Rochester Business Journal
May 27, 2011
Organizations in the Rochester area are getting creative about promoting wellness, going beyond simply helping employees shed a few pounds or quit smoking.
From organizing office Olympics and growing fresh produce to boosting civic involvement and morale, employers are pushing for a well-rounded approach to healthy living.
Twelve local organizations will be honored for doing just that. They will receive the 2011 Wealth of Health Awards, presented by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, Rochester Region, and the Rochester Business Journal. The award now is in its sixth year.
The honorees were judged on employee involvement in health initiatives, the creativity of these activities to reach specific targets, sustainability of programs promoting healthy lifestyles, and measurable outcomes of these efforts. They were grouped by size, determined by the number of full-time and part-time employees.
The Wealth of Health Awards luncheon is scheduled for noon to 1:30 p.m. June 3 at the Hyatt Regency Rochester. Tesia Woodworth, director of employee health and productivity at Relph Benefit Advisors, will be the guest speaker.
Following is a closer look at each honoree's commitment to fostering health.
The Wealth of Health Awards luncheon is scheduled for noon to 1:30 p.m. June 3 at the Hyatt Regency Rochester. Tesia Woodworth, director of employee health and productivity at Relph Benefit Advisors, will be the guest speaker.
Following is a closer look at each honoree's commitment to fostering health.
PathStone Corp.
One of the most successful initiatives of PathStone Corp. gives employees $500 in a cafeteria plan in exchange for participating in biometrics screening and taking an online survey.
The biometrics screening covers all the bases, including lipids, glucose and obesity, and together with the health risk assessment, it is critical in maintaining and improving the health of PathStone's employees. In addition, the information obtained through the assessment is used to tailor future wellness programs.
"If there are a lot of employees with high blood pressure, we'll put together a blood pressure program; if there are many employees who are overweight, we'll create a weight-loss program," said Lisa Zhu, senior vice president of human resources.
The online health risk assessment, affiliated with the Mayo Clinic, tracks several factors, including employee health perceptions, sleep quality, medical conditions, medications, risk factors and readiness levels. Combined with the biometrics screening, the health risk assessment helps mitigate medical costs, too.
"We had one gentleman who during the course of the biometrics screening found out his blood pressure was dangerously high. He went straight to his doctor and was treated. Who knows what could have happened without the screening?" Zhu said.
PathStone's wellness effort extends to its offices in seven states and Puerto Rico. The wellness committee conducts its regular meetings by phone over lunch, so members in all time zones can participate. When they started their work, the committee members conducted an employee survey to find out which programs would be most successful. Most recently, the committee began "The Biggest Winner," an employee weight-loss program modeled after television's "The Biggest Loser."
One very popular initiative at PathStone is the Calendar Program. Employees receive points for completing wellness-related goals.
"An employee can get points for drinking eight glasses of water, getting a flu shot, or losing weight," Zhu said.
At the end of each quarter, the points are tallied and deposited as money in employees' flexible spending accounts.
PathStone's programs have been successful. In 2010, 70 percent of the 438 regular employees received the $500 incentive for completing both the biometrics screening and health risk assessment. Sixty-eight employees completed just one of the two components, and only 62 employees failed to complete either.
The programs have benefited the non-profit's bottom line as well. In analyzing the data collected from the health risk assessment, PathStone found that the average lifestyle risks per employee decreased by 4.6 percent.
More good news: The percentage of PathStone employees at risk from poor emotional health, lack of exercise and improper nutrition has decreased over the last two years. And PathStone is trending lower than the industry average in terms of blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity and tobacco use.
PathStone has placed employee health management among the 10 items on its corporate strategic agenda. This ensures that employee wellness will remain as high a priority as it is today. The wellness committee continues to meet regularly to make sure wellness programs are fresh and interesting and keep employees motivated to maintain or improve their health.
-Laura Telford
One of the most successful initiatives of PathStone Corp. gives employees $500 in a cafeteria plan in exchange for participating in biometrics screening and taking an online survey.
The biometrics screening covers all the bases, including lipids, glucose and obesity, and together with the health risk assessment, it is critical in maintaining and improving the health of PathStone's employees. In addition, the information obtained through the assessment is used to tailor future wellness programs.
"If there are a lot of employees with high blood pressure, we'll put together a blood pressure program; if there are many employees who are overweight, we'll create a weight-loss program," said Lisa Zhu, senior vice president of human resources.
The online health risk assessment, affiliated with the Mayo Clinic, tracks several factors, including employee health perceptions, sleep quality, medical conditions, medications, risk factors and readiness levels. Combined with the biometrics screening, the health risk assessment helps mitigate medical costs, too.
