corporate wellness – Workforce

March 4, 2020June 29, 2023

Don’t encourage obsessive health behavior in your employees

There’s a difference between forming a healthy habit and developing an obsession. Sometimes I wonder if individuals or corporate wellness marketers realize this difference.

Helping employees sleep better is a lifestyle change workplace wellness has taken on, but simply strapping on a sleep-tracker might not be your best bet to catch more ZZZs. In fact, for some people it may actually make their sleep worse. The New York Times looked into this phenomenon in July 2019 in the story “The Sad Truth About Sleep-Tracking Devices and Apps.”

Personal tech columnist Brian X. Chen tracked his sleep using an Apple Watch and some software downloaded on his phone. He shared his own experience in this column and backed it up with research from Rush University Medical College and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“In their study, the researchers warned that sleep-tracking tech could provide inaccurate data and worsen insomnia by making people obsessed with achieving perfect slumber, a condition they called orthosomnia,” Chen wrote. Health apps don’t necessarily make people healthier, and this was just the latest research to show that.

addressing behavioral health workplace — For some people, trying to “hack” their sleep, health or productivity can lead to stress or anxiety.

The story wasn’t completely negative and did also share some potential positives of certain sleep-trackers. While some users get in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night and obsessively checking their sleep patterns, others do say that using these apps genuinely helped them.

Still, this measured, balanced perspective was a valuable, realistic look at the potential behind this technology versus excessively optimistic marketing copy. The bottom line for users of sleep tech was this: “Sleep-tracking apps and devices can be useful for getting a broad look at your sleep, but people should resist drawing conclusions about their sleep health.”

Just as there’s a name for people obsessed with getting perfect sleep, there’s also an eating disorder in which people are so obsessed with being healthy, that it makes them unhealthy. It’s called orthorexia, and it’s something we see in the wellness influencer community. What I wonder is if we also see it in the workplace wellness community.

Also read: Eating disorders belong in your workplace behavioral health strategy

Psycom.net notes some of the problems it causes, including malnutrition, heart conditions and social isolation. “Orthorexia nervosa can easily go unnoticed because it does not seem unusual to be ‘obsessed’ with healthy eating during a time when researchers, health professionals, food marketers, and media seem to constantly change the definition of a healthy diet,” according to the site.

I don’t believe this is out of the realm for employers because of how often organizations try to push wellness programs and the “culture of health” on employees, even the healthy ones who manage their health on their own terms. Not everyone needs to join a workplace program. It’s not necessary for people to do to be good at their job.

Also, for employers who have weight-loss programs at your company, it couldn’t hurt to ask yourself how employees are losing weight. Are they doing it in a healthy way or are they adopting an unhealthy string of diets?

Finally, I’ll mention one more workplace obsession tangentially related to health: productivity. Think about the culture that exists in many organizations in which employees are always trying to do more in a better, faster way, looking for ways to “hack” their productivity and accomplish the most possible. Ultimately, they can’t hit this impossible goal, which can cause stress or anxiety.

This is according to a thought-provoking LinkedIn post last month, and I completely agree. It referenced an article from “The Age” entitled “Why productivity hacks mostly don’t live up to their promise,” which dug into the “success industry” and how it ultimately can’t really make us feel successful. In the end, it makes us feel inadequate and distracted.

The article quoted Vice Media’s Head of Innovation Mark Adams, who has a TED talk about the “cult” of extreme productivity. As you realize there are always more hacks and you can always do more, it creates a sense of chronic anxiety, he said.

“It’s time to take a breath and accept that it is another trap,” he said. “This whole billion-dollar success industry … it doesn’t work.”

I also enjoyed this quote from psychologist Marny Lishman:

“The wellness industry has a lot to answer for – it’s pushing us to be busier, better and constantly dangling the pressure to reach our potential in front of us — when often the answer to wellness resides right inside of us in the enjoyment of the moment… A little chaos, a little adversity, mistakes and failures – all of these help guide us throughout life. We are missing out on these if we are life hacking everything.”

My message to employers based on all this is, rather than constantly trying to push your employees to be better, faster, stronger and healthier, think about the culture you’re creating. Do you have realistic expectations for how productive or health-conscious your employees should be? Or do you expect employees to be like machines that can be constantly upgraded with no impact on their well-being?

