite of wellness programs’ proven effectiveness, most companies only achieve a participation rate of 20%. John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, infamously “nagged” one of his regional presidents into enrolling in the company’s “total health immersion program.” But for most companies, this type of strong-arming isn’t practical, and relatively low enrollment rates remain the norm.
The reasons for this, both speakers noted, can be surprising. According to “Wellness in the Workplace 2012,” a study from Optum, 30% of workers cited lack of time or energy to participate, and 26% cited a lack of interest. But intriguingly, employees don’t seem to lack understanding of wellness programs—or the compelling benefits they offer.
The great barrier to participation, Kane stressed, may well be messaging strategy. Employees need to understand not only that a wellness program exists and that it offers benefits. They need to receive the clear message that leadership believes in the program, wants them to benefit, and expects their participation as responsible members of a 2013 employment community.
“One of the keys to success is a sustained program of great communication,” he stated. “Not a poster here, there, and everywhere. Great communication.” By using only the most effective methods, HR can close the divide that too often persists between company leadership and employees—including when it comes to promoting well-being.
“We have to make wellness matter,” Kane counseled. And that requires compelling communications. Not the Surgeon General’s dry warning on the back of a cigarette pack, but a clear and motivating message that inspires confidence and makes employees feel emotionally ready and eager to commit to behavioral changes.
With all that HR juggles, this challenge can feel daunting, Palmer noted. Today’s workforces span many generations, which all have their own preferred communication methods. With so much information to share, it’s sometimes difficult just to know where to start. HR already struggles to communicate the many benefits available to workers, such as Employee Assistance Programs. Adding an awareness campaign around wellness can seem overwhelming.
Some of the most effective messages are simple acts of recognition—like a monthly email from leadership congratulating individuals who’ve made significant behavioral changes. As Palmer put it, these messages “resonate through the entire organization.” And notably, they’re free.
Individual and group events centered around well-being provide employees with the opportunity to communicate directly with one another, as well as with leadership (who should be represented at such gatherings). The camaraderie built at these events strengthens wellness programs by creating a true community around them.
Palmer led a brainstorm on effective wellness communications. As part of the discussion, many attendees described past practices that had been effective for their companies. Ideas included:
- Walking challenges requiring a daily log of steps taken—with the most active walkers receiving callouts from leadership/HR
- Regular wellness newsletters with tips for healthier living
- A wellness poster board in company kitchenettes, featuring:
– Wellness calendars promoting healthy recipes
– Monthly wellness awareness bulletins
– Testimonials from active participants
Again, it’s important to remember that well-being extends beyond physical health, Kane noted. Companies should round out their wellness programs with initiatives aimed at stress reduction and developing the “emotional maturity of the organization.” These types of communication strategies can motivate enrollment and participation as an act of personal reflection.
Of course, making a significant change to the company’s operations will be a challenge, both speakers agreed. Rather than jump into communications hastily, HR needs to formulate a plan.
Change Management
HR’s first communication must have a clear objective. It’s important to consider the audience, the group that leadership wants to reach. What are their communication preferences? How much detail is appropriate? Do they have preconceived notions of wellness that need to be acknowledged? What is the right mix of emotional vs. factual content to engage them?
“Emotionally speaking,” Kane explained, “people need to know what’s changing, what will be different because of the change, and the answer to, ‘What’s in it for me to change?’” He encouraged attendees to transparently share what the company hopes to gain. Keep communications short and heartfelt, with no jargon, he advised, and help workers understand why the company thinks wellness will work for everyone.
Once the message is crafted, HR must decide upon timing. Follow-up communications should also be scheduled, with accountable parties identified in both HR and at the leadership level.
And finally, HR must design a mechanism for fielding and responding to feedback. Wellness enthusiasts can be invaluable influencers—but only if their voices are heard in HR and they believe the company appreciates their special eagerness to engage. The company should decide how and when to encourage feedback about the wellness initiative and commit to a specific course of action when suggestions, critiques and other comments come in.
Launching Wellness Initiatives: A Step-by-Step Guide
The launch of a wellness program either builds employees’ faith in the process or diminishes it — so it’s crucial to success. Workers must believe that leadership is serious about well-being as an organizational goal and that the company will follow through on the promises it makes to those that enroll and participate.
Companies will succeed by taking a step-by-step approach: Lead From the Top
“Wellness must be lived and led from the top of the business,” Kane stressed. Thankfully, this requirement can be met in a variety of ways. It’s helpful when a high-level executive takes ownership of the wellness program, personally investing in its success. But even if HR leads the effort, highly-visible participation from management can also be compelling to employees.
