Business Health Strategy with Byrd Wellness Concepts

Real Productivity

2012-01-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

Productivity is an important aspect of every business. Without it, you don’t get anywhere. But, what is it exactly? What is productive? The dictionary tells us that productive is:

1. Having the power of producing
2. Generative
3. Creative

These definitions are pretty standard. I don’t think anyone would be surprised by them. I wasn’t, but one thing that caught my attention was definition #3. Creative is not a word you hear a lot when you are talking about “just getting it done”.

Creative is a word that brings more into the equation than just busy. That raised some questions for me:
Are we looking at productivity in the right way?
Can we improve productivity in a new way?

Both of these questions are on my mind regularly and I hope they are on the minds of business owners, executives and managers too. Any business can say that they want to get more done. That makes perfect sense. The more you get done, the better off you will be, right? Well, that is where my questions come into play.

When you are 100% on, you can get a lot done. One of the benefits of worksite wellness programs is getting employees more engaged and helping them to be more productive. It makes sense that someone with more energy is going to get more done. Businesses have understood this and taken full advantage.

But, the fact that people are more productive doesn’t just mean they are getting more done. There is more to it than just “more”. It is easy to get into a groove and feel like we are doing something versus nothing, but what are you really accomplishing? Asking yourself that question can help you a great deal. There is a question that can help you even more. That question is:

If your employees can ask one important question, you can get more from them:
Am I really being productive right now or am I just killing time?

More importantly, when they ask this question, they will get more from them themselves and take away more satisfaction from what they are doing. That is one of the ways that wellness has helped companies and employees change productivity. Not only do you get people energized and doing more, you help them understand goals and purpose.

Goals and purpose are the difference between busy and productive. When you set a real goal, there is purpose behind it. You know why you are doing something and you are looking forward to the reward of getting it done and done well.

We often think that because we are busy, we are productive. I hate to spoil it for you, but doing something…anything does not guarantee productivity.

This new definition of productivity brings us back to my questions:

Are we looking at productivity in the right way?
Most businesses are not. They are trying to make people more busy and using that as a measure of success. “If I am keeping this person busy, they are clearly productive.” is what you will hear from the business that is using the old definition of productivity.

Not taking purpose into account is a big mistake. The bigger mistake is not helping the employee find their purpose in the tasks they are completing. It is one thing to tell someone about the purpose, it is another to help them embrace their purpose within the organization and the tasks they are completing. Engagement is the key to success. Just doing something will only take you so far.

You have to be fully engaged and driven by purpose in order to be successful. Most companies that I have talked to, certainly all of the companies that I work with are looking for success. It would be hard to find a company that simply wanted to be busy or simply keep their doors open.

Keeping busy and keeping the doors open are the bare minimum. Those are good things when compared to the alternative, but they are they really what your business strives for?

Can we improve productivity in a new way?
Yes we can. Just as your business doesn’t strive for the bare minimum, your employees want more too. They want to set and reach goals. In other words, they want to be successful. If you want your business to be successful, don’t you want your employees to be successful?

Of course you want your employees to be successful. The best way to do that is to give them purpose and help them stay fully engaged in what they are doing. If an employee is busy just getting things done day after day, they may be productive by the old definition, but for how long? Even if they keep it up for a long time, what are they really keeping up? Are they getting things done or are they truly successful?

As a business, this may sound like a play on words, but there is nothing more important to your success than the success of your employees. I’ve said it countless times and I will say it again: Your employees are your most important asset. If they are successful, your business will be successful.

Success is not as complicated as many would think. Some think it’s a secret or luck, but it is as simple as setting goals. A wellness program that is designed around your business will create an environment that supports goals, success and productivity. A workforce with engagement that is based on setting and reaching important goals is what every company needs. Now, that is real productivity.

Company Goals

2012-01-04T14:04:00.001-08:00

Every year, businesses all over the country have people working hard from January to December. These employees are toiling away on a day to day basis. They are carrying out the vision of the company and making it a reality.

Often, as the year comes to a close, the intensity ramps up. There are numbers to hit and new goals to be set for the next year. This leads to a time of intense work and planning. How many of the goals that we set last year are being met this year? That is a question that I ask not only my clients, but their employees as well.

At the start of the year, this is a very important question. When it comes to the New Year’s resolution, this is the moment of truth. You can plan and set goals all year, but if you don’t get out and start taking steps to reach them, than nothing happens.

It is too common for companies to set a long list of goals in one year only to find that they didn’t act on all of them. This means that they want to get things done, but something got in the way. In business, many things can get in the way.

Time, customer needs, sales struggles, employee challenges and a whole list of other issues can be factors in goals not met. This is one side of the equation: company sets a series of goals without considering the barriers and some of them fall off. Not an uncommon scenario as it is easy for executives and managers to throw ideas in and keep adding to the list.

No one wants to say no to a goal that is proposed. No one wants to miss their numbers either. That is actually what leads us to the other side of the equation: company stays focused on one or a few specific goals to meet for the year. As the year goes by, the goals may be met, but there are many other areas of the business that are not addressed.

As a business owner, I completely understand the need for focus. I also understand that there are some goals that mean life or death in business. It is fine to consider these goals, in fact they have to not only be considered, but there is no choice but to execute when it comes to the core of your business.

But what is at the core of your business? Is it sales? Is it customer satisfaction? Is it employee growth and development? Is it just the bottom line? No matter what is at the core of your business, you have to set goals around the area. You also need to set goals in other areas. Like it or not, the area that you think is the most important is impacted by other areas in your business.
The more people you have involved in the execution of your day to day business needs, the more the areas of your business are intertwined. This is true in most companies and I have seen it firsthand.

Take one company that focused on health for example:
They set goals and took action to improve employee health. Their main reason for doing this was to decrease spending on healthcare. While saving the company money by reducing medical claims, they realized that they also saw increases in attendance. There were fewer sick days used by employees over the course of the year.

By setting goals in one area, they made in impact in another area. This works when you set the right goals and of course when you reach them. The reason this worked is that the employees are a system in the business. As that system improves in one way, there are other products of that improvement that show up in other ways.

The main idea is that setting goals for your company is the first key. Without setting and reaching goals, no business can succeed. The next key is that the goals you set are going to impact other areas of business. That is why it is important to make sure that your goals are in line with where you really want the company to go. The more in line goals are, the more successful they will be and the more impact they will have across your entire company.

Many companies have the goal of decreasing healthcare costs. But if you notice the example above, the action taken was not to snap their fingers and lower their rates. The action was not to change plans and start saving money. The action was certainly not to drop coverage or shift costs to employees. None of those actions would’ve led to the results they really wanted.

The action was to focus on improved employee health. As employee health improved, costs went down. They saw a change in their rates because their plan wasn’t being used as much for such illness and injury that was costing the company so much in years past.

The fact that they saw changes is testament to the fact that they set quality goals and had a good plan. I saw firsthand, how they worked together and had a clear vision. This was a must in order to see any results.

The fact that they such good results stemmed more from the way they set the goals. The goals they set for the year were company goals. They had been constructed to work for the company and to be executed by everyone in the company. When this all came together, it is no wonder that positive results followed the action.

Company goals should be just that: goals that help the company. Any action that leads to cost savings, increased productivity or decreased absenteeism is helping the company. That is a no-brainer and so is the fact that every company should be setting those goals this year.

Face the Facts

2011-12-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

Most businesses want to know the facts. When it comes to sales, expenses and every other part of business, it is important to know the real story so you can make the best decisions. If you don’t know the facts, it is difficult to know what to do. How do you make decisions without being equipped with the information that you need to make changes?

You don’t. Businesses that don’t have enough information are not able to make any changes. They are forced to wait. Waiting doesn’t create changes. It may give you more time to gather information, but simply waiting is not a very progressive strategy.

When it comes to health insurance, the waiting strategy seems to be the norm. Just because it’s the norm doesn’t mean that it’s a good strategy. In fact, it’s not a strategy at all. What most businesses are doing today is actually the opposite of strategic. They simply wait for the renewal each year and pay it. They usually add some complaints and specific words about the costs, but that is after the fact and therefore, does them no good.

In any area of business, not having a strategy is a difficult way to make changes. In the area of health insurance, not having a strategy is actually an easy way to make changes. The problem is that they are not the changes your business wants. The only changes you see are increases in price.

This change is not the one that they were hoping for. The change is what they are hoping does NOT happen when they sign the year’s insurance agreement. Even though, this is one thing that is certain to happen when they fail to take action.

What action do companies need to take? It’s actually much simpler than they are making it. Many companies are having trouble understanding insurance plans, healthcare and healthcare reform. I understand this confusion because there is a lot to think about. The beauty of health insurance within a business is that you don’t need to worry about any of this.

The only thing that companies need to worry about is employee health. When employees are healthy, medical use is less frequent, when medical use is infrequent, insurance is less expensive. If you keep your healthy employees healthy and get some of your unhealthy employees to become healthier, your insurance costs will go down. It’s that simple.

The action that successful companies are taking now is to proactively manage their healthcare plans by improving employee health. By focusing on health, they are able to get ahead of the cost increases and actually avoid them all together. The cost increases that most companies are seeing each year are not because of the big-bad insurance companies. The cost increases are clearly tied to the health decrease that is sweeping the nation.

That is a fact that you need to understand to be successful in business. When analyzing any area of business, you need to know the facts in order to act. If you don’t know the facts, you can’t act confidently. It’s one thing to simply not have all of the facts in front of you. It is another thing entirely to refuse to see the facts that are in front of you.

This is what many companies are doing by simply paying more for health insurance each year. If you don’t look at the reasons for this increase or look for an alternative, you are basically saying that you have no choice and spending more money on purpose. Does this sound like good business? I don’t think so.

That is why so many businesses are now facing the facts and realizing that healthcare costs are in their hands. Employee health is a system within your business. Just as you monitor expenses and apply maintenance practices in other areas of business, you need to do the same for health insurance. Employee health is the maintenance for your health insurance plan. The better you monitor health and promote healthy behavior, the more control your company has over healthcare costs.

Healthy Culture is a Two-way Street

2011-11-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

Many companies are trying to create a healthier workforce. At the same time, many employees are trying to create a healthier lifestyle for themselves. This is all happening simultaneously. Since workers are trying to be healthier and companies are trying to make their workers healthy, everyone should be healthy right?

If only it were that easy. There are many roadblocks to health for the average person. There is time, know-how and finding the right routine to name a few. These roadblocks are nothing when compared to the roadblocks created by a culture that doesn’t support health.

Employees are people and people want to be healthy. There is no reason for them to do anything else, so living healthy should be easy. Well, that is a common mistake made by many people as they try to make changes. The only thing that is easy is talking about health or thinking about making changes. T

Actually making those changes can be very difficult and usually takes a lot of dedication, time and support. The support is what I would like to focus on here. If everyone wants to live healthy, why don’t they succeed with ease? They need more support in order to do so.
Companies are finding this out the hard way. Many businesses are doing the right thing by focusing on employee health. They know that by creating programming, offering incentives and promoting healthy activities they will see positive changes in their workforce.

The benefits are numerous. There is health care costs and productivity to name a few. There are also benefits in the areas of attendance, morale, employee satisfaction and much more. Companies know they will see these benefits if they put programs in place.

The biggest problems occur when these programs are being put into place. They want a healthier workforce, so they encourage healthy activity. It makes perfect sense. If you do healthy things, you will see healthy results. That remains true, but corporate wellness is not that simple.

There are few things that make it more complicated

1. How do you know what they need to do in order to be healthy?
It is easy to roll out a smoking cessation program and make sure that everyone that smokes attends and participates actively. It is easy to promote it and get a good turn-out. Where does it become challenging? It becomes challenging when you realize that of the smokers on your staff, a small percentage wanted to or was ready to quit. This program had great intensions just as its participants did, but it was not the most timely or important area to focus on. Therefore the company that did this missed out on the results they wanted.

2. How do employees get their concerns communicated?
This is where the two-way street comes into play. Our last example showed a company moving forward without consulting employees. This led to a program that got less than desirable results. This wasn’t due to a bad program or lack of support. This result was due to lack of planning and communication.

When employees have a health concern, they need a place to communicate it. They need to be able to tell the company what will help them. This is important in order to not only get the right programming in place, but also to gauge success and make changes moving forward.
A wellness committee is the best way to do this. Establishing a group or employees to lead the initiative is the best way to make others feel comfortable enough to share their needs and voice their opinions.

For the company: Once they have this line of communication, the employees have to use it. Promotion, incentives and participation are all great, but they don’t mean anything if you are missing key health areas that people are trying to improve.

For the employee: Great programming and a supportive company means nothing if you are not able to focus on the areas that are important to you.

The bottom line is: employees need to voicing their concerns and telling their companies what they need. Health is not something that comes naturally. It is something we all want, but it takes work. Many companies get caught in the trap of giving employees what they think they should have. At the same time, many employees fall in to the trap of taking what the company thinks they should have.

I commend any company that takes action and focuses on wellness. I think it is a great step and many companies have seen great results from doing it. My point is not to chastise those that have tried to implement programming. My point is to remind companies to do it for employees rather than doing it to employees.

The only way to do this is to get feedback from employees. Let them tell you what they need and support them in those areas. Employees: tell your company what you need and use the tools as support. When you do this, you will be successful. The more successful employees are, the more successful their companies will be. This is true in all areas, including health.

How bad does it have to get?

2011-10-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

Wellness has become a hot topic. Most businesses have discussed wellness as an option to control their healthcare costs. Many have taken advantage by putting a plan in place and seen great results. This article is not to showcase what they have done. I could share the 3-6 to 1 return on investment they’ve seen. I could share success stories from employees that lost weight, quit smoking and started managing their overall health. I could share how these employees are taking fewer medications, feeling more energetic and how they have all lowered their risk for serious conditions.

All of the changes that these groups have made are leading to great results. All of these results are saving companies money. They are all typical when a company has an organized approach to supporting a healthy culture. These results are nothing more than a product of specific actions taken to improve a company and how they manage healthcare.

I should be pushing these results on you repeatedly, so you understand them. I should be sharing these results as much as possible. There are statistics all over the place that support the results and give me plenty of ammunition to convince you that it works.

So, why don’t I share these statistics and try to convince you that wellness works? I think there is something more important than the results. There is a series of steps that you have to take in order to get these results. The first of these steps is the most important. It is the first step.

Many companies have talked about wellness. Many companies have considered implementing a program. Many companies continue to talk about wellness and continue to consider their options. What is the problem with this? Well, for starters, they are not taking the first step. Discussion is great, but without action, there are no results.

The dilemma is this: Companies don’t know exactly what will happen. They don’t know exactly how the program will work or necessarily have someone to make it work. They don’t know that the results will work for them. Despite seeing it in print, online and in countless discussions with others in the industry, they are not sure if it will work for their company.

I understand this. I know that actions have different results in different companies. The difference between companies that get the results and the companies that don’t are actually very significant. It is not as complicated as you think it is either.

The first difference between companies that see results from wellness programs is as simple as it gets. In fact, it is a no brainer. The biggest difference between successful companies and companies that are not successful in wellness is:

Getting Started

That’s right. It is that simple. We talked about how important it is to take the first step. We can argue over what ideas may or may not work. We can debate the success of various plans. We can do this all day and what will the result be? The result will be nothing!

There will be no results until we get started. Even if the first step is small and simple, if your company gets started with a wellness program, you can start seeing some results. There may not be incredible changes in the first day, week or even the first month. The results you get are going to come in time and it is important to dedicate that time in order to see them.

The question I have for companies that have yet to take the first step:
Where would you be if you started taking action when you started discussing wellness as an option?

Think about it. When did your company start discussing wellness? When did you take your first step toward implementing a wellness program? I have talked to companies that have spent years just thinking and talking about wellness. When those companies finally get started, they wonder: Why did we wait so long? They also wonder where they could be if they had started sooner.

Wellness is something you have to do. You can talk about it, but until you start doing it, you won’t see the results your company wants. In fact, the longer you wait, the worse things get and the harder it will feel to get started.

After all, health insurance is going up. We have only seen things get worse on that side as it continues to get more expensive each year. The health of your employees is only getting worse as they continue with their unhealthy habits.

If we don’t change anything, how can we expect to see anything but the same results?
The answer is simple: We can’t expect to see anything different. Your company won’t see anything different results until you get started. Results and success may be different depending on what you do. You may see varying degrees of success. The results are certain if you don’t do something. How bad does it have to get before you are willing do something different?

Money Talks, Culture Screams

2011-09-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

We all want to be healthy. We are all doing what we can to live healthy. Each and every one of your employees is doing what they can to live as healthy as they can. At least, we think that’s what they are doing. What are they really doing?
Your employees are living as healthy as you expect them to live. They are doing what their coworkers do and your company gets the results. It’s that simple. The habits and behavior of your employees is dictated by the company culture. That is how it always has been and how it always will be.

Again, this is not an attack on your people, or even people in general. As I mentioned, all people, including your employees want to live healthy. The question is: What incentives do they have to do it?

The key to driving change in any organization is incentive. From the classroom as a kid, to the highest offices of major corporations, incentives are what drive people do things. Incentives drive people to study. They drive people to work. They drive people to make changes in all areas. They even drive people to make changes in their health.

Incentives can look very different from one organization to another. Some incentives are monetary. Others are simply the satisfaction of being part of the organization.

That is what I’ve seen as the best incentive of all. When you are part of an organization, you have to do what is expected of you, or you will not be part of it for very long.

The culture of a company is very powerful. I have heard companies say that incentives aren’t working or that they can’t give enough incentive for people to buy in. The biggest challenge for all of these companies: unhealthy culture. I have also heard companies say that they are getting people to buy in without the need for big incentives and they aren’t paying out a lot just to get people involved. The biggest plus for these companies: a healthy culture.

A healthy culture is actually the biggest incentive that a company can offer. Just as you expect employees to adhere to training and perform according to company standards, why wouldn’t your company expect them to do something that will not only save money, but also improve overall performance?

In other words, rather than offering incentives to create a healthy culture, companies should actually be offering a healthy culture in order to provide incentive to adhere to it. Employees will work to fit in. No matter what part of your culture you emphasize, people will try to fit in. When health is the norm, people will change in order to fit that norm.

Many companies have learned this when they see that people stick with their healthy habits. More significantly, they are seeing it when more and more people are joining in and creating their own healthy habits. The people that stick with it are simply doing what is normal to them. Their company embraced it and encouraged them to do what they do. Those that joined in did so because they saw the benefits that the others were receiving and also saw the company rewarding them for doing it.

The reward for these employees was fitting in and being praised. They didn’t need money. They didn’t need prizes. I’ve also seen many companies fail to get more people engaged. The biggest problem they ran into was trying to give a big enough incentive for people to change. They wanted everyone to get involved immediately, so they offered a reward. That reward was supposed to get people going and help them make changes. Unfortunately, they weren’t opting out because they were waiting to get paid. They weren’t holding out because they didn’t get enough to change their minds about living healthy.

When thinking about incentives, you have to remember the motivation. When you are offering an incentive to do something, it all has to match up. You can’t just show up one day and offer money for someone to participate in a random activity. When it comes to wellness, you have to create and promote a program that people want to participate in.

Time and organization are the first keys. You have to dedicate both in order to build a successful wellness program. When you have an organized approach and allow your company time to build it, employees will buy in. Why will they buy in? They aren’t buying in because you are offering a big incentive. Employees are buying in because your program is organized and has been around for a long time (or is presented as a long-term initiative).

In other words, employees are buying into wellness programs when they are part of the company culture. You can offer money, prizes and all sorts of goodies. Incentives are good, but the more your company supports health, the more people will buy in. The more employees see health as the norm, the more likely they are to participate.

Company culture is a powerful incentive. Incentives may talk to employees and help get a few people going. Culture actually drives change and gets the majority to buy in. In wellness, the best incentive is a healthy culture.

Don’t Forget To Tie Workplace Wellness Programs Into Ergonomics and Safety Programs

2011-08-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

Guest Blogger: Jill Kelby of Kelby Ergo Design
Some things just go together, like peanut butter and jelly, locks and keys, and peas in a pod. So why wouldn’t you in incorporate workplace wellness initiatives into ergonomics and safety programs? They should fit together like pieces of a puzzle to produce a clear picture of healthy, productive and safe employees.

Workplace wellness programs focus on improving the overall health and well-being of the worker. The current understanding is that health and wellness is an active process and provides an opportunity to build and enhance a company’s employee population. It is a proactive, preventative approach designed to promote habits and behaviors to achieve optimum levels of health, social and emotional functioning. Wellness programs provide education for employees so that they make the right choices to lead a healthy lifestyle. This can include coaching, weight and stress management programs, and education on nutrition, fitness and other risky behaviors such as alcohol, drugs and smoking. The goals for employers who invest in a wellness program are to lower expenses related to absenteeism and health care costs and to improve the wellbeing and job satisfaction of their employees.

Ergonomics programs focus on the optimizing the people and processes or an organization. The purpose of ergonomics is to improve the well-being of the employees and overall system performance. (IEA, 2000). Ergonomics is focused on how the employees interact and interface with their work—the environment, work flow, task and the equipment/products they use to perform the tasks. Ergonomics programs seek to identify and implement sustainable, effective and proactive solutions in productivity, efficiency and injury prevention. The bottom line value of ergonomics is increased process efficiency, improved employee productivity and safety. The results are increased revenues, more engaged employees and lower workers compensation costs.

Protection and PromotionA recent paper, “Workplace Health Protection and Promotion: A New Pathway for A Healthier – and Safer – Workforce,” written by the task force the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) and published in JOEM, suggests that employers can gain a more powerful punch from their wellness programs if they are integrated into other safety and health initiatives. Many companies isolate their ergonomics/safety programs from their wellness programs into different “silos”. The researchers said that this approach is a common mistake made by employers and in doing so, the effectiveness of each program suffers.

The paper contends that the concept of “workplace health protection and promotion” can address this divided approach by systematically integrating these two programs, therefore increasing the overall health and well-being of the workforce while decreasing the likelihood of workplace injuries and illnesses. The authors state, “both health protection and health promotion interventions are best achieved when they are working in concert.”

The paper defines “health protection” as incorporating the activities that protect workers from occupational injury and illness – ranging from basic safety training, protective gear, work organization, and safety enhancing modifications to equipment. “Health promotion,” by contrast, is defined as including activities that maintain or improve the personal health of a work force – ranging from health-risk assessments to wellness initiatives and immunizations.

“The two factors, personal health and personal safety – each essential to a productive worker and to a productive workplace – are effectively combined in a symbiotic manner way that increases their impact on overall health and productivity. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Stated simply, workplace health protection and promotion is the strategic and systematic integration of distinct environmental, health, and safety policies and programs into a continuum of activities that enhances the overall health and well-being of the workforce and prevents work-related injuries and illnesses,” the authors stated.

Ergonomics, safety, health and wellness—all benefit the employees and the employer. They may appear to be different approaches; however, they share a common goal: promoting overall health and preventing workplace injuries. We all know that the greatest asset of every company is their employees—their people. People make productivity happen and they make the bottom line. Implementing and sustaining both programs together will result in positive impacts to both the company and the employees.

By Jill Kelby, PT, CEA

Jill Kelby is the president and owner of Kelby Ergo Design, a full service ergonomics and process improvement consulting firm based in Eden Prairie, MN. She can be reached at jill@kelbyergodesign.com, www.kelbyergodesign.com, 612.454.1432.

What Problems?

2011-07-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

Many companies are working to improve the health of their employees. The reasons that motivate this work vary by company, but the fact remains that without improving employee health, we can’t improve healthcare. In fact, many companies will soon be unable to afford healthcare at all.

This sounds extreme, but it is a fact of life for many companies that healthcare will simply be too expensive. It has already become their second-highest expense after payroll, so how will they be able to keep it going with an increase in cost every year? The answer is as simple as the problem. They will have to figure out a way to stop the increasing costs.

That is what most companies are doing. That is their number one reason to implement wellness programs. They are trying to prevent illness and chronic conditions that are going to lead to higher medical costs. As they prevent these medical costs, their insurance costs go down.

That is what wellness is all about: Preventing health issues by teaching employees how to live healthy lifestyles. The goal of a wellness program is nothing more than getting employees to change their habits in order to improve their health. If they are already living healthy, the goal is to keep them doing it by supporting their good habits.

Support is the key to any wellness program. Without it, the program will not succeed. There are many kinds of support when it comes to any corporate program. In this case, I am talking about supporting the employees. More specifically, supporting the employees by making sure that they have the following information readily available to them:

- What problems they are dealing with
- How serious their problems are
- What resources are available to help them with these problems

What problems are they dealing with?

The problems that employees are dealing with are things like high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and many other things that are becoming more common every year.

With over 30 percent of our population falling into the category of obese, among the 60 percent that are overweight, it is no wonder these problems are becoming more and more common. Often it is weight that leads to additional problems.
It starts as nothing more than a few extra pounds, but it turns into decreased life-expectancy, catastrophic and incredibly costly events. You would think that avoiding death, heart attacks and strokes would be enough motivation to watch blood pressure, cholesterol or even just weight.

Because it is difficult to get employees to even look at these problems, it becomes imperative to share as much information with them as possible. The more light a company can shed on health facts, numbers and the importance of keeping risk factors in check, the better they are able to get employees to focus on healthy behaviors.

It is not enough to tell employees to change their habits. They have to understand why they would want to change and be supported in their efforts to do so.
Employees don’t always want help. In fact, they often don’t think they need help. That is where understanding how serious health problems really are becomes the most important factor and the best lesson a company can offer to employees.

How serious are employee health problems?

To put it nicely: health problems in the American workforce are running rampant. To put it bluntly: The American workforce is killing itself and taking their companies with it. Whichever end of the spectrum you are on, you have to agree that there is a big problem in our country. The problem is not just the individual and all of their health concerns.

The problem is that there isn’t more concern. People don’t know they have a problem until it’s too late. Many still don’t think they have a problem even after being told by a doctor. Unfortunately, the problems are so common that they are not seen as problems. They are seen as minor details that will be addressed “someday”.

Because they are becoming so common, it almost seems normal that they are experiencing it because they hear more and more about it each year. Turn on the news and you’ll see the waist-level camera shots showing the obese Americans walking around in crowded places. Open the paper and you will see statistics showing the rise in chronic conditions and costs to treat them. You will even see stories on how companies have changed their policies to help their people deal with this and reverse the trend internally. But what impact is it having on the people reading these stories?

Impact only comes with influence. A company has more influence over its employees than anyone else. Think about it: you go to work every day, complete task just as they ask you to. You get there when they want you to and you don’t leave until they say it is ok. That sounds like some pretty serious influence to me. Companies train employees on all kinds of systems. The most successful companies are now also training employees on health because it is affecting their business just as much as anything else.

Health itself is a problem for many people. These people are employed by companies that are paying for each and every one of the problems. Because they are preventable, there is hope. You’ve heard it called an epidemic. You’ve heard it called a trend.

What we need to hear is how it really affects each person. Employees already know that blood pressure should be 120 over 80 or below. They already know that they should watch their numbers, but they are not doing it or have watched and are waiting for something to happen before they change anything. Would people change if they knew that high blood pressure at age 50 means taking 5 years off of your life expectancy? I think that would have some influence on them.

What resources are available to help them with these problems?

Every company that has wellness in place needs resources. They need information, ideas and they need support. Employees need information, ideas and support. When the company is supported, they can support employees. When employees are supported, they can make changes and actually take the information given to them and use it for good.

The third part of this equation is really just communicating the resources available to employees. We have already talked about how employees need to know what is going on with them. If they understand the problems they are dealing with, they can make changes to improve their situation. We have also talked about how serious the problems really are. Health is not something to be taken lightly and even minor health problems lead to major expenses for employer and employee.

Now that we have covered the importance of those areas, the final piece is to help employees feel that they are equipped to make the progress that they need to make. It’s not enough to point out a problem without offering a solution. It’s not enough to point out a problem and raise alarms about how serious the problem is if you are not going to offer solutions. That doesn’t help anyone.

It costs time and money to keep employees informed. It is great to keep them informed on health info, but you also need to get them information on ways to improve their health. A successful wellness program not only invests this time, but also invests in the process to make sure that change is being made.

We already have big problems in business, but if we don’t help employees understand the importance of solving their own health problems, they will continue to be our company problems in the form of healthcare costs and an underperforming workforce.

Some companies are still thinking about how to get started, but it is imperative that they do something. Even if it isn’t perfect to start, you have to do something to impact healthcare costs. These costs are going up while your employee health is going down. They will keep moving in that direction unless your company takes action to stop it. This trend is costly and it proves one thing: It cost far more time (lost productivity) and money (healthcare costs, employee turnover, lost work days, etc) to do nothing.

Marketing Wellness Internally

2011-07-07T14:09:00.001-07:00

With healthcare costs on the rise, many businesses are trying to improve employee health through wellness programs. Employee engagement is the biggest factor in the success or failure of a wellness program, but it is often difficult to get employees engaged.

The fact is your employees want to be healthy. They want to change and they will change if structure is there to support their health. How do you engage your employees? It’s the same concept that your business uses to get customers engaged. It’s all about marketing.

You have to help your customers understand why they need your product or service. You have to make sure that your customers are aware of your product or service. You have to help them understand the value. You even have to support them to make sure that they are educated on your product or service so they know how to purchase and how to use it properly.

The same principles apply to wellness. You have to help your employees understand the need for changes in health in order to improve your company’s healthcare costs. You have to make sure that they are aware of the control they have over their health and the effects on their costs. You have to support them to make sure that they are educated on health so that they can participate and be successful.

Just like your customers want to use your product or service, your employees want to participate in wellness programs. Your business is successful because you are filling an important need for your customers. Your employees have an important need too. They have a need to be healthy. By applying the same tactics, you can successfully market your wellness program to your employees and they will buy in.

When employee needs are in line with company needs, it makes sense to make the investment. Just as you make an investment to keep your clients happy, investing in your employees is a good idea. Clients continue to be paying customers because they are happy. Employees continue to be good workers when they are happy and healthy, which also keeps your company moving in the right direction. In fact, with more energy employees can be more productive. With better health, they cost your company less while providing even better results.

Marketing to your customers is all about communication and understanding their needs. As you listen and provide quality, they buy in and everyone is happy. Marketing wellness to your employees has the same affect. Wellness is going to keep your good people doing good work and save your company money, which will keep your company on the path to success.

The key is to communicate the message to your employees in order to get them engaged. When customers are engaged, your business will be successful. Marketing helps you achieve that success. You also need employees to be engaged for your business to be successful and internal marketing is the key.

Wellness Success through Longevity

2011-05-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

Wellness is an important topic in today’s business world. In businesses of all sizes, you will find wellness initiatives. The companies that have seen success have seen one big thing. They have seen their employees buy into the concept. That is the most important factor when it comes to the success of a wellness program.

There are many aspects of wellness, but success is actually quite simple. It’s not about flashy tools or huge budgets. It’s more about the very people the program is for. It’s about the employees. If they buy into the program, it can and will be successful. If employees don’t buy in, the program won’t go anywhere, no matter how much money, time and energy you put into it.

I talk about employee buy-in every day. I have also written about it in the past. How important is employee buy-in? Well, it really is the difference between the success or failure of any initiative. This is how important employee buy-in is:
When an employee buys into your mission, they become a force for driving your mission. When an employee doesn’t buy in, they are working against you and your mission.

This is what I wrote in a past article on the same topic. As the above statement shows, employee buy-in is not limited to wellness. Employees need to buy in to every initiative in their company in order for it to be successful. For that reason, I always recommend a vision as the first step in the process of setting up a wellness program. With a vision to identify with, employees can buy in.

As we have already discussed, employee buy-in is very important. That is why we focus on it when starting wellness programs. Employee buy-in is important enough to all areas of business and therefore, it is important enough for me to write about again. This time, let’s go beyond the concept of what buy-in brings to your program and get
into the details of how it actually works.

Employee buy-in is more than just a black and white issue. You can’t say that employees either buy in or they don’t. There is much more to the story in any company. There are going to be phases that you need to address in order to make sure that employee buy-in is on your side.

Introduction

The first phase is the introduction of your wellness programming. The vision that you have as a company is shared with employees. In this phase, they should be told what they can expect, why you are doing it. This helps employees understand what where you are coming from and gives you a chance to explain the importance of wellness with your company. The introduction phase will last a few months.

Engagement

The next phase is engagement. Employees are now getting involved in the programming. The first step in this process is asking for employee feedback, which can actually begin in the introduction phase as well. You want to get some input from employees on what they are dealing with, what some of their concerns are and what they want to learn more about. When it comes to their health, this is where you are able to establish the position of support and assure employees that it is their goals you are focused on. The engagement phase can actually be broken down into small parts, but the overall length should be 1-3 months.

Continuation

Once you introduce the program and get employees involved you are up and running. The rest is just keeping things going. The longer you keep a program going, the more chance you have to impact the health of your employees. That should be the main goal when getting started. It’s not about the first day. It is more about the status six months or a year down the line. The continuation phase, while it should be constant once the other two phases are done, will need to be evaluated to make sure that you don’t need to do another introduction or engagement as things change or you decide to add new ideas. A solid program that went through the first two stages can have a continuation phase lasting for years.

These three phases are the simplest way to look at the life of a wellness program. As you get started, get employees engaged and keep momentum going, there is buy-in taking place the entire time. Looking at wellness as a program with a life is a good start. The longer the life of a program, the more you can accomplish. Employee buy-in is happening during all three phases.

Employees will buy in based on the degree of their initial enthusiasm. This is where the goal of longevity becomes important. The longer your program is around, the more employees buy-in you will see.

What Came First: Disengagement or Unsupportive Environment?

2011-04-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

I was talking to the CEO of a company today and he said something that made me think. He said that his employees “were unhealthy and would be difficult to engage in healthy activities”. I asked him what he meant and he clarified by saying that they “do things a certain way and don’t like to change”.

This was interesting considering our conversation was about wellness and his desire for getting his people to start making changes. He wanted to get a wellness program started, but was using this as a reason that it might not work.

As the CEO, I know that he has seen more of his employees and has a better feel for their tendencies than I do. I’ve just met him and haven’t met any of them, so it would be difficult to argue with him about what his people do or don’t do.

I don’t want to argue or even dispute what he has to say. They may be the least healthy individuals in the world. They may be trying to sabotage their health and cost the company more and more money each year. They could be purposely keeping themselves in a state of poor health just because they are the kind of people that enjoy being “unhealthy”.

These are all possibilities, but in my experience they are not likely possibilities. I know that they may be dealing with health issues. They may even be entrenched in habits that are causing problems with their health. As much as this has become a collective issue and started to be a burden on the company, I wouldn’t expect them to be enjoying it or doing it deliberately.

The next question I asked him was about the environment in his company. Have you supported healthy initiatives in the past? The answer was no. Have you recruited employees to spear-head wellness and get their coworkers involved? The answer was no.

These aren’t the end-all questions for a company and their employee health, but they are important. For a CEO that wants their employees to be healthy, you would think that they would be taking steps to make that happen. In all fairness, that is why I was there in the first place. Our conversation in itself was a step in the right direction. He wanted to figure out what he could do. The challenge he mentioned was not what I’m concerned about.

The concern comes from the environment. It also raises a question.
What came first, unhealthy employees or an environment that didn’t support health? In my experience, if you show me an employee group that doesn’t embrace health, I’ll show you a company without a formal process to promote health in place where they work.

I have seen the power of the environment and culture. If you encourage employee engagement, they will engage. If you support employee engagement, they will engage. The same is true of the opposite. If you don’t encourage and support engagement, employees won’t engage.

For that reason, I have found it very important to ask these questions of CEO’s and other company members. It is important because all too often, the answers are used as an excuse. The reason that a company is not moving forward with wellness is often poor health or people that don’t want to be healthy. This should be the reason for wellness, but somehow companies are finding this to be the problem or reason that they don’t think it will work.

I’m not alarmed as much by this basic idea. I get it. If you look at your people and see them smoking, eating fast food and not getting exercise, it is easy to say that they are not healthy and don’t want to be. I am alarmed by another idea. Taking it to the next level is what alarms me. Assuming that these people, although doing unhealthy things now, will not change if given some education and support.

Not only is this a broad assumption, but it is one that can lead to a decision that will cause more problems. If you want your employees to do something, you train them to do it. If you want your employees to learn something, you help them learn it by providing education. If you don’t train or educate your employees, you can’t expect them to grow personally or professionally.

Working with many different companies has helped me understand that every company is different. I see that each company has its own culture and way of doing things. While they are different, I have seen that there still some similarities in results and how you get those results. I have learned that people will do what they are supported in. People will make changes if they are given the right environment to do it in.

I don’t expect all companies to put together elaborate wellness programs. I don’t expect all companies to understand the value before they put something into place. I do expect companies to think about the results of their actions. My clients have seen the results from the actions that we have worked on together. This conversation reminded me of how these results would not have been realized if we wouldn’t have taken action and created the environment that we wanted to have in their companies.

This conversation reminded me of all the companies that are assuming their employees don’t want to live healthy and won’t start living healthy if we create a culture that supports it. This assumption is very dangerous. In fact, buying into this assumption basically guarantees the same results. Without taking action to support health, you will get more poor health.

The environment of a company has a major impact on the behavior of employees. This is no secret. In the wellness arena, we are learning that the better you support health, the more you get. That also means that when you don’t support it, you don’t get it. Employee engagement is not something that people are against. They will buy in, if the initiative is supported. Companies with good programs have good engagement. Also, companies with poor engagement generally have poor support.

For companies that have been dealing with poor health and poor engagement, I have one more question for you. What came first, the disengagement or unsupportive environment?

Create Your Own Trend

2011-03-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

The trend today is that companies are paying more and more for health insurance. Their employees are costing them more and more money as their health declines. This claims trend is going on all over the country and there is no end in sight. At least that is what the trend tells us.

Not every company is following the trend. In fact, there are many companies that continue to see improvements in the health of their employees causing them to see stable and even decreasing healthcare costs. The trend may show one thing, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is following it.

Trends can be dangerous. Not because of what issues are described by the trend, but more because of what we do when we see the trend. A trend is validation. A trend is another reason that it’s ok. Many companies say: “Well, the trend shows health costs are increasing, so it is normal that we are seeing this happen in our company.”

This is dangerous because when we think something is normal, we generally accept it. “If it’s normal, it’s ok.” is the mindset that I see too often in business. Last I checked, a business doesn’t want to be normal. I don’t want my business to be normal. I want my business to be extraordinary. I want my business to function at its best at all times no matter what the environment looks like. My clients are the same way. They want their businesses to be great and not just following what is normal. Just because most business are dealing with something or accepting a certain fate, doesn’t mean that they will do the same.

This mentality has helped them in business. This mentality is now helping them in their business health strategy as well. Because the refuse to accept the trend, they don’t follow it. Instead they choose to create their own trend.

This new trend is what has me not only running a successful business, but it is what has me excited to get up and go each day. The companies that want to create their own trends are fun to work with. They are fun to work for and they are successful. Why are they successful? They are successful because they are deciding their own future rather than letting the trend tell them what they should expect.

A successful business would never look at earnings of a competitor and say: “Ok, they were down last year, so it’s ok if we are too.” They may take this data and use it, but they would not simply sit on their hands while they fell in line with their competitor. They data can be useful to find out why they were down or what they can do to avoid the same fate. But the data is not a license to simply pack it in and be happy with a negative situation.

This concept reminds me of the trends that I’ve dealt with in my business. The first trend is the reason I am in business in the first place. That trend is the healthcare spending and the continued health issues that plague our workforce. I decided to change this trend, one company and one employee at a tme. That trend is obvious and I am dealing with it constantly.

The second trend that I had to deal with in business was the economy. In 2008, I saw the news and read the papers just like everyone else. As we’ve all seen, there seems to be a continued trend of economic woes in the world. There is more unemployment and more companies are going under every day. The media continues to show us these trends and we continue to decide how to react to them. There is one group that continues to ignore this trend and create their own. That group consists of companies that continue to push forward despite the challenges of business. In any economy, these challenges will present themselves. The difference is, many companies used the excuse of the economy to accept lower performance and lack of progress.

The other group is just that. Those companies that said: “The economy is bad, so I’m going to stand still.” They did nothing or pulled back when things got challenging. Guess what, they are likely now part of another company – one that was aggressive in the face of this challenge – or they are simply gone. They may be one of the sad stories that we keep hearing about on the news.

I feel for the companies and their employees, so don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not trying to say that any company that has struggled or seen a decline in business is a bad company or even trying to say that I have a fool-proof business solution for them to save their companies. I am simply saying that they are in this situation because they are in this situation. They are not in this situation because of the trend. The trend is created by the companies, not the other way around.

That is why I pushed on when new business became more difficult to bring in. When companies are using the economy as an excuse, I didn’t buy into that trend. Instead, I tailored solutions to meet the needs and keep businesses on the right track despite the economic conditions. Rather than listen to the problem and succumb to it, I found solutions.

That is what I am telling companies to do now. It’s a different problem and requires different solutions, but the principle is the same. If the economy is tough and people aren’t spending as much money in your industry you have to do a few things: find ways to get people to start spending money or finding new people to spend money in your industry. Some companies have even reevaluated their industry and started focusing on other areas. No matter what changes are made, the key is that something had to be done.

The trend that I am now focused on stopping is the healthcare trend. There are thousands of companies simply watching their insurance renewal increase every year. They are watching their employee claims increase and their premiums are doing the same. They are seeing more and more problems because their employee health is on the decline.

The solution to this trend is actually simple. If we change our habits, we will improve our health. If we improve our health, we won’t need as much care and therefor our claims will be reduced and we will all save money. From a business perspective, this makes sense, but the trend continues.

Why does this trend continue? I think it continues because it is easy to accept what you think is normal. It is easy to keep doing what you’ve always done and accept the results, especially when everyone else is doing the same thing and seeing the same results. It is often more difficult to do something different. It is more difficult to refuse to accept less simply because everyone else does. It is difficult to change in any area of business. It is difficult to create your own trend.

It may be difficult to create your own trend, but it is more difficult to deal with the consequences. No matter how many other companies are dealing with the same thing, why would you choose to pay more for health insurance? Why would you look at a trend that meant spending more and getting less? Why would your business choose not to prevent a problem that it has control over? That’s a simple answer. It has happened and will continue to happen because if you see other businesses doing it and you hear more people explain how common it is, you will think it’s normal. If it’s normal, it must be acceptable, right?

It’s only acceptable to those businesses that are following the trend. Negative results in any area of business are not acceptable to a successful company.

Regardless of media stories, polls and perception, they are not allowing trend to dictate what they do. Successful companies are not accepting higher costs and lower health. Successful companies are ignoring the trend and changing the way they do business. Successful companies are creating their own trend.

The Wellness Catch-22

2011-03-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

In a recent conversation I heard something that was quite alarming. The statement was coming from an insurance broker that has been using wellness to help their clients save money and improve their workforces. We have been working together for a while, so it was actually a funny conversation to have. While it was funny for us to discuss, the mindset of our client was not funny at all.

They told me what the client said and I just had to laugh. The statement was as follows:
“We can’t afford to pay for wellness because our premiums keep going up….we can’t pay for it because we are paying too much for insurance. ”

This statement just kills me! It wasn’t the first time I heard it, but to hear it again was enough to baffle me. This statement brings me back to the beginning of my business. The time when businesses weren’t sure that wellness was going to work for them.

Fortunately, most businesses that I run across now are not thinking this way anymore. Fortunately, they see the value in wellness to their employees and to their businesses. They are now saying things like:
“We have been able to keep our premiums from rising by implementing wellness in our business.” “The money we invest in wellness is minimal compared to the insurance cost of the conditions that we’ve dealt with.”

There are still some companies out there that don’t understand it. I’m not saying that is bad thing or saying that they are bad companies. I’m not even expecting them to understand it. That is what I do. I have helped many businesses better understand how wellness can work for them and I will continue to do the same for many more businesses.

Why do most businesses understand this now? As I mentioned, I have been working hard to get the word out, there are many other articles and studies showing the results. This all helps, but the most important teach tool is experience. Just like any other area of business, doing something is the best way to get good at it. The experience you gain from implementing a strategy is difficult to match. That is why most companies now understand wellness. They have done it and seen results.

That’s right, if a company has started a plan and carried out any initiatives, they have seen results. Where do you think all the studies come from? Why do you think my clients keep going with their wellness programs? Why do you think new companies are getting started with me every month? This is all happening because it works.

The only companies that don’t know that wellness works are companies that have not tried it. Actually, many have “tried wellness” by simply sending an email out to take a health assessment from their insurance provider. This is not a true wellness program. Until you have goals, a plan and a person or team to carry out this plan and clearly communicate it to a company-wide audience with a consistent language and frequency, you don’t have a wellness program.

If you don’t have a wellness program, you will not see any results. Unfortunately, many companies are caught in this catch-22. They don’t think they can afford wellness, so they don’t do anything. When they don’t do anything, their insurance rates keep going up while their employee health keeps going down. It’s no surprise to those in the industry, but it is still happening to many businesses out there.
How do businesses get out of this catch-22?

There is one simple answer. Get started on a wellness program. I know it sounds like a commercial for me to say that you should get started on a wellness program, but it’s the truth. Not only do I believe it because I have seen so many people make health changes. Not only do I believe it because I’ve seen the impact that this has had on their employer and insurance costs. But I believe this because I have seen companies start from nothing, spend very little money, but see results because they had a plan.

I have also seen companies do nothing and get the same results: higher costs every year and more frustration because nothing changes. Now, can health insurance costs still go up when you start a wellness program? Of course they can. I’ve seen that too. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. That doesn’t mean that over time you can’t change that trend.

Every business has a choice. There are many things you can do to improve employee health. A wellness program can help you decide what to do and how to do it. There is only one thing you can do to keep employee health going in the negative direction that it’s going now. That is to do nothing. By doing nothing, you know what you are going to get.

So it really comes down to two choices

1. You can make a change and try to see new results

Or

2. You can choose not to change and get the same old results you are already getting

The catch-22 makes even less sense to me when I see these two choices. The first choice gives you an opportunity to create a strategy. It allows you to be proactive and take control of your business. Isn’t this what you would do in any other area? In sales, finance, equipment maintenance, employee training, or any other system, you would choose option 1.

If you didn’t choose option 1, you know the consequences would be. It would cost your company money, time, reputation and even endanger survival. Guess what, health insurance is becoming that significant. It is costing more and more to provide and are taking less and less care of ourselves.

What does this mean? It means that your employees are becoming less healthy every day. It also means that they are costing you more each day just to offer them insurance. If your sales team was running up higher and higher expense bills and bringing in less business each year, what would you do?

I think something in the way of option 1 would be in order, don’t you? Health insurance is no different. Improving the health of your employees is the best way to improve your health insurance plan. You just continue to pay for people to not take care of themselves. You will continue to see increases in cost and no one will change because they don’t have to. Your business is actually rewarding people for living unhealthy lifestyles.

To get out of the catch-22, you can get started. It’s that simple. You can take control and see changes. Wellness allows you to do just that. Even a small step, will bring some results and give you a chance to get things going in the right direction.

Or you can stay in that catch-22. You can cling to the old thoughts that you can’t change. You can keep complaining about healthcare costs, while ignoring your options to influence them. If you don’t want to change, you won’t.
This may be fine for now, but it will catch up to you eventually. If you can’t change, you can’t grow. And in business, if you can’t grow, you die.

Support for HR is Good for Your Company's Health

2011-01-31T13:48:00.000-08:00

The importance of support cannot be stressed enough. When you look at a business, what do you see? You see a team of people. These people are strategically placed into positions to support each other and to support the business. Their job descriptions are written to make sure that each person can help another person from one end of the company to the other.

This seems to work well as businesses all over the country continue to grow and become more and more profitable. The reason this has worked is the fact that the core products and services will always get delivered. The better the support system in place, the better the product or service will be.

Human Resources is an area that needs more support. When it comes to wellness, HR seems to be the one in charge. This isn’t a problem in itself, but without a support system in place, it doesn’t take long for problems to appear. Let’s take a look at the biggest problems I see when HR doesn’t have the support it needs for a wellness program.

Problem #1 – Slow Start

It’s hard to get something started when you are too busy. It’s also hard to get something started when you are unsure what steps you should take. HR professionals often find themselves asking the following questions:

1. When do I have time to do this?
2. What do I do when I am able to do dedicate some time

These questions are difficult to answer and unfortunately the answers are tough enough to find causing things to remain where they are. In many cases that means they don’t do anything.

Problem #2 – Quiet Program

It may be hard to get started, but it is also hard to get the word out if people are unsure about what is taking place. One of the challenges with promoting a program is the access to the message. If your HR person or department is only able to address employees for a few minutes at a time, every few months, you won’t get much excitement generated. At the same time, with limited publicity, excitement isn’t the only challenge. Awareness, which you need before excitement is even considered, is lacking.

Problem #3 – Short Program

It is one thing to roll something out with little time and communication. It’s another thing to keep that initiative going. When a wellness initiative gets off to a slow start, it doesn’t usually take very long for it to disappear. If it is so quiet that many employees aren’t aware, it will not last very long. If employees don’t know about it and don’t hear much about it, not only can they not participate, but the initiative itself cannot continue.

This is only the big 3 of problems that HR professionals will run into when it comes to wellness. These are not the only problems, but they are the back-breakers to a wellness initiative. Clearly they are enough to bring any good idea to a screeching halt. Before that happens, let’s take a look at the solutions to these problems.

Solution #1 – Clear and Detailed Plan

A slow start doesn’t have to be a negative thing. As long as you have a plan for specific options next month, you don’t have to do too much this month. In fact, a plan allows you to distribute announcements, events and activities strategically throughout the year so there is never a lull or a chance for things to fall flat.

The most important factor here is the start. When you are creating a wellness initiative, you have to use your plan to determine the structure of the program. As long as the structure is there, that is what you will use to get the ball rolling and generate the initial awareness that you need to get things started. As you continue to communicate that message, enthusiasm follows and wellness continues.

When this plan is integrated into your company, your people will be healthier.

Solution#2 – Frequent and Consistent Communication

A quiet program is not a program that many people are going to use. This is a good opportunity to clarify the difference between a program and an initiative or activity. A program is ongoing. A program is something that you have a plan and schedule for. An initiative or activity is a one-time thing that may or may not ever be done again.

Employees know the difference between the two. If your company is just putting out ideas for activities, they will respond accordingly and only take it as seriously as the company does. If there is a detailed plan and consistent communication, they will take part and you will see the results you are looking for.

Communication is the key to differentiating your program. A central platform that always sends a message that wellness is part of the company. This is the best way to put the integration of your plan into action.

Solution #3 – Long-term Execution

The challenge of a program fizzling and going away is solvable. It is possible to keep wellness alive indefinitely. The first two solutions allow your company to get a clear plan in place and to communicate that plan. The next step is to focus on the long run. It’s not enough to get people excited about their health for a week, month or even a year. Health is a lifetime commitment. Employee health is going to impact your company for as long as you have people working for you. Therefore, wellness is going to make a positive impact on your employees and company for as long as you have a plan in place.
It sounds simple, but the key to remember is that it is easy to try something and give up if it is not working. Why do you think so many people are struggling to live healthy in the first place? Just as it is a challenge for a person to change their lifestyle, it is a challenge for a company to initiate a new culture. That is why employees need the support of their company.

Employees aren’t the only ones that need support. HR is supposed to start, plan and communicate wellness to employees. They are expected to come up with ideas, implement them and make sure that people are excited about it. This is a tall order and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

By following the 3 solutions above, the 3 problems become a non-issue. I’ve seen it work and I believe the formula is simple:

Support is the key to success in wellness. Just as employees need support to improve their own health, HR needs support to make wellness work in a company.

Staying Ahead of The Game

2010-12-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

In business, you always want to be ahead. You want to be ahead of the competition. You also want to be ahead of the trend. The companies that are out in front of the ideas are usually out in front of the pack as well.
Despite the wording of that phrase, staying ahead of the competition rarely means worrying about what they are doing. You may be ahead of them in the proverbial race, but you are doing things within your own business to move forward rather than engaging them in any sort of struggle.

In order to win, you have to take care of your own company. A big part of taking care of your business is taking care of those that keep it running. The people in a business are what makes it go and keeps it running. No matter what product or service is being sold and being held up as the industry’s best it is being implemented by people.

These people are the core of the business and staying ahead of the game is more about taking good care of them than anything else. Think about it this way: If you want to be the best, you need to be the best internally. The core: heart, soul and driving force of your company needs to be functioning at full capacity. If it is not, the company will quickly succumb to the external pressure and collapse.

Maybe the collapse is a dramatic picture, but it holds true. It may not be instant, but it is something that will happen. Damage accumulates over time and the foundation crumbles. It may take years, but the damage will continue to take its toll on the business.

Health is one of the biggest catalysts in any business. Employees are people and people are in varying degrees of health throughout their lives. We know that if not properly managed, health will continue to deteriorate until inevitable death. We also know that if we do manage health, the results are not just life, but high-performance and high-energy function.

This scenario is playing itself out in businesses around the world as we speak. The best companies are maintaining all of their assets in order to get the peak performance out of them. The core of the best businesses in the world is strong and healthy. The core of the real contenders is either being maintained or is being improved. The core of pretenders or businesses that will not be in the race for long is slowly (or in many cases rapidly) deteriorating.

The human body is a complex machine with many moving parts. Business is complex as well. Neither the human body nor a business can thrive without the basics. The basics include nothing more than proper maintenance. For a business this means making sure all of the right systems are in place and functioning well.

For the body, we already have the right systems and we just need to make sure we take care of them. The challenge with both is that we can go a long time without a certain system in place and simply get by. In business you can have one department running lean without adequate support. It may feel like you can get by this way because a particular employee can handle the workload, but this is short-term thinking. If you do this long enough, that person will burn out, quit or simply break down and cause problems for the company as a whole. The same thing happens in the human body. If an organ is weak, the other organs will adapt and work to keep things running smoothly despite the weak link. Again, this seams great and it actually is an amazing concept, but it will eventually create problems for the body as a whole.

Staying ahead of the game is often something that can be debated. What is making them successful? It’s not a magic scenario that only a few people know about. It is as simple as the connection between business and health. Just as a business has to look forward to see what problems may occur and prepare a contingency plan, they have to look forward to make sure they have a plan for employees and their health.

You wouldn’t just wait for a problem to come along before you dealt with it. You would have a plan in place beforehand. The same should be true for health. Waiting for problems is costly and caused a crisis in our healthcare system. A plan allows you to stay ahead of the game in business and in health. The similarities between the body and a business are all you need to know to be successful in either business or health.

In fact, I would say that to be successful at one, you need to be successful in both. Business health is dependent on the health of employees. As productivity and longevity lead to lower costs and greater profits, the financial connection is undeniable and business healthy naturally improves with employee health.

As you can see, business and health have a lot in common. Despite having so much in common, there is often a major disconnect between them. The companies that realize how closely they are linked are the ones leading the pack. They are the industry leaders. They are the ones that other companies try to imitate. They are the ones that everyone wants to work for. People are smart. There is a reason that good workers continue to flock to good companies.

To get ahead of the game, you need to bring in good people. To stay ahead of the game, you simply need to take good care of them.

Best Practices = Best Results

2010-11-18T15:25:00.000-08:00

It’s no secret that a company’s actions are reflected in their results. In the business world it is common for companies to look to each other to see what the best practices are. As you look at a company in your industry it is easy to see the actions are that got them to this point. You can even look at companies in other industries to find best practices.

Wellness is an area that crosses all industries. You can look at companies in every type of business and find wellness at their core. The business products or services may be very different from one company to another. The structure may even be quite different, but there are still similarities.

The first similarity from one business to another is…

The Most Valuable Asset

From customer service to the executive suite, there are people making a businesses go. Many business have other assets like equipment and technology that customers use or even identify the company with. Equipment helps a company get things done. Technology helps them differentiate themselves from other companies. Both very important, but the most valuable asset in any company is the workforce.

Employees are what make the technology and what make the equipment run properly. You need people to invent the tool. You need people to operate the tool. You need people to do nearly everything within a business. In business, if the people disappeared, so would the business.

Goals and Execution

No matter what industry a business is in, without goals there is no way for them to gage progress. The goals are not going to mean anything if the business doesn’t execute them. A goal without a plan is just a wish. That holds true in every business no matter what industry it is in.

Goals are the roadmap to success in business. If you look at a company and from the top down, you will see a series of goals. These goals have been carefully placed and resources have been distributed based on them to ensure the company’s future success.

Best Practices = Best Results

The biggest similarity that you find in companies is the fact that these areas actually work together. That is, in successful companies, these areas work together. In fact, the more successful the business is the better the connection between their assets and their goals.

The assets in a company are often different, but as we discussed above, employees are the most important of all the assets. Businesses need people to succeed. Successful businesses not only know that they need their people, they actually set goals and execute based on that fact.

There is a list of companies that have been voted the best places to work. Over the past decade the businesses that make this list are seeing double profits compared to companies not making the list.

Why do companies that are great to work for see better results? It’s not just about good job. It is more about the goals set at the top and passed down through the entire company. The accountability to reach these goals is the real key. Setting and reaching goals is the definition of success.

Depending on the industry, there are many steps that go into reaching a goal, but the successful companies are setting and reaching goals. How are they doing this? Their people are learning the skills and buying in. The goals of the employee are the goals of the company and vice versa.

Wellness is what helps many companies bring this all together. Goals are the key to success in all areas of business. One area of business that the best and brightest companies are focusing on is the workforce. More specifically, the performance of the workforce is the focus.

There are many keys to performance and health is a big part of it all. A healthy employee costs less in healthcare expenses. A healthy employee is more productive. The list goes on and on, but bottom line is that businesses that understand this and execute a plan to capitalize on it are more successful than businesses that do not.

There are many ways for businesses to keep the workforce healthy. There are also many ways for businesses to reach new heights in their industry. The best practices in each industry are what bring the best results. We’ve seen companies use them and the results have followed. The same goes for wellness. As employee health strategies continue to progress, so do the businesses that implement them. Best practices equal best results.

How sane is your business?

2010-10-27T13:07:00.001-07:00

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. This is not the definition you will find in the dictionary, but I think it sends an important message. The message is that if any sane person can see that if they are doing something and getting a certain result, they will change what they are doing to get a different result.

In the business world, there are many results possible. When it comes to action and results, there is no better place to see the relation. Most businesses have seen very clear examples of how they are related.

When a business runs into a challenging situation, they have many choices. They can make any number of adjustments and see better results if they choose to do so. The best businesses make the best adjustments and eventually see the best results. That is what makes them the best. The ability to adjust and endure the difficult times is what separates the best from the rest.

What areas come to mind when you think about challenges in business? Financial stability is often at the top of the list when it comes to things a company needs to watch. The finances of a company are the most important area. If the finances don’t work, neither does the business.

There are many things that play into the finances of a business. Often it has to do with efficiency and costs of the systems running the business. One system that often gets overlooked is the employees. The employees are a system and they keep a business running…or not.

Every system in a business has a budget, a strategy, a maintenance plan and even a point person to make sure that they are operating within these perimeters. When something goes wrong, there is a series of steps to be taken to get things back on track. The more successful a company is, the quicker and more effectively they can adjust and get things back to the desired function.

What would you say if someone in your company continued to run a program into the ground? What if things kept going over budget and under-performing? That person would not be the “employee of the month”. In fact, they may not have a job for very long.

The company would work tirelessly to figure out a better way to do things. They would place a high priority on cost savings and get things functioning properly again. That would be the ‘sane’ thing for a business to do.

There is an area of business that has shown us a great deal of insanity. It’s called employee health. The cost of healthcare continues to rise. This is not the only area that is more expensive that it once was, but the reasons healthcare has continued to rise is what makes this something to talk about.

Why has healthcare gotten more expensive? It has risen due to mismanagement. Seventy-five percent of our costs are directly related to lifestyle. Smoking, poor nutrition, lack of exercise are causing more and more health problems in our workforce. We are paying more for the conditions that come from these habits.

Wellness is the plan to fix the problem that is causing the rising costs. Just as the task force finds a way to reduce costs of technology or transportation, the wellness team finds ways to help employees get and stay healthy, saving the company money and helping it function more smoothly.

This is the way that successful businesses do it. There is a result that continues to show itself in business. The choice is to change the action that is bringing this result, or deal with the same consequences over and over again. What are you doing to change your results? How sane is your business?

Corporate Wellness: Break It Down for Success

2010-10-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

Health is not just one thing. Health is many things. It takes a series of habits to ensure that you get moving and more importantly keep moving in the right direction. The list of habits can get quite long when it comes to living healthy. That is why wellness programs are so important. If it were easy, all of your employees would be healthy and you wouldn’t be spending so much on health care.

That means that wellness and corporate health initiatives are also more complex. It takes many steps to make sure that your employees are healthy. You have to support the change in addition to suggesting it. They know what they should be doing or what they want to be doing. There is a list of reasons that they aren’t doing it and work is often on that list.

This can be good news or bad news depending on how you look at the situation. The bad news is pretty obvious: there are many steps to be taken and not many people to help make it all work. The good news is that we don’t have to take all of these steps at once.

That is the solution. You have to break it down. When you are looking at a list of things that will help your employees live healthy, it is easy to look at the whole thing and feel like it can’t be done. That is why many people continue to live unhealthy lifestyles and why many companies let wellness initiatives die before they get going. They don’t think that they can do it, so they choose not to.

This is a shame considering the fact that we all want to be healthy. No one wants to feel terrible on a daily basis. None of your employees want to look in the mirror and see a “before picture”. We all want health and all the things that come along with it. So, how do we get it?

The solution for your company is simple: Break it down.

Getting Started

Many companies struggle to take the first step because they don’t know what to do. Even if there are a few simple steps to take, it is easy to get caught up worrying about all the steps that will follow it. It is no different than a personal to-do list. When you are looking at a list of things, it is important to tackle one thing at a time. The entire list can be overwhelming. The best way to get started is to pick one thing and focus on that.

Example: Getting Started

Barb is an HR Director that had a list of things she wanted to implement. Her CEO wanted her to head up a wellness initiative and they needed it to start now. Barb was all for this, but she wasn’t sure where to start. She looked at her list of options and felt overwhelmed:

Change vending machine choices
Change catering options for meetings
Start group challenge
Find and book seminar series
Start walking group
Discuss health assessment options
Schedule health screening
The list goes on…

Looking at this list, I could see why she was overwhelmed. There is a lot to accomplish here. They are all important, but they don’t all have to be done at once. In fact, they can’t be done at once. There is planning and specific action that needs to be taken on each of the items.

I asked Barb how long she had to make the changes she wanted to make. Although her CEO wanted to get started, her answer was a lifetime. She had no deadline to complete all of these things. Because there was no deadline, the pressure didn’t need to be on to complete everything as fast as possible.

Once we discussed the various things that Barb had on her list, we eventually decided what step could be taken first. She had a few ideas, so there was a decision that had to be made. How did she make this decision? She thought about what she could start doing right away. What could she start doing with the least amount of hassle and what employees would be most likely to appreciate?

The first step was to change the menu options for meetings. This was a step that seemed simple when it stood alone, yet was just another thing adding to the stressful list that she created. She talked to the administrative assistant that does the ordering within a week of our conversation. That was the goal and she accomplished it.

Why couldn’t she do this before? It wasn’t that simple before. She had to break the list down in order to make any of the steps happen.

Keep It Going

Barb just needed to get started. That was her biggest obstacle. She was putting so much pressure on herself to do everything, that she couldn’t do anything. She just needed to break it down. Clearly she needed help to do that. She needed help getting started, but once she took that first step, the rest followed. They followed one at a time. It was that easy for her. We broke Barb’s list down into single steps and she completed them once step at a time.

That is the first step, but it clearly isn’t the only step. Or is it? When you break it down, you only need to worry about one step at a time. Once Barb had the meeting food changed, she could check that off the list. It was done and no longer occupied any of her mental energy. Plus the employees saw the change and offered feedback that helped us look at the next options.

Now she was free to focus on the next step. And that is how she continued.
Focusing on one step at a time, Barb was able to keep checking one thing off the list. She kept setting a single goal and she kept reaching a single goal. The CEO was happy because the changes were visible. The employees were happy because their goals of eating healthy were supported.

That was her process until we had a structured program going. She became successful by breaking it down. Barb was struggling and didn’t think she was able to create a wellness program for her company. She wanted to help employees live healthy, but there was too much to do. She overcame that and was able to start making progress.

Not only did she get started, but she was able to keep going. She didn’t have some miracle tool or an abundance of resources. She didn’t need any of these things. We worked together to simplify the plan and that was all she needed. We just needed to break it down.

CNN Video: Great look at Corporate Wellness strategy and benefits

2010-09-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Joe Byrd

Return on Investment

2010-09-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

In any area of business, when we invest, we expect to get something in return. When you put something in, you expect your company to get something out. No matter what the amount invested, we expect to get at least something back for the time, money and effort put in.

Investments are important. If we don’t invest in something, it is difficult for our business to do much of anything. Whether you are talking about equipment, systems or people, the investments have to be made in order for your company to move forward. Moving forward is the return on investment.

Making an investment

How can you be sure that an investment is right for your company? You have to have goals. You have to decide what you company needs and what you are willing to do to get these results. If your goals are clear than you can decide what to invest in.
If your plan makes sense and the investment fits than your company will have success.

Let’s think about a software system that will help you deliver your products to customers. You have to decide how much the tool will cost and how much you are willing to spend on it. Factors such as how much time this will save, money it will make and more will go into the decision. If you simply look at the price, you are not taking return on investment into account and therefore, investing will be less likely. If you don’t view something as an investment it is more difficult to make it a reality for your company.

Investor’s needs

When making an investment we need to feel comfortable with it. We need to believe that there is a value for the company. More specifically, we want to know that there will be a return before we invest. We want a guarantee that whatever we invest, we will get the desired return.

The company that is selling the software tool will show you the benefits of the program and explain the time and money factors that go along with the product. They won’t just tell you how much it costs. They will tell you all of the benefits you will get from using the product. If those benefits outweigh the cost, it feels like a good investment and you feel that you’ll get the return you are looking for.

Not making an investment

Not every investment is right for every company. It is a choice and therefore, you can choose not to invest. So what happens when you don’t make an investment? Well, that is simple. When you don’t invest, you don’t get any return.

If a business doesn’t make investments in assets, the value of those assets depreciates. As the asset becomes less valuable, it eventually becomes a liability. Equipment, facilities and people are all assets. If you have a truck that delivers products to customers, you need make sure that it functions properly.

If it breaks down, the product doesn’t get to customers. We know that is a big problem, so investing in the maintenance of vehicles is commonplace in any business that uses them.

What about businesses that use people? What happens to companies that have assets of the human variety? Well, no matter what the product or services is, all businesses need people to succeed.

Businesses can ensure that their company continues to succeed. It’s called Business Health Strategy, but you may know it as corporate wellness. This is the area that I specialize in. It is relatively new in the small business arena. Large corporations have been practicing this for many years and seeing great returns on their investments, but many small businesses are still unsure as to how they can benefit like the large companies have.

This is a challenging area because it is easy to avoid making investments that we are unfamiliar with. That is the biggest reason for businesses not to want to make an investment. It is easy to avoid an investment when you don’t know what the outcome is going to be.

The only real guarantee

The only real guarantee we have is that if you invest nothing in your business, you get nothing in return. It may be difficult to invest when you are unsure about the outcome. Despite the difficulty in predicting what will happen if we do something, it is still easy to understand one thing: We know what will happen when we don’t do something.

In the area of corporate wellness, the results are clear. The numbers are not always predictable, but what is predictable is the fact that not investing leads to the same results. The results that most businesses are seeing now are a rising cost of healthcare and declining employee health.

This doesn’t have to be the case. All businesses have a choice to make. This choice is not as difficult as we make it out to be. All business owners know the importance of assets. You can invest in your most important assets and see a return on that investment or you can let them depreciate and hinder your company’s success.

It’s that simple: invest and see a return or invest nothing and get nothing in return.

Top Places to Work: Just Ask the Employees

2010-08-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

The Minneapolis Star Tribune publishes a list of companies every year. This list showcases the best places to work in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. They choose 100 companies in three different categories- small, mid-size and large. Each year, when the list comes out, multiple articles are printed and plaques are handed out as the companies are showcased.

What makes these companies the best places to work? Well, that is the best part. That was my first question too. In fact, I was a little skeptical, because I wasn’t sure how the Star Tribune could objectively compare thousands of companies to name 100 of the best. Well, they found a great way to do it.

How do you know how good a company is to work for? Just ask the employees. They will tell you how good (or bad) an employer is to work for. They will tell you the ins and outs of a job. They will tell you the positives and negatives. Most importantly, they will tell you how much or how little they enjoy coming to work every day. And that is exactly how the top 100 was formed.

Employees not only participated, but they actually nominated their employers to be considered for the Top 100 Places to Work. The process wasn’t someone coming to ask them if their company was good. It was them reaching out to say that their company was going above and beyond to make working there a quality experience.

Quality is a good word to bring into the conversation when discussing employers and employees. Quality is a trait that every company wants. You tell customers that your product or service is high-quality. You tell your employees that their work needs to be high-quality. None of this is true if your employees are not high-quality.

How does a company become high-quality? An employer is only as good as its employees. At the same time, an employee is going to perform as they are expected to perform within the organization. The importance of culture becomes very clear in the Top 100. It turns out that quality is not just a buzz word. Quality is something that is grown in a company and continues to thrive only if everyone commits to it.

The common theme among the Top 100 Places to Work was that the employer was committed to the employee. The same was true of the employee. They were committed to the employer as well. Isn’t this an interesting concept? When two partners work together, not only do both benefit, but their accomplishments are much greater.

You’ve heard the saying: “United we stand, divided we fall.” right? It is one of the most famous sayings in American culture and it was one of the solidifying quotes of our founding fathers. I think they knew a thing or two about team-work and the importance of a cohesive unit.

The same holds true in the workplace. A company that invests in its assets is a company that will succeed. When going down the list, it is clear that the very same companies that are praised by employees and have people lined up to work for them are also performing well in their industries.

A study actually showed that between 1995 and 2005, companies ranked in similar lists out-performed companies that did not make the list. As they looked at profitability, they were able to show that the best places to work were also the best businesses.

So, how do you become a Top Place to Work? It’s not as difficult as many companies think it is. In fact, it is easier to be a top place than not. All it takes is a concern for employees and an understanding that they are the most important asset. You just need to know that the employees are driving your business.

I am proud of all the companies on the list of Top Places to Work. They are putting employees first. I would be honored to work with any of them. In fact, I have the privilege of working with two of them already. My clients are all trying to put their employees first. They know business is important. They also know who is driving their business. If the employees or their efforts go away, where does the company go? The company likely goes away.

No business sets out to fail. Every company I’ve ever talked to has had success in mind when they started. They have had success in mind every day. That is what business is all about. You have to focus on success in order to achieve it. More importantly, they have to focus on what will bring them success.

Clearly, it is their employees that are bringing them success. Think about it: Who are you likely to attract as a Top Place to Work? Are you bringing in bad candidates with poor character and low skill-levels? No way. You are bringing in top talent.

That is important to think about, but why is it so important? It is important because the future of a business is deeply rooted in their employee-focus. The better you focus on and care for this top talent, the more top talent you will continue to bring in as your company grows.

Not every company is trying to expand rapidly or become the largest employer in town. Each company has different goals, but there are some common themes in every company I’ve talked to. The primary theme is that they want to grow their business and continue to increase their profits.

As the Top 100 Places to Work for have discovered, their people are what bring them success. They have discovered that by investing in their employees, they are not only investing in their business, but they are ensuring continued success.

We can tell a lot by looking at this list. We can tell that being a Top Place to Work, also means being a successful company. We can tell that being a Top Place to Work means your company is likely an industry leader. The employees of these companies have shown us that year after year. How do you know good a company is to work for? Just ask the employees.

Lesson in Core Values

2010-08-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

While at a client’s company-wide meeting, I realized why they were such a good fit for me. While I was waiting for my turn to introduce the wellness program we had just started, there was some significant evidence to support the fact that they were acting in line with their vision and core values.

Clearly we were already working together, but they hadn’t always had a wellness program in place. They had been trying to start wellness initiatives for a while before I started working with them. They had some problems getting things started, but knew they had the right idea. Once they came across my services, it was natural for them to start investing more into this strategy.

It’s not the fact they are investing in their employee health, it is why they are investing. During the meeting, they reviewed their core values. They wanted to make sure each employee knew how important the values were, what they meant for them to accomplish and where they came from.

These core values are important, not just because they good words, but because they were developed by the company and its employees. When hearing these core values, for me it was more than just a list of things they would “like to be”. It felt more like an identity that the company wanted to uphold. It is about who they are.

I liked the core values. They sounded like important things for a business to focus on. When I found out where the core values came from they sounded even better. And when I heard them define what each of the core values meant to them at all levels of the company, I realized that this was a perfect client for me.

What the core values are:
Integrity
Teamwork
Customer Service

Where they came from:
They talked to each employee and got feedback on the most important aspects of their positions. They did research with clients, competitors and of course internally to find out more about what they could do to be a better company.
When all was said and done, the employees and managers kept bringing words like integrity, teamwork and customer service. These words continued to enter the conversation no matter where they started.

What the core values mean to the company:
Naturally these became the core values of the company. But they didn’t stop there. They paid close attention to how often each word came into play and how important employees felt each one was. Finally, they were able to put them in order of priority. That is the order that was chosen from the feedback of the CEO down to the newest employee.

How I know that this is a perfect company for me to be working with:
I’ve talked about the importance of a vision. I’ve talked about how truly successful people stay true to their visions. In business, in health and in all other areas of life, you have to have a vision and take action steps that are in line with that vision in order to realize it. This company gets that.

Let’s look at teamwork as an example. Their definition of teamwork is as follows:
“All of us supporting one another to ensure success of the company by taking care of the team that takes care of the customer.”

When their CEO elaborated on this for the newer employees, he explained:

“When we take care of ourselves and each other, we take better care of the customer.”

For that reason, wellness is the perfect fit for their company. They are perfect fit for wellness. There program is off to a great start and I have no doubt that it will continue that way. Looking at their core values, it is clear that they hold their employees to higher standard whilei also holding the support of their employees to that same standard.

Think about the rest of the core values and their meanings:

Integrity: “Doing what you say you are going to do, by strictly adhering to the code in which you agreed to.”

Customer Service: “Taking the best possible care of your customers”

Clearly this company is focused on the important aspects of business. Representing yourself as honestly as possible while making sure that your team is supported in order to give the customer what they need. It is also important to note the order in which these priorities are listed.

1. Code
2. Team
3. Customer

They realize that without the vision and without the team having the sound structure, there are no customers to take care of.
Code Team and Customer are very similar to my Vision, Goals and Motivation model.

Think about it:
The code is the vision of the company. The goals are the actions that need to take place in order for that vision to be realized. The motivation is why they are doing it. It is why the actions are being taken to realize the vision in the first place.

In my Vision, Goals and Motivation model, I make the comparison between a CEO and the average employee. If the average employee has these three things clearly mapped out, they are going to be successful in everything they do. If they do not, they will struggle.

The company is no different. With a clear vision, goals and motivation any company will do well. What my client did was bring this into focus for each individual. They are helping each employee understand the importance of their core values and making them the key.

“When we take care of ourselves and each other, we take better care of the customer.” This statement says a great deal. They are showing each employee that they are the key to the success of the company. Without each and every one of you doing your best, we are not able to serve our customers. It is no wonder that they are a on the list of top employers to work for (voted by employees) and it is interesting how they are also growing and seeing more and more success as a company.

That is the focus of wellness in the corporate environment- At least the successful wellness programs. When we support employees and reinforce a clear vision, great things happen. Successful employees equal a successful company. I am lucky and get to work with companies that do this every day. What are your company’s core values?

Business Wants and Needs

2010-07-06T14:38:00.000-07:00

What do you want for your business? What does your business need? What are you doing to ensure these things are in your business? I ask these questions because I know how important having what you need and what you want really is in business. If we don’t have what we want, we are disappointed and unfulfilled. When we don’t have what we need, we see more serious problems like sales downturns, customer loss or poor employee morale.

You can make or break your business by doing what you need or not. On the most basic level, your business needs things like customers, revenue and profit. These are the big ones. If you don’t have them, your business can’t survive. But what we want is very important, especially when we want what we need.

Do you want what your business needs? I know that this question sounds rather silly, but if you think about it for a minute, you’ll see the significance. First think about what you need (make a list…ok, just the top 5 things your business needs) and then think about how much time and effort you devote to these things.

Does your business need what you want? Now make a list of the top 5 things you want for your business. You may have these things already. You may be doing them on a regular basis. That’s ok. In fact, it’s a very good thing if you already have what you want. But the first question is: Does your business need it? The next question: How do these lists match up? How do your wants and needs of your business compare?

I asked these questions because I’ve been thinking a lot about priorities. Most of my Corporate Wellness clients have a challenge on their hands. Their challenge is something that you are likely experiencing as well. The main challenge is not time or money. The main challenge is aligning the wants and needs of their businesses.

When we put our needs first, we succeed. It works in all areas. Here are some examples of how needs become the end-all when it comes to success or failure:
Customer Base: “We need customers”- by investing time and energy into drawing customers to your business, sales and profit can be made. If your business doesn’t put in the effort to get customers, you won’t be in business very long.
Employee Health: “I need my employees to be healthy”- by devoting time to care for themselves they are allowing their bodies and minds to function at full capacity.

If they don’t devote any time or put in any effort for their health, they will not have it for very long. If that is the case, your workforce and therefore your business will suffer.

Let’s go back to the above statement: “I need my employees to be healthy” to get more clarity around it. This is a broad and general statement, but by making it more specific we can see how this works (or doesn’t work) in real life:

Your employees are making the following statements:
“I need to exercise in order to…”
…avoid heart problems
…have enough energy to play with my kids in the evening
…feel good during my day
…get in shape for my high school reunion

They are also saying:
“I need to eat healthy in order to…”
…the list goes on

No matter what their needs are, they fit within a statement like this. These statements are being uttered all over the world as we speak. In various languages people are telling themselves what they need. They are thinking about what they need and what they need to do in order to get it.

These are your employees. The problems that arise from them not meeting these needs have an impact on your business. They turn into higher health care costs, lower productivity levels and increased absenteeism. (to name a few) The needs they have clearly affect your business and that is why they become the needs of your business.

Since this is happening everywhere, people must be successful, right? Their companies must be helping them meet these needs. If every company knows what their employees need, they are achieving their goals, aren’t they? Well, they might be. Unfortunately, many are not. Many businesses are not doing what they need despite the fact that they need it.

Why does this happen? It happens because we don’t always want what we need. We need to have a workforce in place to conduct business. We know that in order to get the most out of that workforce, they need to be healthy. They need to do certain things to reach those goals. As a company, we need to do certain things in order to support this process. (Setting goals is one of them in itself.) The problem is, we don’t want to do those things.

It’s easy to say that you want something. It is another thing to actually do what it takes to get it. If you don’t want to do something, you won’t do it. It’s that simple. The fact is, no matter how much you know your business needs something, you won’t adjust the way you operate to get it if you don’t really want it.
So, what do you do? How does your business get what it needs? Well, for starters, you have to want it. The next step is something I’ve spend years working on and helping my clients do. It is something that I’ve written countless articles about.

The next step has been called many things: goal setting, planning, routine, programming, systems, etc. If you really want something you need to be willing to take this step. No matter what area you are talking about, the same rules apply. Doing these things is the difference between success and failure for your business. Doing these things is the difference between getting what you want or not. More importantly, these things are the difference between getting what your business needs or not.

Everyone wants to spend less on healthcare costs, but it takes more than that to make it happen?

Question: Do you need a healthy workforce?
Better question: Do you want a healthy workforce?
Best question: Are you willing to do what it takes for a healthy workforce?

Importance of Employee Buy-in

2010-05-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

Businesses all over the country are trying to get employee buy-in. They want employees to buy into many things. For many reasons, employee buy-in is very important. It starts with the company mission. Each employee has to look at the company mission and decide if it is in line with what they see themselves doing. Sure, you can argue that a person is going to do a job that pays them money. There is more to it, but on some level everyone has to decide if they want to do a job or not.

How important is employee buy-in? When an employee buys into your mission, they become a force for driving your mission. When an employee doesn’t buy in, they are working against you and your mission.

My clients are from many different industries, so they have many different missions and philosophies. Each company has their own mission. When a mission is communicated, it is important that it is clear to everyone. If not, there can be a mixture of people working for and people working against the company.

Health becomes part of the mission when a company is trying to be successful in all areas. Just like you want employees to focus on goals and reach them in their respective areas, health becomes part of this when a wellness program or business health strategy program is implemented.

Sales people need to buy in to the process, training and goals of the company they work for. They also need to buy into product or service in order to achieve these sales goals. Managers have to buy into the company mission in order to properly train and lead their teams to reflect it.

When companies hold health as a value and as part of their vision, they are setting themselves up for success. As we’ve seen over the years, companies with healthy employees are able to see benefits in insurance costs, productivity and many other areas that are improved by a healthy energetic workforce.

This can only take place with employee buy-in. If employees don’t want to be healthy, they won’t. More specifically, if employees don’t see the importance of participating in healthy initiatives, they will not participate. They will only do what is comfortable for them. The key is to promote the initiatives from the top and make sure the message is clear.

If the employees are not supported or the initiatives are communicated properly, buy-in will suffer. It’s not that people don’t want to buy in, it is actually more about the employees not being able to buy in. Health is just like any other area of business. If it is part of your company vision and it is communicated clearly, they can buy in. If there is a lack of consistency, they will have a difficult time buying in even if they want to.

That is where the key of this message comes in. Buy in is important. We know that and seem to be able to put into practice in many areas. We have even gone as far as to say that in the business world, in order to make something happen in a company, we need buy-in.

It’s no surprise that the key to employee health and making it really work is making sure that you are getting employee buy-in. The surprise for me is when companies say that they have tried wellness, but haven’t had success. It seems simple, but maybe that is because I’m used to making sure that each piece is in place before moving forward and certainly before stopping any programming. When a company doesn’t get buy in there must be something they can do. There must be a way for them to keep moving forward despite a lack of buy-in.

In fact there is a way for companies to keep moving forward. They key is to keep focused on employee buy-in. More importantly, they need discover why the lack of buy-in if there is a concern already. This key can help a company keep things moving if they have run into some issues.

Just as preventing illness is a much more cost-effective way to deal with it than treating it. Establishing employee buy-in is much easier and more cost-effective for companies start with a clear focus on it than it is for a company to simply hope it happens and try to fix problems that occur along the way.

It comes down to this: Your employee health program needs to be focused on employee buy-in. There should be a specific plan in place and that plan should be geared toward getting people engaged and believing in the process. The process is important, but the outcomes are even more important.

When you think about the outcomes of employee health programming, it is even clearer that people will buy in. Everyone wants to be healthy. Everyone wants to feel good. A company coming from a perspective of: “We want to help you reach your goals.” You will be successful and so will your employees.

Company full of CEOs (Part 3 of 3)

2010-05-10T15:42:00.000-07:00

When I work with clients, they often have a different view of employees and executives. Come to think of it, most people see differences between these two categories. In the workplace, we often think of the obvious differences such as pay and responsibility. But the differences I see are things that we can all improve. What executives, CEO’s in particular do best is actually something that every employee can do to.

What got the CEO where they are today? It all comes down to goals. They had a vision, set goals and put a plan in motion to reach their goals and realize that vision. They are driven enough to stick with the plan and therefore they successful people.

One question that I ask my clients’ CEOs is: What if everyone in your company had the skills you have?

It always leads to an interesting conversation. When I say skills, I’m not talking about what you get with an MBA or years of experience running a business. I’m talking about things that everyone can do no matter what their education level or current position. I’m talking about the following three skills:

Vision
Goals
Motivation

These three categories are the difference between being successful or not. If you have any of these things you will be ahead of the game. If you have all of these things, you will be consistently winning the game. Again, let’s think about what your company would look like if everyone had these skills. Even better, what if everyone was well trained and using them regularly?

Most CEOs I know have something in common. They have the ability to apply these three skills in at least one are of their lives. Most are applying them in most if not all areas of their lives.

Business: vision for the company, goals to help the company achieve the vision and motivation to work toward those goals.

Home life: vision for their family, goals to help their family live the life they want to and motivation to set priorities in order to keep everyone on track.

Health: vision for how they want to feel and look, goals to keep them on track and in line with this vision and motivation to stick with it because they see the value and know the alternative will not satisfy them.

That is just a look at three areas of life. There are many more examples, but that should give you a good picture. This also brings us back to my question for CEOs:

What if everyone in your company had the skills you have?

I’ve yet to have a CEO say that they wouldn’t like this. In fact, this question always leads to a great conversation. Their vision kicks in and they start picturing their employees doing the things that they do for their company and for themselves. This is a pretty picture of driven and successful people. The picture is pretty and it is achievable in any company.

It starts with the vision. Once that vision is clear, all we have to do is set goals to make it a reality. Motivation will carry us through the process of reaching these goals and going from where we were to where we want to be as a company.

We've been talking about each category and now we are on the third and final category. Each is important it its own way, but the last of the three is the one that really puts things in motion.

Part 3: Motivation

Now that we are ready to discuss our third skill, let’s define it. Motivation can mean many things to many people. To me motivation is the reason we do what we do. We’ve discussed the importance of motivation, but let’s be clear on what it means.

I have heard people say: “I’m just not motivated” or “I would but I don’t have the motivation”. First of all, we ALL have motivation. We all have our own motivation. This is the main reason we are in the health situation we are in now. The people that are living healthy lifestyles have not only found their motivation, but they are using it to keep them going.

How does that work. It’s not as complicated as we think it is. When you start setting goals to reach your vision, you have to look at the reasons you want to get to that vision by accomplishing the goals. When things get more difficult, you simply have to weigh the options. If what you are doing has a clear purpose to you and you can think of a strong reason to keep doing it you will keep doing it.

This is where the short term try can turn into the long-term change. If your motivation is clear, you will think about the alternative and remember that it will not satisfy you. The CEO has gotten very good at this. They have seen many situations that were just not good enough. They didn’t luck out of these situations. They saw how the situation didn’t match their vision, they set goals to overcome the situation and they did just that.

All successful people, CEO or otherwise, are able to do this. In fact, all people are able to do this. The problem is that the average person doesn’t practice this on a regular basis. We get used to not reaching goals or not having them at all.

It gets too easy to say we don’t care…maybe you really don’t about the little things. Pretty soon the little things add up and we have some big things coming out of the habits we are used to. When this goes too far and we realize that NOW we want to change, it is very difficult because we are trying to undo years of habits.

That is where we are today in our country and in our workforce. Many CEOs look at their company health and see a bunch of unhealthy people. That is not what I see.
I see people that aren’t using the three skills we’ve been talking about. I see people that lack the following:

Vision
Goals
Motivation

As we discussed in parts one and two, these skills are not only learned, but they can be improved with practice. Why do you think successful people continue to be successful? They are in the habit of setting goals and reaching goals. The clarity of their vision and the motivation that they have to achieve it are continually measured against the alternative. They continue to choose their goals over the alternative. The more they do this, the more they succeed.

It is a cycle that anyone can get into. You just have to take these steps. The more you do it, the more you succeed. You simply have to choose your vision, goals and motivation over the alternative. As a leader in your company, it’s as simple as sharing these three important parts with your team. The more they choose to stick with them, the more success they have and the mort success your company has.

Every employee has the ability to take the steps that their CEOs take. They can learn and improve upon the very same skills. The best part about this is that you can practice in any and all areas of life. Health is a perfect place to start because it is something we all want. When people have a vision, can set goals and have the motivation to keep moving toward it, they become successful. The more they do it for you, the more successful your company becomes. What looks better to you, a company full of successful people or a company full of the alternative?

Company full of CEOs (Part 2 of 3)

2010-05-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

When I work with clients, they often have a different view of employees and executives. Come to think of it, most people see differences between these two categories. In the workplace, we often think of the obvious differences such as pay and responsibility. But the differences I see are things that we can all improve. What executives, CEO’s in particular do best is actually something that every employee can do to.

What got the CEO where they are today? It all comes down to goals. They had a vision, set goals and put a plan in motion to reach their goals and realize that vision. They are driven enough to stick with the plan and therefore they successful people.

One question that I ask my clients’ CEOs is: What if everyone in your company had the skills you have?

It always leads to an interesting conversation. When I say skills, I’m not talking about what you get with an MBA or years of experience running a business. I’m talking about things that everyone can do no matter what their education level or current position. I’m talking about the following three skills:

Vision
Goals
Motivation

These three categories are the difference between being successful or not. If you have any of these things you will be ahead of the game. If you have all of these things, you will be consistently winning the game. Again, let’s think about what your company would look like if everyone had these skills. Even better, what if everyone was well trained and using them regularly?

Most CEOs I know have something in common. They have the ability to apply these three skills in at least one are of their lives. Most are applying them in most if not all areas of their lives.

Business: vision for the company, goals to help the company achieve the vision and motivation to work toward those goals.

Home life: vision for their family, goals to help their family live the life they want to and motivation to set priorities in order to keep everyone on track.

Health: vision for how they want to feel and look, goals to keep them on track and in line with this vision and motivation to stick with it because they see the value and know the alternative will not satisfy them.

That is just a look at three areas of life. There are many more examples, but that should give you a good picture. This also brings us back to my question for CEOs: What if everyone in your company had the skills you have?

I’ve yet to have a CEO say that they wouldn’t like this. In fact, this question always leads to a great conversation. Their vision kicks in and they start picturing their employees doing the things that they do for their company and for themselves. This is a pretty picture of driven and successful people. The picture is pretty and it is achievable in any company.

It starts with the vision. Once that vision is clear, all we have to do is set goals to make it a reality. Motivation will carry us through the process of reaching these goals and going from where we were to where we want to be as a company.

Let’s talk about each of the three categories separately. Each is important it its own way, so we should take time to cover them in their own part of the series.

Part 2: Goals

It starts with vision, but the next step is where the rubber meets the road. You need goals to even get started toward your vision. It is one thing to see what you want, but it is another thing to actually take action toward what you want.

This is where the successful are really separated from the unsuccessful. Anyone can dream. Anyone can picture their ideal scene. Anyone can think about what they want. What do successful people do when they want something? They do what it takes to get it. They take action and are rewarded for that action by the results that follow.

Taking action is key, but what does it take? It takes goals to take action toward any vision. This brings us back to the company again. The employees of this company have goals. The sales team has sales goals, the managers have performance goals for the sales team and so on. Everyone in the company has goals that are set for them by their job descriptions and their managers.

Hopefully at some point these goals are reviewed and revised based on how the plan is working. But how often does each employee do this in their personal lives? Well, that all depends on how successful they are.

Let’s look at their health for instance. They may have a picture or vision of what they want their health to be. In fact, most people would say that they at least want to be healthy. Unfortunately, the vision is as far as health goes for many people. Even more unfortunately, even the vision has gone away for many as they have started to believe that health is not something they can achieve.

If they are unable picture good health or set goals toward good health, how can they succeed? The fact is that they likely will not. And that is where we are today. The average person doesn’t have a vision for themselves outside of the day to day tasks they have to complete. They do not look long term to a clear vision and they do not set a course toward that vision.

If they had a clear vision, they could set goals. The difference between a CEO and the average individual in a company is goals. The CEO has specific goals that they need to accomplish in order to keep themselves and the company moving in the right direction. That direction is determined by the vision and each goal is set to satisfy a specific objective that will lead them closer than they were the day before.

That is why I ask the question of CEOs: What if everyone in your company had the skills you have? When the skill of goal setting enters the equation, success is usually the answer. CEOs understand this and that is not only why they are successful, but it is a big reason they are CEOs in the first place.

So, what happens when all the employees in a company are able to set goals? They are able to determine their progress. When you know your progress, good or bad, significant or not, you know where you are going. You can tell if you are in line with your vision. A company can tell if they are in line with their vision. When this comes together, it only makes sense that success at all levels is the result.

The CEO has goals. They run the company according to these goals. They also live their lives according to the goals they have set for themselves. When their employees are able to do the same thing, the are going to get same results. They will have their own goals, so the results will be unique, but one thing will be the same: success.

Success can mean many things. The definition of success is setting a goal and reaching a goal. We have realized that health carries over from one are of live to another. Fortunately, goal setting does to. That is why the successful CEO is able to put the same skills in play at home that they do in business. Imagine what a company would look like if everyone was setting goals and reaching goals. What is the result? The result is success in all areas.

Goals are very important. Vision is the starting point and goals are the steps that get you to the vision. But what happens during this whole process? Many things happen and some of those things make it more difficult to continue. What do you do when things get more difficult? Well, that depends whether you are successful or not.

When you have a clear vision and have goals set that will take you toward the vision, you have a plan in place. With this plan it becomes support in itself. When you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, challenges seem to be less significant and success is much more realistic.

Company full of CEOs (Part 1 of 3)

2010-04-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

When I work with clients, they often have a different view of employees and executives. Come to think of it, most people see differences between these two categories. In the workplace, we often think of the obvious differences such as pay and responsibility. But the differences I see are things that we can all improve. What executives, CEO’s in particular do best is actually something that every employee can do too.

What got the CEO where they are today? It all comes down to goals. They had a vision, set goals and put a plan in motion to reach their goals and realize that vision. They are driven enough to stick with the plan and therefore they successful people.

One question that I ask my clients’ CEOs is: What if everyone in your company had the skills you have?

It always leads to an interesting conversation. When I say skills, I’m not talking about what you get with an MBA or years of experience running a business. I’m talking about things that everyone can do no matter what their education level or current position. I’m talking about the following three skills:

Vision
Goals
Motivation

These three categories are the difference between being successful or not. If you have any of these things you will be ahead of the game. If you have all of these things, you will be consistently winning the game. Again, let’s think about what your company would look like if everyone had these skills. Even better, what if everyone was well trained and using them regularly?

Most CEOs I know have something in common. They have the ability to apply these three skills in at least one are of their lives. Most are applying them in most if not all areas of their lives.

Business: vision for the company, goals to help the company achieve the vision and motivation to work toward those goals.

Home life: vision for their family, goals to help their family live the life they want to and motivation to set priorities in order to keep everyone on track.

Health: vision for how they want to feel and look, goals to keep them on track and in line with this vision and motivation to stick with it because they see the value and know the alternative will not satisfy them.

That is just a look at three areas of life. There are many more examples, but that should give you a good picture. This also brings us back to my question for CEOs: What if everyone in your company had the skills you have?

I’ve yet to have a CEO say that they wouldn’t like this. In fact, this question always leads to a great conversation. Their vision kicks in and they start picturing their employees doing the things that they do for their company and for themselves. This is a pretty picture of driven and successful people. The picture is pretty and it is achievable in any company.

It starts with the vision. Once that vision is clear, all we have to do is set goals to make it a reality. Motivation will carry us through the process of reaching these goals and going from where we were to where we want to be as a company.

Let’s talk about each of the three categories separately. Each is important it its own way, so we should take time to cover them in their own part of the series.

Part 1: Vision

Success starts with vision. Vision is nothing more than being able to look ahead. It seems like this would be an easy task, but it is not. Vision is a challenge because there are so many things happening right now, that it is often difficult to look ahead. It is easier to get caught up in the day to day struggle than it is to keep your eye on the big picture.

As a CEO you have to have vision. You have to be able to look to the future and decide where you want your company to be when that time comes. If your company has been successful, you have been doing this well. If you have struggled, you likely strayed from the vision that you had for your company, either by choice or due to outside circumstances.

Regardless, you have to be able to see what your ideal looks like if you are going to run anything. A company needs to know what it should be doing and where it should be going. Without this vision, how do employees know what they should be doing? How does anyone in the company know if you are successful or not? They don’t unless there is a clear vision established and communicated to everyone.

This is where employees within a company run into trouble. As employees, there is often a job description that tells them what is expected. There is a manager or supervisor telling them what they should be able to accomplish and what their typical day should look like. The concept of work has been engrained in us so buying into this vision is not typically difficult. It can be, but that is another article.

As an individual, health is a little less clear. The vision of what they want their health to look like is often just an afterthought. While there are standards and recommendations to tell them what their health should look like, they haven’t necessarily found their own vision.

Why don’t they have their own vision? They likely did have one at one time. As young kids we all want to be active and as healthy as possible. As we get older we let the vision give way to the day to day and if they don’t line up, we stop pursuing that vision. This is the same in health, sports and many other areas of life.

How can someone live healthy when they don’t have a vision of themselves living healthy? They can’t. At least they can’t on a long term basis. They may be able to make slight adjustments from time to time, but ultimately they will slight back into old habits because they don’t have the clear vision that they need to get where they want to go.

This is happening in companies across the country. CEOs want their employees to be healthy and productive. They want them to live quality lives and contribute quality work to the company. In other words, they want them to adopt the same habits as they have.

While vision is very important, it is only one of the three skills needed to succeed. A vision without action is only a wish or a dream. It takes a game plan to make a vision reality. The next skill does just that, a game plan. A game plan is nothing more than a series of goals. The series of goals builds a plan that leads us toward our vision.

We'll cover the game plan in part 2.

Deciding Your Company's Future

2010-03-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote an article called “Deciding your own future”. I wrote it with individuals in mind. It is about choosing to be in control of your routine and accepting responsibility for your outcomes. In other words, whether you are succeeding or not, if you don’t take action, you are deciding the outcome.

When it comes to employee health, there are many options that allow your company to save money and improve how your insurance plan works for you. The most important option is the first choice. The first choice has to be to take action.
By acting and putting a plan in place, you are deciding your company’s future. By not acting, you too are deciding your company’s future.

It is that simple. What is your vision? What do you want your company to look like in the future? All you need to do is set goals and take steps that are in line with those goals. There are many aspects to the employee health and wellness plans once you get things moving, but the simplest choice of all has to take place first. That choice is to take action. If you don’t take action, what happens?

Think about it in terms of revenue or market share. If your company has a goal to increase this year’s revenue and market share over last years- and why wouldn’t you?-you have to take steps that support these goals. If you do not take steps that are in line you will not succeed. You wouldn’t quit half-way through the year and say “Well, I guess we just can’t generate any more revenue”. Your company wouldn’t give up and say “Our competitors are just too good for us to increase market share”. If you did this you would be saying that your company is not in control of your revenue or market share. If that is the case, your company is not going to be around very long. If it is, it will be very lucky.

Luck is actually a word I have head companies use when talking about healthcare costs. “We got lucky this year and had a smaller increase”, or “We had some bad luck this year” are just a few of the responses I’ve heard to healthcare failures. When I say healthcare failure, I am referring to the failure of a company to take action. Or as we’ve discussed to this point, deciding their company’s future. In these cases, their future is ever-rising healthcare costs.
I highly doubt that a successful company would use the word luck to describe their success. On the other side of success is failure and I don’t think they would blame poor sales. They may blame it on a bad economy or other external factors, but that’s another issue altogether.

The point is, healthcare costs are controllable. We’ve talked about it many times and will continue to do so as long as it remains true. Healthcare, just like other systems in your business can be managed with proactive strategy. Your strategy is based on goals and your company takes action toward those goals. By doing this with your healthcare strategy, you are deciding your company’s future. By not doing anything, you are also deciding your company’s future.

The article I wrote on the individual level is the same principle. Not only does it ring true, but it also comes together when those individuals are your employees. They have goals. Some of their goals are centered in their roles on your team, while others are centered in their personal lives. The fact remains, that all of the goals, no matter where they are centered always affect all areas of the person’s life. As your employees set goals, they run into challenges. These challenges are a wide variety of things that make it more difficult to keep going.

This brings us back to our original principle. If a person wants to be successful, they have to set goals and do things that are in line with those goals. Just like a company, if they do things that are not going to help those goals become reality, they are not going to succeed. Both companies and individuals can choose how successful they want to be. They can blame failures on outside factors and continue to struggle with them or they can take ownership and do what it takes to reach goals. Either way, your employees are deciding their own future.

One of the best results that comes out of a wellness program is the support of goals. When goals are supported they become much more realistic. A company full of employees that is setting and reaching goals is a successful company. This is true by definition, but it goes beyond the black and white. In fact, it goes back to the concept of goals affecting all areas of employees’ lives. Goals, drive and success carry over. If there is success in one area, there will be success in another. Companies that take action to support employees and their goals are successful companies. In other words, they are deciding their own future.

From business goals, systems within the business and all the way down to each employee’s personal goals, the process remains the same. Setting goals, taking action toward those goals and maintaining the ownership of the outcomes is the process on all levels. When your company does this in all areas you will be successful.

Healthcare is no different. When your company sets goals, takes action that is in line with those goals, you are deciding the future. It’s that simple. If you want to save money on healthcare, you need to set goals as a company to improve employee health. As you continue to reach these goals, you will see success in savings. More importantly you will be deciding your company’s future. If you do nothing you are also deciding your company’s future.

Energy: You get what you put it

2010-02-23T11:32:00.000-08:00

As an entrepreneur, I need a lot of energy. It takes energy to manage all areas of my business. In my 2+ years in business, I have discovered something else about energy. I have discovered that energy is more than just something that comes out of the wall socket.

Energy is what drives my business. Energy is what drives all businesses. Not only is energy necessary to keep a business operating, but energy can determine the direction of a company as well. The important discovery I made is that there is a
formula for energy and how it affects business.

The formula is simple. You may have even heard it before in other areas. “You get what you put it”, “You get what you give” and other phrases like that are very true. The more energy you put into your business, the more results you get out of it. This is true and I have seen it firsthand.

It works on an individual level as well. Perhaps that is the easiest way to understand the energy formula. Picture this:

You are working on a project to communicate a process that you have never done before. What happens if you don’t put in any time to learn the new area or research your options? Likely your project will not go very well. If you don’t take time to hone your skills and put the pieces in place to be clear on your message, your audience will not understand this process. Since that was the goal of your project, this will be a failure if you are not able to communicate the process.

The alternative: you immediately call two co-workers that have experience with this process and ask them some questions. They point you to more resources. As you put in the time and energy to these resources, the project comes together and your communication is effective. The project is a success because you put in more energy. More energy got you better results.

I know what you’re thinking. Yes, this is a very basic example. While this is basic, so is the formula. Energy in equals energy out. It’s not complicated and neither is the business world where we apply it. We often make it seem complicated. In fact we make it more complicated by trying to find ways around putting in more energy. We spend more time and effort trying not to use energy. When that fails, what do we end up doing? Well, either we end up quitting. If quitting is not an option, we end up putting in far more energy to make up for the issues cause by the lazy route.

We talked about an example with a business project. Let’s take it up to the company level and discuss how energy in equals energy out.

Your business is launching a new product. The product has great value, but no one knows about it yet. The task at hand is to get the new product in front of consumers who will buy it.

No/low energy: simply wait for customers to come to you and hope they see your new product sooner than later.

Results: Not likely to be successful as you are just waiting. Not taking proactive action will lead to results that are less than desirable.

High energy: Put together a plan to get information and samples of your new product to potential customers. The sales team making calls, sending communications to strategic partners and other potential centers of influence

Results: This strategy is likely to yield the results you are looking for. At very least, you control the actions and bring your goals into your hands rather than depending on others to act on them.

This is an external business example. My business focus is more on internal systems. That is where I came to the realization of the energy formula. Let’s take a look at the affects of energy on your business and your employees.

Strategy is important, but energy put into a strategy is just as important. Just as in our previous example, action will equal results. When you look at your employee base, do you want them to put more energy into their duties? Do you want them to be high-performers or just average? These should be easy questions to answer. In fact, I’ve yet to have a business owner tell me they wanted average employees.

With high performance being a priority, your business has to put in enough energy in order to get the amount out that you want. Each employee has goals and wants to be a high-performer. If no energy is put into those goals, no action is taken to reach them. It’s that simple. Employees want to do well. The more energy you put into them, the more energy they will put into your company.

A conversation that I have with many CEO’s is about the connection between each area of our lives. Many of the CEO’s I know are taking good care of their health. Why is that? I think it is because they live each are of their lives in a similar manner. They set goals, reach goals and are successful people.

Imagine if all of your employees were as goal-oriented and driven as you. What would that mean for your business? Would your business be more successful if all your employees were as engaged and goal-oriented as you are? Of course it would!

That is where wellness comes into play. As a business owner, I am focused on my company vision. As a person, I am focused on my personal vision. Each aspect of my life has a series of goals that when reached, allow me to live the way I want to. This is not unlike most of the business owners I know. They are setting and reaching goals in all areas of life.

By adding this concept to your workforce, you are empowering your employees. When they are empowered, they are contributing great things. What makes it even better is that they feel fulfilled by the accomplishments and continue to contribute. This is a long-term solution and will lead to long-term success.
It’s all about energy. The energy you put in is the energy you will get back out.

Just like we learned in our examples, we get what we put in. In the external example where we rolled out a new product, the success depended on how much energy we put into the process of getting it out. In the individual example, our project depended on us putting in energy. And finally, your company as whole will benefit from energy being put into employees. Goal setting and motivation are keys to success in all areas. By putting energy into employees to help them with their goals and motivation, your company will benefit. Employee goals become company goals and motivation is high due to the energy put in.

Make It Happen.

2010-02-15T09:23:00.000-08:00

In last week’s entry, we discussed a simple, yet profound act. It seems natural, but unfortunately it is not. The title and subject was: Think about it. One would think that a thought would come easily, but when you look at our biggest problems in health and healthcare, the act of thinking about it is what we often go without.

Thinking about it is very important. We need to know there is an issue, understand our best option to change the issue. In health and in business, we are missing this step. Believe it or not the next step would be even easier if we just took the time to think about the big picture.

What is the big picture? We discuss it often. It is the fact that as a society, our health is declining and our healthcare system is in trouble. It doesn’t have to be. By thinking about it, the solution is clear and much less difficult than you think it is.

It is important to understand the options. What is more important? Doing something about it is the next step. As a business owner, I know the challenges of running a company. As I help businesses with their employee health concerns, I continue to learn more about other businesses and the options they have. I also learn more about the barriers that stand in their way.

The biggest barrier is what we already discussed: thinking about it and realizing that they can change the way they do things. Deciding you want to be proactive is important, but actually taking the steps is what will bring the new results they are looking for. We often get caught up in the thought that we’ve never done it before or we don’t know where to start. This can make it seem very difficult, when in fact, once we start the process by taking the first step, other steps reveal themselves and it becomes easier as we go. In other words, the next step is action. Now that you’ve thought about it, it is time to make it happen. It can be done if you are willing to do it.

What does that take? It depends on your goals. If your goal is to be a smoke-free company, you would want to start with your smoking policies. If your goal is to be a company offering the most nutritious choices, start by talking to your vendors. As long as you act according to your priorities, you will make progress.

Making it happen may seem difficult at first. The beauty of this step is that by thinking about it first, you really set yourself up to be in a better position to act. Basically, making it happen is not as difficult as it seems once you know what you want to do.

Now that you’ve thought about what you want your company to look like and what changes need to be made, you are ready to start putting your plan in motion. Once the plan is in motion, you are already going. The hardest part is getting started, but once you have, all you have to do is continue. Just keep going and you will succeed.

Think about it.

2010-02-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

I saw a commercial during the Super Bowl that caught my attention. This particular commercial was new (and very expensive), but I have actually seen the campaign before. The campaign is about a single slogan that runs at the end of each commercial. When the ad is over, you are left with one sentence on the screen: Think about it.

This can mean many things. It can mean think about the ad, the product or the price. It can mean that you are thinking about your current situation and how it aligns with the advertiser, but I took something different away from it. I took the single sentence on the screen. I only took the sentence and I took it at face value.

Why did I do this? Think about it. Think about what it means. I am focused on business and health all day every day so naturally those areas are what I thought about when I was prompted to think about it. More importantly, I thought about what each and every one of us needs to do in order to succeed.

Did this lead me to determination or skill? Did it lead me to preparation and perseverance? No, actually it led me to the most basic step. It led me to common sense. When I took this sentence at face value, I really took it at face value. If more of us did that, we may be in a different situation. If common sense were more common, we'd be in a much better situation.

No matter what area you are talking about, just thinking about it is a valuable step in the process. My two favorite areas (business and health) are two of the areas that often get neglected. They don’t get neglected when it comes to time or energy. They get neglected because when it comes to business or health, we don’t often take the time to really think about it.

When I read an article in the newspaper or see a report on the news, I see many different things. While it is difficult to turn to a news source and get positive news, it still baffles me that we are dealing with the same problems year after year.

In business and in health, we have health care. We hear about how there is a crisis and we are in trouble if we don’t fix the system. We are constantly told about ideas from congress, experts and even fellow citizens. What we aren’t told – the reason I feel compelled to write this – is to think about it.

Think about it. The nation’s health care system has been in turmoil for years now. Why has it been in turmoil? The system is in turmoil because we haven’t figured out how to solve the problem yet. Well, a better way of saying it is: We have come up with quick fixes and devised new ways to finance the health care system, but we have yet to truly solve the problem.

What do we need to do to solve the problem? Think about it! We’ve been over this a million times. The system is broken because it costs too much to get care. It costs too much to get care because we are in need of way too much care. If we really want to solve the problem, we have to fix ourselves, not the system.

That is health, but business is seeing the same issues because of the health care system. In business, employers offer insurance to their employees. Those same employees are in declining health and needing more care that costs too much and is being used too often and now the businesses are suffering the consequences along with their employees.

The bottom line is that we all need to think about it. We need to think about what we want. What we want as business owners and what we want as individuals. We need to think about where we are heading. Where our companies are going and where our society is going. We need to think about where we will be if we don’t change and we need to think about what it takes to change if we decide that isn’t where we want to be.

I’ve laid out a very brief version of the solution. Obviously there is time and energy involved in achieving a solution to the health care crisis. Obviously solving the health care crisis takes more than just improving…wait a minute. So the solution to the health care crisis is health? It’s that simple. Think about it.

Outside Help for Inside Success

2010-01-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

When talking to a client, I heard a complaint that is all too common. The complaint was from a CEO and they were explaining how they didn’t have enough time to implement all of the strategies they wanted to in their business. We normally discuss wellness as that is my area of expertise, but this complaint was true for multiple areas of their business. In fact, this conversation made me think about how wellness should be approached just like other systems in the business.

This CEO runs a company that sells products. They have a team of people that work with clients to fit their needs with the right product in their line. It sounds pretty straight forward, but there is more to the business than simply selling more products. There are many other aspects of the business that determine success or failure of the company.

Let’s take a look at some of those areas and see what they have done to improve the process.

Sales: We start with the obvious because in order to be in business, the company needs to be able to sell products. This is no secret and is the foundation of most if not all companies. So what has to be done in order to make this process successful? Many things have to be done including:
- Set-up- A process is put in place so that each sales rep knows what to do
- Basic Training-employees are refreshed on the basics of the sales process
- Advanced Training- Each rep is taught specific techniques in order to improve
- Schedule- The schedule is laid out in order for customer calls to be made
and for refresher training
- Evaluation- The process is evaluated so the company knows if it is
successful or not

The company uses a combination of a sales manager and a sales training consultant to keep this process going. With this process in place, the company is able to improve their sales force which improves their sales and allows their company to grow their profit.

IT System: Computers have become a vital part of business. We use them for communication, data storage and many other things depending on the type of business. With this particular business, they have a specific plan. They don’t simply buy a computer for each desk and pay as we go for services. In fact, they hired a consultant to help them set up and maintain their IT system. The consultant does the following for them:
- Set-up- The proper equipment is installed based on the needs of the company
- Basic Training- Each employee is trained on how to use the equipment
- Advanced Training- Each employee is taught specific techniques in order to
improve
- Schedule- The schedule is laid out in order for ongoing maintenance and
refresher training to be completed
- Evaluation- The service and equipment is evaluated so the company knows if
the process is successful or not

The consultant they hire sets a plan in place and costs associated with that plan have been communicated as well. When there is an issue above and beyond the regular services, they discuss options and choose the most practical based on the company’s goals.

These are just two systems within a company, but you can see how important they are. The Sales training and IT processes are important not only to the day to day operation, but they are also keys to the long-term success that the company is looking for. Not only are these two systems important, but they are related. Just looking at the steps in the process, we can clearly see that it takes similar steps to implement them.

This breakdown is not to show the importance of sales training or IT consulting. The breakdown is to show how all areas of business are important. No business can function without established systems and processes in place for each one of them.

Employee health and wellness is part of the business too. In fact, many would say that employees are the most important asset in the business. This is why we started working together in the first place. This company had seen success to this point because they looked at their employees as an important asset. They invested in this asset by hiring me as a consultant to maintain a system that covered the following:
- Set-up- Their wellness program was established
- Basic Training- Each employee was given the basics for participating in the
program
- Advanced Training- As the program progressed, employees are giving specific
assistance to help them make progress in the area of health
- Schedule- The program is laid out for the year- committee meetings and other
events are scheduled and communicated
- Evaluation- The results from health assessments and changes made in coaching
programs are analyzed to determine success of their wellness program

Look familiar? It should, as each area of business requires a process. The process not only assures that something is being done; it also assures that it is being done well.

The discussion that led to this breakdown was that the CEO didn’t feel they had time for some things that they wanted to implement in their business. The solution was clear after we discussed the other systems in the business. They simply needed to establish a plan, train employees, schedule the interactions and evaluate the results.

By taking these steps, they have been successful in sales, IT and in wellness. I hear the concerns regularly. Many companies have problems with one or multiple systems in their business. Healthcare is often one of them. The solution doesn’t have to be complicated. Solving healthcare problems is as simple as putting a wellness plan into place.

With this concept, businesses can accomplish more success while dealing with less stress. Just like you hire a consultant to run IT or a manager to lead the sales team, by hiring a consultant to run the wellness plan, your company improves. Rather than waiting for costs to come in at the end of each year, you can actively bring down the risk factors that are leading to these high costs. By improving individual employee behavior and increasing healthy habits we are able to decrease the amount of money spent on fixing problems. These problems stem from old habits and the old way of managing healthcare costs.

The new way is simple: treat employee health as a system in your business. It is a system in your business and by doing things this way your business will prevent unnecessary costs. It often takes an outside consultant to accomplish this. An expert specializing in an area can help you add knowledge and time that you didn’t have before.

Not only will costs be more reasonable, but now your company will be in control. When it comes to business, planning is better than paying. It works in all areas of business- including wellness.

Smart Business

2010-01-05T16:03:00.001-08:00

In the year 2010, we are going to see some changes. There are many companies that struggled through 2009. There is hope on the horizon for them. I’m not saying that everything will be easy, but I am saying that things will be better.

Why will things be better? They will be better because businesses will be working smarter. We’ve all heard the saying: “work smarter, not harder.” Well, I have witnessed businesses working smarter this past year and will continue to do so in 2010. Actually, my clients were working smarter even back in 2008. The best and brightest companies have been working smart for many years.

What is smart business? Smart business is when companies stay true to their vision and invest in their core. Businesses that practice this have been successful for years. The best and brightest mentioned earlier have been doing just that for many years. As they have done that, they have become the best and as they continue to do it, they will continue to be the best.

What do they do? Smart businesses stay true to vision and invest in their core. Staying true to vision sounds straight forward enough and you would think it was basic business. Unfortunately, many businesses stray from their vision and have trouble getting back to it. When this happens, the business suffers. Clients and customers are alienated, employees are confused and often disgruntled and the performance of the business reflects all of this.

The clients and customers are vital to the business. Without them feeling comfortable and satisfied, sales become more difficult. When they don’t know what to expect, they will go elsewhere to get what they can expect.

There is one thing that smart businesses know that has helped them remain the best and brightest. In fact these actions have helped them hire and retain the best and brightest employees. And that is the second part of the equation- Investing in their core. Employees become the company and the company becomes the employees.

The best and brightest companies know this and they use it to their advantage. They invest in the core of their company by building their workforce and taking care of it. They know that a happy employee is a dedicated employee. They know that a healthy employee is a productive employee.

Most importantly for smart businesses, they combine these two principles into one. They invest in their core and encourage them to continue driving forward. They share the vision and make sure it is clear and emphasize the importance of sticking with it.

I have learned a lot about smart businesses in my years as a consultant. I have seen what works and what doesn’t work. What I find most interesting is how employees and employers are so intertwined.

Why are they so intertwined? Employers and employees are intertwined because of the principles of smart business. Business taking advantage of these principles are seeing success. Those that do not are likely struggling or even disappearing.

For a more specific answer, let’s take a look at the principles in a more literal sense. Vision and sticking to vision: a company that sets clear goals and sticks to actions that lead to them achieving those goals is a successful company. In order to do this, they need to have employees that have clear goals and stick to actions that lead them achieving those goals.

It sounds simple because it is that simple. What makes it even better is the fact that employees that can do this in the office can also do it in their personal lives. People are the same at work as they are at home. By investing in the person, you are encouraging them to keep the vision, both the company vision and their own personal vision.

By investing in employees, they invest in the company. Think about it, all employees want to be healthy and feel good. If their employer not only encourages that but takes an active role, it speaks volumes. The best part about it is that you can keep reinforcing these habits and they will keep moving your company in the right direction: more and more work toward the vision with better capacity and energy.

Again, this is working smart. It’s not working any harder. It is simply setting priorities, communicating those priorities and supporting them. This doesn’t take any more effort. In fact, it is easier. Once your core (employees) is on board with the vision and working hard to achieve it, everything works smoothly. As you continue to invest in the core you are reinforce the importance of the vision and even help strengthen their ability to work toward it.

Smart business is a company staying true to their vision and investing in their core. More specifically, smart business is investing in their core and making sure that they stay true to their vision while helping the company stay true to its vision.

You’ve heard me talk about healthy business. This actually sounds a lot like healthy business. In fact, healthy business and smart business are one in the same. A healthy company is a smart company and as we’ve discussed, it is clear to see that a smart and healthy company is going to be a successful company.

How to Make Your New Year’s Resolution Successful

2009-12-29T14:37:00.001-08:00

As we turn the calendars to a new year, there are often many things on our minds. One of those things may be your New Year’s resolution. Let’s take a minute to talk about the resolution. It has gotten a bad reputation as something that “won’t work” or is “destined to fail”, but it is still important to set goals for the coming year.
Goals are the best way for you to recover from the holiday season gone by. What’s the difference between a goal and a resolution? Great question, a resolution is a grand declaration or something that you decided to do on December 31st.

A traditional resolution takes about as much time to think about as it does to announce. And the typical resolution is also forgotten just as quickly. Goals on the other hand are a plan. Notice it’s not goal, but goals. It takes a series of goals to make up a plan. If you want to make a change that lasts a year, you need to break it up into steps. Each step is a goal in itself and will bring you to the next level. As you progress through each of these levels, you should be well on your way to the overall goal.

Think about your goals as a road map. When you are on a trip and question if you are going the right direction, you can always look back at your map. If you are off track, simply look at the map and find the best way to get back on. Without the map, not only do you not know where you are going, but you also don’t know if you are on track or not. By setting goals and having a plan, you can be sure that you are going the direction you want to be going.

What is the best plan? For starters, it should be something you really want to accomplish. Take your resolution and break it down into smaller steps. Start with something small and realistic. When you have mastered that step, it’s on to the next. With each step you take, not only are you moving toward your goal, you are creating new habits.

Season's Greetings

2009-12-29T14:16:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone,
I hope the holiday season is treating you well. This is a great week to reflect on 2009 and look ahead to 2010. Both can be fun and help you continue on your path to success.

Looking Forward: Which Direction is Your Business Looking?

2009-11-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

In many areas of business, we take pride in looking forward. When we see a problem coming and avoid it by acting, we often get praise, recognition and feel a sense of accomplishment. When we don’t see a problem coming, but we are able to react and avoid maximum damage, we often feel the same way.

The biggest difference between these two scenarios is: while it may take planning, education and a keen business sense to be proactive, it usually requires less work, causes less stress and is often easier than reacting to an unexpected scenario. But even with reaction, we can often get some results. These results may not be as positive as the proactive plan yields, but it is much less negative than no reaction at all.

There is a third scenario that I see in today’s business world. Many companies find themselves here. This scenario is both interesting and scary at the same time. It is interesting because it presents a whole new issue, but it is scary because that issue continues to be just that, an issue.

So what is the third scenario? It is a combination of the first two. In the first scenario, we see a problem and we proactively move to prevent it from happening. The second involves a problem we don’t see coming, but by reacting, we are able to fix what damage was caused. The third scenario is like the first in the sense that we see something coming, but it is more like the second because we react, rather than choosing to plan ahead and in some cases we don’t react all.

Why is this so scary? Well, from what we have all seen in other areas of business, it is much easier and cost-effective to plan ahead and prevent problems from occurring. While reacting is necessary in some situations, we know that it will be more costly and we will only be minimizing damage and surviving as opposed to avoiding damage and thriving.

So what happens in the third scenario? Well, we are reacting, so if we are able to minimize damage, that is all we can hope to achieve. It’s like “playing not to lose” vs. “playing to win”. You wouldn’t do that in your overall business plan, so why would you do it in any area of your business?

Let’s take a look at a benefits plan in the average business. Each year they renew the plan and continue to pay premiums. When they sit down with their insurance agent or broker, they are told that the cost of their care is rising and the medical use is too. They are told that they have more and more people that are being treated for chronic conditions and need more medications and procedures. The premiums for this year are going up because the group incurred more costs than were accounted for and now their plan will be more expensive to cover next year.

What I don’t understand is why any business would choose this third scenario. Knowing what we know today, there is simply too much risk to not planning ahead and too much damage already being caused to simply react to yesterday’s issues; or so one would think.

The most interesting part of this is that the insurance companies are already thinking forward. They are looking at your group costs and trends and charging you more because it is going to cost them more to cover them. They see the problem coming and they are adjusting accordingly. It is painful for a business to go through this, yet knowing it is happening doesn’t seem to be enough to change. The company just pays the next year’s premiums (that have been adjusted by the forward-thinking insurance company to account for their high costs to cover your employees) without changing. This “plan” is taking place despite the fact that they know higher costs are coming. This doesn’t sound like smart business, does it?

Unfortunately, when it comes to employee health and insurance costs, we are seeing a problem coming and choosing not to prevent it from harming us. For most businesses, the problem is already here as they have seen increases in cost over the past few years. There is more to come, which would make it logical to start looking forward, yet many are still looking backward to pay for what has occurred and refusing to look forward at what they can prevent from occurring.

There is clear evidence that the path most businesses are on will lead to unpleasant (at best) and fatal consequences if we don’t change our direction. There is also clear evidence that business that have chosen to adopt strategies to keep health and costs under control have been successful and seen their return on investment. With this evidence at their disposal, many businesses are still choosing to go the same direction and therefore, continue to deal with a growing issue from a reactive standpoint.

The problem with this approach is that we never really get ahead of anything. We continue to look backward and pay the costs that we incurred before, but never look forward to see if there is a better way to manage that cost. Remember, the insurance company’s strategy? They will continue to adjust your rates to account for your employees’ spending. We need to start adjusting our spending and therefore adjust our rates.

If we don’t adjust, our businesses will continue to play catch-up. It’s like being in a boat and having only a tiny cup to bail water out as it fills up with water. The holes in the boat were caused by us, it was our responsibility to keep the water out in the first place by taking care of the boat, but now that it’s too late, it is our responsibility to bail that water out. For many people, there are still many choices such as large buckets and even automated pumps to get the water out, but so many are choosing to use the tiny cup. The scariest part of it all is that there are people choosing to do nothing as they watch their boats fill with water. Do they expect it to stop filling? Do they expect it to miraculously start emptying itself? Or maybe they expect someone to come along in a big boat with fancy equipment to help them.

More specifically to your business: you are running a department of your company with no budget, no outline of expectations and no guidelines for conduct. This department is not being led by anyone in particular, yet it is affected by everyone in the company. Everyone is paying into this department as the costs continue to rise, but everyone is using the resources from this department in a different way. Some are diligent and watch what they do, while others are refusing to pay attention. Would your company really do this with marketing? Sales? IT? I hope not, but why are so many companies doing this with healthcare?

Regardless of how your company is managing benefits, the key word here is responsibility. Now that we are in this mess, we have the responsibility to get ourselves out of it. In other words, now that your company is in this mess, it is your responsibility to get yourselves out. What is the best way to do this? Well, it’s simple. In fact it is much simpler than we think it is and certainly much simpler than we are making it.

It takes employees as well as employers to change the way things work. It can be done. We just need to start looking forward. In fact is it being done by companies that are willing to change the status quo. It is being done by companies that are willing to do things in a different way. It’s all about looking forward.

Think about the scenarios again: In the first scenario, we see a problem and we proactively move to prevent it from happening. We clearly see a problem now. We have all of the solutions at our disposal. All we have to do is put them into play. That’s right, we know what to do, and our only task is to do it. It seems very simple, but for some reason we are not doing this across the board.

If we all start looking forward it will be easy to get ahead of the problems we have today and more importantly, it will be easy to prevent the problems of tomorrow. We have to put together a plan to improve employee health. By creating a healthier culture, it will be easier for each individual to live healthy and start preventing some of the high-cost issues that are bringing us down. The data is out there and clearly continues to mount. The problems are also out there, so let’s make the smart decision and come up with a plan to deal with them. With the right plan, your business can even prevent these problems altogether.

Does uncertainty have you feeling nervous?

2009-11-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

Certainty can be worse for your business...

Being a business owner, I have to stay up on the economy. It is important for me to know the latest concerns in the business community as they affect my business as well as my clients and partners. One common theme over the past few years has been uncertainty. The financial collapse and housing market woes lead to many other problems. Most of these problems have led us to feel uncertain about what to expect in the coming weeks, months and years.

While uncertainty can feel uncomfortable, I know another feeling that is far more difficult to deal with. It’s called certainty. Now, certainty seems like it should be comfortable and safe. We think that certainty is automatically good considering the negative feelings associated with uncertainty.

But this is not always the case. What about when problems are certain? How do we handle certainty when we know that it is a bad thing? That is where the exception comes into play. I talk to business leaders every day. As we discuss their needs, I continue to see the fear of uncertainty come into play. While I understand the concerns and often have some of the same concerns myself, I have trouble with a plan of action that seeks certainty and only certainty.

Why do I have trouble with this? I have trouble because certainty doesn’t mean it’s a positive outcome. In fact, I have seen a frightening trend toward certainty. There is a great deal of uncertainty that we are trying to avoid. The problem is, there are many certainties that are even worse.

When it comes to businesses and their health insurance, there is one thing that is very certain. Costs are rising. Healthcare has become very expensive in the US. We spend more now than we ever have before. What’s worse, the costs continue to increase so we keep breaking our own records.

With this trend, you would think we would look for some uncertainty to help avoid this. It would be logical for us to start looking for new ways to save money, change the way we do things and create a NEW certainty.

Now, my business does this. My clients are already thinking this way. I wish I could say that we were all thinking this way. Unfortunately, the majority of businesses are still doing things the old way. The process is certain and of course the results are certain. The old way yields the same old results- high costs and more headaches.

It is my mission to help businesses create a new process that yields new results- lower costs and better control. I know that it is uncertain in the beginning, but it’s all worth it when you avoid the problems that we know come along with the old process. That is the alternative when you seek certainty and only certainty. Problems are the only certainty with business as usual.

True Reform

2009-10-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

There are three areas that need clarification: Healthcare, Health Insurance and Health. These three terms are often used interchangeably, but they are very different from one another. Despite the recent conversations around all of these areas, the focus has been quite uneven. We all know what these terms mean. I just thought it was time for a refresher:

Health: our state of being in good condition, what we all want and need to live the lives we want

Healthcare: the service that takes care of us and keeps us in this condition or brings us back to the condition of health

Health insurance: the coverage that insures us access to such care

The reason these three areas keep coming up in conversation is the fact that they are all sources of great pain. In the US today, we are spending a lot of resources trying to fix a broken system. We have seen problems and have started to work on solutions. This is a good thing, but I think we should spend a little more time in one of the categories before we think we have a fix for the other two.

Don’t get me wrong. I agree that there are some system issues that can be improved. I’m glad we are working on solutions, but I have one major problem with the current conversation: none of the proposed solutions address health as a way to fix healthcare or health insurance.

So which category is being neglected? The same category that has led us down our current path: Health. There is a reason the word health is in the title of the other two categories. Health is the root of the problems we are dealing with.
What is the problem exactly? Well, for starters, going back to the definitions above: healthcare is there to provide us with medical tools and service to maintain our health. Health insurance is simply in place to provide coverage so that we can pay for such service when we need it.

Why do we need healthcare or the coverage to pay for it? Because our health is not what is should be. Clearly, we only use healthcare and health insurance to improve our health. When there is a problem with health, we use healthcare. Health insurance helps us pay for that care. The end goal is to bring back or keep health. That is why we see the doctor. The hospitals, clinics, specialists and all healthcare professionals are in place to keep us healthy or to care for us when we are not.

We can talk about the system and how care costs too much. We can conclude that with rising cost of care, insurance will also be high. This makes perfect sense. However, we fail to mention that health is at the root of it all.

Why should health be included in the solution to healthcare or health insurance? Because, we have more control over our own health than we have over a complex system like healthcare or health insurance. Our health (or lack of care for it) is what broke our system in the first place.

Now, this isn’t all bad. In fact it can be a good thing if you can look it from my perspective.

Think about this as a reform plan:

- Everyone takes care of their health and proactively keeps themselves in good
condition

- We need less care for chronic conditions and other preventable diseases
while doctors can offer preventative options rather than reactive techniques
that act as band aids for wounds caused by lifestyle abuse.

- The system will not be overrun with procedures and medications

- Premiums that you and I pay for our insurance coverage is more than enough
to cover the amount of care we need. The money we pay for this for this
care becomes cheaper, causing the insurance rates to come down with them.

The most beautiful thing of all is the fact that by improving our health, we are fixing the system. That is the only way healthcare reform will work. Health reform has to take place first. It has to become the responsibility and continue to be a priority for us all.

Any other solution involving care and insurance will break just like our current system if we don’t add health to the equation. No matter how efficient, low-cost or state-of-the-art a new system is, if we continue to overuse, abuse and depend on it to fix years of misuse and neglect (of the system and ourselves), it will fail. The system will break and it will fail.

I know that we all want to be healthy. I also know that we want to feel secure in the quality of care we receive and we want all of this at a reasonable cost. I believe that no one should be without access to care. I also believe that no one should lose their house because of medical bills. No matter what your ideal solution looks like, I think we can all agree that as a world power, we should be healthy and well-taken care of.

While many if these issues are being debated in the care or insurance setting. We must remember one thing: Our health is the biggest factor in this equation. Health is the root of it all. The worst part of this: we are the biggest factor in our own health, which means we are the reason that reform is needed. The best part about this: we are the biggest factor in our own health, which means we are the biggest factor in health reform. That’s right; you are the key to solving the national healthcare crisis. By solving (or hopefully simply avoiding) your own personal health crisis, you are preventing the nation’s health crisis.

I’ve heard from doctors who have stepped up as healthcare advocates. I’ve heard from and work with insurance brokers who continue to be insurance advocates. Both of these groups have come together in many ways across our great nation. The work they are doing is making a difference and will help us move forward.

We’ve got advocates for healthcare and for health insurance, but there is still something missing. Who is an advocate for health? I consider myself a health advocate. I fully accept my responsibility to not only care for my own health, but also to help others maintain a healthy lifestyle.

By doing this we are avoiding many costs and burdens on our system as we prevent chronic diseases. We are avoiding the expense and complications of surgeries and medications. We are even showing the next generation a new way to manage health, healthcare and health insurance.

I can’t do this alone. I will continue to give it everything I’ve got, but I need others to do the same. Each and every one of us has control. You have the solution to the healthcare crisis. The solution is solving the health crisis. That is not a solution that needs to come from Washington. It is not a solution that you’ll find at your doctor’s office or hospital.

The solution is you. By managing your own health, you will solve the problem. Health, healthcare and health insurance come up in the same conversation and are often even used interchangeably. The most important lesson for us all is that we they are not the same. While all three of the areas we’ve discussed are related and are key components to the system. We need remember the root of the system is health - Your health.

Healthcare Awareness of Employees

2009-10-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

Everyday habits impact your employees’ lives significantly. These habits also impact your company significantly, since poor employee health is leading to increasing healthcare costs. The key to changing health care costs is changing health. The first step to a healthy company is awareness. The more aware your employees are, the more smoothly your benefits plan can be run.

Once awareness increases, the next step is education. The more employees know the better choices they will make. Only 36% of employees feel educated about their benefits, according to a recent study. It is difficult for employees to make decisions on their healthcare use if they don’t feel like they know enough about it. Regular communication (through newsletters or surveys from a broker or wellness provider) is a great way to keep your employees educated.
By educating your employees on the benefits plan, employees will know what they have. The same goes for everyday habits that lead to (or prevent) health issues.

Once employees are aware of the role they play in their own health and care, the better decisions they will make. These better decisions - healthy decisions will lead to increased productivity, decreased medical costs and eventually lower insurance premiums. The moral of the story is: increase employee awareness, educate them on your healthcare plan and ways they can impact their own health and the impact they have on costs for everyone in your company.

Healthy Environment = Healthy Business

2009-10-08T05:38:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between living healthy and not living healthy? More importantly, in business, what is the difference between a healthy, productive company and an unhealthy, unproductive company? There actually isn’t a very drastic difference in action. There IS a very drastic difference in results. The difference is goals. Small steps in action make a big difference in results.

We’ve discussed setting goals in the past, but let’s go deeper with it to see how small changes lead to big results. It starts with the difference between goals that are supported and goals that are not. As you may be able to tell (by logic or personal experience) goals that are supported are much more likely to be reached.

As I begin work with each of my clients, I see a clear issue that needs to be addressed before anything else. The issue is the environment. I’m not saying that everywhere I go has an unhealthy environment. I just need to ask the question, how healthy is the environment? Often, when we start the conversation it goes something like this:

Client Company: “I want to save money, so how can you help me get my people healthier?”

Me: “First, let’s look at what is causing the current health situation.” “What are you doing now to support the health goals of your employees?”

The business owner may or may not already be doing some things. Regardless, the point is to ask the question to get the environment at the top of the priorities list. If we know what the issues are and what employees’ goals are, now we can start to change the environment that they work in. As we alter the environment, people are able to make changes within it.

It only makes sense to make sure that goals are supported by the environment. No one woke up this morning wanting to be unhealthy and not feel good. We all want to feel good, so if the environment can support this, we all will.

