When you pick up an issue of BusinessWeek magazine you expect to see news about the latest twists and turns in the stock market, maybe even some good old fashioned corporate corruption. But the cover of the February 26th edition grabbed my attention when I realised it focussed squarely on workplace wellness (just one of my many obsessions).

Scotts Miracle-Gro of Marysville Ohio is, by this account, a great example of a company that has gotten workplace-wellness programs right. Get Healthy-Or Else describes the efforts made by this lawncare company to not only get its employees to eat and live well but also makes them accountable for their actions. During the middle of last year I asked if Wellness should determine health benefits and I was heartened to see many similarities between what I wished for and what is already being done at Scotts.

Getting employees involved

Just like household budgeting which works best when the kids are involved in the whole money-in money-out equation, Scotts’ wellness program began with CEO Jim Hagedorn’s honest and straight-forward approach with his employees.

Hagedorn wanted employees to know what he was up against. Using a PowerPoint presentation, he showed that his annual health-care bill had soared 42% since 1999, to $20 million, which amounted to 20% of the company’s net profits in 2003.

Getting employees policed

Enforcing workplace programs especially related to such personal matters as smoking and eating is always a tricky issue, but Hagedorn, a former F-16 pilot was not one to be discouraged. Hiring a third-party firm to prevent managers from discriminating against subordinates, he managed to institute a smoking ban with the understanding that “If people understand the facts and still choose to smoke, it’s suicidal,” he says. “And we can’t encourage suicidal behavior.”

A little extreme? Sure, but then so is the problem.

Getting employees the resources

Well, talk about fitness is cheap, but Hagedorn puts his money where his health is:

During one of Hagedorn’s straight-talk sessions, workers told him a company gym would make wellness easier to swallow. “Done,” Hagedorn said. But his vision went far beyond installing some StairMasters and throwing up health pointers on the Scotts intranet. Hagedorn built a soup-to-nuts medical and fitness center across the street from headquarters. Operated by Whole Health, the 24,000-square-foot facility cost $5 million and can meet pretty much any health-related need an employee might have, including a drive-thru for free prescription drugs.

When employers don’t stop at just making recommendations, but go that extra step to actually provide a convenient, usable service, everyone benefits.

Get employees accountable

Of course, you can provide the world of benefits to employees, but that benefit is only going to be as good as its usage. This is why:

Scotts employees are now urged to take exhaustive health-risk assessments. Those who balk pay $40 a month more in premiums. Using data-mining software, Whole Health analysts scour the physical, mental, and family health histories of nearly every employee and cross-reference that information with insurance-claims data. Health coaches identify which employees are at moderate to high risk. All of them are assigned a health coach who draws up an action plan. Those who don’t comply pay $67 a month on top of the $40. “We tried carrots,” says Benefits Chief Pam Kuryla. “Carrots didn’t work.”

As I have said many times before, insurance companies work like that - the safest, most responsible people pay the least. It’s time health insurance followed suit. Complacence that one’s individual habits don’t matter because someone else is paying for health insurance is the root of irresponsible eating behaviour. It’s time people (especially at the workplace) realise that their habits don’t affect just themselves but others too. “Why should you care whether other people are healthy or not?” - well you can stop wondering now.

Getting employees motivated (and rewarded!)
Often Hagedorn will walk around motivating people and making sure people are on the right track. And with rewards aplenty for good behaviour general wellness at Scotts is only going one way - up:

The nudging begets peer pressure. Gym rats earn special pins they display on ID badge lanyards; these have become a coveted status object. Competition for trips to Hawaii, free massages and facials, and other cash and prizes is fierce. One group of employees started having lunch together every day to keep each other from peeling out of the parking lot for a smoke. Doughnuts have disappeared. “The message is: If you’re not trying to do something to make yourself better, then you’re going to pay more,”.

Getting employees results

The best part of any program is seeing the results right before your eyes and employees of Scotts are luck to be able to do so:

So far, the company says, more than 70% of headquarters staff belongs to the fitness center. The smoking-cessation program has already had a 30% success rate. The wellness program, which costs $4 million a year to run, is a financial drain. But the company expects it to pay for itself in three to four years.

The Challenges From Tough Decisions

The guy on the cover? He is Scott Rodrigues who was fired on his 30th birthday because he didn’t stop smoking … and promptly filed a discriminatory lawsuit against the company. While Scotts Miracle-Gro agrees it’s a difficult decision it believes it can get the case dismissed.

Path-breaking policies are never easy to implement - but kudos to Jim Hagedorn for making the effort, sticking to his values and making a real difference to his employees. Do read the complete article which also links to a tips page on How to Launch a Wellness Program.

How does your company rate at motivating its employees to lead a healthier life? Do you have any tips for making it easier to implement similar policies at work? Do let other readers know by commenting!

Technorati Tags: health, fitness, exercise, workplace wellness

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Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend” a reincarnation of del.icio.us Friday, your once-a-week health news update. It was becoming increasing difficult to include late-breaking Friday news into the week’s news-post so I decided to make it a weekend edition. I will be posting the weekly news update over the weekend so I can include all of Friday’s news stories and also have a little time to elaborate on some of the bigger stories (instead of focusing on just one like I used to earlier).

As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Is your job making you fat? asks an MSNBC article that explores the very real fact that the increased number of sedentary(”desk”) jobs is leading to an increasingly heavier workforce.

An ACE-commissioned study found that, not surprisingly, people whose work is largely conducted while sitting behind a desk, such as secretaries, lawyers and teachers, get little physical activity during the day.

