The healthy business roadmap: Moving beyond pedometers and biometric screenings

The term “healthy business” is used quite a bit today, by leaders, organizations, press and industry experts. Particularly with the recent spotlight on employee-sponsored wellness programs, the idea of creating a healthy business is at the top of many leaders’ to-do lists.

 The problem? Many leaders have trouble defining exactly what a “healthy business” means for their organization. As a result, they dive into adopting a wellness program or other health-focused initiative without first taking a high-level view of their business as a whole. In Humana’s recently released 2015 Annual Trends and Opportunities Report it was increasingly clear that businesses and business leaders have the tools and data they need to make their businesses healthier, but it’s utilizing those tools and that insight that challenges most organizations. Today’s corporate leaders aren’t sure how to integrate wellness into their day-to-day operations, and instead view wellness as an add-on service.

 Healthy businesses aren’t those that simply ask employees to track their steps with a pedometer or participate in a smoking cessation program. Healthy businesses are focused holistically on the health of every part of their operations – from financials to people management, environment to health programs and everything in between. But where should an organization start with this type of all-encompassing plan?

 Every journey starts with a single step – and hopefully, a map of how you’re going to get to your destination. With that in mind, I challenge business leaders to consider the first step in their journey to wellness not choosing a wellness program provider or creating a healthy challenge for employees, but actually stepping back and creating a plan for what wellness looks like, how far your organization is from achieving that ideal state and what steps you can immediately take to be on your way to a more holistically-healthy business.  

 Here are five things to consider in assessing your current state and developing a roadmap to guide your organization towards a healthier future:

1. Set manageable goals and KPIs: First, take a hard look at your goals for this endeavor. Define what business health means to your organization and the elements that contribute to that overall goal. Begin to develop KPIs for each section that are careful and focused, thinking about your ideal future state.
2. Focus on recruitment and retention: A business is only as successful as its people. What are your recruitment goals this year? Do you have a turnover problem? Assess what is bringing people to your organization, and what’s making them leave. Focus on exit interviews and work closely with your HR/Recruitment teams to get a sense of what your business can be doing to ensure you recruit and retain the best talent available. This is a critical baseline that your business can’t be successful without.
3. Measure, measure, measure…but with a purpose: Over the past year, we at Humana have conducted several studies on the efficacy of wellness programs. There are a number of key learnings that can be applied in this exercise, but one piece of data repeatedly came up as we interviewed business leaders: Today’s businesses have an incredible amount of employee data, yet struggle with how to effectively use it. Further, employees are willing to share their data with their employer if there’s a clear benefit. The point here is that collecting data isn’t enough. You can have mountains of data, but without a clear purpose or strategy to utilize that data, it’s essentially worthless. Take stock of the data you do have and how it informs/supports your established KPIs. Think purposefully about the data you’ll collect from every department in your business and how it will inform your roadmap to overall business success.
4. Take a hard look at existing policies and environment: Assess your existing environment and compare it to the goals you’ve set up. Are your policies from financial reporting to dress code supporting your goals? You may be surprised at the number of existing policies that could sabotage your success. In our 2015 Trends Report we saw a growing trend of organizational wellness becoming organized, with an increasing number of businesses taking a look at the policies and environmental factors that could be affecting corporate wellness trends. Every element of your day-to-day operations needs to support that overall business health and wellness goal, and you won’t be able to move forward in making changes and improvements if existing practices are holding you back.
5. Communicate your strategy to get buy in: Buy-in from the organization’s leadership and employees is essential for success. Over-communicate and have two-way conversations at every level to ensure your entire business is on board with the plan and is truly a part of its success. As you move towards that desired future state, be sure to communicate your progress and setbacks, and get feedback at each step. Engage your entire organization and make them a part of the process, so they can be stakeholders sharing in the benefits.

 Assessing the health of your business and acting on those findings can seem like a daunting task. By creating a clear and focused plan you can take an informed first step on your organization’s journey to wellness that will ultimately benefit your employees, leadership and bottom line.

 For more information about workplace wellness, visit When Wellness Works.

 Follow me on twitter: @bethbierbower