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EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Caring for Our Consumers and Employees Alike

CHAPTER 1

EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND WELLNESS

EMPLOYEE HEALTH & WELLNESS – A WIN WIN

Many employers understand the relationship between the health of their employees and the health of their business. Globally, almost two-thirds of companies with effective health and productivity programmes believe they perform better than their competitors. Many CGF members know that when they focus on mitigating the impact of Non-Communicable Diseases and make it easier for their employees to pursue healthier lifestyle choices, the company does well while the employees live better lives.

200%

Average return on investments in employee health and wellness programmes

A recent Harvard University study found an average return on investment (ROI) of more than 200% on investments in employee health and wellness programmes. Common strategic objectives include improving productivity, reducing “presenteeism” (when employees are at work but not fully productive due to personal health issues) and disability costs. Workers spend most of their waking time in the workplace – about one-third of the day – making it the critical environment in which to support positive behavioural change.

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EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND WELLNESS

DIMENSIONS OF EH&W

Employee Health and Wellness (EH&W) can be defined in many different ways. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides a useful model, Healthy Workplace, in which EH&W programmes generally address the following dimensions:

1

PHYSICAL WORK ENVIROMENT

Includes structure, air, machinery, furniture, products, chemicals, materials, and production processes in the workplace. These elements can affect workers’ physical safety and health, as well as mental health and well-being.

2

PERSONAL HEALTH RESOURCES

The health services, information, and otherwise supportive environment provided to workers to help and motivate their efforts to maintain or improve healthy personal lifestyles. These include employee wellness screenings, smoking cessation programmes, and better food and beverage choices in company lunchrooms.

3

ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Refers to the activities in which an enterprise might engage to support the social and physical wellbeing of a community in which it operates. Examples include community screening and education programmes or working with community partners to build infrastructure such as roads, pavements and exercise facilities that promote physical activity.

4

PSYCHOSOCIAL WORK ENVIRONMENT

Refers to organisational culture as well as attitudes, values, beliefs, and daily practices. Examples include work-life balance policies or policies and practices related to dignity and respect for all workers.

There are regional differences in the focus of programmes, reflecting the political, economic and demographic differences of each market. In markets with a high incidence of obesity and diabetes, exercise and nutrition are emphasised; in economies hit hard by recent economic turmoil, stress and work/life balance are important.

The goal of the CGF is to provide examples of meaningful efforts that produced results and inspiration to help member companies determine what kinds of programmes will work for them and to provide up-to-date and exciting news about what other CGF members are doing, including the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics they are using to measure their success.

CHAPTER 1

EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND WELLNESS

GETTING STARTED

Whichever portfolio of EH&W initiatives works for your company, the leadership, communication and engagement involved requires a special effort, and the CGF Health & Wellness working group is ready to help.

To help CGF member companies think about the elements required to undertake a successful EH&W programme, the CGF Health & Wellness Team has put together a suggested list of actions and considerations based on their own experience:

DECIDE WHAT TO DO

Set goals that place Employee Health & Wellness at the forefront of the initiative
Engage senior leadership and visible champions throughout the organisation
Develop proper budgets, and define expectations (ROI, KPIs and metrics)

MAKE IT WORK

Align the Employee Health & Wellness programme with an operating unit/function – not as a special project
Be sure of what you think about technology, infrastructure and administration requirements
Collect data and feedback professionally
Start each participant with a baseline assessment to validate results reporting

COMMUNICATE SUCCESS

Encourage employee engagement with a well-cadenced programme of key messages
Celebrate the diversity of your employee health and wellness programmes and tailor them to your local needs
If you have more than one programme/initiative, create a unifying umbrella programme
Establish relevant incentives for achieving improvement goals across agreed KPIs

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Align internal policies – smoking areas do not make sense if smoking cessation is a EH&W goal
Investigate partnerships for healthy options in the cafeteria, bicycle loan/subsidies and fitness centres
Maintain, improve and enhance the scope of your programmes to keep them fresh

The CGF works on an ongoing process of measuring its members’ progress in the implementation of its Employee Health & Wellness Commitment. We want to continue to encourage a tiered approach to implementation and work towards enhancing the scope of our work. We publish our results in an annual report and this is seen as a critical driver in ensuring our industry takes action and in enabling us, as an industry, to learn from our efforts.

We know CGF member companies are very active in this area, and we would like you to share your experiences with fellow members. Not all of them have to be success stories and the CGF Health & Wellness team will respect your desire to remain anonymous, but we do know that real-world examples are very powerful and will help all of our member companies make progress.

55%

implementation
rate in 2015

In 2015, 55% of respondents to our Health & Wellness Survey confirmed that their companies had implemented employee health and wellness programmes.

With our 2016 deadline on this public commitment, we need to move quickly if we are to successfully close the Employee Health & Wellness Commitment in 2017. In order to achieve this, we need your help!

PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

AHOLD’S FIT & FUN PROGRAMME FOR ASSOCIATE HEALTH AND WELLNESS

WHY WE WERE MOTIVATED TO CHANGE

Health and wellness is at the core of Ahold’s responsible retailing strategy.
Healthy associates are likely to have more energy and lower absenteeism and to contribute more at home and at work.
We encourage our associates to lead healthier lifestyles and engage in the healthy living programmes in place.

HOW WE DID IT

Fit & Fun is a health programme offered to Ahold associates in the Netherlands, through which they can register and get access to a variety of fitness activities.
Fit & Fun offers clinics on nutrition and smoking cessation, as well as more traditional fitness activities such as dance and movement, boot camp, and other exercise classes. Water sports are also offered.
Each operating unit of Ahold has specific programmes in place to support our associates to live healthily.
Health & wellness programmes have been developed by HR in close cooperation with internal and external experts.
We offer initiatives to encourage our associates to lead healthier lifestyles and take part in the healthy-living programmes offered.

IMPACT WE HAVE SEEN

The healthy programmes and initiatives are appreciated by our associates and have resulted in them having a more positive outlook while at work and providing a better service to our customers.
We found that a group of early adopters can motivate others within the company to participate and play an important role in further engagement.
Over 28,000 associates took part in healthy living initiatives offered by the company in 2014 (over 10%).

PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

JOHNSON & JOHNSON HAS EXECUTED A CENTRE-LED/REGIONALLY TAILORED HEALTH AND WELLNESS PROGRAMME ACROSS 60 COUNTRIES

WHY WE WERE MOTIVATED TO CHANGE

Johnson & Johnson is committed to investing in the health of its employees in order to promote a more engaged, productive and happier workforce.

HOW WE DID IT

To support a Culture of Health, the 12-programme initiative with the stated goals of the programme across all locations.
Fundamental to the success of the initiative was the focus on customising the programme to suit the culture and specific health needs of the participating regional business units.
The programmes focused on many areas of health, including: a tobacco-free workplace, HIV policy, health profile, medical surveillance, physical activity, health promotion, and stress/energy management.

IMPACT WE HAVE SEEN

In total, the programme directly reached over 128,000 members globally across 60 countries.
The success of the initiative has been largely influenced by the degree of involvement from senior leadership:
- the CEO plays an active role in promoting to the initiative globally across the entire organisation; and
- targeted discussions with Health Champions are focused on how to meet the objectives of the initiative.

The organisation is actively progressing against the stated goals to:
- ensure that 90% of employees have access to the Culture of Health programme;
- see that 80% of the employees have successfully completed a health risk profile and know their key health indicators; and
- achieve a low health risk rating across 80% of members who have completed the health-risk profile.