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Health Culture and Business Barriers: 3 Step Approach

Guest Blogger: M. Scott Andrews

A quick search of studies, surveys and white papers reveals interesting trends regarding business leaders' thoughts about barriers to business growth and organizational health culture. Increasing evidence puts employee health into perspective with other business growth barriers and concerns about healthcare cost trending. The perspective is whether to do something about costs and how to do it. Below are 3 easy steps to challenge your status quo and ultimately integrate health culture into your business strategy. 

1. Stop thinking that health culture is just another benefit you can't afford to act on
2. Observe your employees and business habits: Don't analyze until you're paralyzed.
3. Measure something: don't just waste time and energy trying to decide where to start.

1. An insurance broker I spoke with opined, "Wouldn't the investment in human capital be considered Health Insurance; Similar to salaries and other benefits?"

Whether you choose to believe the empirical evidence, anecdotal evidence, or both, the fact is that the direct and indirect costs associated with employee health are trending higher each year at an accelerated rate. These costs include premium rates, worker's compensation, lost time due to injury, sluggish workforce, absenteeism, presenteeism, and employee errors among many others. The cost trend will continue to rise even as business leaders continue to look for ways to create value in their organization's health culture.  

To further illustrate poor health culture as a barrier to business growth: A recent report, Deloitte, LLP reported that senior executives surveyed identified health costs as a greater barrier to business growth than taxes. Not surprising when you consider the findings from Nationwide Better Health and the FDA Department of Health and Human Services concluding in their combined report that health costs will surpass wages by 2032. This means that countless organizations, currently run by senior executives and business owners, will eventually be paying more for their grandchildren's associated health costs (when they become wage earners) than they will for their wages. However, if you do nothing, at least you don't have to worry about spending any money on the problem.

2. Doing nothing can also result from paralysis by analysis. However, you don't have to pour over mountains of numbers and data to know that you have a problem within your organization. All you have to do is look around. Do some observing. Do you want your employees to be healthier? Consider these 5 quick observations: What's in your vending machines? What food do you have for meetings or lunches? Do you have a health policy supporting your health culture? Are your employee workstations ergonomically appropriate? If you want to hire someone to evaluate your organizational health culture as part of your overall business strategy, many wellness companies offer this complement to their health culture audit process.

3. One of the biggest mistakes in implementing a plan addressing the health culture barriers within an organization is to fail to benchmark or measure possible comparative data. How do you know if your company is succeeding? You use your own set of metrics, right? (i.e., sales revenue, quality control, customer service, etc.) Your health culture is certainly no exception. Discover where your greatest pain or barrier to growth or sustainability is and benchmark the findings. The follow-up step is implementation of a comprehensive wellness solution and re-evaluate annually. 

I recommend working with a vendor with a leading edge platform that is able to coordinate your standing resources with their experience to free up your time and energy, so you can focus on other business matters. In three separate surveys from Willis Group Holdings, OptumHealth, and CGR, asking business leaders what the biggest barriers were to implementing wellness initiatives or employee participation, the greatest percentage of responses went to time, energy and cost. You would also do yourself a tremendous benefit if you had a vendor that also provides you with a game changing tool that automates the communication process to implement your desired programs.

There you go. Just 3 easy steps to integrate health culture into your business strategy.

Scott Andrews is an Engagement Manager at Preventure, Inc., with 15yrs of experience in the healthcare and wellness industries.  Our mission, at Preventure, is to understand our clients better than anyone else and provide them with the cultural and financial benefits of a healthier workforce.