Incorporate wellness into performance evaluations, Kane advised. The expectation that all workers—including leadership—will take part in activities to promote their own well-being can become a core competency. Managers can be asked to participate in well-being initiatives to manage stress and improve their relationships with subordinates. And some physical wellness goals can be incorporated into everyone’s performance management.
Insurance carriers (and the law) permit employers to reward and penalize workers who don’t pursue their own wellness, within limits. If an employee participates in wellness initiatives, the company may reward them by paying up to 30% of their premium. Smokers who refuse to join programs that can help them quit smoking, by contrast, can be penalized up to 50%.
There are compliance issues through HIPAA to be concerned with, Palmer warned. Generally speaking, rewards for taking part in wellness programs must be available to everyone, including those with disabilities or physical/other limitations that may make participation difficult. In these cases, the company must make accommodations or offer alternative activities to give these workers an equal chance of earning wellness rewards.
Empower Influential Employees
It’s helpful to identify a “wellness champion” within the workforce. This individual can motivate others to enroll and help form/lead wellness committees, ideally across departments (and even offices). These committees can motivate their colleagues to enroll, encourage them to participate regularly, promote well-being in creative ways, and act as the voice of employees to leadership.
Ongoing employee input will be needed to ensure that the program stays relevant and engaging. In partnership with HR, the wellness committee can conduct a “wellness interest survey.” Using this survey, leadership can find out how many employees would be interested in enrolling, and can learn what types of initiatives workers would like to see integrated into the program.
Using these types of feedback mechanisms, employers can also discover the most meaningful incentives and employee recognition to offer. Some workforces will lobby for casual Fridays, while others will vote for social events, gift cards, or discounts at local businesses.
Research Low-to-No-Cost Activities
To ensure everyone’s success—including the organization’s—start small, Palmer stressed.
Companies can begin by hosting walking events or once-monthly meetings on well-being topics. It can be fun to brand the wellness program, giving it a name that’s especially meaningful.
Concurrently, larger companies can research services offered by their partners. Insurance carriers may participate in onsite wellness fairs and provide free biometric health screenings. (Be sure to have a counselor handy, Palmer warned, for helping employees deal with troubling test results.)
Some carriers provide cold cash for wellness initiatives—a solution for covering wellness expenses that every COO will find attractive. Cigna, for example, offers $4,000 per year to larger companies that institute programs to improve worker health. Employers pay their suppliers directly, then expense their wellness supplies/activities to the carrier.
For smaller companies, the web offers a variety of great resources. New York City’s Department of Health website offers an array of free wellness posters and other boilerplate documents to distribute to workers and promote wellness programs. The Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) also provides a robust site filled with free information that can help small employers find resources and support tools.
“There’s a way to start small and build, year over year,” Palmer explained. “When you make impact and change, you can get a little bigger.”
Choose & Roll Out Wellness Initiatives
With a clear announcement of leadership’s goal to spread well-being and an employee-led committee in place to serve as a feedback mechanism, HR is ready to begin rolling out specific wellness initiatives.
Remember to begin modestly, Palmer and Kane counseled. Build upon whatever infrastructure the company already has in place. Discover what you can manage, what employees embrace, and what HR can effectively measure for leadership.
Common wellness initiatives that span both physical and emotional well-being include:
- Biometric health screenings
- Lunch n’ Learns on the full spectrum of well-being topics:
– Financial security (relieving stress)
– Work-life balance (promoting calm)
– Elder care presentations (reducing workday distraction for caregivers)
– Latest health news/dietary recommendations (supporting healthy choices)
- Health and well-being fairs and/or town hall meetings
- Walking events (including pedometers for counting steps)
– Outdoors and indoors (e.g., “Wednesday is Take-the-Stairs Day”)
- Annual wellness calendars
- Special events and activities (e.g., Wii stations for the office)
- Newsletters (e.g., health or emotional well-being “Topic of the Month”)
- Physical challenges/competitions (ensuring goals are achievable for all)
- Online resources for well-being (e.g., links, webinars, company intranet portal)
- Charity tie-ins (e.g., Habitat for Humanity, medical research walk-a-thons)
- Conflict resolution workshops
- Reimbursed or subsidized gym memberships
- Nicotine Anonymous chapters
- Recipe challenge: recreate an old comfort food favorite using nutritious ingredients
- Wellness resource center
Throughout a program’s first year, be sure to elicit and act upon employee feedback. After all, worker enthusiasm is HR’s first available metric. As momentum grows over the second and third year—and leadership is able to review more types of results—expanding both programs and their budgets may become possible.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Wellness Initiatives
Strong measurement starts with clear goals. Like the State of Nebraska, the company may choose to pursue lowering health care premiums by a certain percentage over time. It can also seek to move employees from high-risk health status to low-risk, or challenge employees to improve results for general health screenings.
