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CHAPTER 12
Employee Wellness, Health, and Safety to Drive Business Performance and Loyalty

Always do what’s right; this will gratify some and astonish the rest.

—Albert Einstein

In the previous chapters of this book, we discussed how people are the most important asset of any organization; they lead, innovate, and drive performance. Your workforce helps your organization to compete in an aggressive marketplace and ultimately succeed. In order to accomplish this critical mission of delivering the best performance and productivity possible, companies need to provide their workforces with high standards of wellness, health, and a safe environment.

While some organizations still view employee wellness programs as just a nice-to-have perk, a cool extra, another costly employee benefit, or, according to Lewis and Khanna,¹ “an employee control tool” and “a marketing tool for health plans,” other organizations are fully integrating wellness programs as a strategic business imperative. According to a 2013 RAND study² commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today nearly 80 percent of people who work for organizations with 50 or more employees have access to a corporate wellness program.

Immediately following the 2008 financial crisis, the number one priority for the majority of companies was to get back to productivity and profitability as soon as possible, and they did this by focusing solely on meeting their financial objectives and goals. We all witnessed the shift in corporate structuring, as companies requested even more results from their downsized workforces, putting the numbers first and, in some cases, completely forgetting about taking care of their talent through employee wellness programs. Some CEOs we spoke with told us that when your employee wellness is front and center, your workforce is more likely to drive performance and hit their numbers; however, if you keep focusing only on the numbers, your employees will probably miss their marks. As marketing strategist Andrew Benett states in his book The Talent Mandate,³ only truly “talent-centric” organizations are destined to thrive in our fast-changing economy.

In today’s global, multigenerational workforce, competition is fierce. By 2020, millennials will make up more than 50 percent of the workforce, and baby boomers will continue to retire at increasing rates. For prospective employees, work–life balance, employer branding, and a value proposition that promotes great workplace wellness can make the difference when choosing a company for which to work. To optimize their talent management life cycle, forward-thinking companies have been integrating workplace wellness and health programs into their talent management and are leveraging Big Data analytics to help them demonstrate the outstanding return on investment (ROI). They are also benefiting from the economic value they are creating for their business by capitalizing on workplace wellness, health, and safety.

These leading-edge organizations, also known as Best Place to Work companies, have demonstrated that there is not only a correlation, but a causation, between employee morale, wellness, health, and safety, and profitability; and their data analytics on their wellness programs provide evidence on this relationship between workplace wellness, employee productivity, and their company’s bottom line. For instance, Google offers its employees an array of services, such as on-site massage rooms, nap pods, free food, and bowling alleys. SAS Institute employee perks include an on-site natatorium, gym services, a recreation room, on-site physicians, artists-in-residence work space, and a laundry list of personal enrichment courses. Zappos, the online seller of shoes and clothing, has a unique culture that includes spontaneous activities such as a stage parade because it’s Monday, free pet adoption services, or a CEO car raffle to a lucky employee. Johnson & Johnson offers a private concierge service to employees whose children are enrolled in affiliated day care facilities, and also has paid sabbaticals. For these companies, workplace wellness programs are not simply a nice extra or perk; they are an integral part of the corporate culture.

Companies that have successfully implemented wellness programs are able to demonstrate ROI and how that investment has led to tangible rewards, which enables them to compete on talent analytics. They can also measure the impact of these programs against their employees’ performance and overall company bottom line. This is a key to their success because, as Peter Drucker, the famous management consultant, said, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

Leading organizations that leverage data, identify wellness as a strategic business imperative, and place it at the forefront of their employee value proposition will see improvements in their ability to compete successfully in the global talent marketplace. In the following sections, we will cover employee wellness, health, and safety programs, looking at case studies and examples from the front lines and identifying best practices and key takeaways for successfully integrating these programs into your organization. Our hope is that this will spark some heated debates around the benefits of these programs in organizations of all sizes, and help change the attitude that they are just “nice to have” into the understanding that they are a key pillar for forward-thinking companies that are competing and winning with talent analytics.

WHAT IS EMPLOYEE WELLNESS?

