PPB March 2015

Help! Insurance Costs Are Killing My Business

ECOND IN A FIVE

PART SERIES

Create an environment with positive messages and

incentives that allow your clients to make manage-

ment and coworkers aware and willing to share

these warnings.

Training is an essential component. Suggest

including signage, apparel, journals, calendars

and other communication tools in order to edu-

cate and reward positive safety behaviors.

Training should include both supervisors and

employees. Do not suggest negative incentives or

anything that might create an environment of

non-reporting of accidents or incidents. Your

client can violate OSHA rules and lose the

deductibility of their program if you suggest a

program that has the unintended consequence of

rewarding non-reporting of accidents.

An example of a negative incentive might be

offering a group or team incentive for days of

injury-free work or for no lost days of productivity.

In this situation, an employee may feel pressured

to not report an accident for fear of causing the

group to fail. Instead, structure the program so

that peer-to-peer or supervisor to employee,

workers are recognized for working safely and

making smart accident-prevention decisions.

Provide rewards for positive suggestions and

for identifying potential hazards in the workplace

too. A best practice may be to create a recogni-

tion card or other vehicle that can be redeemed

for incentives. The key to wellness programs is to

recognize when people are doing things right.

What gets recognized, gets repeated.

Your program should also encourage positive

interactions between supervisors and employees.

Employees should be encouraged and rewarded

for reporting unsafe conditions to their supervisors.

Supervisors should be encouraged to listen and act

on employee suggestions. All of these practices

create a sense of team and a culture of cooperation

and working toward a common cause that benefits

not only the company but every individual within it.

Wellness. It’s More Than Diet And Exercise.

The ultimate goal of health and wellness pro-

grams is to encourage lifestyle choices that create

happy, productive and engaged employees.

Wellness programs often go beyond employee

engagement to employee enhancement. Many

companies are also providing personal trainers,

72 •

PPB

• MARCH 2015

GROW

INNING

ELLNESS

AMPAIGN

DEAS

Goal:

To emphasize employee appreciation

while branding the firm; also, to create a competi-

tive environment to encourage healthy behavior,

and remind employees of their $350 yearly well-

ness benefit.

Strategy:

Items had to be useful, tangible and allow organizers

to quantify the amount of individual physical activity. Products were

selected that encouraged multiple interactions rather than the

“get-and-forget” mentality. This is where the idea for the Grab-

and-Go workout kit was developed. The kit included a branded

work-out t-shirt, a branded water bottle, a bag to keep all items

together and a pedometer to track daily physical activity.

For the company’s staff appreciation day, Grab-and-Go workout

kits were given to employees along with a handout describing an

inter-office competition called the Move It Challenge. For the latter,

employees were asked to wear the pedometer inside and outside of

work for the duration of the competition (over a six-week period).

Keeping the target market in mind, the pedometer was the best way

to record physical activity since it rewarded employees for strenuous

activity as well as activities such as gardening and walking. Employees

were asked to record their steps every day throughout the competi-

tion. The employees with the highest number on their individual

pedometers at the end of the competition would be announced at a

major company event and would receive gift certificates from company

sponsors. Participants were encouraged through weekly motivational

emails as well as inter-office competition.

The client wanted to show its employees they truly cared and

were willing to spend extra money on quality goods. Therefore, a

majority of the budget went toward purchasing promotional items

and the remainder was spent on other costs associated with the

event. A total of $20,000 was spent on the employee appreciation

day with the Grab-and-Go workout kit costing approximately $19,000.

Result:

The client’s expectations were exceeded and all objec-

tives were accomplished. The branded Grab-and-Go workout kit

showed the employees that the company had invested in their

well-being and they should as well. The greatest success for the

objectives, however, was showing the employees how much they

were valued. Recognizing the winners at the company event was

the highlight of this program validating in everyone’s minds the sin-

cere concern the company has for its employees.