1. Success Story
The Well Employee Solution Health and Wellness Program Demonstrates
Superior Employee Engagement
INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES IN AN OFFICE SETTING
Companies are increasingly implementing employee wellness programs today as more employers recognize that
helping people adopt healthy behaviors is critical to reducing long-term health care expenses and increasing
productivity. Additionally, corporate-sponsored wellness programs that proactively encourage employee
engagement can boost employee morale.
The success of any employee wellness program depends on:
• the level of employee engagement
• the effectiveness of the program in facilitating behavior change
To help employers create workforce wellness, Wellness Corporate Solutions has developed the Well Employee
Solution model or W.E.S. W.E.S. is a comprehensive health and wellness program that engages and empowers
employees to make simple dietary and lifestyle changes that can significantly improve their health.
The success of the W.E.S program in engaging employees in health-promoting behaviors is demonstrated by a
Wellness Corporate Solutions client located in the Northeast. This client has approximately 250 employees, most
of whom are salaried employees working in an office complex environment. The biggest challenges in this
population are typical of many companies today where time is precious and schedules are tight: employees tend to
travel frequently, eat on the run, endure high levels of chronic stress, and have difficulty getting enough physical
activity. Despite the schedule challenges, engagement in the W.E.S. program has been outstanding and individual
feedback is very positive.
In this corporate client’s employee population, health concerns include hypertension (21%) or pre-hypertension
(48%), excess weight (33%) or obesity (33%), and elevated (17%) or borderline high (18%) serum cholesterol.
Given that pre-disease states such as pre-hypertension and borderline high cholesterol are particularly amenable
to management through dietary and lifestyle changes, there is great opportunity in this type of population for
a wellness program to move people out of their at-risk categories into a risk-free stage, which in turn offers
substantial ROI potential.
Intermediate variables can predict outcomes
The W.E.S. program features both long-term and short-term components. The program is structured so that even
before long-term results are available, intermediate results can be used as proxy variables to predict outcomes,
based on the premise that if performance on intermediate measures is good, then end-result outcomes should be
good as well.
2. Reported here are intermediate outcomes that demonstrate the program’s success in engaging employees in three
phases: recruitment engagement, process engagement, and behavioral engagement. On all three counts, W.E.S.
surpasses or matches industry norms, predicting a high likelihood of sustained success.
1. RECRUITMENT ENGAGEMENT
Recruitment engagement refers to the program rollout, in this case a company-wide Health Fair. Employee
participation at this event reflects how well the company has promoted the program and, to some extent, its
broader efforts to foster a wellness environment. Measures of recruitment engagement include (1) the number of
employees who have a biometric screening including blood pressure, BMI, blood glucose and blood cholesterol
at the Health Fair and (2) the number of employees who meet with the health coach and schedule a follow-up
appointment.
RESULTS:
61% of employees completed the biometric screening at the Health Fair – one and a half
times higher than the industry standard of 40% for a comparable setting.1 Nearly all of the employees
who were screened (95%) also met with a health coach and scheduled a follow-up appointment for
personal telephone coaching.
―The biometric screening was an eye-opener for me. It made me stop and focus on my health and realize
that I could make some improvements. My blood pressure has moved from the pre-hypertensive range
to normal and I feel fabulous!‖
—W.E.S. employee participant
2. PROCESS ENGAGEMENT
Process engagement is the extent to which participants who were engaged during recruitment continue
to participate in other components of the program. Specific metrics that reflect continued W.E.S. program
engagement include the completion of health assessments, use of health coaching and establishment of personal
health goals.
RESULTS:
58% of the entire employee population completed a health assessment, far surpassing the
industry standard of 18%.2 Furthermore, 46% of the total employee population used telephone coaching
(nearly 5 times the industry standard of 10%),3 and 100% of these set personal health goals. There is
currently no standard for setting health goals, as this is a unique feature of the W.E.S. program.
Of those who used telephone coaching, 100% set personal health goals. There is currently no standard for setting
health goals, as this is a unique feature of the W.E.S. program.
W.E.S. Engagement Compared to Industry Standards
100% ―My experience with the W.E.S. program has
been wonderful! My health coach taught me
80%
Industry Standard how to make small dietary changes to lower
60% my cholesterol, and I’m actually enjoying the
W.E.S
40% . new foods. She encourages me to take my
daily walks and checks in with me.‖
20%
0%
Health Coach
Assessment
1
Wellness Corporate Solutions
2
American Institute of Preventive Medicine
3
UnitedHealthcare press release June 25, 2008, Onsite wellness coaching for employers now available to Pennsylvania businesses.
3. 3. BEHAVIORAL ENGAGEMENT
Behavioral engagement measures the extent to which individuals have actually changed health behaviors and/
or outcomes by using the wellness program. W.E.S. behavioral engagement results are available for a short-term
team event called a ―challenge.‖
W.E.S. Challenge: ―Maintain Don’t Gain‖
A challenge within the W.E.S. program, ―Maintain Don’t Gain,‖ is focused specifically on preventing weight gain
during the vulnerable period from Thanksgiving to New Years Day. Holiday weight gain – even as little as one
pound a year – is important, especially for those who are already overweight, because studies find it is not
reversed after the holidays and ―the cumulative effects of yearly weight gain during the fall and winter are likely to
contribute to the substantial increase in body weight that frequently occurs during adulthood.‖ 4
Measurements of behavioral engagement used in the “maintain don’t gain” challenge include:
• Engagement rate = percent of those who enrolled in the challenge who completed the challenge
• Success rate = percent of participants who maintained their weight or lost weight
• Average per person weight loss only among those who lost weight
RESULTS:
In this challenge approximately two-thirds of employees who signed up completed the
challenge. Normal attrition rates in industry-sponsored weight loss competitions range from 30%
to as high as 80%, or conversely, 20% to 70% of those who sign up actually complete the program.5
Retention in the W.E.S. challenge, therefore, is in the range of the best experience in the industry,
demonstrating the ability of W.E.S. to engage employees.
More than 7 out of 10 participants lost or maintained their weight. The average weight loss
among those who lost weight was 2.3 pounds -- quite an achievement given the difficulty of
maintaining one’s weight during the holiday season.
Put the Well Employee Solution to Work for You!
―Excellent program." It gave me a goal to ―I like the weekly emails with tips on how to maintain
achieve… I would truly welcome additional weight, nutrition and physical activity.‖
challenges.‖
—W.E.S. employee participants
These intermediate results confirm that the W.E.S. program has superior ability to recruit, engage and change
the behavior of participants. Superior program engagement predicts higher success rates for your employees in
improving their health, which can ultimately translate into reduced health care costs and higher productivity for
your company.
Wellness Corporate Solutions nutrition specialists work with you to tailor the program for your employee population
and needs, providing a turnkey solution and proactively supporting your program implementation from launch through
all phases.
Take your first step on the road to a healthier workforce and a healthier bottom line. To learn more about the W.E.S.
program, visit us at www.wellnesscorporatesolutions.com.
4
Yanovski JA, et al. A prospective study of holiday weight gain. N Engl J Med. 2000;342:861-67.
5
Stunkard AJ et al. Weight loss competitions at the worksite: how they work and how well. Prev Med. 1989;18:460-74.