Based upon conversations with a variety of industry leaders who have successfully implemented corporate wellness programs, we define an employee wellness program as any employer-sponsored program that focuses on proactively improving the well-being, safety, and health of employees and sometimes their families and that, as a result, also helps the organization increase productivity, efficiency, performance, and its bottom line. Workplace wellness encourages employers to focus on preventive health care initiatives and lifestyle changes, such as:

Increasing physical activities
Improving eating habits
Reducing stress
Reducing or ceasing tobacco use
Reducing absenteeism
Increasing employee morale
Increasing engagement
Lifestyle coaching
Nutrition counseling and biometric screening
Gym memberships

Workplace wellness programs consist of a variety of behavior-changing and educational initiatives to help employees, and sometimes their dependents, achieve a healthier lifestyle.

A study from Weiner, Lewis, and Linnan⁴ found that some of the most effective activities involved in wellness programs include support groups, exercise classes, healthy eating habits counseling, and annual physical checkups.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT WORKPLACE WELLNESS?

According to an article from Rosen and Spaulding titled “Best Practices for Wellness Programs,”⁵ 50 percent of a person’s health status is a result of behavior, and 75 percent of health care costs can be prevented, delayed, or curtailed through lifestyle modifications. Findings from this study also demonstrate that an increasing number of forward-looking organizations are encouraging employees to improve their healthy behaviors through the adoption of corporate wellness programs designed to decrease health care expenses related to unhealthy employee lifestyles, and to increase employee productivity.

Happy and Healthy Employees Create Satisfied Customers

When one of this book’s authors, authors, JP Isson, worked as a senior manager of customer behavior modeling for the largest wireless service provider in telecommunications in North America, he spent a lot of time working closely with the customer services team, providing them with two major lists of customers: a scored list of customers to proactively call because they were at risk to churn, and a second list that included customers to try to up-sell with new products. To determine the efficacy of these lists, we conducted an experiment, tracking the performance of the 600 service reps and crossing their performance against their employee satisfaction scores and their Net Promoter Scores (NPS). We discovered that the customer services agents who recorded the highest employee satisfaction and NPS scores also topped the list in terms of customer satisfaction, customer retention rates, and customer up-sell metrics. In fact, on average, they were able to deliver a retention rate that was 37 percent higher than the rates of those reps who had low satisfaction scores; additionally, they were up-selling 63 percent more than those reps with low satisfaction scores.

The key learning for us was that customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction were strongly related. We found that, all things being equal, our customer services reps’ satisfaction was the key differentiator between our best performers and our lowest performers. In fact, employee satisfaction drives customer satisfaction, and when a customer is satisfied with your service or product and decides to come back and to do business with you, the likelihood that he or she will increase their wallet share or average order size is higher. Because you have established a good relationship, your business has won their trust, and they are more receptive to your suggestions and product offerings. The key takeaway here is that employee satisfaction, particularly as it relates to customer-facing roles, and is a key area that can have significant impact on your organization’s bottom line.

According to a Harvard Business Review article,⁶ “Competing on Talent Analytics,” leading entertainment company Harrah’s used metrics to evaluate the effects of its health and wellness programs on employee engagement and its bottom line. Preventive-care visits to its on-site clinics have increased, lowering urgent-care costs by millions of dollars over a 12-month period. One executive we spoke with succinctly articulated the correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, saying: “How can we ask employees to take care of customers when they aren’t empowered to take care of themselves?” And, because Harrah’s understands the important relationship between employee engagement and top-line revenue, it can evaluate the program according to its revenue contribution as well.

The direct impact of workplace wellness programs on employee productivity, overall health care costs for companies, employee morale, and absenteeism also has a positive impact on the overall company bottom line. The wellness and productivity of employees are essential for a company’s economic success, and there is a strong correlation between a person’s health and efficiency. According to studies, employees with a higher number of health risk behaviors can lead to elevated health care costs and lower levels of work productivity due to absenteeism,⁷ so encouraging healthy habits is good for your company, as well as your workforce. According to one Gallup survey, unhealthy and overweight employees account for 450 million days of work lost over the course of an average year. To put this in perspective, that’s roughly three days of work lost for every single person in the U.S. workforce.⁸ And multiple studies from the Centers for Disease Control⁹ have demonstrated that health-promotion programs paid for themselves; not only did they decrease health care costs, including absenteeism, disability, and workers’ compensation, but, more important, every dollar invested in those programs resulted in a $3 to $6 increase in ROI.

