Published: January 17, 2008 12:51 pm            

Wellness in the Workplace

Employees earn cash, prizes for shaping up

PETOSKEY, Mich. — Helping out at one of the health screenings run by the hospital where she worked, Amy Wicker could have been mistaken for a client instead.

“It’s hard to be a picture of where you work when you’re over 300 pounds,” said Wicker, a graphics team leader at Northern Michigan Regional Hospital in Petoskey.

But it was the dread of appearing in company photos that finally caused the young mother to do something about her weight once and for all a few years ago.

“I was recognized by the hospital for a couple things and they took pictures,” she said. “I didn’t recognize (myself). That’s not who I saw.”

In January 2005 Wicker recruited cousin Nicki Morris as a “buddy” and embarked on an ambitious lifestyle change that included healthful eating and regular exercise. Thanks to a creative employee health and wellness program at the hospital, she had help on — and off — the job.

While more and more employers are adopting wellness programs that penalize employees who don’t maintain healthy lifestyles, NMRH is taking the opposite approach. Through mostly free exercise, nutrition, disease management and other activities, employees are learning better health practices that improve their daily performance at work and at home — and earning cash and prizes along the way.

“The national literature on wellness and health education supports that when you offer an incentive, that is a tipping point to have the employees participate,” said Therese Green, NMRH director of community health and wellness.

In the past, hospital employees who participated in an annual health risk appraisal and other activities not only earned prizes like pedometers and gift certificates to a local outfitter but “wellness points.“ At the end of the year, the points are converted into “wellness dollars” and the dollars applied to the employee’s benefit plan, reducing the annual cost of insurance.

But starting this month, employees who complete the assessment — a confidential online questionnaire that allows employees to set and track personal health goals — will receive an incentive cash payment of $50 after taxes, Green said. Employees who visit a primary health provider for a physical during the year will receive an additional cash incentive.

Green said the voluntary health risk appraisals are incorporated into aggregate reports letting the hospital track the overall health of its employees. Based on that information, the hospital can program specific contests and activities for employees, from “lunch and learn programs” to healthy cafeteria entrees.

The employee wellness program began about 10 years ago as a way to improve the health status of its 1,600 employees, cut down on employee health care costs and better connect workers with the organization, Green said. It’s also a chance to be a role model for the region.

“We are a leader with the community so we wanted to set an example,” she said, noting that the hospital has already earned several awards for its innovative programs.

Among the most popular cash-back programs is the Northern Michigan Regional Hospital Meltdown, which begins this week. The 16-week weight loss contest pits employee teams against each other to see which can lose the most weight within healthy parameters.

To help shed pounds, employees can make extra use of hospital tools, from the colleague fitness room and the cardiac rehab gym to the lighted, posted basement walking track whose wall murals help create the feel of a nature trail.

“This particular Meltdown program has created the biggest buzz around,” said Tanya Janes, an NMRH education specialist responsible for the day-to-day colleague wellness program. “You wander the halls of the hospital and you hear people talking about it.

“The goal is that everyone would achieve a minimum loss of eight pounds.”

Janes said the charge to participate is $15 a person, which goes into a pot for prizes and incentives. First- through third-place teams get from 20 to 40 percent of the cash pot — up to $300 a person last year.

Whether it’s cash or prizes, “the wellness industry has shown that when you work with your employees it’s nice to turn around and have an immediate incentive,” Green said. Hospital statistics seem to bear her out. Last year some 1,100 NMRH employees participated in wellness programs compared to a little more than 900 the year before, she said.

Wicker, of Boyne City, lost 34 pounds during last year’s Meltdown and captained her team, “Been There, Done Fat,” to a fifth-place finish. Though she was the fifth biggest individual loser in the event, she feels like a winner.

“During the course of two years I’ve lost 133 pounds,” she said, adding that she also lowered her blood pressure and her “bad” cholesterol by 100 points. “I was a (size) 24 getting ready for a 26, but now I’m a 14. Every day I get compliments. It helps to keep the fire.”

While cash pots and wellness dollars provide the incentive to participate in everything from onsite Weight Watchers classes to cooking demonstrations, exercise and nutrition contests, and stress reduction workshops, “the cool thing about losing weight is my son can put his hands around me,” she said.



Marta Hepler Drahos writes for the Traverse City (Mich.) Record Eagle.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.