Tag Archives: health centric

Corporate Responsibility And Health Centricity

May 18, 2017employee performance, well-beingbehavioral intervention, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases, corporate health, corporate responsibility, Corporate wellness programs, corporate world, cutting-edge health technologies, diabetes, economic environment, employee-cantered approach, engage employee, global burden of disease, health centric, health centricity, health promoting workplace, healthcare transformation, healthier living, healthy environment, HRA, HRO, incentivize, inflammation ages us and leaves us susceptible to disease, insulin master hormone, leading cause of death, modifiable risk factors, NCD, Non communicable disease, Predictive care solutions, preventative healthcare, proactive health, Public health, risk factors, third party advisors, well-being of workers, World Economic Forum, world health organizationBestinCorporateHealth

Corporate Responsibility Through Preventative Healthcare

Enabling corporate responsibility is our duty as anyone who services the corporate world… third party advisors, HROs and yes, corporate wellness providers. We lead people to healthier, happier more productive lives, fulfilling on many levels a large part of corporate responsibility. Connecting employee health to larger societal health is vital. We all know the studies, healthy employees are more productive, less absenteeism and presenteeism. … As a company develops a more holistic understanding of how health and wellness are linked to other important social and environmental challenges, and business challenges, it creates an awakening to the many intricacies and facets of employee health. Where many corporate health models sabotage their own success – is weak follow through.

presenting in a manner that is supportive of participation
enabling implementation and adherence
incentivizing ➪for continual support and adherence & creating a corporate health culture

Our current model of healthcare is sick care, and sadly, employers are drowning by following this same path. Health care dollars are usurped from a reactive, episodic acute care model, and of course the long term needs and dollars of chronic care. We can find different dollar values thrown around, depending on which of the thousands of costs are being tallied, but suffice it to say chronic care costs, between care and lost productivity hundreds of billions yearly.

The massive opportunity for the health of society and our economy:

Preventive healthcare

Leading healthier lives (which is a sweeping statement) and stopping the onset of illness is the holy grail of healthcare transformation and sustainability. It is the ultimate investment companies can make. We all agree we are only as strong, resilient and energized as our people.

In terms of corporate health, the model of preventive care can be further defined for implementation and precision:

•Proactive care solutions: Providing solid, science based knowledge of healthier living, helping employees with implementation, adherence, provides a health centric motivating environment to respect the endless value of health. A proactive approach also ensures that preventive action is taken to intervene well before the onset of symptoms, far before illness. Proactive health should not be confused with diagnostics, which are a part of proactive health, but certainly not the only aspect of a proactive process.

•Predictive care solutions leverage cutting-edge health technologies and sophisticated gathering of data to not only stratify risk, but even predict risk and intervene even further upstream. This can be done through effective health risk assessments (HRA), metrics and reporting from the proactive tools. Predictive care solutions available and are a lost opportunity for health when not implemented. With the increased collection of personal health and lifestyle data and improved analytics, we can generate accurate insights earlier. This allows us to anticipate issues, pinpointing where behavioural intervention is needed and provide actions to take before risk factors even arise.

NCD: Non-infectious and non-transmissible diseases that may be caused by genetic or

Corporate Responsibility Preventative health employee wellness Best In Corporate Health — Breakdown NCD: Courtesy World Economic Forum

behavioral factors and generally have a slow progression (could have been incubating for years in which hopefully identified and prevented) and long duration. These include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes. According to the CDC, 80% of chronic illness is lifestyle, behavioral, however, people need to be made aware of what many of these behaviors and exposures are.

According to a study released in 2011 by the World Economic Forum, Harvard School of Public Health “The U.S. Government and Global Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Efforts”:

NCDs are the leading causes of death and disability globally, killing more than three in five people worldwide and responsible for nearly half of the global burden of disease.
Among the leading causes of preventable illness and related disability
Cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes account for about 80% of NCD deaths
NCDs are responsible for 3.9 million deaths each year in the Region of the Americas, representing 3⁄4 of all deaths.
An estimated 200 million people in the Americas are living with NCDs, which has a tremendous impact on their life, well-being, and ability to work. This, in turn, poses major challenges to the economy, the health system and other sectors of society.
If modifiable risk factors (behavioral) were eliminated, 80% of all heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes would be prevented and over 40% of cancer would be prevented.
The causes of NCDs and their risk factors are largely determined by the social, physical and economic environment. Thus, combating NCDs requires action on the social determinants in a person’s environment, not just healthcare. Creating healthy environments and making healthy choices available and known, are critical.

Just a scary stat: Diabetes and Insulin, our master hormone: $245 Billion, Annually . Diabetes is 90% preventable

Conclusion from World Economic Forum study on Non Communicable Diseases:

A final thought: Economic policy-makers are naturally concerned about economic growth. The evidence presented in this report indicates that it would be illogical and irresponsible to care about economic growth and simultaneously ignore NCDs. Interventions in this area will undeniably be costly. But inaction is likely to be far more costly.”

