Advantis Credit Union LiveWell A Healthier Happier You!

Transcription

1 Advantis Credit Union LiveWell A Healthier Happier You! As a Credit Union, Advantis believes in the philosophy of People Helping People, and our definition of people is certainly inclusive of our employees. We are committed to creating a culture that lives up to our culture of being the best place [our] employees have ever worked. We felt that part of creating a culture that lives up to our goal of being the best place our employees have ever worked was creating a culture that encourages and supports a healthy lifestyle for our employees. We recognized that this type of program would not only benefit our employees, but the Credit Union as well as successful wellness programs have been proven to increase employee productivity, engagement, and retention, and over time, to reduce controllable healthcare costs by helping our employees establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Cost management was an additional factor to consider when deciding to move forward with our wellness program. It s a reality that healthcare costs continue to rise year-over-year, Advantis needed to implement a program that could help keep costs manageable while still providing excellent health care coverage for our employees. In response to this need Advantis Credit Union implemented an organization wide Wellness program. The Wellness program was built on four primary principles: 1) Educate & Inform in order to create a sustainable wellness program we knew that we would need to educate our employees as to the benefits of participating in a wellness program, and would need to, at times, educate them on what wellness really looks and feels like. We ve supported this component through the following efforts: a. Quarterly lunch & learns guest speakers come onsite to present on a wide variety of topics; from weight management tools to the benefits of essential oils to healthy cooking demos, and financial management. b. Quarterly Wellness Breakfasts this allows us to bring wellness education to our branches and those employees with a more defined daily schedule. Our Wellness Committee members lead the event by selecting, preparing, and serving a healthy option for breakfast prior to regular work hours. The healthy recipe is shared and the Wellness Committee member gives an informal talk on the health benefits of the breakfast. c. Quarterly Newsletters we include information on a wide variety of topics; meant to provide our employees with helpful wellness information, to recognize wellness program advocates, and provide consistent communication about upcoming wellness events. Page 1

2 d. Annual Health Fairs this includes participants of local health and wellness providers converging at one location to provide wellness information and solutions for our employees. Local provider exhibits include acupuncture, nutritional foods/supplements, aromatherapy, cooking lessons, massage therapy, naturopath healing, and more. e. Biometric Screenings annually, we offer complete biometric health screenings for all employees, whether they participate in our health care programs or not. Employees are screened for a variety of physical characteristics such as height, weight, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, and smoking. As many of our employees are younger, there is a general mind-set that they are healthy. The results of these screenings told a different story for several individuals. We have several employees tell us they didn t know they had high blood pressure or I didn t know I was at risk for diabetes. In one particular situation an employee told us that the biometric screenings that we offered ended up saving his life. This individual received biometric screening results the first year they were offered and while his results were concerning, he chose to ignore them because he was young, ate right, and exercised regularly. The second time the biometrics were offered his results were just as concerning but this time he was scared and he decided to follow-up with his doctor. After many tests, it was determined he was at high risk for a heart attack. He learned he had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a liver that wasn t functioning properly. Through medication, and a radical change in diet and way of life, he has made improvements but still has a ways to go. This changed his life and while he could have kept it to himself he chose to write a very personal to all employees sharing his story. He felt it was important to share his experience with the organization in hopes that others would learn to take their own health seriously. 2) Engage & Involve one of the initial steps that we took in launching our wellness program was to create a Wellness Committee; we knew that having a wellness program for our employees, created by our employees would garner a greater rate of participation than if the program appeared to be a topdown initiative. a. Hubbub Health we ve provided our employees with 24/7 access to an online wellness solution that utilizes gamification and a social media platform to engage users in health and wellness challenges. Hubbub allows users to connect with one another and really fosters an online environment in which users support one another in achieving their health and wellness goals. Through constant encouragement, and focused and team challenges the overall engagement of the Hubbub site has been maintaining at 75%-80% employee participation. This has been consistently running well above the average of all participating companies. Page 2

3 b. Organized team activities - the Wellness Committee is responsible for identifying several team events through the year that allow employees to connect with one another in a way that the day-to-day obligations of the workplace does not always allow. Advantis Field Day employees and their families and friends were invited to attend our inaugural field day. This event was an employee-organized version of a company picnic. Our Wellness Committee coordinated the logistics of the event and managed the internal coinciding internal communication. Advantis provided grilled chicken as the main dish and employees were encouraged to bring a healthy side to share with others. Attendees had the option to participate in a variety of games and activities including badminton, croquet, corn-hole, hula-hooping, bocce ball, and more. Due to the success of the 2015 field day, the Advantis Field Day has become an annual event. Group Hikes Wellness Committee members have organized and led hikes in local parks. Employees their family members, and even their four-legged friends have been invited to participate. Local Walk/Runs we reimburse the registration fee for our employees and their family members for four local walk/runs throughout the year. The benefits of our involvement in these walks/runs are twofold in that each event that we participate in has a non-profit partner that benefits from the event. c. Internal Marketing Campaigns - in order to continue to keep the Wellness program front of mind, we ve developed three possible logos for our Wellness program and then asked our employees to vote on their favorite, the tag line and logo that were selected are, Live Well: A healthier, happier you! Page 3

