Forget the featureless cubicle with the straight-backed chair, the sparsely furnished lunchroom and the nondescript water cooler. Today's office environment calls for individually designed workplaces, healthy food choices and daily breaks for yoga or walking.
And a healthy dose of mHealth.
With businesses large and small choosing to be more proactive about employee health (in an effort to curb insurance costs and improve employee production), workplace wellness is all the rage. HR departments are designing their own programs that emphasize diet and exercise, or they're contracting with an outside firm to develop a plan. Many of those plans tie employee participation into a rewards program, and many support mobile devices as a means to measure activity or goals.
"The whole mobile angle in wellness has really exploded over the past three or four years," said Jennifer Patel, the wellness engagement director for Hallmark Business Connections, which not only advises other companies on how to foster a wellness program but runs a pretty popular one for its own employees. "Employees are spending more and more time with mobile devices, so it's only natural that they want (a wellness program) to be available to them anytime, anywhere."
Hallmark Business Connections, recently named one of the 22 best companies for workplace wellness by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, touts an 82 percent participation rate in its HealthWorks program, which covers employees in the company's Minneapolis and Duluth offices. The program includes onsite biometric screenings, health clinics and fairs, lunch-and-learn events, at-work yoga and weight-loss programs, smoking cessation programs and a summer physical activity challenge called RunWalkPedal.
Patel said the program wouldn't be as successful if it didn't allow participants to use mobile devices and apps like FitBits and MapMyFitness, or allow them to track their activities and rewards via their smartphones or tablets.
"Employee communication and engagement (in a wellness program) is a whole different animal" than normal employee relations processes, she said. "There are a lot of challenges to keep track of, and a lot of technology to check out. We take it very seriously – you should see my 'Keep On Top Of' file."
Patel said management has to be careful to check out all mHealth technology before approving it for use in a wellness program. It has to be able to synch into the rewards program, she said, and it can't be so complicated to use that people give up on the device or app after a few tries.
"A lot of times mobile programs are created without a lot of thought given to the people who will be using them," she said. "Choosing a device or app that is too sophisticated, or one that might appeal to only a few people, goes against the idea of getting everybody engaged."
"It's got to be quick and easy to use," she added. "Two or three steps at the most to connect the user to the participation and the rewards."
HealthWorks, which has been in place for roughly one year, gives each activity a point value, and invites participants to accumulate points for rewards – and track both their points and their health and wellness through an online tracking tool. This encourages employees to check their progress not only when they're at work, but when they're in the grocery store or gym or at home.
Patel said Hallmark has focused so far on getting the activity tracker in place and vetting the many different mobile devices and apps that employees want to use ("it's hard to keep up with them sometimes," she said). She'd like to expand the program in the future to include access to educational videos and links, and integrate more devices that can track other health data.
On the management side, meanwhile, the program allows for the tracking of cost trends, employee satisfaction, engagement and retention. In the future, Patel envisions linking to payer and provider resources and chronic disease management.
Patel said HealthWorks is also seen as a "testing ground," and that Hallmark Business Connections is looking to scale the program's design for use by clients. HBC currently works with employers, health plans and health management companies on a wide range of programs, from simple communications and incentives programs to full-blown health management plans.
"Employers are beginning to take employee health and wellness very, very seriously," she said. "They're realizing they need a program that includes mobile tools and meets employees where and when they choose to connect. They're also realizing that if they don't do it right … then it's a waste of time and a lot of money."