Leaders we spoke with who have successfully implemented wellness programs in both large and small companies also noticed that healthy employees take fewer sick days and are more productive at work. According to a study from Pittsburgh-based business health consumer provider Highmark Inc.,¹⁰ workplace wellness pays off for small businesses as well as large ones; in fact, small business employers can save up to $1.65 in health care costs for every dollar invested in workplace wellness programs. It’s a win-win situation that benefits your employees, your business productivity level, and your bottom line.

The ROI of workplace wellness programs is well documented. A Harvard Business Review study¹¹ shows that since 1995, the percentage of Johnson & Johnson employees who smoke has dropped by more than two-thirds, which has meant that the incidence of employees with high blood pressure has declined by more than half. This is wonderful health news for these employees, but it also was great news for Johnson & Johnson leaders, who estimate a cumulative savings of $250 million on health care costs over the past decade. From 2002 to 2008, the return was $2.71 for every dollar spent. Based on this study, wellness initiatives save an employer an average of $394 per employee per year, while the programs cost an average of only $159 per employee per year—an ROI of $3.36 for every $1 spent.

Employee health and satisfaction is a critical issue that is linked to a number of positive outcomes for both employees and organizations, including reduced health care costs, improved quality of life, and higher employee morale. Over the past couple of years, the explosion of digital information, the expansion of digital employer branding, and the availability of online company value propositions have taken workplace wellness programs from mere hypothetical scenarios discussed in dry, academic HR journals to a key pillar of recruitment and a sought-after benefits that prospective job candidates seek out as they make their job selections. Today’s workplace wellness programs are one of the most valuable assets of a company’s value proposition and can significantly enhance company attractiveness. Studies show that implementing such initiatives impacts talent acquisition by showcasing the investments the company has made in its employees and demonstrating how leadership cares about the workforce. This is a key component for retention, because wellness benefits are both consciously and unconsciously factored into an employee’s decision whether to leave or stay with a company. While a study published in the Harvard Business Review¹² found that employee wellness programs are often viewed as a nice workplace perk but not necessarily viewed as a tactical imperative, a growing body of data suggests otherwise. In fact, the article also points out that the ROI on comprehensive, well-run employee wellness programs can be as high as 6 to 1.

Following is a frontline story of SAS Institute’s successful employee wellness program.

Impact of Employee Wellness and Health on Talent Retention and Productivity: An Interview with SAS Institute

While it’s important to have a deep understanding of the type of data you must have to build a successful employee wellness program, it is also equally important to hear practical advice from other companies that have done it in the past three decades.

JP Isson had the opportunity to speak with two executives at the SAS Institute: Jenn Mann, Vice President of Human Resources, and Gale Adcock, Chief Health Officer, to hear their perspectives and gain insights on how SAS, the world pioneer and leader in analytics solutions, has made employee wellness and health programs part of the company’s DNA over the past 31 years—and, as a result, has seen significant impact on employee retention and loyalty, talent acquisition, and productivity, as well as overall health care cost savings.

Isson: What made SAS decide to invest in a workplace wellness program?

Mann: From a culture perspective, it is just the way SAS views our employees. We take a real holistic approach to thinking about our people. It wasn’t kind of like a movement. It was simply part of our DNA from the very beginning. While some companies may have had an event, committee, or culture change that ignited that kind of effort, at SAS this was simply the right thing to do for our employees. . . . At SAS we have been a pioneer into two areas: One is analytics and the second one is investing in our people and culture. This was important at the very beginning.

Adcock: [Gale Adcock has been with SAS for 24 years, working on building and enhancing the health care plan.] We have been running on-site health care for 31 years. It seems like a big deal now. There were maybe a few changes that led to an on-site health care culture. It became like the most logical thing to do. There was no ROI or return on stock evaluation or analysis; it was as simple as “What can we do next to help employees with health care services?”

We built out what they said. This is very much the SAS model of how we build our software. We ask our customers about what they need. For our employees it was “What do you need to get your work done efficiently?” That was how we built our Health Care Center. We built a program that became simply kind of the smart thing to do. It wasn’t directed by any financial meaning; it was just the most logical thing to do for our employees.

Mann: The Health Care Center is a place employees then go to be seen and treated. This is a full view of work and wellness. It is a full service for employees and their families.

