Wellness Programs Try to Be Welcoming, Too

AH, July: an ideal time of year for morning runs, long swims, family bike rides and picnic tables laden with seasonal produce. In short, it’s healthy time.

Unfortunately, it’s also health care time — when managers must contend with rising health insurance premiums as they plan next year’s budget.

What is a cost-conscious manager to do? The answer of the moment is to provide a wellness program, promoting healthy behavior year-round.

According to a survey by the Hay Group, a consulting firm, more than half of all large companies offer some combination of services like nutrition education, weight management assistance, health risk assessments, and help with quitting smoking; more than a quarter offer things like fitness coaching and discounts on health club memberships.

“I was basically out of the business for the better part of the decade,” said Michael Carter, a vice president at Hay responsible for employee health management consulting. “Now everybody’s my new best friend.”

On the surface, it is hard to see anything wrong with urging employees to tone up and trim down. A fitter work force is a happier work force, and less costly, too.

But wellness programs can be minefields. Some employees may resent the programs, viewing them as examples of father-knows-best intrusiveness. At least one program has even formed the background for a lawsuit.

The biggest challenge of wellness programs is to reach the employees who would get the most out of them. Gym rats will always take advantage of benefits like discounted health club memberships — but they would probably work out anyway, and discounts may not be enough for those who are seriously overweight or out of shape.

Personalized incentives like fitness coaching and nutrition counseling are often a better way to reach employees in the middle group who just need a little encouragement. It is also crucial to make accommodations for disabled employees.

And the tone taken is crucial: who wants the boss telling you to eat your spinach? A program that feels coercive will probably never be as popular as one with positive incentives, like cheaper health insurance.

Employees respond best to wellness programs that are presented as a form of organizational change, rather than as a top-down imposition of new requirements, according to a study of 243 employees by Ellen Ernst Kossek, a professor of human resource management and organizational behavior at Michigan State University, and two colleagues.

“It shouldn’t be, ‘Here’s this program,’ ” she said. “It should be linked to ‘How do we make a workplace that’s healthy for everyone.’ ”

Scotts Miracle-Gro has one of the most extensive wellness programs on offer. Services include personalized fitness coaching and a $5 million wellness center at its headquarters in Marysville, Ohio, with a gym and medical facilities. The company also has a policy against hiring workers who smoke, where state law permits.

Participation in Scotts’ wellness programs is high — but the company has also seen an unexpected side effect from its efforts.

Last year, Scott Rodrigues filed suit against the company in Massachusetts, saying that Scotts fired him after a drug test found nicotine in his system and that the company’s antismoking policy violated his civil rights.

Harvey Schwartz, Mr. Rodrigues’s lawyer, said the case was also an example of benefits discrimination, where a company dismisses an employee to avoid high benefits costs.

In a motion to dismiss the case, which is pending, Scotts said that Mr. Rodrigues had not actually been hired but had been offered a job on the condition that he pass a drug screen, including a test for nicotine.

“When you look at controlling costs,” said Su Lok, a Scotts spokeswoman, smoking “is something that employers are really taking a stand on.” The company had no comment on the specific case because it is ongoing.

Union Pacific Railroad has had a smoother ride with its longstanding wellness program. The proportion of health insurance claims related to lifestyle has dropped by 11 percentage points over 11 years, said Marcy Zauha, the company’s director for health and safety.

Union Pacific, based in Omaha, offers some companywide wellness benefits, including health risk assessments and stop-smoking plans. But much of the program, including regional walking contests and group weight-loss efforts, is administered locally. Managers’ health promotion initiatives are included in their annual reviews.

“We’ve tried to build health into our existing culture,” Ms. Zauha said.

FiServ, a financial services technology company based in Brookfield Wis., created a wellness program in 2005 to better recruit and retain employees.

FiServ employees who fill out a health risk assessment receive a sizable discount on their monthly health insurance premium. There are also companywide fitness challenges: in a recent eight-week walking contest, participants were issued pedometers, and anyone who walked 7,000 steps a day received a prize.

Teams have to been known to question whether their rivals really log the number of steps claimed. But that was fine with Linda Schuessler, manager of wellness promotion.

“As long as they’re engaged,” Ms. Schuessler said, “we don’t really mind those concerns.”