January 28, 2020June 29, 2023

Saying goodbye to a decade’s worth of bad wellness

Writing about workplace health and health care for the past several years has meant reading my fair share of buzzy health trends.

That’s why I’ve enjoyed reading about the worst wellness trends of the 2010s and discussing it with my friends and family. Vice even did a March Madness-style bracket, which I found to be fun.

Not surprisingly, the anti-vax movement took Gold, with the keto diet taking Silver.

I was especially happy that corporate wellness made it to Round 3! It lost to another unfortunate workplace trend, #NoDaysOff. You know, that crazy idea that people who work 90 hours a week and never take a break are superior to other employees, so they brag about it online? Woof.

Still, I’m glad workplace wellness made it as far as it did, because academic studies have shown that they’re not effective at cutting health costs or changing habits. They mostly shift health care costs to employees, hence the “cost-savings.” Here was Vice’s reasoning:

Corporate wellness is the latest iteration of workplace wellness, which has been around since the late 1800s and has always existed to increase worker productivity. The current iteration of corporate wellness is mainly focused on mindfulness, but can also include, uh, taking DNA samples from employees or harassing a double-mastectomy patient into getting a mammogram. Surprisingly, these programs don’t actually contribute to workplace wellness. Go figure!

This wonderful bracket made me think about the worst trends I’ve seen in employer health in the past several years.

Some of these relate to other parties that intersect with employers, and none of this is to throw shade at employers. A lot of good things have gone on this decade, as well! Reminiscing brings up cringe-worthy memories for everyone. For example, 10 years ago I used to crochet my own ill-fitted beanies and wear them out in public because I thought they made me look artsy. It’s not fun to revisit that one.

Here are my list of worst health trends, in no particular order.

1. The “culture of health” trend: Recently U-Haul got mixed reactions online for revealing that “it will no longer hire people who use nicotine in any form in the 21 states where such hiring policies are legal.” I’ve seen positive feedback from health advocates online, but ultimately, this is a scary, slippery slope. Are we headed in the direction of a person’s employability being increasingly more linked to their habits or their health?

Think about how the Affordable Care Act protects people with pre-existing conditions when it comes to accessing health insurance. Individuals with a health condition should have just as much of a chance at getting a job as healthy individuals. Health status shouldn’t be akin to a line on your resume.

2. Health care consumerism: One of my favorite articles in the past several years was a New York Times op-ed arguing that we have to stop referring to people paying for health services as “shoppers.”

I know, I know… This movement of encouraging individuals and employees to be smart health care consumers isn’t going away soon, probably. But I agree with the argument. Encouraging employees to be educated about health care is a good thing, but marketing health care as merely a consumer good rather than a vital service people need to survive seems misleading to me.

We should stick with “patients” instead of “health care consumers” or “shopper.” And, like this op-ed suggested, we can simplify our language and just say that patients “pick” or “choose” a health plan rather than “shop for” it.

3. Pseudoscience/misinformation: A big piece of wellness this month is “The Goop Lab with Gwyneth Paltrow” arriving on Netflix. Historically, Paltrow has received criticism from health advocates and medical professionals for spreading misleading or false health information through Goop, her wellness company. Yet Goop is still a big money-making player in the wellness industry.

Meanwhile, people also get misinformation about diets and workouts from social media wellness influencers, who may not be peddling effective or safe advice.

The bottom line is, take medical advice from professionals, not celebrities or influencers. And this doesn’t just apply to individual people. Health risk assessments, which some employers rely on, sometimes contain misinformation, according to Slate.

4. Overhyped health studies: Health journalism is infamous for the “big scary study.” A news outlet gets its hands on some research and twists a finding into something that will get attention. That’s how you get headlines about how some number of glasses of red wine a day reduces your chances of getting cancer.

According to the “How bad science can lead to bad science journalism — and bad policy” from the Washington Post, this also impacts employers’ decisions. This article gives the example of accountable care organizations, which employers may choose to offer employees. The best available evidence shows ACOs don’t work, the article cited. Still, journalists have sung their praises based on studies with deep design flaws.

