Wellvolution And Progressive Wellness: A Perfect Example of Wellness Day In Action

To reduce health costs and boost productivity, Blue Shield of California has shaken things up with its Wellvolution program. After the success this past weekend of Wellness Day 2011, ONE80CENTER wants to point out an excellent example of the principles of wellness at work in our backyard. Wellvolution has proven to be both effective and profitable. Following the trail blazed by Blue Shield, a multitude of companies are becoming more creative with their wellness strategies. Employers are learning that wellness programs require much more to succeed than an occasional newsletter on healthier living. Today’s programs focus on identifying and preventing costly health issues, offer financial rewards for participants, and more often than not have a social aspect.

Wellness And The Risk Factors Of Poor American Health

Wellness Is A Corporate Concern Across The Board

More than 72 million Americans suffer from obesity, which costs employers an estimated $130 billion a year in absenteeism, decreased productivity and short-term disability-related costs, according to separate research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and McKinsey Quarterly. A study conducted by Harvard University pegged wellness program returns at about $3.27 per dollar spent in reduced medical costs and $2.73 per dollar spent in reduced absenteeism costs. The report asserts that the adoption of corporate health programs could become invaluable for organizations looking to safeguard both their employees’ health and their finances.

Blue Shield of California’s Lodi office was famous for its daily potlucks. Call-center workers feasted every day on junk food and candy. Unsurprisingly, 65 percent of them were overweight, and half of those workers were obese. With the insurer’s health insurance premiums spiking, including a 27 percent increase in 2006, Blue Shield finally decided to practice what it preaches and implement an innovative, comprehensive corporate wellness program dubbed “Wellvolution.”

Wellvolution has Worked Wonders for Blue Shield

Five years later, workers have swapped the junk food for fruit and raw vegetables. Even some cubicles, where employees once grazed on junk food, are now equipped with “walkstations,” which are treadmills that have phones and computers integrated into the machines. Blue Shield of California’s workers are now literally working as they work out. Blue Shield is still in the process of measuring the effects of the initiative, but it projects that, over the course of three to five years, it will see a return of one to two dollars for every dollar invested in the Wellvolution program.

While successful wellness initiatives can reduce health care costs and increase productivity, poorly implemented programs are simply a drain on company resources. One of the biggest hurdles for corporate wellness initiatives is getting employees to buy into programs that may not yield immediate results. Getting healthy is not easy and behavior changes are really hard, and what is even harder is sustained behavior change. Blue Shield of California faced skeptical and unmotivated employees. So it decided to completely rewrite the book on wellness. They helped employees identify with the program by presenting a key Wellvolution slogan that was designed to overcome fears: “We’ll meet you where you are.”

Walkstations Increase Health And Productivity

For example, the “wellness wonder” walking workstation maxes out at 2 mph, allowing users to walk and work without sweating or sounding out of breath on the phone. Time slots are at a premium and workers are limited to 45-minute workouts. “It’s fun,” says Sharon Tate, an electronic data interchange manager at Blue Shield. “It’s trying to do something different, do something that’s good for you, but do it in a fun way.” Tate signed up with a group of her peers to do the team-building Wellvolution Challenge, pledging to walk 50,000 steps per week for six weeks. She emerged a month and a half later 20 pounds lighter, having walked what she says is the equivalent distance of a round trip from her El Dorado Hills, California, office to Yosemite National Park.

The exercise challenge is just one strand in a larger web of programs that makes Blue Shield’s wellness initiative unusually comprehensive. The company offers a smorgasbord of health-related tests and solutions spanning the entire wellness spectrum. Wellvolution includes biometric testing, health coaches, farmers markets, healthy eating expos, on-site gyms, gym discounts, and “health day off” rewards for employees buying into the program. Participants also can get discounts on health insurance premiums.

Eating Healthy – Wellness And Nutrition

Blue Shield also realized it had to provide access to more nutritious foods in its cafeterias. Wellvolution is about good nutrition as well. In a country where obesity is literally a growing problem, wellness programs must be more than mere window-dressing. Indeed, a 2010 Gallup survey found that only 9 percent of U.S. employees say it’s easy to find healthy food at their workplace. But Blue Shield went beyond supplying better food. It also redesigned its cafeterias to encourage better eating habits.

Employees Prefer The Healthy Vending Machines

“As individuals we tend to go with the flow; we tend to take the first option available to us,” Bryce Williams says. “We’ve done a lot with food psychology and our cafeteria design so that health and wellness is actually right at your fingertips.” That isn’t to say the health plan provider is limiting its selection. “You can get a sugary or fizzy drink if you want; it just so happens you have to walk to the back of the cafeteria” to find it, Williams explains. Special labels designate the healthiest items and display nutritional information like calorie count and fat content. The company also prices its healthy offerings low enough to entice budget-minded browsers.

No time for a nutritious sit-down lunch? No problem. In a pilot program introduced at the company’s El Dorado Hills office, Wellvolution vending machine technology guides users through selections based on their individual nutritional specifications. Whether the employee is looking for organic fare or focusing on calorie or fat management, the machine acts as a personal dietitian as the individual navigates his or her way through healthier offerings.

As an added incentive to make eating healthier even more enticing, Blue Shield donates some of the vending machine proceeds to local charities. “We really believe we can’t rest on our laurels,” Williams says. “We test new programs rigorously, and if it works, great, but if it doesn’t, we drop it off the map.”  As it moves forward with Wellvolution, Blue Shield has lofty goals. “The rest of the country is fighting to hold the line in the battle against obesity,” Williams says. “We’re hoping to turn that around in the near future.”

Wellness Is More Than Fighting Fat

Wellness Promotes Healthy Living And Lifestyles

But Wellvolution isn’t just about fighting fat; it’s about full-body wellness that brings fitness to both mind and muscle. According to a 2010 Gallup worker satisfaction poll, the U.S. workforce is most dissatisfied with on-the-job stress, even more so than with salary or job security. Recognizing that employee anxiety could affect the bottom line, Blue Shield devised its own way to bust, stress. Employee groups known as “stress busters” now take short breaks to play games and trade jokes. Other stress reducers include yoga, tai chi, on-site massages and “fiscal fitness,” a money management program.

Already, Wellvolution has yielded a 22 percent decrease in smoking and a 22 percent increase in regular physical activity, according to health assessment surveys conducted since 2008. Even more notable, Williams says, Wellvolution boasts an impressive 70 percent employee participation rate. Like Wellvolution at Blue Shield, a

Wellness program should focus on engaging employees and making them part of the process. The carrot-and-stick approach is one of the most common wellness strategies, but it does not seem to provide lasting results. Instead, companies are learning how to apply new technologies to their Wellness programs. They are realizing that social media can be so much more than a consumer-marketing tool. Social networking is an excellent communication tool to build camaraderie among employees. No matter what behavior or program you are promoting, social media enhances its effectiveness. After all, the science of behavioral change shows that people make changes when they have support of friends and co-workers.

Voluntary Wellness Programs Lead To Employee Participation And Reduce Risk Factors

ONE80CENTER And The Wellness Revolution

ONE80CENTER is proud to be at the forefront of the Wellness revolution, following the trail blazed by Wellvolution and doing even more to focus on the issues of addiction and substance abuse. With the second annual Wellness Day this past weekend, ONE80CENTER demonstrates that we are never satisfied with the progress that we have made in the past. Instead, we always are open to and looking for new ways to improve our Wellness program, adding Wellness services, ranging from our organic garden to the latest technologies.