"We had one gentleman who during the course of the biometrics screening found out his blood pressure was dangerously high. He went straight to his doctor and was treated. Who knows what could have happened without the screening?" Zhu said.
PathStone's wellness effort extends to its offices in seven states and Puerto Rico. The wellness committee conducts its regular meetings by phone over lunch, so members in all time zones can participate. When they started their work, the committee members conducted an employee survey to find out which programs would be most successful. Most recently, the committee began "The Biggest Winner," an employee weight-loss program modeled after television's "The Biggest Loser."
One very popular initiative at PathStone is the Calendar Program. Employees receive points for completing wellness-related goals.
"An employee can get points for drinking eight glasses of water, getting a flu shot, or losing weight," Zhu said.
At the end of each quarter, the points are tallied and deposited as money in employees' flexible spending accounts.
PathStone's programs have been successful. In 2010, 70 percent of the 438 regular employees received the $500 incentive for completing both the biometrics screening and health risk assessment. Sixty-eight employees completed just one of the two components, and only 62 employees failed to complete either.
The programs have benefited the non-profit's bottom line as well. In analyzing the data collected from the health risk assessment, PathStone found that the average lifestyle risks per employee decreased by 4.6 percent.
More good news: The percentage of PathStone employees at risk from poor emotional health, lack of exercise and improper nutrition has decreased over the last two years. And PathStone is trending lower than the industry average in terms of blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity and tobacco use.
PathStone has placed employee health management among the 10 items on its corporate strategic agenda. This ensures that employee wellness will remain as high a priority as it is today. The wellness committee continues to meet regularly to make sure wellness programs are fresh and interesting and keep employees motivated to maintain or improve their health.
-Laura Telford
Thompson Health
Being a part of the health care industry, employees of Thompson Health understand the risks of unhealthy behaviors, and that is one of the reasons Thompson's wellness programs have been so successful.
"Wellness programs benefit a company not only in terms of dollars and cents-lowered health care premiums, fewer sick days-but also in terms of increased morale and productivity. It's great to see employees bond together about exercise and healthy diet," said Randy Jacques, director of health at Thompson.
Among the programs Thompson has initiated over the past few years are improved food choices in the cafeteria, on-site health fairs and the annual Health Heroes Awards, which recognize employees who have made significant strides toward healthy living. Recipients of the award have lost as much as 10 percent of their body weight and reached exercise goals like completing a triathlon or running in a marathon.
"Health Heroes Awards go to employees who have lost as much as 83 pounds, have quit smoking or who have started eating better-and to some who have done all three. People who wake up one day and say, 'I'm done with this unhealthy lifestyle; it's time to make a big change,'" Jacques said.
One big change that has affected most of Thompson's 1,373 employees is the availability of more healthy choices in the cafeteria. The Associate Wellness Cafeteria Subcommittee has been behind these changes, offering fresh vegetables, an expanded salad bar, a yogurt bar with fresh fruit, and whole-grain breads for sandwiches.
In 2010, the subcommittee sponsored the third annual Healthy Me Day, an on-site internal health fair. Associates and their spouses or domestic partners can have their blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels tested, be screened for cancer and obtain information about healthy eating, weight management and disease prevention. As a result of the screenings at the Healthy Me Day, more than 200 Thompson associates who had abnormal results obtained follow-up care.
"The goal of the wellness programs is to lower the risk levels of staff members," Jacques said.
Other on-site programs include Jazzercise and Zumba classes, daily stretch breaks to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injury, and two weight-loss programs, Weight Watchers and Weight Loss for Wellness. Departmental weight-loss goals have yielded huge results. In one year, 150 associates lost a combined total of 1,500 pounds.
Thompson's initiatives do not stop there; organizers are already coming up with ideas for future wellness programs. The plan is to offer a stress management challenge this year, which will include a fitness challenge, a healthy eating challenge and a relaxation challenge, among other components. Thompson also has made a commitment to hold Healthy Me Day fairs in years to come so that employees can track their progress and continue to receive helpful information each year.
"Once exercise, healthy eating and regular checkups are incorporated into associates' daily lives, it becomes easier to sustain healthy behavior," Jacques said.
-Laura Telford
Being a part of the health care industry, employees of Thompson Health understand the risks of unhealthy behaviors, and that is one of the reasons Thompson's wellness programs have been so successful.
"Wellness programs benefit a company not only in terms of dollars and cents-lowered health care premiums, fewer sick days-but also in terms of increased morale and productivity. It's great to see employees bond together about exercise and healthy diet," said Randy Jacques, director of health at Thompson.