Even with changes with health care, we are still very competitive in the type of services we give and cover. We provide physical amenities and recreational and fitness facilities as we have for 31 years, and just made an investment in expanding those services to meet the needs of our growing population and provide services for various demographics. SAS has increased some of its wellness and health programs, including Pilates, yoga, and progressive classes for those of younger age.

Adcock: At SAS, wellness is everybody’s business. It’s a very comprehensive approach. [Some people have asked where wellness resided. She always answers, “Everywhere.”]

Isson: Even if the initial goal was not to track ROI, how do you measure that the wellness plan is working?

Adcock: We actually do measure the impact we have on our employees in terms of what they say when they come to the Health Care Center. Our model is unique in the country. When employees and their families come, they don’t pay anything; our program is self-funded. We do measure some financial impact. And after 30 years we are getting more sophisticated tracking metrics such as:

How much business we do in a year.
How many times employees come to the Health Care Center.
The cost of services compared to the industry.

We look at the street costs versus our Health Care Center, and know how much employees save, meaning financial input for the care data.

Mann: In terms of ROI, we look at things like where we might have to anticipate some spike in medical costs or prescription costs, putting programs in place that help to drive costs down and shift dollars to other areas. We look at the total rewards velocity.

Two years ago we added an on-site pharmacy that is part of the Health Care Center facility. That has been an incredible and convenient benefit for employees.

Adcock: The last four years we have begun to look at 25 years of data in addition to saving money every day for people who use our health care plan and service instead of going with another community center provider. The goal was to figure out what are other ways to utilize our health care plan in a smarter way.

Early intervention for chronic illness.
Preventive approach to illness.
Do we have some way to utilize data in a smarter way?
We try to figure out things like a predisposition for hypertension and diabetes.
We looked at claims data for three years, and we found the following benefit:
- For our patient employees who use our health care plan on a regular basis versus those who use it occasionally or not at all, we found a significant financial difference ([i.e., a benefit] if they use our health care plan).
Our private patients who use our Health Care Center with their families recorded:
- Fewer emergency room visits.
- Fewer hospitalizations for conditions that do not require emergency treatment or hospitalization.

We believe we are having an impact on a day-to-day basis with health care.

Mann: There is a bigger saving in terms of quality of life: having a majority of employees going to the emergency room without hospitalization, and on a long-term view being the employer of choice.

The SAS Work/Life Center is also staffed with professionals and social workers that focus on any area that could help employees reduce stress:

Provide elder care workshop.
Help new parents with advice for newborns and teenagers.
Provide employees with support whether they are raising children or taking care of elders.

The wellness program enables an emotional connection between our employees and the company. And some tangible outcomes are in talent retention/turnover, employee satisfaction, and engagement with the company.

SAS’s turnover is 3 to 5 percent while the industry turnover is 15 to 16 percent. This is a legacy for us. SAS has been in the GPTW [certified as a Great Place to Work] since its inception. And in recent years SAS has been part of the top list of Great Place to Work companies. [SAS really is off the chart is when it comes to a healthy and safe environment. SAS scores in the 90s all the time for those factors. As to the financial ROI, last year SAS updated the ROI for its health facility and found that for every $1 invested there was about $2.40 to $2.50 ROI, measured in value and saving employees’ time.]

Isson: What advice would you give to someone starting a wellness program? What are some dos and don’ts?

Adcock: From the health perspective, it’s important to address the overarching question: What is the culture from the get-go? In the case of SAS, this has been part of our DNA, asking ourselves: “What should we do next for our employees? What is the most logical thing to do?” You should also evaluate what you are already doing that you could leverage, and then craft something based upon employee needs and wants—their overall feedback. Understand where they are already spending their health care dollars. On health, SAS built its wellness program based upon continuous feedback. “If you do this, would they come?” The company also has a survey.

Build something that is consistent with your company culture and scalable. Don’t build something that is not financially sustainable.

Mann: The culture component has been there from the very beginning. We really focus on what type of culture and work environment and freedom employees need to do their jobs, and what cool work and project they would like to work on to impress our customers. We engage our employees with our customers. We don’t micromanage. We have a work environment that is pleasant to work in.

SAS used to do a health care satisfaction survey, but stopped it to focus on continuous health dialogue. The company prefers a one-on-one personal touch that helps SAS to improve service delivery.

As part of overall wellness and satisfaction, SAS runs an employee satisfaction survey every 36 months—not every year, because the company deeply analyzes the survey using SAS software to [not only] capture employee feedback but more importantly to act on the survey findings accordingly. They look at employees’ feedback and develop programs and training based upon that feedback.

