April 9, 2015

How to Engage Employees in a Health Program

We recently came across the infographic from HealthFitness about how Eastman Chemical Company was able to increase employee engagement in its employee wellness program and ultimately save the company costs. The graphic is below, but here are some interesting points to take note of:

The company saw an ROI of $3.20 for every $1.00 invested into the program.
Employees who established an HRA were incentivised with a $600 premium reduction and saw an 86% participation rate.
Eastman Chemical Company made sure to target all employees. They made screenings easy to attend, provided health coaches, sent out reminders for healthy behaviors and created programs that involved employees’ spouses and dependants.
Healthy lunch options were subsidised and only cost $4. Prior to the subsidy, healthy entree sales were 1 in 10. Once implemented, the rate jumped to 1 in 3!
Employees were targeted based on their risks and sent information about programs that would be of interest to them.

While not all companies are in a position to implement a 7+ year program with health coaches and targeted programs and marketing, any company can subsidise healthy food.

Company Kitchen is a food and beverage solution for workplaces with more than 150-200 people at a single location. They offer a wide selection of healthy options including fresh fruit, juices, dairy products, and made-from-scratch entrees and snacks. While more than 1,200 breakrooms have already been transformed to a Company Kitchen, the most successful markets are ones where the employer provides a subsidy for healthy food, just like in the Eastman Chemical example above.

Food that is fresh, perishable and made from natural ingredients costs more to produce than food that has been manufactured and engineered to have a long shelf life. In markets where there is no subsidy, the healthier, more expensive items sell much less than their fried, salty, and sugary counterparts. However, when employers reduce the cost so they are the same or less than the traditional snacks, sales soar and employers can start to change behaviors towards more healthy food consumption.

If you are interested in learning more about Company Kitchen, please view our menu. If you would like to speak to someone about getting one installed at your work, please fill out this contact form, and one of our representatives will be in contact with you to start the process.