In an interesting study, people from various professions were given pedometers to record their steps as they went about their daily chores and the results surprised no one:

Secretaries logged an average of 4,327 steps, less than half of the often-recommended goal of 10,000 steps a day for optimal health. Teachers got 4,726 steps, lawyers 5,062 and police officers 5,336. Mail carriers topped the list of most active workers, with a whopping 18,904 steps a day. Next came custodians with 12,991 steps, restaurant servers with 10,087 steps, factory workers with 9,892, construction workers with 9,646 and nurses with 8,648.

The best way to get more exercise during the day is to incorporate it into your routine - a workplace gym would be a great help, but going out to a nearby gym during your lunch hour is also possible. It would not only be a way to make fitness part of your day but would give yourself an hour to get out into the open and get back to work refreshed.

How do you make fitness part of your day?

Here are the top health stories for this week:

1. Mind over fatter: think thin: Scientists have revealed what millions of people have always wanted to hear: You can think yourself thin. If you imagine you are losing weight you will although you have to do a bit of exercise.
2. Why exercise gets harder with age: There is a reason why people feel they have to exercise harder as they age to get the same results, scientists say.
3. Americans have adopted heart-healthier diets: Over the past 20 years, the diets of American adults have become more consistent with most dietary recommendations for heart disease prevention — but the trend may not be continuing, research suggests.
4. FitList - Sweatin’ It Out With Your Sweetheart: Want to spend some quality time with your sweetie this Valentine’s season?
5. Dads may push daughters towards bulimia: Fathers are important influences on their daughters’ perceptions of their weight and shape during childhood, and can increase their risk of developing an eating disorder in adolescence, research shows.
6. World’s Fattest Countries: No matter how you tip the scales, Americans are getter wider every year. What’s worse is that many nations are following suit.
7. FDA Approves Non-Prescription Diet Pill: Dieters got a new tool Wednesday to help them take off the extra pounds _ the first government-approved nonprescription diet pill.
8. Kidney failure cases rise with more diabetes cases: The soaring rate of Type 2 diabetes among Canadians is fuelling a dramatic upsurge in cases of end-stage renal failure - a disease that can only be cured with a kidney transplant, says a report released Wednesday.
9. Fighting Fat With an Earlier Bedtime: Parents struggling to help Junior lose a few pounds may want to send him to bed early.
10. Cancer ‘to become bigger burden’: Rising rates of cancer diagnosis will put an increasing strain on health care systems across Europe, experts warn.
11. Vitamin D may cut risk of colorectal cancer: Taking 1,000 to 2,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D each day may safely reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, according to pooled data from published studies.
12. Philadelphia approves ban on trans fats: Enjoy that Philly cheesesteak but hold the trans fat on the fries, please.
13. Adolescents at risk from poor diet, inactivity: Most adolescents do not get enough exercise each day or maintain a healthy diet, according to researchers who analyzed the diet and exercise behaviors of 878, adolescents, 11 to 15 years old, and found that nearly 80 percent had multiple physical activity
14. Is work making you fat?: Like many desk jockeys, Kelly Gilstrap stares at a computer for a living. He’s a program manager for Sprint, and while his brain works hard on the job, his body’s essentially in idle mode.
15. Pick It Up, Sister: My sister’s wedding is six months away. Like most brides, she wants to be in top shape when she says “I do.”
16. Michigan to join trans fat debate: Michigan state Rep. Lee Gonzales wants to help people like Boisvert, who want restaurant fare to be healthy but don’t always act like it when ordering a meal. He is sponsoring legislation that would require restaurants to tell customers which menu items
17. Connecticut AG launches probe into calorie-burning drink: Richard Blumenthal says ‘calorie-burning’ claims appear to rely on questionable and ‘unpublished’ studies.
18. Stealth Calories: Pick up a processed food item these days — from bread and cereal to salad dressings, soft drinks and soups — and you’re likely to find a common ingredient: high-fructose corn syrup.
19. No more Mars bar ads for children: The company that makes chocolate bars such as Mars and Snickers, is to stop targeting its advertising at under-12s.
20. Arkansas to flunk obesity report cards: Arkansas the first state to send home obesity report cards to warn parents of overweight kids’ health risks may ditch the plan or weaken it with the help of the new governor.
21. Less TV doesn’t mean more exercise: Getting children to switch off the television does not guarantee they will exercise more, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
22. Women’s Heart Disease Deaths Drops, Obesity Could Reverse Trend: The number of American women who died from heart disease dropped in 2004, continuing a trend seen since 2000, government researchers said Friday. At the same time, rising obesity rates and other worrisome health trends threaten to undo recent progress aga
23. Critics chew out writers of new food guide: Canada has a new food guide for the first time in nearly 15 years, and for the first time it includes an explicit call to include healthy fats in the diet.
24. ‘Food fear’ children need support: Most young people with an eating disorder say there is no-one they can turn to about their problem.
25. Obesity poses larger diabetes risk than inactivity: Although obesity and lack of physical activity both raise the risk of type 2 diabetes in women, obesity appears to be the more important factor, researchers report in the journal Diabetes Care.
26. Turning off the TV won’t make kids more active: Cutting down on how much television adolescents watch doesn’t necessarily translate into more physical activity, Harvard researchers report in today’s issue of Pediatrics.
27. Exercise and Lower Breast Cancer Risk: More Than Weight Control?: In this study the greatest protection from exercise was seen in tumors that were estrogen-sensitive but not sensitive to the hormone progesterone. This relationship was unaffected by weight.
28. More Kids Having Weight-Loss Surgery: As the popularity of stomach surgery has skyrocketed among obese adults, a growing number of doctors are asking, “Why not children, too?”

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Have a good weekend!

Technorati Tags: health, fitness, health news, fitness news, del.icio.us

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