PPB March 2015

Help! Insurance Costs Are Killing My Business

ECOND IN A FIVE

PART SERIES

fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent. How’s that for return

on investment? She concludes that, based on her findings,

wider adoption of disease prevention and wellness programs

could prove beneficial for budgets and productivity as well as

healthier lives for employees.

You can help your clients solve the problems related to

poor lifestyle choices by motivating better habits, rewarding

employees for increasing activity, losing weight, quitting smok-

ing, getting preventative exams and eating healthier.

Promotional Products Reinforce Healthy Habits

Safety programs and wellness programs objectives are best

met by rewarding the right behaviors. On an annual basis, one

of my clients offered a desirable promotional product valued at

$25 for each employee who participated in a health screening

that included a lifestyle questionnaire, and cholesterol, blood

pressure and body weight assessment. About a quarter of all of

employees participated and about 20 percent made positive

life changes. The company estimates they received a 400-per-

cent return on their investment based on these results.

Promotional products can be used for both safety and well-

ness programs to:

• Promote the program

• Maintain interest in the program

• Provide a sense of ownership and participation among

participants

• Provide a reward for positive behavioral changes

• Create a sense of peer affiliation with a cause.

Elements Of An Effective Safety And Health Program

An effective program should include four main elements,

according to the Occupational Safety and Health

Administration (OSHA):

• Management commitment and employee involvement

• Worksite analysis

• Hazard prevention and control

• Safety and health training

As your clients’ problem solver, you can help implement all

of these elements. Create incentives that encourage employee

involvement and encourage employee input in identifying poten-

tial hazards. No one knows better than the workers where the

potential problems and safety threats occur in the workplace.

MARCH 2015 •

PPB

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Goal:

To improve overall employee wellness

through an increased awareness of health risks.

Strategy:

In this health awareness promotion, a private healthcare

system established an employee wellness program called

“ECHO”

―

Employees Choosing Healthy Options. To start the program,

embroidered t-shirts were given to all employees who filled out a personal

health profile. Comprised of a series of seminars and health screenings,

the program awarded employees with a stamp for each event they

attended. When they acquired enough stamps, they received fitness-

related incentives such as sunscreen, sweat bands, digital runners’ watches,

motivational journals to record their progress and safety strobe lights.

After reaching the first level of the promotion, employees who continued

to participate chose incentive premiums from $35, $50 and $75 cate-

gories. Individuals participating in smoking cessation classes received

imprinted rubber wristbands they could snap to remind them not to

smoke. Imprinted bubble bottles were also distributed during stress man-

agement seminars.

Results:

Although “ECHO” is strictly a volunteer program, 5,100

employees actively participated. Two years after its launch, the program

was still active in 23 facilities.

INNING

ELLNESS

AMPAIGN

DEAS