Conference stresses importance of employee health for businesses

Healthy employees lead to healthy businesses, experts said at a March 19 event intended to promote healthy workplaces.

The first step to creating a healthy workforce is providing an environment that encourages healthy behavior, they said.

"Companies need healthy, energized employees to succeed," David Santeusanio, a consultant for Johnson and Johnson Health Care Systems, said at the 22^nd annual Wellness in the Workplace Conference at the Michigan League, sponsored by the Health Management Research Center (HMRC).

With the price of premiums skyrocketing, an unhealthy community can lead to a financial crisis for employers by driving these premiums up even further, said Cindy Bjorkquist, executive director of the Foundation for a Healthy Community, a community health initiative in Jackson.

Dee Edington, director of HMRC, noted that "when you take risks out of the system, you can take costs out of the system." HMRC has looked at the business costs of such health conditions as obesity, migraine headaches and hypertension. He said companies must take a preemptive approach to having healthier workers, rather than waiting until they become unhealthy to fix the problem. "You can't win without stopping the up-flow," he said.

People will change behavior to reflect their environments, said Thomas Golaszewski, an associate professor in the health science department at the State University of New York College at Brockport. "Therefore, if you want healthy people, simply create healthy environments." This means looking at the institution rather than employees on an individual level, which traditionally is where the work has been done to develop solutions. "We are looking at the big picture," he said.

Other speakers at the daylong event were Michael O'Donnell, founder of the American Journal of Health Promotion and adjunct clinical instructor of internal medicine; Peggy Kennedy Sheagren, manager of the MFit Health Promotion Division of the U-M Health System; Dan Powell, president and CEO of the American Institute for Preventative Medicine; and Tim McDonald, manager of General Motors Life Steps Program.

While institutional initiative is necessary, presenters agreed that companies and communities can encourage healthy behavior in employees and residents, but they will not be successful if those people are not actively involved in the process.

"Let everyone be part of the win, and you gain more further down the road," Santeusanio said. "You can't legislate wellness."

"The biggest goal is to empower people to be able to make a change," Bjorkquist said. "You can't have a hospital dictate a health improvement program in a community."

Some speakers said success on the level of individual workers grows out of intense coaching combined with a personalized strategy of health improvement. "The coaching process works," Santeusanio said. "Getting people to understand they may have risks they didn't know about before, and offering them the opportunity to do something about it is the driving force of the program."

Information and options also are key in getting employees to improve their health.

"There is a lot of need out there for education. We know a lot of people want to change," Bjorkquist said.

Those attending the event were presented with different solutions for improving wellness in the workplace.

In their presentations:

Bjorkquist spoke about the "It's Your Life" program, which focuses on the health of a specific Michigan community: Jackson. The idea is to transform the community health system, including physicians, hospitals, employers and community members, into a Health Improvement Organization, to teach individuals to value their health, and offer a wide variety of convenient services to reach this goal.

Golaszewski talked about the Heart Check program, which assesses companies' organizational support for the heart health of their personnel using employee interviews and a simple scoring method.

McDonald gave an update on the successes of the General Motors Life Steps Program, the largest employee wellness program in the nation.

O'Donnell talked about building health promotion into the national health policy agenda, and making it an integral part of health care.

Powell discussed the health, economic and legal implications of medical self-care programs.

Santeusanio worked extensively with one company, Owens Corning, to develop an effective employee health program in order to decrease rising costs for the company. The Wellness Program focused on blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and weight as the areas that contribute most to health care costs, and sought to combat them by providing participants with consistent access to coaches.

Sheagren spoke about the keys to implementing successful wellness programs, including aligning expectations with funding sources and creating a positive experience for the customer.

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