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By Maryann Hammers
It’s no secret that obesity is on the rise
in America. The news is that many organizations have realized that
their workers’ expanding waistlines are affecting their business’s
bottom line, prompting them to take action in the war on fat.
One Company’s Fat-fighting Strategy
Small talk no longer revolves around today’s weather or last
night’s sports scores in the offices of Highmark Inc., a 12,000
employee health insurance company in Pittsburgh. Instead, employees
and executives ask each other, “How many steps have you walked
today?”
This new topic of conversation was introduced
last summer, when a comprehensive employee health screening showed
that more than half of the 4,000 employees surveyed weighed too
much, and almost three-quarters of them exercised too little. As
a health insurer, Highmark is well aware that obesity and inactivity
drive increases in healthcare costs, so in an effort to encourage
workers to get moving and shed pounds, it launched a “10,000-Step
Challenge,” which dramatically changed the company culture
and health habits.
More than 2,800 Highmark employees signed up.
They donned company-issued pedometers to track their steps, with
the goal of reaching 10,000 a day. Workers formed a “steppers”
support group, and 15 employees, including a few executives, were
selected to track their weight-loss and walking progress on the
company intranet. The results were impressive. Participants lost
an average of six pounds during the 12-week program, and 62 employees
lost more than 10 pounds each. Though the program has officially
ended, many workers continue to wear their pedometers.
Highmark also offers group, personal and online
weight-management programs, nutritional counseling, low-fat meals
and snacks in its cafeterias and vending machines, discounts on
nutritional products and services and an employee fitness center.
It’s one of a growing number of companies that are literally
taking steps to trim employees’ waistlines. “Employers
have really sharpened their focus on obesity—and that focus
is justified,” says Camille Haltom, a health-care consultant
with Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting firm that recently
published a report on initiatives aimed at managing obesity and
other health conditions. “The number of Americans who are
obese is increasing, obesity-related chronic conditions are increasing
and obesity drives up health-care costs.”
- The Skinny on Obesity
Obesity has roughly the same association with chronic health conditions
as 20 years of aging, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
It contributes to heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and some
types of cancer. The Surgeon General reports that more than 9%
of the nation’s healthcare expenditures—about $117
billion—and 300,000 deaths annually are directly related
to obesity and physical inactivity. And a study published in the
American Journal of Health Behavior showed that annual
medical expenses for Dallas city employees ballooned from $114
for normal weight individuals to $573 for the overweight to $620
for the obese.
As more evidence that corporate America is suddenly paying attention
to the pounds its employees carry, in June, the Washington Business
Group on Health, which includes 175 large private and public-sector
employers, founded the Institute on the Costs and Health Effects
of Obesity. It will propose strategies to decrease obesity among
workers, serve as a resource for large employers and help reduce
the impact of weight-related conditions in the workplace. “The
financial impact of obesity on business is truly shocking--never
mind the quality of life for the individuals involved,” says
Helen Darling, president of the Washington Business Group on Health.
She estimates that organizations lose more than $12 billion per
year because of higher health-care utilization rates and medical
claims, lower productivity, increased absenteeism and elevated
insurance premiums. “This is not an ‘it’s nice
to be thin’ issue,” she says. “It’s a business
issue that directly affects the bottom line.”
Despite the benefits of weight-loss-at-work programs, many companies
have steered clear of them. “It’s a sensitive subject,”
Haltom says. “Anything that drives healthcare costs is fertile
ground for concern, but employers may be fearful of identifying
individuals who are obese because there’s a perceived stigma
and they have a fear of appearing discriminatory. There is the
potential of putting human resources in ‘big brother’
territory, and they certainly don’t want to go there.”
The solution, she says, is to offer an assortment of voluntary
programs and incentives for those who are motivated to take advantage
of them—with no “disincentives” in place for
those who are overweight. “You can’t set up an atmosphere
of blame,” she says.
To help employers find the right approach, the institute, which
is made up of leading corporations and federal health agencies,
plans to launch an online resource center and corporate summit
that will bring large employers together to discuss obesity-related
challenges. It has also published a “tool kit” for employers,
which highlights successful weight-management programs and strategies
ranging from offering healthier cafeteria foods with nutritional
labels to stocking water and no-cal beverages in vending machines
to hosting on-site Weight Watchers’ meetings through its
Corporate Solutions program.
As Highmark’s experience indicates, such strategies really
work. “Employers are beginning to measure the financial and
clinical impact of these programs, and early signs are encouraging.
They have the potential to influence behavior and provide cost
savings, reduce absenteeism and improve the welfare of employees,
dependents and retirees,” Hewitt’s Haltom says.
- What Some Other Organizations Are Doing
The CDC—which perhaps is better aware of the costs of obesity
than any other organization—has encouraged its own employees
to eschew the elevator by making stairwells more appealing, with
a fresh coat of paint, new carpeting, artwork and motivational
signs, as well as piped-in music. More examples: Almost 200 Colorado
organizations—from the city of Denver to the daily newspaper
the Pueblo Chieftain—have signed up with Colorado
on the Move, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-endorsed
program that recruits companies to help employees fight obesity.
At Spark-People, an online coaching company in Cincinnati, the
company’s 25 employees have access to a personal trainer
and fitness center, encouraging exercise rather than smoking or
coffee drinking. Breaks are encouraged, and workers who stick
to their own exercise goals for a year receive a $1,000 bonus.
The company café is stocked with healthy foods and a garden
in the back of the building produces squash, cucumbers, tomatoes
and peppers for employees’ use. If a meeting starts to drag,
it’s a company tradition to drop everything and race up
three flights of stairs to get the adrenaline flowing. Four employees
have lost more than 30 pounds since joining the company, and an
intern who lost 50 pounds now participates in marathons.
Ohio Northern University found that convenience dramatically boosts
participation in workplace weight-loss programs. Last year, the
university began offering a one-time $500 allowance toward physician-prescribed
weight-loss programs or medications, but just seven of the 520
employees took advantage of the benefit. This year, the university
partnered with MPS Weight Loss & Wellness, a local weight-loss
program. Participation among faculty and staff jumped to 40.
- Concluding Thoughts
A recent study suggests that the workplace may, in fact, be the
ideal setting for slimming down. In Scotland, University of Glasgow
researchers ran a 24-week weight-loss program for oil-refinery
employees and found that more than half of the participants lost
at least 5 percent of their original weight, and almost two-thirds
kept off most of the pounds during follow-up maintenance.
It’s even better if exercise, such as lunch-hour walks,
is incorporated into such plans, says Dr. Jana Klauer, a weight-reduction
specialist at the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt
Hospital Center. “You go to work every day, so that means
you’ll exercise every day. And you get a daily boost of
support and motivation from coworkers.”
This is an edited version of an article that
originally appeared in Workforce Management—www.workforce.com.
Used by permission.
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