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

Related Posts:

• Clarian Health Ties Employee Compensation With Health And Fitness Levels
• Wellness should determine health benefits
• Start! The American Heart Association Wants You To Start Walking

Welcome to del.icio.us Friday, your once-a-week health news update. You can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

A pretty controversial study-result was announced this week: Diet and exercise take off equal pounds. In my opinion, what’s controversial is not the result itself (we already know a calorie is just a calorie, and you will lose weight either by burning off your extra ones or reducing your intake of new ones) - rather it’s the evaluation and reporting of this result that I find misleading. My biggest concern? People might take this study to mean they can simply give up on exercise if they just stick to a reduced calorie meal.

Now reducing calories by itself is an admirable effort and if one can sustain that for extended periods of time, one is bound to lose weight. The problem lies in the maintaining of this program which becomes more and more difficult over time. Exercise almost always builds muscle while dieting will never do that (infact you run the risk of losing some lean muscle as well, although the study says you don’t lose much of it).

Muscle gives your body a sculpted look and improves your ability to perform your daily activities much more easily. With a better-looking body you greatly improve your morale and this will keep you motivated to pursue your fitness goals.

What’s surprising is that the article concludes with the author accepting that he believes exercise is crucial to health - “For overall health, an appropriate program of diet and exercise is still the best,” he says.

Tom Venuto, a well-known body-builder and fitness enthusiast writes at the Burn The Fat Blog and I think his response to this controversy, titled “New Study Says “Exercise Doesn’t Matter For Weight Loss”… So Now What?“, is pretty thorough. He covers not only the points I have raised here but also talks about other studies that conversely show the benefits of exercise (over plain dieting alone) and finally mentions why you as an individual should continue with what works best for you.

If you are exercising regularly and find that not only are you more energetic and strong, but your mirror is showing you changes in your body that motivate you even further, then what earthly reason could there be to change this healthful, beneficial lifestyle? I strongly encourage you to read his entire article.

Here are the top health stories for this week:

1. New PSA’s Feature ‘Shrek’ Characters Urging Kids to ‘Get Up And Play’: The new PSAs, using the slogan “Be a Player: Get up and play an hour a day,” urge all children to engage in physical activity.
2. Mood-food connection: We eat more and less-healthy comfort foods when we feel down: People feeling sad tend to eat more of less-healthy comfort foods than when they feel happy, finds a new study co-authored by a Cornell food marketing expert.
3. W.Va. to plug in arcade game for weight loss: West Virginia, which has the worst childhood obesity problem in the United States, is stepping up plans to use Konami Corp.’s “Dance Dance Revolution” to battle the bulge in its schools.
4. Erectile dysfunction affects 18 percent of U.S. men: A study published Thursday found that about 18 percent of U.S. men age 20 and up suffer from erectile dysfunction — and the condition is strongly linked to a sedentary lifestyle of little physical exercise, poor diet and lots of television.
5. Bush urges parents to get kids outdoors: One way for this nation to cope with the issue of obesity is to get people outside — whether it be through sports or hiking or conservation,”
6. Burger King plans to dump trans fats: Burger King Holdings Inc. has begun testing cooking oils without trans fats in its fast food restaurants with plans for a national rollout by late next year.
7. Satisfaction guaranteed: How certain foods help you feel full: Although environment is a powerful factor that drives people to eat, certain nutrients — most notably protein, fiber, and water — can help tilt our internal scales toward “full” before we reach the red line.
8. Bingeing Now Seen As Most Common Eating Disorder: It turns out, for example, that the most common eating disorder is neither anorexia nor bulimia — it is binge eating, by far.
9. Grape juice good for the heart: Grape juice seems to have the same protective effect against heart disease as red wine, French scientists said on Wednesday.
10. Exercise Won’t Up Knee Arthritis Risk: Moderate exercise doesn’t increase the risk of developing arthritis in the knees of older adults, even if they are overweight
11. More than 100,000 new yorkers face complications due to seriously out-of-control diabetes: More than 100,000 New York City adults are at high risk of heart attack, blindness, amputations, and other serious complications because of very poorly controlled diabetes, according to unprecedented survey data released today by the New York City Health
12. Cannabis drug may help fight obesity: Human trials of an experimental treatment for obesity derived from cannabis, which is commonly associated with stimulating hunger, are scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals Plc announced Tuesday.
13. Retailers to stop trans-fat use: Major UK retailers plan to stop adding harmful trans-fats to their own-brand products by the end of the year.
14. Six states get an ‘A’ for work against kids’ obesity: This year, for the first time, six states — California, Illinois, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee — received A’s for their legislative and public-policy work to control obesity in children.
15. Reviewing the School Cupcake Ban: Many parents and health advocates wish schools would devote as much energy to reforming the quality of lunch fare as they’ve invested in ridding campuses of sodas and snacks.
16. Study: 100% juices beneficial to health as fruits, vegetables: One hundred percent fruit and vegetable juices do help reduce risk factors related to certain diseases, according to a European study published in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition.
17. Half The Country Has Diabetes Gene: About half the U.S. population has the gene that puts them at greater risk of developing diabetes, a study from Saint Louis University said.
18. Study: Most kids making bad health choices: Only 2 percent of kids ages 11 to 15 met the guidelines for diet, physical activity and sedentary risk behaviors as laid out in Healthy People 2010, a national effort to combat the most preventable health threats Americans face.
19. America’s healthy living habits: How do you compare?: The survey found that, for the most part, people were well versed in nutrition issues.
20. Obesity ads aim to jolt parents: The images are not subtle. One billboard shows an overweight child’s lower legs and feet on a scale next to the words, “Fat Chance,” along with a list of the health risks of obesity
21. Expectant mums ‘getting too fat’: Rising obesity trends mean that by 2010, half of all UK mums-to-be could be above ideal weight and a fifth obese, experts warn.
22. Unhappy Meals: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.
23. W.Va. turns to Weight Watchers to slim down: Facing more than $100 million in annual costs linked to obesity, the Medicaid program in one of the country’s most overweight states is turning to a familiar name to help residents slim down.
24. Too little fat ‘can make children overweight’: Researchers in Sweden discovered that eating the right sort of fat kept the weight of children down.
25. Diet, exercise take off equal pounds, study finds: Eating less and exercising more are equally good at helping take off the pounds, U.S. researchers said Friday in a study that challenges many of the popular tenets of the multibillion dollar diet and fitness industry.

Get the best health and fitness stories of the week in your RSS inbox.

Have a good weekend (and please exercise regularly!)

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

Related Posts:

• Vegan Diet is best for Diabetes
• del.icio.us Friday
• del.icio.us Friday