Editor’s note: Today we’re returning to our “regularly scheduled programming” after blogging yesterday about our award. Next week we’ll return to our once-weekly blog schedule.

Sarah Palin was a wildcard choice…is wellness a similarly unexpected consideration in workers comp issues? Photo from the Wikimedia Commons.

Hold your rants or raves! We’re not veering into political territory on this blog; I just can’t pass up a good analogy. Republican, Democrat or other, almost everyone agrees that Sarah Palin was a wildcard choice as a vice presidential nominee. Now, as I think about Kory’s comment in last week’s blog about whether the WorkCompEdge wellness module will be largely ignored by our members, I have to acknowledge that we made our own surprise selection when we included it in the lower left hand corner of the process diagram on the WorkCompEdge home page.

We tagged the module, “A new paradigm – promoting the health of your workers.” Was including wellness in WorkCompEdge a good idea? Does it complement all of the other modules, or was it just some crazy late night selection we made to stir things up? Well, as with McCain/Palin, only time will tell. But, let me explain some of the challenges we have discovered with wellness in the workplace.

I love business. I love systems. And, I really love math. I can relate to the process thinking and math behind the various modules and strategies within WorkCompEdge. The content we developed, the tools that we provide, and the implementation plans we suggest were carefully derived from the experiences of successful employers. Wellness is similar to the other modules in that it can involve numbers on both the corporate and personal levels (How many of your employees smoke? How much weight has John Doe lost?). But wellness won’t succeed based on analysis and corporate process improvement. More so than with any other program or module in WorkCompEdge (safety, claims management, supervisor training, medical relationships, etc.) wellness involves individual, self-initiated change.

We developed the wellness module easily, given our in-house health gurus and the wealth of external resources available. But will employers use it? And what can make it most effective? As a broker in St. Louis recently explained to me, wellness is about “boots on the ground.” That is, real change in individuals takes internal motivation that is often ignited and fueled by a wellness “foot soldier” – an everyman/everywoman type of health champion who inspires and leads individual employees to a better and more consistent lifestyle.

So, how does a nationwide program like WorkCompEdge put those boots on the ground? Not easily. But, let’s think outside the gym, so to speak. Can we provide the tools, techniques, and resources to train the champion? What if the WorkCompEdge focus for wellness becomes an effort to identify, train, and motivate that champion at each WorkCompEdge employer? What would this look like? Could it work? What if… we created an army of WorkCompEdge wellness foot soldiers committed to leading their organizations to a higher level of wellness, one individual at a time?

Like McCain’s choice of Palin, some may argue that wellness works for the WorkCompEdge Process and is an excellent pick. Others may think we are crazy! Let me know what you think (about wellness, not about the political campaign). And be keeping an eye out for who you might tag in your office to champion this cause. I can’t resist saying: this person doesn’t have to be a hockey mom, and lipstick will be optional!

http://www.WorkCompEdge.com
http://www.SpecificSoftware.com

Wellness is one of the 15 modules we chose to include in WorkCompEdge. To be honest, at this point in the young life of the site, we sometimes wonder if it may ultimately receive the award of “Module Most Likely to Be Ignored by Our Members.” After all, it seems that everyone is talking about wellness in the workplace, so isn’t everyone already doing it?

This is a great way to get a little friendly competition started at the office. Who can raise the most money working out for CARE? Be sure to tell a friend or co-worker!

Well…maybe not. Although a quick Internet search will yield statistics supporting widespread corporate wellness programs faster than you can tie your walking shoes, the feedback we have so far from our recent survey (which is still open, please participate it you haven’t) doesn’t agree:

• Brokers and agents indicated that only “very few” or “some” of their clients had an effective wellness program 75% of the time. “Very few” was equated to 0-19% of their clients, and “some” was equated to 20-39% of clients.
• Of employers who responded to the survey, 66% reported that their company did not have an effective wellness program.

We think that part of the discrepancy between our results and others must be related to a company’s number of employees. It seems that a lot of the statistics we see mention “leading corporations.” It makes sense that smaller employers may find it more challenging to implement a wellness program. (Unfortunately, our survey didn’t capture number of employees. We’ll be smarter about that next time.)

But we also wonder if the key word in our question was “effective.” Are there a lot of wellness programs out there that are being offered, but just aren’t being used?

We recently came across an article that indicated some small businesses are motivated to offer a wellness program not so much because of the possible financial benefits (realized from fewer sick days, quicker recoveries, reduced health insurance premiums, better productivity, etc.) but simply because it’s a positive thing to do for their employees. And that resonates with us. Your own personal wellness is a gift – not only to yourself, but to your family, friends and colleagues. And now it can be a gift to the world’s poor.

Fitness expert, author and professional triathlete Eric Harr has implemented a program at CARE, the humanitarian organization dedicated to reducing global poverty, which will take your workout to a new level. For every hour you exercise and log on the website, Eric’s going to donate $5 to CARE. You simply fill out a brief form on the website, and you’ll receive an encouraging email and a monthly summary of your progress. AND, if you’re not already in a fitness program – or want to infuse your existing one with some new routines – Eric has what you need in free downloads, including a fitness assessment, 18 goal-specific training programs, and stretches.

How’s that for motivation? Head on over to the CARE site now, at www.care.org/workout

This ia a great way to get a little friendly competition started at the office. Who can raise the most money working out for CARE? Be sure to tell a friend or co-worker!

http://www.WorkCompEdge.com
http://www.SpecificSoftware.com