I’ve written about this in more detail before, but both individuals and benefits decision makers should approach health journalism skeptically. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about how the research was conducted and what might be the limitations of the study.

Finally, my honorable mention goes to consumer-directed genetic tests — specifically the fact that individual or employer consumers may get marketing talking points rather than well-rounded information when companies try to sell these products to them.

March 28, 2019June 29, 2023

Sector Report: Wellness Valuable as a Recruiting Tool

Wellness benefits have officially changed teams. These health-inspired programs and resources are no longer viewed as health care initiatives, but rather as a “new talent value proposition,” said Mike Maniccia, specialist leader for Deloitte in Los Angeles.

“The origins of wellness programs were about saving money by creating a healthier workforce,” he says. But the financial returns on wellness investments have been notoriously difficult to measure, which diminished their value and caused them to lose the backing by cost-conscious execs.

However, in a low unemployment economy where millennials dominate the talent pool, wellness has gained new life as a powerful recruiting tool. Offering on-site yoga classes, healthy food options in the cafeteria, and a suite of physical and emotional wellness apps can help win over hard-to-land new hires. “Appealing to millennials is dominating the wellness conversation,” he said.

Companies like Google, Apple and Patagonia win constant accolades for their innovative wellness efforts, which often include over-the-top offerings like on-site massage therapy, weekly cooking classes, and free outdoor-inspired daycare centers. Maniccia worries a bit that the hype generated by a handful of mission-driven and well-funded wellness programs will make it impossible for others to keep up. “It’s difficult to replicate that kind of culture in manufacturing, retail or a small business,” he said.

However, in reality, companies don’t have to spend a lot of money on wellness to impress talent, as long as they are creative and offer programs that employees actually want. Deloitte’s 2018 “Human Capital Trends” report found that the top two wellness benefits desired by employees are flexible schedules and the option to telecommute, both of which require no real financial investment and can actually cut overhead costs.

Also read the 2018 Sector Report: Is Wellness Just an Employee Perk?

Also read the 2017 Sector Report: Workplace Wellness Programs Continue Healthy Ascent

Benefits Come From Within

Beyond flex time, employees are seeking wellness tools that fit their unique needs and interest. That’s has caused an evolution in the types of programs offered and how employees are encouraged to take part, said Linda Natansohn, head of corporate development, meQuilibrium, a resiliency training company in Boston. Most companies have evolved past things like incentives for biometric screenings, in part because of negative publicity that saw incentives as a form of coercion, but also because they didn’t generate the desired results.

“No amount of extrinsic rewards will drive people to change their behavior,” she said. “Employers have to figure out what is meaningful to their people.”

To connect with these personal drivers, companies have begun curating an assortment of offerings to address employees’ physical, social, emotional and fiscal needs. Many of them come in the form of apps and wearables that encourage healthy behavior and offer intrinsic motivators, like leader boards and positive messages when users hit daily goals.

Though not everyone is motivated by an app, said Steven Noeldner, head of total health management for Mercer. Some employees like self-directed programs, but others will prefer real-time workshops, consulting, or small group classes. “The idea is to have a broad array of services designed for different segments of the population.”

That includes social and emotional wellness programs, which are gaining popularity as companies realize the value of having a happy and well-adjusted workforce, noted Natansohn. These offerings can range from on-site therapists, to meditation apps to “kindness clubs,” where employees work together to create a better and more inclusive culture, she says. “It’s a more holistic approach to well-being.”

Regardless of the scope of offerings, managers and executives have to show their support for using these programs if employees are going to get on board, according to Noeldner. “Organizations with strong leadership support have higher participation and better health outcomes,” he said.

He recently completed work on a joint study between Health Enhancement Research Organization and Mercer that found organizations whose leaders actively participate in health and well-being initiatives reported higher median rates of both employee satisfaction with health and well-being programs (83 percent) and employee perception of organizational support (85 percent) compared to organizations whose leaders did not actively participate (66 percent and 67 percent, respectively).

“The C-suite and management create the climate around wellness,” he said. No matter how carefully companies select their wellness offerings and vendors, leadership support for the program will be critical to their success.