Corporate wellness programs are potentially an affordable, very effective way to reduce the economic, personal and social burden of illness. Shifting to a preventive paradigm requires a holistic and employee-centred approach that involves participation and dedication from employers and employees. Again, we need to provide programs that

Provide solid science
Assess employee needs
Is supportive of corporate responsibility
Teach, don’t preach
Interaction on numerous levels vital to learning and sustainability
Engage the employee to participate
Models a corporate loyalty to the employee
Creates camaraderie & passion to infuse the corporate health culture
Inclusive of the science of change and behavioral modification
Implementation – providing employees the guidance for adherence, work/life integration, organization and time
Is inclusive of family support
Incentivize the employee for participation in a manner that is supportive of the employee’s health efforts and the health centric environment of the company
It HAS to be fun, invigorating, encouraging…not another miserable obligation and time demand in the employee’s life

Follow the hard science. A number of vague studies have been released stating that proactive health and wellness programs do not really impact the corporate bottom line. Where these myopic snapshot falls short…. …what are they measuring? Do they have an accurate, measurable value, scientific means of data collection as to illnesses that were prevented? Were they categorizing all corporate wellness initiatives into one lump? What were the measures of adherence? For these studies to deny the impact of preventative health education and implementation, is to deny greater studies lead by global health researchers and organizations….. Science proves that a strong proactive model for health which preempts illness, acute and chronic, is vital for health and economics.

World Health Organization on Corporate Responsibility:

Corporate Responsibility Best In Corporate Health — Courtesy World Health Organization

“The workplace directly influences the physical, mental, economic and social well-being of workers and in turn the health of their families, communities and society. It offers an ideal setting and infrastructure to support the promotion of health of a large audience. The health of workers is also affected by non-work related factors.”

“A health-promoting workplace recognizes that a healthy workforce is essential and integrates policies, systems and practices conducive to health at all levels of the organization. Rather than a series of projects, workforce health promotion is an ongoing process for improving work and health.”

Providing health information is a start, but only a start. Corporate responsibility affects: shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees and their families, communities, financiers, society…..and of course their own survival. The impact of health is omnipotent.

Corporate Responsibility with Health….Best In Corporate Health

The supplement like a flu shot against oxidative stress…..

Why are we not controlling chronic illness? We must control the wildfire of inflammation and lower oxidative stress. We know oxidative stress is at the root of chronic illness such as cancer, heart disease, depression, diabetes, arthritis….. inflammation ages us and leaves us susceptible to disease. ….We take a flu shot to prevent the flu – one simple supplement to lower your oxidative stress by as much as 40%. 7 patents, 24 peer reviewed studies on pubmed, accolades from American Heart Association, Mayo Clinic, National Institute on Aging….Washington State: “may well become the most extraordinary therapeutic and most extraordinary preventative breakthrough in the history of medicine.”

Shira Litwack, Corporate Program Designer — Shira Litwack, medical fitness professional, Cancer Exercise Specialist , Medical Exercise Specialist, Holistic Nutritionist

Chief Health Enthusiast – Best In Corporate Health

Employee Wellness Toronto, Ontario – But offered worldwide!

Shira is regularly consulted by Naturopaths, oncologists, health coaches on cancer exercise and exercise adherence.
Has assembled over 20 health and fitness professionals with varying specialties to bring to corporate wellness programs
Platforms include: Speaking, One-one/group health coaching, Retreats, Course development for in house delivery, Metrics to measure success available, Partners always included
Now offering live interactive webinars, just as if each participant has a personal health coach – making corporate wellness programs affordable to all.
Shira has been interviewed & published in hundreds of resources over the last 12 years:

Articles featured in: ezines, ArticlesInk, European Registry of Exercise Professionals, The National Post, Investment Executive Magazine, Directory of Greater Toronto, Canadian Leukemia & Lymphoma Association, Prostate Cancer Canada, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Anytime Fitness, Today’s Black Woman, Today’s Seniors, Medical Fitness Network, FORCE (Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered), Willow (Breast & Hereditary Cancer Support),Myeloma Canada, Cancer Exercise Training Institute, Urban Poling for Breast Cancer, ROW – Recovery on Water for Breast Cancer, Sirius XM Doctor Radio

Employee Incentives for Health Promotion

April 4, 2017employee performance, well-beingbest practice companies, disincentives, employee incentives, goal of a wellness program, health centric, health culture, health promotion, Health risk assessments, human capital management, Labor statistics, Maslow theory of human motivation, rewarding employees, ROI, stretching the budget, wellness platforms, workforce optimization, workplace health, workplace productivityBestinCorporateHealth

Incentivizing Employee Incentives – Fuelling Employee Wellness Programs

Employee incentives can solve the age old problem of wellness programs….You can lead the horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. Many companies offer wellness programs, but are not getting the compliance required to achieve success – healthy people and healthy profits.

Sadly, being healthy and more productive, lowering Ldl and curbing diabetes is not enough of an incentive for people to comply with wellness programs. Everyone is busy, and many people are skeptical due to previous attempts at a “healthy lifestyle” aka learned helplessness. Few programs address the daunting, intimidating, frustrating challenges- the many skills, time, organizational design for change. They are rarely motivational nor supportive to encourage people to act.

