BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Jan 4, 2012) - Rising healthcare costs are spurring U.S. businesses to abandon the "same old, same old" approaches when it comes to corporate wellness. Instead, they're thinking outside the box and putting strategies in place that result in healthier, more engaged and productive employees. Kicking off 2012, Virgin HealthMiles shares four breakthrough ideas that will help employers improve workforce health and control healthcare costs.
"With each new year, many organizations resolve to create a healthier, more productive workforce. But many fail, mostly because they turn to the same old approaches that have proven to be ineffective over time," said Tom Abshire, senior vice president of marketing and member engagement for Virgin HealthMiles. "We're seeing real results though these four approaches that drive higher employee awareness and interest, deeper engagement, and more cohesive health and incentives programs. These are the emerging best practices for employers to drive maximum impact from their overall employee health and wellness strategies and investments."
Most healthcare costs impacting businesses and their employees are largely preventable. But left unmanaged, the increasing cost of healthcare will lead to a corporate profitability crisis of epic proportions: economic studies from a Virgin HealthMiles research team recently concluded the operating profits of companies in major industries like technology and finance could decline approximately 25% on average in 10 or more years(1).
Since 2005, Virgin HealthMiles has been at the forefront of developing innovations that help organizations achieve significant workforce health improvements and cost savings. Following are four breakthrough ideas at the core of these successes.
Breakthrough #1: Mind the Gap -- The Desire for A Culture of Health and Today's Reality
For years, creating a "culture of health" has been a goal for many organizations. Yet a recent Buck Consultant's survey found only 10 percent of U.S. respondents felt they'd fully achieved a culture of health in their organizations, while 85 percent intend to pursue one. How can companies close the gap between their desire for a culture of health and actually achieving one? Failed "Wellness 1.0" solutions aren't the answer.
Lifestyle-related disease is driving much of our burgeoning healthcare bill. At the root of these diseases are personal health behaviors like not getting enough exercise, smoking, and poor eating habits. Often these behaviors are reinforced by personal relationships and become social norms. That's one of the key reasons the traditional top-down push approach to health and wellness can only go so far.
To improve the health of their organizations, employers need to combine motivation, opportunity and triggers for the actions they want to encourage. Based on experience working with leading employers, Virgin HealthMiles has learned all three elements are a necessity, whether employers are seeking to create healthy habits or healthy cultures. Couple this critical mix with a proven, easy-to-use solution that drives healthcare and productivity savings, and Virgin HealthMiles clients today are seeing real employee health improvements, while quantifying the impact on their overall health and wellness strategy.
Breakthrough #2: Forging a Creative Health Partnership with Employees
Not surprisingly, employers who actively build a partnership with employees -- one in which employees get the motivation and tools they need to make healthy behavior changes and employers reward them accordingly -- see tangible outcomes. Leading employers are increasingly applying this version of the "good driver discount" to their employee health and wellness initiatives that, along with compelling incentives, turn what could have been sticks into carrots.
Virgin HealthMiles, the pioneer of the "Pay-for-Prevention™" approach to employee health, has seen firsthand that this win-win strategy motivates employees. This approach helps employers align incentives for actual, ongoing performance and reward employees with cash or healthcare premium discounts for staying active and healthy.
Breakthrough #3: Make it All Make Sense
A recent Forrester Research survey of U.S. employees found that with every health and wellness program offered, the majority of employees, between 63% and 86%, were unaware of the specific health improvement programs their employers offer. How can employees take action if they don't know about or understand their employer's health offerings?
Progressive organizations know the path to engagement is through awareness and are tapping tools to bring together employee health programs and incentives into one compelling platform. Through a technology-based solution that integrates a range of third party programs, employers can promote, engage and incent all of their employee health programs centrally, making programs easier to discover and use, and drive better results from their health and wellness strategy. For instance, one Virgin HealthMiles client experienced more than 80 percent enrollment in its employee wellness program and realized a $3 million reduction in employee-only medical claims.
Breakthrough #4: New Ways to Translate Small Steps into Big Results
Good health isn't accomplished overnight. Rather, it's the cumulative effect of small steps reinforced with positive feedback. Even with big dollars on the line, financial incentives may not be enough on their own, especially when that reward is many months away. Social networking and game mechanics are key factors in helping employees better understand what to do next, set short-term goals and celebrate their immediate healthy achievements, helping them stay on the path toward long-term health goals and incentives. Social networking and game mechanics, in tandem with other behavior change strategies, help motivate employees long-term to stay on the path to good health by keeping it fun, engaging and rewarding.
About Virgin HealthMiles
Virgin HealthMiles provides technology-based employee health programs that pay people to get active. The company's Pay-for-Prevention™ approach, based on physical activity and healthy lifestyle change, attracts an average of 40 percent of employees who participate, which helps organizations reduce medical costs and improve employee productivity and satisfaction. Over 120 industry leaders representing more than 700,000 employees across the U.S. have selected Virgin HealthMiles' award-winning program for their employees. The company is a member of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group. For more information, visit www.virginhealthmiles.com.
[1] Based on chronic disease cost trends from past decade, if organizations cannot increase prices or productivity.
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