Again, wellness isn’t confined to physical health. So the company can also aim at improving employee engagement. Engagement can now be readily measured through surveys and other common tools, and it’s clearly demonstrated in the workplace through higher productivity, reduced absenteeism, and more team-oriented work habits.
“What we’re talking about is activation of behavioral changes in the organization,” Kane explained. “We want to create a behavioral shift.” Whether it’s reducing stress (evidenced by fewer workplace conflicts) or promoting advocacy (evidenced by increased numbers of referrals coming in to HR for open positions), companies can choose the behavioral changes they want to see to grow their businesses—and measure wellbeing’s progress against them accordingly.
Make the Case & Follow Through
In the end, effective wellness programs succeed because they benefit both businesses and their employees, Kane and Palmer agreed in closing. Companies get a more committed, passionate employee base that appreciates where they work. And workers enjoy better health, peace of mind, and the feeling that they come to work every day for an organization that values them.
Make the case to your organization based on the benefits, Palmer stressed. Find a partner among senior leadership and share wellness ROI studies and the success stories of other companies who embrace wellness—and benefit from it. Ensure management understands the opportunity and will be prepared to give wellness a chance.
Because in the end, Kane noted, leadership’s commitment makes transformation possible. By providing employees with emotional, spiritual and physical opportunities to enhance their own well-being, businesses can partner with their workforce to do more than drop a few pounds. Together, they can redefine the company for a new age.
“Well-being is not just what you do,” he concluded. “It’s part of your DNA—who you are.”
Join the next HR Roundtable
Don’t miss our next discussion! Sign up for TemPositions’ next HR Roundtable here. This SHRM certified event will earn you or your HR team members 1.5 professional development credits.
Please note: the information reflected in this post is not official legal advice nor does it necessary reflect the opinions of the associated firms.
Anne DeAcetis is a freelance writer based in New York. Reach her at anne.deacetis@gmail.com. The HR Roundtable is a breakfast forum for human resources professionals in New York City sponsored by The TemPositions Group of Companies. TemPositions, one of the largest staffing companies in the New York tri-state area with operations in California, has been helping businesses with their short- and long-term staffing needs since 1962. Visit them online at www.tempositions.com or email them at info@tempositions.com.
3 Tools to Increase Workplace Productivity
by TemPositions
Employees are the lifeblood of a well functioning company. So tools that increase workplace productivity can really help your business. When a business has employees who are productive and able to communicate effectively, it makes for a practically seamless workday – work emergencies not included. So it’s essential that employers provide their workers with the technology to ensure that employees can work as a cohesive team. Nowadays, more and more people are working from home. Therefore, implementing productivity tools that are easy to access is crucial. If you’re looking for a stellar communication software that can help your company run seamlessly like a well-oiled machine, then here are a three software tools to consider.
1. Workplace Productivity and SLACK
Slack is by far, one of the top communication tools out there to increase workplace productivity. It’s essentially a messaging app for teams. Not only can you send messages, but you can also share work files, images, documents, spreadsheets and PDFs. The app allows you to highlight important comments, and bookmark them, so that you can conveniently reference them later on.
Slack easily syncs with other applications like Google Drive and Dropbox. Sometimes it’s important that chat conversations be positioned into their own segments. With Slack, you can do this and more. Slack allows you to organize your chat into specific channels. You’ll never have to worry about relocating past chat notes ever again.
One major caveat for Slack is that is it not a project management tool. It is for communication only. You also cannot set away messages or go idle, when you’re inactive. So this may prove to be inconvenient, particularly if the team is under a strict deadline. That being said, Slack is perfect for getting updates on support tickets, integrating project management tools with clients, or organizing team tasks with ease.
And best of all, if you’re a small team, Slack allows you to try it out for free!
