The Problem With Health and Productivity Management

These days there is a lot of buzz about health and productivity management–and for good reason. With new research emerging almost everyday, it is becoming evident to employers, policy makers and researchers alike that poor health can have an enormous impact on personal and organizational productivity.

In fact, Dr. Michael O’Donnell, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Health Promotion, states in a policy briefing document, “Recent research has reported a direct relationship between modifiable lifestyle risks and lower worker productivity, and limited data suggest that the costs to employers in lost productivity due to poor employee health may be substantially more than the direct medical and disability costs.”

Health and Productivity Goes Prime Time
Because of these recent and compelling discoveries concerning “productivity lost” costs, many researchers, providers, and associations have begun promoting this concept to employers as something every business leader should adopt if they are interested in remaining competitive in the new millennium.

And employers are embracing HPM concepts with zeal.

Proof Positive
Now here’s the really good news. HPM initiatives–if designed, delivered, and evaluated properly–return about $3 for every $1 invested. If the program gains significant participation, the results may be as high as $16:$1.

Although many business leaders were skeptical about HPM programs for more than a decade, there are now well over 100 peer reviewed studies documenting the impact of HPM initiatives.

What’s In a Name?
Despite all the potential benefits that health and productivity management initiatives can bring to a workplace, there is one big problem with these kinds of initiatives.

What’s that you ask?

Two words–the name.

And therein lies the rub. HPM initiatives make a lot of business sense. If done right, the benefits for employees can be significant and they have the potential to create a return on investment. However, even though they are in essence “health and productivity management” initiatives, my advice is that you shouldn’t call them that. If you do, you really run the risk of alienating a lot of people–especially front-liners in an organization.

Three Problems With Widely Promoting the Term “Health and Productivity Management” Within an Organization
Problem #1: The Term Health and Productivity Management Places the Emphasis on The Organization
When it comes to promoting employee health and well-being, I think the smart money would say that it’s best to position this kind of movement in specific terms of how each and every employee will genuinely benefit. I’m not convinced that the term “HPM” does this. In fact, I think it does exactly the opposite–it promotes the benefits that the employer will reap.

Let me say it again, placing the emphasis on how the corporation will benefit is highly problematic–especially in a time where:

• Many company’s earnings are at all-time highs and;
• CEO’s salaries are 400 times that of the average worker (as compared to 40 times in 1970) and;
• Corporate productivity levels are some of the highest in recorded history.

Now compare this to the typical worker’s world view.

• The typical worker is making less now than they were in 1970.
• More companies are passing on the cost of healthcare directly to employees thus creating a serious pinch on already limited resources.
• If cost shifting doesn’t do the trick, many organizations are eliminating healthcare benefits altogether (approximately 50 million Americans are now uninsured) leaving employees without a safety net.
• Employees are seriously struggling with balancing the ever-increasing demands of work and maintaining healthy boundaries in the work/life equation.

When you see this dichotomy in these terms, I think it’s easier to understand why many employees are going to resent health and productivity management initiatives unless they are positioned carefully and sincerely. And, unless healthcare savings and the gains made from improvement in productivity are passed through to the rank and file, my guess is that HPM initiatives are going to go down like razor blades.

Problem #2: Many Employees Don’t Want Their Health and Productivity Managed
The second problem with the term “Health and Productivity Management” is that many employees don’t want the company to manage these areas of their lives. This is a lesson we learned from “managed care” in the 80’s and I think there is direct application to HPM–again, most people don’t want their health or productivity managed.

Indeed, if you take an informal poll of your employees, I think most would tell you that Health and Productivity Management has a very paternalistic and mechanistic quality about it and somehow it just doen’t feel genuine to most people in the trenches.

Moreoever, most people feel like they are already working pretty hard the way it is. It’s like that old joke, “I know that the President created a million new jobs; I have two of them.”

If not carefully and honestly positioned, health and productivity management sounds like an two-dollar term that means most Americans can look forward to working harder yet.

Still not convinced that most people don’t want their productivity managed? Just consider the following:

• According to Juliet Schor in her book the The Overworked American (everyone should read this bady boy by the way), people are working on average about a month more than their counterparts in 1970 and;
• Americans already take the least amount of vacation days than virtually any other industrialized nation in the world–A May 2006 telephone interview survey of 1,003 adults conducted by the Omaha-based Gallup Organization revealed that 43 percent of respondents had no plans for a summer vacation;
• 25 percent of American workers in the private sector do not get any paid vacation time at all.

Problem #3: The Term “Health and Productivity Management” Doesn’t Instill a Particularly Inspiring Vision for Most Employees
If health and productivity management initiatives are going to catch-fire with widespread adoption, it will be because employees buy into it wholeheartedly. Here’s the teachable moment–even though the current business buzzwords are “Health and productivity” it doesn’t mean you have to brand your initiative as such.

In fact, take a second and close your eyes and put your feet up. Now envision “health and productivity” being managed in your organization. If you are a decision maker, manager, or someone charged with this role and responsibility, you probably get stoked by what you can see.

But would your employees have the same energy about what the images they conjure up when they think about HPM? I sincerely doubt it.

And that’s one of the keys. Vision literally means “to see.” If you want an HPM initiative to catch-fire, the vision is crucial. And most of the companies that are creating momentum with respect to these initiatives call them something else.

A Company That Gets It
International Truck and Engine is an excellent example of a company that gets it. As a company they’ve created and sustained a very good HPM initiative for years–yet they don’t call it HPM. Instead, the program has been smartly branded as “Vital Lives.”

Specifically, the emphasis of the “Vital Lives” program is fourfold: Be Smart, Be Healthy, Be Safe, and Be Responsible. The result? International Truck and Engine has engaged employees which is evident by their participation rates. Furthermore, according to company leaders, longitudinal studies indicated that IT&E saved $13.4 million with an investment of $1.2 million.

When It Comes To HPM, It’s All About Positioning With Backbone and Heart
Positioning HPM initiatives is crucial if you hope to get a foothold in the organization by having employees embrace this type of undertaking. The quickest way to getting stonewalled is to build an initiative where HPM is the centerpiece. For the reasons mentioned above, people will stay away in droves.

However, if you build your program upon the principles of HPM and position it with the employee’s interest and needs at heart, you’ve already increased the likelihood of success.

Before closing, it’s worth mentioning that I’m not talking about dressing a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Health and Productivity Management initiatives are an important step in helping companies to compete in a fiercely competitive global environment. But these programs must be delivered with backbone and heart. By putting your employees at the center and developing programs that are driven by dignity, respect, and decency, HPM initiatives can go a long way toward making things better for everybody.

Copyright 2006, David Hunnicutt.com

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The views and perspectives presented by Dr. Hunnicutt do not necessarily represent those of WELCOA.