SAS also found that there is a strong correlation between the wellness program and talent acquisition and talent retention. Today employees are very mindful and are looking for the overall package when it comes time to work for a given company; and our wellness program helps us to increase the satisfaction of our employees, helping to improve the quality of life by providing tremendous support to employees and their families.

Mann: The wellness and health care program helps the SAS brand not only to attract talent but also to retain them.

Isson: What’s the future of wellness programs?

Adcock: What SAS is doing in terms of being a great place to work and retaining talent is not happening in a vacuum. It is happening in the economy and people. The time is changing, and today we have a lot of opportunities to put people in control. They have all the ways to track their workout, what they eat, how that impacts their lives, and the quality of life.

Today employees ask themselves where they want to be and who they would like to work for. It takes a different type of workplace to appeal to the latest generation. We have more info than we ever had. People come to the Health Care Center with more information because they are all connected, and this helps the whole equation of improving the quality. We continue to update our wellness program to meet and exceed the needs and preferences of our employees.

EMPLOYEE WELLNESS PROGRAM BEST PRACTICES

Like any major initiative involving people and behavior change, the successful implementation of workplace wellness programs is a journey. Based on our discussions with industry leaders and executives who have developed corporate wellness programs, there are a few basic tenets that are keys to success.

Executive Leadership Sponsor

Your executive leadership team must recognize, support, and actively participate in and lead the workplace wellness program across all levels of management. A lack of sponsorship will result in eventual failure, so this team must lead the wellness program by example—for instance, by showing the value of health in their own lifestyles or work habits. According to the Wellness Council of America,¹³ “For any organization change initiative to be effective there has to be a champion. When CEOs value healthy lifestyles and openly practice good health habits, the rest of the organization is likely to follow in their footsteps. To be genuine in promoting health, CEOs need to embrace health as an individual priority.” The CEO, along with the leadership team, should ensure that health and wellness are kept top of mind, and every leader at the organization should work hard to tie all wellness activities back to a broader company strategy. You need to secure your organization executive team’s commitment and support as champions who will tout the mental and physical benefits of the wellness program. All levels of management within your organization should be open and onboarded to promote the benefits of wellness, safety, and health, and wellness should be instituted as a company value.

Understand the Profile of Your Workforce

The starting point for any successful wellness program is to get a comprehensive understanding of your workforce’s health status, as well as present health risks. You should leverage data to proactively identify potential segments of your workforce with health risks and develop a made-to-measure program to help remediate these risks. It is important that you also evaluate your employee base to gauge if they are ready to change before implementing a program. Performing this assessment will enable your organization to design effective plans and choose interventions that are most likely to engage and benefit members. Some preliminary data sources that can help you better understand the profile of your employee population’s health include claims data such as medical claims, pharmacy and lab work, and employee survey data on their health conditions. It is also paramount to understand the demographics of your workforce before putting together strategies that will meet and exceed the needs, preferences, and values of each segment of your employee population.

Communication

Implementing a workplace wellness program requires precise execution in order to enable insights and actions that allow you to accurately address critical business challenges. The way you align your staff and roll out and communicate your wellness program can significantly impact the program’s effectiveness. Failing to do so can result in wasted time, frustrated employees, reluctance to participate, and hard pushback, so proper communication is critical.

Your communications strategy and messaging must be compelling and designed to create awareness, increase interest, motivate, and improve engagement rates. Without a proper framework, your program can backfire; for instance, poorly delivered messaging about eating habits or physical activity can be misconstrued as being offensive or intrusive, which can lead to employee turnoff in regard to the program. Generally speaking, employees are receptive to wellness programs and see them as a benefit that improves their well-being, as long as these initiatives are correctly positioned and introduced—not presented as an effort to intrude on their privacy or as merely a way of saving money on their health coverage costs.

Beyond the wellness program, having a great communication environment is also part of employee well-being. Companies that foster open dialogue typically have employees who feel empowered to express their views, and get more involved and engaged in the culture and mission.

Collaboration and Support across Organizational Groups

Successful wellness programs require collaboration, participation, and adoption across the organization. Because they are designed for employees, your workforce should be part of the building process. They should not perceive the wellness program as a top-down initiative, something managers have put together and want them to adopt. Instead, they should be involved from the very start; they should own the program and help build the key components of it. Asking for employee feedback regarding the program is important, and you should ensure that this feedback is reflected in your wellness policies.