Enter employee incentives – or I should say appropriate employee incentives.

According to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

“When it comes to health promotion programs, it’s wise to avoid the “build it and they will come” strategy. A wealth of research tells us that people need motivation to adopt healthier behaviors and, especially in the early stages. Employee incentives can jump-start participation in programs and can encourage workers to complete health risk assessments (HRAs), quit smoking, exercise more, or lose weight.”

The choice of incentives is often counter productive:

Raising health care premiums for lack of compliance? Is that not punishment disguised as incentive? This is what we call a disincentive, not incentive. Excellent for encouraging dissatisfied, frustrated employees.

Cash? Sorry – a fleeting moment ….and the expectations will be for more and more, and create a downright resentment when monetary expectations are not met.

Incentives need to be based on support of the wellness program, support of the long term intentions and success of the program….is the intention to claim “we offer a wellness program “- or is actually improving employee health and creating a health centric corporate health culture.

Sounds so obvious…but just not done

employee incentives for health promotion — The largest part of our day is at work. A health centric corporate health culture can have a profound effect on health promotion. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Your incentive program should represent, lead the corporate health culture and employee camaraderie. Creating that culture is #1 in terms of long term adherence, success of the program reaping the benefits of health in the workplace, productivity…..that all important ROI. On average, people invest 35-40% of their lives at work.

It costs about 20% of an employee’s annual salary to replace that employee.

At a minimum, perks should help retain employees. The best companies, however, create incentives that demonstrate the company’s health culture and inspire employees to health, engagement and productivity.

Some basic principles of human motivation:

When Abraham Maslow created his Theory of Human Motivation in 1943, he identified five levels of motivation or five needs that humans strive to satisfy:

Survival
Safety
Social
Esteem
Fulfilment

Human capital management, workforce optimization – it really comes down to providing health, happiness, fulfillment – really everything Maslow described in 1943.

Incentivizing Incentives……

Make it personal…The employee’s perception -is it about his/her health and happiness, first and foremost, as a person, not as your employee
The trick is to first make sure that incentives don’t unfairly penalize workers who can’t or don’t want to participate. Employers must use incentives to encourage both fit employees—as well as those with health risks such as obesity, high cholesterol or elevated blood sugar—to participate.
Don’t make it just about money. Money can make employees unhappy if they’re not sufficiently compensated to their expectations. Money has not been shown to lead to long term motivation, satisfaction or performance.
Appeal to the pack animal side of human behavior – or as Maslow said social and esteem. Creating that corporate health culture for employees to thrive, be part of the pack, camaraderie, investment in incentives is a perfect medium to nurture the corporate pack
Institutionalize your employee incentives. Again – applying the wisdom of the pack. While it’s sometimes thought to reward employees uniquely and personally, it’s can be lethal. Haphazard rewards are inefficient and can create confusion, unhealthy competition, a perception of favouritism for employees. Transparency is key.
Measure it . As we mentioned, rewarding employees isn’t just good for morale; it’s good for the bottom line. That’s why you should measure the ROI for your perks whenever possible.
Don’t forget your culture. Consistency – the power of the incentives should be respected and emanate a love and reverence to other aspects of the functioning of the company, not restricted to wellness….think about that one! Your incentive structure is a reflection of your company culture. Your perks program is an excellent way to make your company stand out.
Management needs to demonstrate a commitment to health, participate in the incentive program, camaraderie and continually reinforce the corporate health culture.

Companies are advised to avoid depending on incentives as a long-term strategy for getting employees to maintain healthy behaviors. The goal of wellness programs should be to encourage employees to value the physiological and social rewards of adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors—which will provide energy and focus for work, preventing injury and illness, feeling a greater sense of physical and psychological wellbeing.

An employee Incentive for health promotion must actually encourage the desired results, health – which will ultimately drive behavior creating a health centric corporate culture.

Incentives are a key part of workplace health promotion programs, but they are only one piece that is necessary for companies to achieve a culture of health. When they are wielded punitively or used to shift healthcare costs to sicker employees, incentives become a liability. Choose employee incentives, not disincentives. Best practice companies understand this and work hard to spread the message that improved health is its own greatest reward. Health is wealth – personal wealth and corporate wealth.

Best In Corporate Health…Stretching the Budget….Yes, Your company can have it all – Health Risk Assessments, Wellness Platforms, Coaching, Integrating wellness technology, Incentivizing Employee Incentives…….

Chief Health Enthusiast – Best In Corporate Health

Employee Wellness Toronto, Ontario – But offered worldwide!

Shira is regularly consulted by Naturopaths, oncologists, health coaches on cancer exercise and exercise adherence.
Has assembled over 20 health and fitness professionals with varying specialties to bring to corporate wellness programs
Platforms include: Speaking, One-one/group health coaching, Retreats, Course development for in house delivery, Metrics to measure success available, Partners always included
Now offering live interactive webinars, just as if each participant has a personal health coach – making corporate wellness programs affordable to all.
Shira has been interviewed & published in hundreds of resources over the last 12 years: