The document discusses how employers are trying to make their weight-control programs more effective by offering more flexible options to accommodate remote and mobile employees. It provides details on the American Hospital Association's partnership with Retrofit to provide online tools and health coaching to employees wherever they are located. While new technologies and individualized support are helping improve participation, experts say there is still work to do to fully address the behavioral and stress-related root causes of weight issues.

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Beefing Up Weight Programs
Research suggests weight­control programs need to be overhauled to be more effective.
But how do you boost participation when workers are in multiple locations, with
differing fitness goals?
By Mark McGraw
Think about your salespeople who spend weeks on the road at a time.
Or consider the telecommuters ­­ an ever­growing segment of the workforce ­­ who work exclusively outside the office each
day.
Just like your on­site employees, these individuals are faced with balancing the demands of work and home life, and don't
always have time to exercise as much or eat the way they should.
Given their work situations, hitting that well­equipped company gym or attending weekly on­site Weight Watchers meetings
aren't typically feasible options.
But, just like their office­based counterparts, many would like to become healthier, and have fitness and weight­loss goals
they'd like to reach.
So, how do you help these workers?
Successfully answering that question has been a primary aim of the American Hospital Association's employee weight­
management initiative, part of the organization's overall health and wellness plan since 2010.
"We believe that providing the resources to help employees manage their weight would help in the reduction of chronic risk
factors such as diabetes and heart conditions," says Michael Janniere, director of total rewards at the Chicago­based AHA.
Although the organization's formal wellness program took shape five years ago, its weight­management program has
actually been in place since 2004, says Janniere.
Naturally, the composition of the approximately 560­employee AHA workforce has changed in that time, he says. For
instance, "we now have more millennials who have joined our organization," which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals as
well as approximately 40,000 members.
With such change "comes the need to provide diverse methods to deliver benefits," he says. "Our workforce has become
more mobile, and it is not always possible for employees to attend on­site weight­management programs on a regular
basis."
Indeed, AHA employees are divided between the organization's Chicago headquarters and its Washington office, which
houses about 100 workers. In addition, between 30 and 40 AHA employees work remotely on a regular basis, says
Janniere.
Getting these employees more involved in its weight­loss initiative was part of the goal in establishing a partnership with
Retrofit, also headquartered in Chicago, to help AHA adopt a more science­based, tech­enabled approach to weight
management.

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"We wanted to provide more options and flexibility for weight management, [enabling] employees and their spouses to
participate in a program [from anywhere]," Janniere says.
In 2014, the organization adopted the Retrofit corporate weight­loss program, which provides tools such as private online
dashboards, mobile apps and Fitbit wireless devices to track activity, exercise, food intake, weight and sleep, as well as
one­on­one and online group health coaching.
The dispersed nature of AHA's workforce resembles that of countless other organizations, and it can create hurdles to
helping employees ­­ in multiple locations, with differing health and fitness objectives ­­ take full advantage of an employer­
sponsored weight­management program. Experts ­­ and the findings of a recent research report ­­ suggest companies
need new approaches to making weight­management initiatives more successful.
Needing Innovation
Mind you, helping workers get in better shape ­­ including shedding unwanted pounds ­­ is not a new concept for
employers. In fact, new Northeast Business Group on Health data suggests many organizations understand the
importance of this.
In its Weight Control and Employees: One Size Doesn't Fit All report, the New York­based network of employers,
healthcare providers and insurers found 88 percent of respondents from companies representing more than 600,000
employees saying that integrating weight­control programs with other wellness programs is "the biggest key" to
implementing a weight­control program that really works.
However, the same report ­­ based on the aforementioned poll as well as a roundtable discussion with 19 employers,
health plans and consulting organizations ­­ also found innovation is needed for employer­sponsored weight­control
approaches to be more effective, and overcome the types of challenges faced by organizations such as the AHA.
More specifically, the NEBGH report concludes that employers should consider adding technology applications, value­
based benefits design, new prescription medications and bariatric surgery as supplements to traditional healthy eating and
exercise programs.
Value­based benefits design, for example, "hasn't necessarily been used enough," says Laurel Pickering, president and
CEO of NEBGH and lead author of the report.
Using employee rewards to "help steer employees toward certain behaviors ­­ in this case, behaviors that lead to a more
ideal body weight ­­ is difficult, but we'd love to get to a point where we see more employers incentivizing employees to,
say, get to physicians who do well with managing their patients' weight," she says, noting that physicians should be playing
a vital role in helping patients establish and maintain healthy weights, and should be evaluated on their ability to do so.
With respect to technology, "it seems pretty straightforward, but we think employers need to capitalize on what's
happening," says Pickering.
"Everyone does everything on a smartphone," she adds, "and employers must really take advantage of devices that [their
employee] populations will use to engage in losing weight."
Offering Flexibility
Relying on technology to get employees involved has been a necessity for the AHA.
Since implementing its weight­management program, "we wanted to make sure everyone could take part," Janniere says.
But improving participation ­­ particularly among those not working out of the Chicago office ­­ hasn't been easy.

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Through several employee polls, "we got feedback from some off­site employees who felt they didn't really have access to
what the program had to offer."
While Chicago­based employees could, say, simply drop by the on­site gym or other wellness activities taking place at
AHA's headquarters, remote workers or those in the Washington location ­­ who make up about one­quarter of AHA's
employee base ­­ felt that "a lot of these types of things weren't for them, even though they could access wellness
programs via phone or videoconference," he says. "We record all of our programs, but it's not the same as being there."
While Weight Watchers meetings held at the Chicago headquarters typically net at least 25 attendees, "we don't have
those kinds of numbers in our D.C. office," says Janniere.
"The culture is different there. A lot of our D.C. staff members' [jobs] are very geared toward whatever is happening on
[Capitol Hill], and they spend a lot of time outside the office. They're very mobile." So being at the office for a Weight
Watchers meeting that begins at a designated time, for instance, isn't always realistic, he says.
"Weight Watchers offers a virtual program, but that doesn't allow for the accountability we were looking for," adds Janniere.
"Virtual participants self­manage online, and they don't have to check in with anyone."
AHA employees, however, are paired with one to three Retrofit­provided health coaches, who provide input and advice on
a weekly basis, via Skype teleconferencing.
In addition to getting one­on­one coaching, AHA employees can also participate in group coaching sessions online, and
can track their own progress in the program as well as view aggregate participant results via an online dashboard.
This sort of ongoing feedback "holds employees accountable," says Janniere, "and encourages them in their efforts."
Still Work to Do
There is certainly no shortage of resources ­­ such as health­tracking websites, applications and other technological tools ­­
that provide employees with ways to monitor their weight­loss progress and offer encouragement and support along the
way.
But it takes more than websites and smartphone apps to truly address the issue of weight control ­­ and some of the root
causes of employee weight problems, says Jeff Thompson, a Seattle­based senior healthcare consultant at Mercer and a
clinical assistant professor in the department of health services at the University of Washington.
"There are behavioral issues that need to be addressed," Thompson says. "Stress, for example, can lead to weight gain.
Consult with employee­assistance and behavioral­assistance programs, and look at methods to reduce employee stress or
anxiety levels. Incorporating these kinds of things into a program would be really important for employees, especially those
who identify eating as a method to reduce stress."
The concept of wellness and employers taking a role in helping employees improve their physical health "is still relatively
new," says Bruce Elliott, manager of compensation and benefits at the Alexandria, Va.­based Society for Human Resource
Management. "We're still figuring out how to make all of that work," he says, noting that many companies have taken
smaller steps such as swapping soda and calorie­ and fat­laden foods for juice and healthier eats in on­site vending
machines, or offering these alternatives in addition to sweeter, saltier fare.
Opting for more health­conscious snacks while on the job is a good start. But, on a larger scale, many employees may be
slow to get involved in an employer­sponsored weight­control program alongside co­workers. In fact, in the aforementioned
NEBGH survey, 71 percent of respondents said overcoming stigma, embarrassment and other emotional barriers are
critical factors in implementing a truly effective weight­control program.

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At the AHA, Janniere and the HR team quickly recognized that providing employees with guidance ­­ and a confidant of
sorts ­­ was paramount.
All participating AHA employees have access to the aforementioned health coaches, with whom "employees can have
private, one­on­one sessions," he says, "to discuss their health and develop an action plan."
Still, there are employees who would likely eschew such face­to­face meetings, says Pickering.
"Some won't like the idea of walking into a Weight Watchers meeting with colleagues," she says.
"They would rather 'hide,' so to speak, and enjoy the privacy of using technology to chart their progress. So you may make
some broad decisions about how to implement a weight­control program, but you have to recognize that your people are
going to work differently."
For HR leaders, "what you have to do is communicate, make known what's available and what you're offering," Pickering
says, whether it's a new online wellness program with great tools and apps ­­ which affords the privacy some desire ­­ or
an on­site Weight Watchers meeting or intra­division weight­loss competition, for example.
Ideally, a robust weight­management component should be integral to the company's broader wellness plans, but many
organizations haven't quite gotten there yet, she says. Until they do, the best resource employers and HR may have at
their disposal is their health plan.
"[Those] plans have made and are making great progress in [providing] tools and identifying the best healthcare providers
based on quality measures the plan has created," says Pickering.
"Until we get more mature in engaging and measuring [the performance of] physicians" in terms of their ability to effectively
help patients lose weight, she says, "I think an employer's health plan is the best source for finding the best providers to
[deliver] comprehensive health and wellness to employees, and to best serve overweight patients.
Read also:
Changing Behaviors (http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=534358268)
Feb 11, 2015
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