Measure and Track the Outcome against Benchmark and Baseline

Your wellness program must have metrics and measurement in order to track progress and success. And, more important, it needs a benchmark against a baseline. These metrics will translate the business challenges into operational programs that can be monitored over time, not only for the wellness impact on your employees, but also on your overall productivity and bottom line. It’s important to remember that this is a dynamic process, and your wellness program’s management team should monitor performance, evaluate effectiveness, and make adjustments as needed.

If the metrics are well designed, they will be objective means by which your company can track progress and business impact. Your company should use them to quantify broad business objectives such as being acknowledged as a Great Place to Work, as well as other measurable objectives, such as:

Increased employee satisfaction
Increased employee morale
Increased employee health conditions
Providing preventive health and lifestyle program
Reducing stress
Increasing physical activities
Improving eating habits
Decreasing tobacco use
Increasing productivity
Reducing long-term health care costs
Increasing your company’s bottom line

In the era of data analytics, it is important to set clear goals that engage employees and measure the outcomes at the appropriate time. Some companies adopt incentives such as awarding a bonus to employees who quit smoking, or provide insurance plans that cover health maintenance services and tobacco cessation.

Human Capital and Change Management

Implementing wellness programs effectively requires a dynamic multidisciplinary team to be in place and available so that your organization can achieve the ultimate goal of executing the plan and reaching your business objectives. Resources and talent are necessary in order to deliver on every phase of the business solution. We suspect that for some small organizations, getting the funding to implement a full-fledged wellness program could be a challenge, as they will not be able to install a gym on-site and hire a full-time wellness coach or physicians. There is good news, however. Small-to-medium-size business leaders we’ve spoken with have mentioned there are less expensive ways to make a difference in the health of employees without spending a fortune. Best practices include implementing a no-smoking policy or a walking program, replacing the box of candy in the lunchroom with fresh fruits and vegetables, offering on-site flu shots, encouraging employees to take the stairs rather than the elevator, buying healthy foods for meetings, subsidizing healthy options in vending machines, providing pedometers and walking club challenges, and encouraging personal health and safety practices like seat belt use, sleep, hygiene, and stress management. All of these small initiatives add up and can make a huge difference.

Employee Experience and Accessibility

When it comes to wellness programs, taking the employee experience into account should be at the forefront of your strategy. Consider how employees will adopt the program, and what it will take for them to embrace this culture change. What will be the major hurdles? How will they interact with the program? How will they get access to the solutions as well as learn about the program’s features? To this end, convenience, privacy, and ease of use are central to the value proposition of a successful wellness program implementation.

Employee buy-in can make or break a wellness program and ultimately affect the overall success of the organization. This is why it’s important to gather employees’ feedback and adjust your workplace wellness program accordingly. Employees should feel like they are part of the team that helps design program features, particularly as they are the ones who are participating and who will be changing their lifestyles, habits, and behaviors.

Integrated Process

To ensure a successful implementation, your wellness program should be integrated into your company structure and value proposition tools and systems. It should be aligned with and tied to other corporate initiatives and groups, including workplace safety, benefits, human resources, and other infrastructure elements. For instance, the program should provide employees with a standardized set of tools to monitor physical activities, record workouts and health challenges, and enable them to access health information, communications, and program schedules, as well as gain access to wellness support experts, including coaches, or online resources and tools.

OPTIMIZING YOUR EMPLOYEE WELLNESS HEALTH AND WORKPLACE SAFETY WITH PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

Data analytics helps demonstrate the impact that a successful employee wellness program can have on an organization, both by reducing the rising health care costs as well as increasing employee productivity and the company’s bottom-line performance. Data analytics would also help to address measurement goals stated in the previous sections.

If you work in an office setting, workplace safety might not be a top-of-mind concern; however, if you work in construction, mining, or health care, the physical safety of the workforce is definitely paramount in your business strategies.

In 2012, the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc. conducted a web-based membership survey of 5,138 members to identify occupational health and safety issues facing them. A total of 2,123 members responded to the survey (41 percent response rate), and of that total, 61 percent reported health risk appraisal priorities for 2012, with the top three areas identified being weight management/nutrition/healthy eating; physical activity; and mental health/stress management.

