Creating Wellness in the Workplace

A Crisis Affecting American Business:

• Stress on the job
• Increased Medical Costs
• Obesity
• Sedentary Lifestyle
• Unnecessary doctor visits
• Preventable deaths

The World Health Organization Describes Stress as a “World Wide Epidemic”:

80% of people feel stress on the job, and nearly 40% say they need help in managing stress. (a recent Gallup Poll)

Chronic Health Conditions Continue to Plaque American Businesses:

Researchers have estimated that preventable disease makes up 70% of the burden of illness and the associated costs. (New England Journal of Medicine)

In 2004, United States spent $1.9 trillion on health care, comprising 16% of its Gross Domestic Product, an average of $6,280 per person. (Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of Actuary, National Statistics Group, National Health accounts)

Chronic diseases, particularly heart disease and cancer account for seven of every ten deaths and affect the quality of life of 125 million Americans. Although chronic diseases are among the most common and costly health problems, they are also among the most preventable.

Obesity:

61% of Americans are currently overweight and 27% are clinically obese. (this has doubled since 1980 and is increasing at 10% a year)

Nearly 80% of obese people now have diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease or other ailments.

On average, obese people cost companies $1,700 more a year in medical costs than non-obese people.

The direct medical costs for diseases related to obesity are approximately: $98 billion per year for Type 2 diabetes, $8.8 billion per year for heart disease, $5.3 billion per year for osteoarthritis, $3.2 billion per year for gallbladder disease, $1.3 billion for colon cancer, $1.1 billion for breast cancer and $310 million for endometrial cancer.

Sedentary Lifestyle:

Only 15% of American adults engage in regular vigorous exercise and 60% report getting effectively no exercise at all from a regular or sustained leisure time activity. (Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA))

Thousands of studies have shown a direct relationship between lack of exercise and coronary heart disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, anxiety, and depression.

Preventable Deaths:

Nearly one half of the two million people who die in the United States each year die in large part to preventable causes. (JAMA)

Bio-chemical Stress (diet, tobacco, alcohol causes 500,000 deaths)

Physical Stress (lack of exercise responsible for 300,000 deaths)

The Cost to American Business:

Increased Health Care Costs

Increased Absenteeism

Decreased Productivity

Increased Turnover

Increased Health Care Costs:

Employers with 500 or more workers experienced a 10.2% hike in health care costs in 2003 and 12.5% in 2004. (San Francisco Chronicle)

70% of cost Health Care Costs is for dependents. (Employee Benefits Journal)

Costs continue to rise by double-digit percentage each year.

Increased Absenteeism:

In terms of lost hours due to absenteeism, reduced productivity, and workers compensation benefits, stress costs American industry about $7500 (US) per worker per year. (American Psychological Association)

Decreased Productivity:

Most companies are getting the output of about 50-70 workers for every 100 people they employ. Much of the difference is due to increasingly high stress levels. (HR Magazine)

Increased Turnover:

43% of adults suffer from adverse health effects due to stress. Stress also causes about 1 million employees to be absent any given workday and is ultimately responsible for 50% of employee burnout and 40% of employee turnover.(Training and Development Magazine)

The Creating Wellness Solution:

Quantifiable Lifestyle Program:

Changes the way people think and act towards wellness in their lives.

• Health assessments and screenings

• Education: newsletters, email, and health talks

• Self-care program, strategies for lifestyle changes, EAP
program, Wellness Coaching

• Employee Incentives

• Involving the employee’s family

• On-going health assessment to monitor employee progress.

• Reports to employer on population progress. Identifying the
Negative Stressors in individual employees in each of the three
dimensions of wellness: physical, bio-chemical, and psychology.

• Replace negative lifestyle stressors with positive lifestyle habits
and improve employee “wellness capacity.”

The Creating Wellness System can be customized to your specific needs. Together we will establish the best program for you and your employees.

The Creating Wellness Employee Impact Program

What makes Creating Wellness so different is that we measure the level of wellness of each participating employee and then offer a wellness program that incorporates the three lifestyle dimensions – physical, biochemical, and psychological – to move your employees to a new and more proactive commitment to their health & well-being. Our annual program includes:

1. An exciting kick-off meeting to engage and encourage
your staff to understand the benefit being offered and to take
advantage of the opportunity to take control of their level of
wellness and health.

2. A Creating Wellness qualified coach will conduct monthly
wellness evaluations on (provided office space is made
available) or off premises.

3. A Wellness Quotient (WQ) for each employee is determined by
conducting the CW wellness assessment. We recommend an
assessment be conducted twice a year.

4. Following their WQ assessment each employee will begin to
receive weekly audio and written emails of personal content
catering to the employee’s specific needs as determined by the
wellness assessment.

5. My Wellness Space is made available to each employee.

6. Motivational emails to encourage high compliance and
achievement of their individual wellness goals.

7. Monthly Lifestyle Letters an e-Newsletter will be sent to each
employee. These newsletters will provide wellness information
and motivational message to achieve their wellness goal.

8. Group reports and statistics to show overall improvement of
those on the wellness system.

9. Quarterly health talks focused on obesity, exercise, nutrition and
stress. These talks will include valuable information that will
assist the employee in making improvements in their family’s
level of wellness. Additional topics can be added as requested
by your company and team.

10. For your in house cafeteria: Working together with you, we can
have an identifying logo on cafeteria menus and food boards
indicating the healthy Creating Wellness food choices.

Employee Incentive:

It has been proven that the higher the employee participation, the more benefits an employer will experience from their return of investment through higher productivity, decreased health costs, decreased absenteeism, as well as happier and healthier employees.

Our Creating Wellness Programs are designed to achieve high utilization levels as a result of the “Wellness Quotient” impact, ongoing communication with the employees, employee wellness culture activities/challenges, and our motivational seminars. To further enhance the success of the program, You may want to implement an incentive program to encourage participation in the program. We will work with you to develop incentive programs that will be based on measurable results that provide rewards accordingly.

Custom Reporting and Communication:

Our experts will work with your wellness and benefits department to show cost containment in healthcare, absenteeism, turnover and performance.

Although confidentiality is critical, we are able to identify and present the average “Wellness Quotient” for a particular group of employees (i.e. department, division etc.) as long as individual identity is not disclosed. We will work closely with you to customize the reports to meet your needs.

Partnering with you, we will organize quarterly Creating Wellness System Task Force Committee meetings to ensure the progress of the program and handle any challenges.

Call Dr. Ben Smetana or Dr. Heidi at (651) 739-2500 to discover how Creating Wellness can work for your company.

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