4 Health and Wellness signage at all of our locations these are poster-size internal advertising boards which incorporate quick messages to keep our wellness program front of mind. Page 4

5 Intranet Landing Page we utilized our internal website to house Wellness program announcements, a calendar outlining upcoming wellness events, recipes, hand-outs from previous lunch & learns, etc. Health & Wellness Posters these posters are updated quarterly and posted in all restrooms and employees break rooms. Posters include health and wellness tips anything from recipes to featured exercise moves to motivational reads to nutritional information. 3) Encourage & Support although our program is primarily employee driven, our executive and management team take an active and visible role in the wellness initiatives that have been rolled out. a. On-site BBQ we hosted an on-site BBQ and our Executive Leadership Team took turns managing the grill; this was a great opportunity for our employees to enjoy a healthy lunchtime meal and see our Executives supporting our wellness programs. b. Participation in challenges on Hubbub our Executive and Management teams actively participate in our Hubbub challenges; when they log their activity in Hubbub our employees are able to see that they are actively participating in the wellness program. Page 5

6 c. On-site Massage we have recently added on-site massages to our wellness repertoire employees are able to schedule time to receive a massage on-site at three of our facilities. This has demonstrated our commitment to supporting our employees in stress-management and work/life balance. d. Healthy Snack Options we currently have two locations that are situated in areas in where retail stores offering healthy snack options are limited; our Executive Team supported providing healthy snack options on-site through a vending machine provider that specializes in healthier snack options; this vending system has been conveniently placed in one of our lunch rooms. The second location does not have enough employees for the vending company to support it, so the Human Resources team manages a healthy snack box that allows employees to purchase these healthier snacks through the honor system. 4) Evaluate & Evolve we recognize that just because an element of our program is working today, does not mean that it will be working tomorrow. We consistently review our wellness programs and request feedback from our wider employee base to ensure that the wellness program is moving in the right direction. This provides us with the opportunity to redirect our efforts as needed. In order to create a sustainable wellness program that is consistently utilized by our employees we must adapt to their changing needs, to the changing social and workplace pressures that they may face to help remove obstacles from their path to success. a. Data Collection we continually evaluate the data points related to our wellness program. Hubbub allows us to monitor employee engagement on their platform, our benefits broker provides us with aggregate reports surrounding employees benefits usage, our account manager at our health provider provides us with information on aggregate and cohort information from our biometrics screenings. By evaluating these data points we are able to see trends and identify areas that we need to focus on or that need to be modified to better meet the needs of our employees or the organization. Acting on Biometric Screening Results based on biometric screening results we develop appropriate wellness challenges and programs addressing these areas. An example of a program we are launching soon is a Biggest Loser style event that will allow employees to have a longer-term focus on reducing their BMI and waist circumference. Acknowledging and addressing emotionally challenging situations - One of our employees tragically took their own life last year. This was a challenging and extremely upsetting situation for our entire organization. In response, we focused on the immediate need and brought in specialists to help our employees cope with the loss. We had two employees that worked closely with, and were friends of the employee that we lost who expressed interest in participating in a local suicide prevention walk. We ended Page 6

7 up becoming a sponsor of the walk, we created a fundraising page in remembrance of the employee that we lost to suicide, and organized a group of employees to take part in the walk. We ve since redirected more of our Wellness Program on stress management and suicide prevention. b. Wellness Committee Meetings we are continuously brainstorming during our monthly wellness meetings. Our Committee members can provide insight as to how employees are engaging in the wellness program and will suggest new wellness programs or ideas to consider for the future. We ve taken a lot of positive actions, but how do we know that we re on track? Experts indicate that it takes several years for organizations to see the full benefit of Wellness programs however Advantis has early indicators of success. Positive results in year-over-year biometric screenings 2014/2015: Reported smokers and/or tobacco users decreased from 10% to 4% of screened participants. Employees who previously showed high cholesterol levels decreased by 15%, with employees showing desirable cholesterol levels improving by 14%. Employees with high blood pressure reported a 15% improvement over prior year, and 12% of employees who were previously at risk for high blood pressure are now reporting at normal levels. Advantis receives Fit-Friendly Award: Each year the American Heart Association recognizes employers who champion the health of their employees and work to create a culture of physical activity and health in the workplace. Advantis was named as a Fit-Friendly worksite achieving the Gold Level status in The gold level award was earned by offering employees physical activity support, increasing healthy eating options at work, and promoting a culture of wellness in the workplace. Zero percent increase in healthcare premiums: Current healthcare provider offered a 0% increase in non-fixed costs for 2016 benefit renewals. This was a direct reflection of improvement in our employees overall health requiring fewer trips for medical care and a reduction in medication taken. While the Advantis Wellness Program is still in its infancy the above indicators are positive responses that our employees are more engaged in their own health and making choices that will benefit them in the long run. Overall, the key to our success has been a commitment and support of the program by management in both time and resources, and strong employee involvement. Page 7