For people working in the mining and construction industries, injuries or accidents could be fatal and dramatically impact the company’s overall supply chain and production lines. For instance, predictive analytics can be used to help anticipate some key business challenges, including:

Which employees are more likely to get injured?
What extraction sites are more likely to experience system failure?
Which employees are more likely to take sick leave?
What trucks would require preventive maintenance to avoid failure?
What tractors will experience failures?
What pipeline is more likely to be at risk of leaking or exploding?
From what industry will you have an increase number of injuries and number of claims?
When should you expect claims to spike?

Following is a frontline story showing predictive analytics in action for employee health and safety.

Interview with Dr. Eugene Wen, Vice President and Chief Statistician, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario (Canada) is a 101-year-old government agency that focuses on workers’ compensation and employee workplace safety. The WSIB is one of the largest workplace insurance organizations in North America. Managing more than CAD $4 billion in premium revenue each year, and with close to 4,000 staff, it provides employers with no-fault collective liability insurance. For workers who are injured or contract an occupational disease at work, the WSIB provides return-to-work and recovery services and loss-of-earnings benefits, and covers the costs of required health care.

JP Isson had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Eugene Wen to understand how the WSIB leverages predictive analytics to provide the best services to employers and employees.

Isson: Why has the WSIB decided to leverage predictive analytics?

Wen: The WSIB was set up for workers’ compensation and takes care of workers after they have suffered work-related injuries and illnesses by providing health care and loss-of-earnings benefits, and by helping them get back to work. To do that, the WSIB makes more than one million decisions each year. The WSIB has decided to use predictive analytics to support both strategic and operational decision making in order to optimize service outcomes and help injured and sick workers return to work. With predictive analytics, we can better understand the key factors affecting injured workers’ return to work, predict potential outcomes of the injury, forecast upcoming trends, support better resource allocation, and improve service quality. When injured workers get back to work, their families, employers, communities, and our whole society all benefit from the efforts.

Isson: How does society benefit from these efforts?

Wen: The workforce is the fundamental driver of the economy. Investing in prevention and return to work helps employers maintain their workforce and helps employees get back to work, and in so doing helps keep society productive. Over the years, a great amount of resources and efforts by employers, employees, and WSIB have been put into new technology, safe practices and workplaces, better health care, and return to work. These are tremendous investments in the entire workforce supply chain. Because of these joint efforts, Ontario saw two million fewer working days lost to workplace injury and illness in 2013 than it did in 2009. Considering average workforce productivity in this province, that would translate to nearly $1 billion saved from potential loss to the economy.

Armed with insights and knowledge, decision makers can optimize their workforce planning accordingly and can prepare for potential system failures; and can adjust their resources, workforce, and human capital supply chain to remain competitive and successful.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Workplace wellness programs are a key component of company value propositions and can be used as an incentive to attract and acquire new talent (by promoting the wellness program to prospective job candidates) and as a retention tool to keep and protect existing employees.
Business outcomes of successful wellness programs for employees and organizations include lower absenteeism, higher employee morale, higher job satisfaction, higher employee retention, increased work productivity, lower health care costs, improved quality of life, and better business performance.
Although previously considered just nice-to-have workplace perks, workplace wellness programs have been demonstrated, in data from a variety of studies, to be a strategic business imperative. Investing in wellness program pays off; in fact, some studies suggest that the ROI of a well-run workplace wellness program can be as high as 6 to 1.
When implementing a wellness program, it is effective to start small first, which will let you evaluate challenges and opportunities and reduce the cost of failure. Test and learn before expanding, and track performance and results to make any necessary adjustments.
The successful implementation of a corporate wellness program requires leadership sponsors and commitment, a good understanding of your workforce health conditions, a compelling communication strategy, collaboration from employees and managers, an integrated process, a tremendous user experience, and well-defined key performance indicators to track progress and program outcomes.
Predictive analytics helps to assess the ROI of wellness programs and, more important, provide employers with proactive insights needed to mitigate any health and safety events that could impact the organizations’ resources, supply chain, or productivity.
Employee health, happiness, and productivity at work are deeply related, and to remain competitive and succeed in today’s competitive marketplace, companies should foster all three—this is a shared mission to cultivate a healthier workforce that benefits everyone.

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