2. ASANA
Asana is a really great software tool for team collaboration and workplace productivity. It’s also perfect for smaller companies, as it’s free forever, as long as you have 15 members or less. Asana helps teams track work from start to finish. You’ll be able to organize tasks, projects, dashboards and conversations easily with the help of color-coded highlights. Asana is an email-based application. So your employees will be adding all of their tasks through emails. While organizing your work, you’ll be able to view progress reports every step of the way.
Asana works with both Android and IPhone users. Like, SharePoint, Asana is encrypted for security. However, there’s no two-factor authentication. There are also an overwhelming amount of features. So you’ll have to be patient with yourself and your team, as you’re learning this new software. Prepare for a steep learning curve.
3. Workplace Productivity through SHAREPOINT
SharePoint is a workplace productivity booster and widely used cross-platform for digital collaboration, portals and intranets, with larger companies today. Since it’s a Microsoft owned company, it’s perfect for businesses who work with the Windows system. Microsoft began as a document management tool over ten years ago. Being that it’s been a power player for so long, this makes it an attractive and reliable option for any business owner.
While SharePoint is an amazing application, it can take quite a bit of training to become accustomed to the program. For larger companies, it can take up to three to five years to adopt. It’s also expensive. So you’ll have to weigh heavily, if the time and training are worth the investment.
Fortunately, you can easily integrate other tools along with this software. For example, you can sync Microsoft Word along with SharePoint, and it’s entirely user-friendly. SharePoint also prides itself on its security. You can be sure that your critical company information is secure, as it has highly structured controls. Very few software productivity tools come with this feature. More importantly, as your company grows, SharePoint does too. It’s scalable, meaning that you won’t have to worry about starting with a brand new system, should your business expand.
For a complete list of Pro’s and Con’s of Sharepoint visit Brandon Gaillle’s Blog
There are many tools out there, that all offer their own unique features and benefits. Do your research to figure out which one will best suit the needs of your company. No matter if you choose Slack, SharePoint or Asana, always take advantage of the security features these tools have to offer. The last thing you want to worry about is that your detailed work project is at risk of being hacked. You also want to make sure you read their privacy policy thoroughly. You may be surprised to learn just who has access to your company data.
Do you have a favorite productivity or communication tool? If so, let us know in the comments below.
Five Productivity Apps to Increase Efficiency
by TemPositions
Busy entrepreneurs often lack the time to regularly monitor the most recent apps that can significantly increase business efficiency. However, using such tools is essential, if you want to enhance the productivity of your company. To save your time, we have already collected the newest and most popular apps on the market in this article. Run through the list of the five most efficient tools and find a way to streamline your business processes.
Five Productivity Apps for your Business
1. Mavenlink
Mavenlink is a generic app that is suitable for any industry type. It is a state-of-the-art task management system, the goal of which is to provide your team with a standardized workflow. This app will allow you to easily manage the project tasks and the time spent on them. You will also be able to set up new projects with the help of a special project template feature. Feel free to add the customers to the projects as well to simplify the negotiations. Track the correspondence and exchange your crucial data safely.
2. ServiceM8
ServiceM8 app has been designed to simplify such processes as scheduling and dispatching, as well as estimating, invoicing, receiving payments etc. Thus, your employees will be automatically notified about the changes in the schedule. This tool also offers time and GPS location tracking and route optimization feature, so that you always know where your staff is at the moment. ServiceM8 will also send the reminders of the upcoming bookings to your customers. A free trial version of this app is available to take a test drive.
For simplified employee time tracking contact TemPositions to find out more about how we can assist with employee time keeping.
3. Scanner Pro
Imagine you are on your way to the airport, but suddenly your assistant calls to remind you that you have not signed an important contract. Instead of coming back to the office, you can sign it on-the-go and scan it using your camera phone. Install a Scanner Pro app, which will automatically recognize the boundaries and optimize the photo to produce a high-quality scan of the document. It can be emailed to your assistant or uploaded to Dropbox.
4. Dropbox
Dropbox is not a sensationally new app, but it remains one of the most functional and useful tools to store your files online. Upload your documents, videos, photos and other important data without any risk of an information breach. Dropbox is also a suitable cloud storage for keeping the backups of your sensitive corporate data.
5. TunnelBear
With the help of TunnelBear your employees will be able to accomplish their projects much faster. They can use their cell phone or tablet to connect to the office network from any place, update and synchronize the information on all devices. Thus, your staff will be using only the latest version of every file.
Hopefully, these 5 productivity apps will help you to simplify the workflow, enhance the communication with your customers and streamline your business.