Among the programs Thompson has initiated over the past few years are improved food choices in the cafeteria, on-site health fairs and the annual Health Heroes Awards, which recognize employees who have made significant strides toward healthy living. Recipients of the award have lost as much as 10 percent of their body weight and reached exercise goals like completing a triathlon or running in a marathon.
"Health Heroes Awards go to employees who have lost as much as 83 pounds, have quit smoking or who have started eating better-and to some who have done all three. People who wake up one day and say, 'I'm done with this unhealthy lifestyle; it's time to make a big change,'" Jacques said.
One big change that has affected most of Thompson's 1,373 employees is the availability of more healthy choices in the cafeteria. The Associate Wellness Cafeteria Subcommittee has been behind these changes, offering fresh vegetables, an expanded salad bar, a yogurt bar with fresh fruit, and whole-grain breads for sandwiches.
In 2010, the subcommittee sponsored the third annual Healthy Me Day, an on-site internal health fair. Associates and their spouses or domestic partners can have their blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels tested, be screened for cancer and obtain information about healthy eating, weight management and disease prevention. As a result of the screenings at the Healthy Me Day, more than 200 Thompson associates who had abnormal results obtained follow-up care.
"The goal of the wellness programs is to lower the risk levels of staff members," Jacques said.
Other on-site programs include Jazzercise and Zumba classes, daily stretch breaks to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injury, and two weight-loss programs, Weight Watchers and Weight Loss for Wellness. Departmental weight-loss goals have yielded huge results. In one year, 150 associates lost a combined total of 1,500 pounds.
Thompson's initiatives do not stop there; organizers are already coming up with ideas for future wellness programs. The plan is to offer a stress management challenge this year, which will include a fitness challenge, a healthy eating challenge and a relaxation challenge, among other components. Thompson also has made a commitment to hold Healthy Me Day fairs in years to come so that employees can track their progress and continue to receive helpful information each year.
"Once exercise, healthy eating and regular checkups are incorporated into associates' daily lives, it becomes easier to sustain healthy behavior," Jacques said.
-Laura Telford
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology takes a creative approach to wellness, having implemented programs focused on healthy, sustainable living.
The Better Me program, launched in 2007, emphasizes a socio-ecological approach to encourage health and wellness. In addition to wellness coaching, personal training and employee fitness classes, Better Me has partnered with external sources to provide some unique benefits.
Now in its third growing season, the RIT Community Garden is thriving, with the help of faculty, staff, students and alumni. The garden is split into plots, each with a specific type of crop and a team of members dedicated to its care. One plot may have raised beds full of strawberry plants, broccoli and carrots, while another may be growing annual or perennial flowers. At the end of each growing season, the produce is distributed evenly among Community Garden members.
But the harvests are not just for personal use. Last year, the Community Garden donated 300 pounds of produce to FoodLink Inc. Residents of RIT's Rivers Run Active Adult Community also are involved in the Community Garden, as are children at Margaret's House, RIT's on-site day care center. There a sense of multi-generational community involvement in the garden and the idea of nurturing future generations are prevalent.
"Children have a tendency to eat what they grow, so we are helping to instill healthy behaviors early on in their lives," said Midge Berfield, manager of employee health and wellness at RIT.
The institution has partnered with several local farmers to organize a weekly on-campus farmers market, which runs for six to seven weeks each fall. The idea of the farmers market, now in its fourth year, is to provide faculty, staff and students with easy access to healthy fruits and vegetables. But the program also benefits the farmers.
"The market doesn't open until the fall quarter," Berfield said, "when we have full representation on campus. We want both the vendors and the shoppers to have a positive experience."
The paying participants in RIT's Good Food Collective also receive a weekly delivery of local, fresh produce for 18 weeks. A half share, $285, includes four to 10 different types of fruits and vegetables each week, and a full share, $510, includes seven to 14. This type of program, called community-supported agriculture, is nothing new, but by partnering with the Good Food Collective, RIT has made participation easy, scheduling produce drop-offs on campus every Friday afternoon.
Overall, the wellness initiatives at RIT have been effective. Wellness coaching was responsible for more than 100 employees losing weight, more than 200 employees lowering their blood pressure and 169 employees increasing their exercise.
Regarding the wellness of its employees, RIT is keeping an eye to the future.
"Sustainability is directly linked to the cultural, environmental and policy changes we achieve," Berfield reported. "It's important to have a supportive environment to facilitate permanent behavior change."
-Laura Telford
5/27/11 (c) 2011 Rochester Business Journal.