One way to illustrate this is by looking at goals strictly from a business viewpoint. If I ask the question: “What are you doing to support the performance goals of your employees?” it is much clearer for most employers.
The following scenario will illustrate this, but also show how to use what is common practice in business to create new possibilities.
Sales Goals- your company requires each sales rep to close 20 clients per month.

You don’t care how they do it, between calls, in person meetings, networking, or otherwise, but their goal is twenty clients by month end. If this is to be realistic, you have to look at the time they will be spending and how they will be spending it. If they have 30 hours of internal meetings, it will be difficult for them to devote much time to external communications that will lead to sales. Therefore, this would not be an environment that supported 20 clients for the sales rep. As an owner/manager, you would not set this up because the conflict would be clear.

Health goals are not quite as clear to see in business. That is where I come in!

It is easy to say: “Get healthy.” It is more challenging to set up an environment that will create and support health. Challenging, yes, but impossible? No. It starts with that simple question:
What can I do to support the health of my employees?

This may lead to more questions, but the answers reveal themselves quickly and clearly. You know your business needs and what each employee needs to do in order to keep things going. The health of your employees is no different. They each have goals and a certain amount of time and energy to devote to them. By creating a realistic sales goal, your sales team is able to work toward it, accomplish it and your company sees the benefit. In order to do this, you need an environment that can support these goals. If your environment doesn’t support the goals, your company and everyone in it will suffer.

By creating realistic health goals and an environment that supports them, your employees will be able to work toward these goals and of course, your company sees the benefit. Best of all, your sales goals will improve as well. (See my article: Health Strategy, Appearance and Performance)

How does this happen? Goal setting is a habit. Success is a habit. Anyone that can be successful in one area can also be successful in another. By creating the environment that supports success, your employees and of course, your company will achieve more success. A healthy environment helps you create a healthy business and clearly a healthy business is a successful business.

Taking Control of Health Care Costs

2009-09-08T13:46:00.001-07:00

If you turn on the news, you will hear all about the latest health care reform ideas. You will hear how badly we need change. I agree. But what I don’t agree with is where we are placing the highest priorities. I see people getting worked up over prescription costs and network regulations. I also see people calling for the heads of insurance companies, claiming that they are evil and out to get us. I’m not trying to start a public vs. private debate, so that is all I will say about either side. It doesn't have to be a complicated debate though. In fact, we are wasting a lot of time and energy.

You can change the health care system any way you want to, but with our current lifestyles, it won’t make a difference. There is only one thing that will “fix” our current situation. That one thing is control. The good (or bad) thing is that we already have control. We have control over our own health regardless of the system operating around us. The health care system is there to treat illness, injury and other disease. What if we could prevent some of these things? Wouldn’t that be a good system? Well, we can and the current system, even if we don’t change a single thing, will function well if we start using our control. We just need to use our control.

No matter what side of the debate you are on, you can see where I’m coming from, right? Think about it: instead of going down to the town hall meeting to complain about what they might take away or how change may or may not affect you, what if you took control of your health? What if you spent as much time taking care of yourself as you did worrying about how much reform will cost?

The fact is: No one in government, no one in insurance, not even anyone in the medical field can give you any more control over your health. They can regulate what types of treatments you receive, provide the payment for such treatments and even operate on you to battle certain ailments. But the bottom line is, they are only able to treat symptoms that you present to them. 75% of the symptoms we present to them are preventable, meaning we shouldn’t need 75% of what we are being treated for. What’s worse is that we still aren’t solving the problems now. We are just treating symptoms. What kind of control is that?

In other words, for the past few decades, we have been throwing ourselves at the mercy of modern medicine and begging it to keep us going. We have refused to take responsibility for our own health and now we are blaming the very system that has kept us alive for being the problem. We have run up a huge bill for services that we have depended upon, but now we don’t want to pay for it.

Control: You have it, I have it and actually we all have the control. Let’s use it and truly solve this problem rather than looking for more ways to treat the symptoms. Health insurance is expensive because health care is expensive. If we are in control, we will prevent the problems that are costing us so much money. Wouldn’t that solve our health care problems? That sounds like a good solution to me.

Health Strategy, Appearance and Performance

2009-07-27T13:29:00.001-07:00

What is the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful company? The fact that you can tell they are successful actually has something to do with it. The best and the brightest usually look like the best and the brightest. Successful companies do certain things that make them appear to be successful. We are able to recognize these things because; often they are the same things that actually make them successful in the first place. They have a strategy, they stick with it and they get corresponding results.

Take employee health for example. Companies that promote employee health have the appearance of an employee-friendly, positive culture. The best part about promoting health is that this appearance translates directly to performance. These companies typically perform better than those not recognized for it. That’s right; a company promoting health is performing at a higher level because of improved productivity, morale and even cost savings due to the health of their employees. In fact, companies ranked by Fortune Magazine as the “top 100 companies to work for” earned nearly double the profits of those not making that list.

Let’s look at my client for a specific example of how this works. They did a group weight loss program last year:

This company (We’ll call them Cubicle Sales Inc.) is comprised of multiple sales teams. Each team works together to reach new prospects, identify their office equipment needs and show them the best options for their company. This requires not only sales and presentation skills, but also a great deal of teamwork. More importantly, the team has to have high energy and drive to gain and retain each client. The group weight loss program pitted one sales team against another and required each member to work together as they shared a common goal. After they did their group program, they found that they were working better together since spending time on this shared goal of winning the competition.
Cubicle Sales Inc’s CEO noted to me that the teams were not only working better together, but also seeing better sales numbers and customer satisfaction. Each person was more energized, team focused and therefore more successful. The best part for the CEO, was that their customers were clearly pleased to be working with such a motivated company.

So what can other businesses do to become successful? They can do what the best and the brightest do. The most successful companies have known for years that by investing in their employees, they have seen decreases is health care spending, employee turnover and even burnout from job stress. Most importantly, these successful companies, such as Cubicle Sales Inc, know that they need employees to perform at high levels. We now know that a healthy employee is far more likely to be that top performer. With such a strong link between health and performance, we also know that there is a reason companies appear to be top performers. Most likely it is because they are top performers.

Action = Results

2009-07-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

Between the rising costs of healthcare and the general state of today’s economy, employee health is a hot topic. I continue to hear from companies that they consider it a priority. Clearly, my clients have made it a priority. My insurance broker partners continue to assure their clients that this is the way we are going with healthcare. It makes sense, considering the results we’ve seen. We know that businesses that are healthy spend less money, are more productive and even have a better employee outlook. We also know that someone that is motivated will perform better in any task, health or business. For these reasons, health is now considered a priority in many businesses. In fact, my business is designed to bring business and health together.

The difference between health being considered and health becoming a priority is generally minor. There is a very thin line between the goal of a healthier workforce and plan to get there. As a health coach, I help people set goals to improve their health. It is interesting that before we even work together, the company has goals of its own. Whether it is a business owner, HR director or CFO that is responsible for reaching this goal, we discuss their company goals. I ask them about what they want to see happen over the next few years and what they think they can do to get there.

I have had some very interesting conversations since starting my business. Interesting conversations have been had between me and employees and also between. Just like your employees need to set up a game plan to improve their health, your company needs to do the same to ensure a healthy environment. When you do, the result is positive, both personally and financially.

A quote from French author, Antoine de Saint-Exupery often comes to mind: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

I have 6 simple questions to help you consider where your company is on the spectrum:
- First off, where does employee health rank on your company’s list of needs?
- How often do you discuss employee health?
- How many people have been involved in discussion of employee health options?
- How well do your employees understand their health care coverage?
- How much time is spent on proactive benefits planning?
- How does your investment in employee health compare to snacks and coffee for the office?

I encourage you to ask yourself these questions. If you are not the one making these decisions, I would implore you to ask the person who does to consider them. These questions are not meant to criticize, but only to point out opportunities to do things a new and better way. These questions and the opportunities they lead to are important because there are such limited resources in all of our businesses. Adding to the importance is the fact that time and money are the most precious and most scarce right now. But we also know how important your employees are to the success of your business. These questions help you reach the point where you are saving precious resources and improving your assets simultaneously. I know that every company wants to support their people and be forward thinking enough to provide quality tools. The biggest problem we face today is lack of belief that we can accomplish this. Many companies want to, but are just wishing they could do this.

If your company is wishing, there is an answer. It may not be what you are used to doing. It may be something that you thought only larger companies could do or something you thought costs too much. You may have to make some changes, but those changes lead to success within your organization. The changes may take a little time, but they can be made. Maybe the discussion has yet to begin. Or maybe you've discussed it and don't think now is the time. Either way, the discussion itself is an important step, helping you learn about the results you are looking for and helping you take the next step, which is the action to achieve these results.

Awareness and YOUR Employee Health (Costs)

2009-06-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

What did you eat yesterday? How far did you walk? These questions seem simple, but many of us don’t know the answer without really thinking about it. Why is this the norm for us? Well, we have a lot to do on a day to day basis and it is often a challenge to keep these things in the front of our minds. Work, errands and other tasks have become more important to us then what we do to maintain our health. Our minds and bodies have become afterthoughts and it is normal to go days, months, even years without consciously focusing on the way we treat ourselves.

Normal doesn’t mean good. In this case, normal doesn’t even mean ok. This is actually a real problem for us both as individuals and as a society. In this case, normal needs to change. We need to put our health higher on the list of priorities. You’ve heard me talk about this before and you will definitely hear me talk about it again. I think this is the more important thing we can do for ourselves and our families.

Awareness is the key. All we have to do is pay attention. You can try the next trend, new craze or take an old-school approach. You can seek professional help or go it alone, but the key component is increasing your awareness. Every day we do things out of habit that impact our lives significantly. One minute of eating can add enough calories to your day to cause weight gain.

One minute of planning can also prevent this from happening. That’s right, it goes both ways. By being aware of what you want to do, you are able to start making decisions. These decisions will likely be healthy decisions because they are in line with your goals. If you don’t have goals, you will have a tough time deciding what to do. So, set a goal and notice how your choices start to match the path you need to be on to reach that goal.

And that is what awareness can do for you. Just thinking about your health, you can positively impact it. You are in control. If you are driving a car your awareness as a driver keeps your hands on the wheel to make sure you stay on the road. Take the wheel in your life, pay attention and you will be on the road to good health.

If your employees aren't able to do this, they are costing you more money. Your health care costs continue to rise, while your control is reduced. By take a proactive approach, you can increase awareness in your company and help them take control of their health, which leads to savings and a healthier environment.

Health Care Reform Needs to Start with Your Own Health

2009-06-01T14:08:00.001-07:00

Health care is becoming a very popular topic. It is on the top of the list at the national conventions as we near the presidential election. Congress, state and local government officials are in discussion. It is on the minds of millions of Americans as we see costs continue to rise. We’ve heard countless ideas and options for reforming the system. We’ve heard about a universal plan that would automatically provide health care for every citizen. We’ve heard of employers being required to provide health insurance to workers and family members.

No matter what you feel is the best plan, we all agree that something needs to be done. We may not have the new plan calculated and ready to roll out, but we all know that reform is coming. But what will reform do for us? That is a great question.

The answer, if we continue life the way we have been living it for the past 20 years, is nothing. That’s right, health care reform will do nothing for us if we continue our current lifestyle. As a nation, we have used more and more medical services, become more dependent on drugs and we’ve become more and more out of touch with our health care.

What compounds these issues (or causes them, depending on your position) is the fact that we are so out of touch with our own health. We don’t take the responsibility to do what we know will help us. We don’t take responsibility for the condition that we are in. In fact, we don’t want to take responsibility for the money we spend to fix these conditions that we have brought upon ourselves. We want to pay for the easy method and take medication to “solve” our problems, but want someone to change the system so it doesn’t cost so much.

Well, they are working on it. They are trying to reform the system so we can all have what we are “entitled” to have. We all deserve health coverage. We all deserve the best care possible. I completely agree with those statements. What I don’t agree with is the fact that we have an entire system devoted to saving people from themselves. The whole system is designed to provide care for illness and injury. What we have done to ourselves has overloaded the system and turned it into something else.

We call it health care. It should be called sick care. We are getting sick because we refuse to take care of ourselves and the system says “ok, here is your surgery, here is your prescription and here is your new title for you to identify yourself by so you don’t feel self-conscious or responsible for your actions”. We ignore the fact that these cures are more expensive (and much more dangerous) that simply preventing conditions in the first place. We’ve all heard the phrase: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. It’s true. That is the most frustrating part of it all. Diabetes, Obesity, Depression and even many cancer cases are preventable. We chose the behaviors that brought these conditions on.

To conclude my thoughts on sick…or health care, I will ask you this: How will you reform your health? The government can work day and night to fix the system. We can argue over what we are entitled to or not. The bottom line is, if we don’t take care of ourselves, the system will never be able to save us. In fact, the system itself will always appear to be broken until we fix ourselves.

At Byrd Wellness Concepts, we help people change those behaviors. I don’t point a finger and scold you for your current state. I work with you to find the future state that you desire. What goals do you have to reach to start living the life you want to be living? That is what we work on, together. It is all about your goals, your health and your happiness.

Key words and key questions to ask yourself...

2009-05-18T13:14:00.001-07:00

When making changes: We have all been in a difficult situation. Some of us have been in many difficult situations. What is the first thing we do when we try something? Well, if we have never done it before, we usually ask someone that has done it. We do this so we can get an idea of how the task went for them, or more specifically, how difficult the task was for them when they did it. If we have done it in the past, we think about the past tries and how difficult it was for us last time.
These are natural questions as we need to prepare for the challenge ahead. But what if we focused on other key words of the questions? Or, even better, what if we asked different questions?

Typical Questions:
“How hard was it?”
“What did you/I do wrong?”
“What went wrong?”

Key Words from these questions:
Hard, What, Wrong

Alternative Questions:
“What was the overall experience from start to finish?”
“What was successful?“
“What did I learn from the task?”
“How did I do it?”
“Why did I do it?”

Alternative key words:
Experience, Successful, Learn, Why

Notice the difference between the first set of questions. In the typical situation, we ask ourselves how difficult something was and what we did wrong, or what went wrong. Therefore the key words we get from the analysis are negative. They are hard, wrong and we focus on what it is that went wrong when we bring that experience up for reference. What is the feeling we get from this going into our next challenge? Well, clearly it is negative, just like the key words. More importantly, we asked questions highlighting the negative experience that we had before (or that someone else had before). Is it any wonder why we don’t want to try something again after it was already challenge for us? I see it every week when a client says they’ve tried to quit smoking or get active, but it is too hard, so they don’t know if they can do it. In fact, because of this process, they question their ability to even attempt it again.

Just by changing the questions we are able to get some other key words into the process. It helps to have someone else (coach or friend) to ask the questions, but it is very important to be able to ask yourself these questions as well. Suppose we ask what we learned from the last time. Now we know what we can expect, but even more valuable is the lesson learned. This is where experience becomes an advantage. In any area, whether it is business, sport or parenthood we hear about how important experience is. So, why is it actually a detriment in the area of our own health? Why do changes become more difficult the more we attempt them? It is more difficult because we are asking the wrong questions and focusing on the wrong key words from our experiences.

Think about the difference between focusing on experience and learning rather than past failure. Think about how much easier a change would be if we thought about what went well and tried to do it again rather than being discouraged by what went wrong. As a kid, we didn’t think about how bad it hurt when we fell off our bikes. As a kid, we just thought about how bad we wanted to be able to ride that bike and what we needed to in order to do it.

Ask yourself different questions. Think about what you learned and what you can do to make this time the right time by focusing on key words that will help you rather than hurt you. Experience should be an advantage. This is a way to use that experience and reach your goals.

Culture check: Got Work-Life Balance? (full article)

2009-05-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

Work-life balance has been a hot topic for years in the business world. Many companies have taken great strides to ensure that their employees are able to experience it. Some companies have even incorporated it into their philosophy or policies. There are many ways to introduce and improve work-life balance in the workplace. The key is to focus on employees and how they are affected by the business. The next step is to look at how those same employees affect the business. When you think about that for a while it begins to look like a cycle. The cycle continues to go around as the person is affected by the business and in turn, the business is affected by the person.

What does this teach us? It has taught my clients that people have a critical impact on your business and vice versa. In other words, your people are your business. The other concept that I make sure my clients grasp is that work and life, business and personal cannot be separated. We can attempt to compartmentalize and “limit discussion” or “stay on task”, but the bottom line is this: no matter where the issue occurs, it affects all areas. The very idea the work-life and personal-life are independent is from an old way of thinking. I’m here to tell you, not only that that way of thinking is obsolete, but also to share how we can promote the new way of thinking.

This new way of thinking is this: people are people no matter where they are. The issues at home become the issues at work, just as the issues at work become the issues at home. If I am the same person in my business roll as I am at home, how could I expect a physical or mental ailment not to cross over into other areas. We have discovered through years of research, workers comp. claims and rising health care costs that this is true. We have all grasped the concept. Now what do we do about it?

Well, taking a proactive approach is the first step. As you know, my clients have taken a proactive approach because they see don’t want to be stuck reacting to tough circumstances. They have seen how health issues, such as stress, chronic illness and other “personal” things have directly affected their business. Whether it is through attendance, productivity or medical claims, business that have improved the life side of work-life balance have also seen improvements to the work side and of course, they have seen corresponding bottom-line improvements as well.

Notice the wording I chose to discuss work-life balance. There is a work side and a life side, not a separate category for each. Businesses that have been able to focus on people as people are attracting and keeping better employees. This is the new way of looking at this topic. While being proactive is the first step, turning work-life balance into a business strategy is the next step.

Programs that promote stress management of any kind are key. Whether employees are offered specific techniques to manage their stress, or simply provided with options for assistance, the concept that their well-being is important is reinforced. When a company has a well-rounded employee health program in place, the importance of balance is emphasized and that goes a long way. Once employees understand that balance is a priority, they are able to utilize their full capacity. Productivity is actually increased because employees are more focused and are managing their challenges through the company-wide programs.

These programs and support for self-management have been provided by the business which creates a solid relationship and understanding. A satisfied employee makes a better employee and a better business makes a satisfied business owner. When my clients are like me, and they often are, they too are only satisfied with success. The new way of looking at work-life balance has allowed me to help them find that success through employee health programming. Together, we enjoy the satisfaction, along with all of their employees.

Culture check: Got Work-Life Balance?

2009-05-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

As a business owner, I spend a great deal of my time focusing on my business and my health. As a business health consultant, I spend just as much time (sometimes more!) helping businesses and employees of those businesses do the same. A term that comes up in many of my conversations is work-life balance. Although we have all heard about work-life balance and may even have a good plan in place to ensure it, I have found some flaws and would like to show you a better way. I work tirelessly to show my clients this better way and hope to transform this way into the norm.

I’d like to share my specific definition and viewpoint for true success in the area of work-life balance. When work and life are used in the same sentence, it is easy to separate the two. But in my view, business and health are not separate compartments. The balance is not between two separate compartments, it is the balance within each person with the various areas of life. We all know that there are more than two categories here, but that is another discussion.

In my article this month, I have decided to cover work and life. They are both executed by people during different times in their day. The person that is in the meeting is the same person on the drive home. The person giving the presentation is the same person in the back yard with the kids. No matter how much they may differ, no one can become a different person in one area or another. For that very reason, the issues they deal with are affecting them (and the people around them) in all areas, no matter where they originated. In the article below, I discuss the importance for companies not only to see things this way, but to create a culture that supports the employees.

See Below for Full article