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Well-Employed
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By
Anne
Federwisch, OTR Workplace
wellness programs are growing up. While less progressive companies
still equate a box of Band-Aids and a colorful back-safety poster
with health promotion, others have pumped up their offerings with
on-site fitness centers, timely wellness information, and health screenings.
This quiet evolution translates into decreased healthcare costs and
increased productivity for the companies, increased satisfaction for
employees, and more opportunities for market-savvy clinicians. In
recent years, companies have shifted their emphasis from minimizing
time lost in the workplace due to disability and disease to improving
employees’ health and well-being overall, said certified occupational
health nurse specialist Deborah DiBenedetto, MBA, RN, president of
the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN). “It’s
not necessarily a new role, but it’s a role that’s being
redefined by management today,” she said Health
equals savings In
many case, the catalyst for this change of focus is the bottom line.
“The literature suggests that a fit work force is more productive
and less likely to use healthcare services,” said Allen Wicken,
MS, PT, associate director of practice for the American Physical Therapy
Association. Companies
are taking heed. According to a survey by Hewitt Associates, a global
management consulting firm, 93 percent of companies offered some sort
of wellness program in 1998, up from 76 percent in 1992. The numbers
include companies with nothing more than a healthcare information
bulletin board to ones with gyms, massage rooms, yoga classes, and
on-site health screenings. “More
organizations are looking at it [workplace wellness] not as a frill,
but as something tangible that can be looked at on the bottom line,”
said certified occupational health nurse specialist Beverley D. Tobias,
MBA, RN, chair of the professional affairs committee for AAOHN. Tobias
is also director of environmental health for Solectron Corp. in Milpitas,
Calif. —a provider of electronics manufacturing services to equipment
manufacturers—and an assistant professor of nursing at the University
of California, San Francisco. The
bite out of the bottom line could be significant, researchers at the
Mayo Clinic found. Seventy percent of illness is related to health
habits, and therefore theoretically preventable. In a review of studies
on workplace practices, Mayo investigators found that health promotion
efforts save companies money by lowering absenteeism, decreasing workers
compensation and disability expenses, reducing healthcare costs of
high-risk employees through better chronic care management, and increased
productivity. Stretch breaks included Providing
a preventive approach to health care is part of the motivation behind
the wellness program at Oracle Corp., a software company in Redwood
Shores, Calif., said Elisabeth Arslaner, director of corporate services.
Other key factors include retaining staff and helping them balance
work, play, and family. The company has 43,000 employees worldwide,
8,000 of whom work in and around Redwood Shores. Central
to the program is Club Oracle, the company’s 40,000-square-foot
fitness center with a full-sized pool, regulation-sized basketball
court, two full floors of cardiovascular equipment, an outdoor volleyball
court, aerobics rooms, massage rooms, and even several “beauty
treatment” rooms. “Wellness
has so much more to do with your life than just cardiovascular,”
Arslaner said. “Our program consists of things like smoking cessation
or weight-loss programs, along with dance, yoga, and prenatal classes,
and a wellness fair.” The company also provides a monthly newsletter,
health lectures, and family fun days. It
isn’t just the large companies that are making wellness programs
a perk. Inprise, a software company in Scotts Valley, Calif., contracts
with Cornerstone Fitness to provide its 400 employees with a comprehensive
wellness and health promotion program. David Lewis, managing director
of Cornerstone Fitness, said the program concentrates on fitness,
recreation, healthcare self-awareness, stress management, and nutrition.
The on-site fitness center has cardiovascular strength equipment,
aerobics classes, a full-size indoor basketball gymnasium, racquetball
and squash courts, two tennis courts, a 25-yard pool, and a multipurpose
softball and soccer field. Employees
not only value the program, they use it, Lewis said. Seventy to eighty
percent of workers participate in the various programs, much higher
than the industry standard of 30 percent. “Having an on-site
fitness center is a tremendous benefit,” wrote one employee on
an evaluation. “The convenience facilitates achieving a more
balanced lifestyle and allows me to return to work recharged.”
Carving a niche The
explosion of workplace wellness programs means more opportunities
for health professionals interested in the prevention side of the
healthcare spectrum. But clinicians are likely to face competition
from fellow health professionals as well as from people in the burgeoning
fitness industry. Many wellness programs, including the ones at Oracle
and Inprise, operate without any nurses on staff. One way for nurses to let companies know what they have to offer is by providing seminars for employees on a contract basis. “We’re always looking for health professionals—whether they are nurses, physical therapists, or doctors—to come in and be guest speakers,” Lewis said. But DiBenedetto doesn’t believe nurses are getting edged out of the workplace wellness market. “What’s key is that we all work together as part of a team in terms of the healthcare continuum to help individuals reach their highest level of health and productivity,” she said. |
