Health Promotion: Wellness is a process of health promotion and behavioral change not a product

Perspective

One of the founders of the wellness industry recently commented that wellness had “over promised and under delivered.” In large part this has been due to the lack of real expertise and the implementation of plug and play products as fix all solutions. Too many consultants and firms view wellness as a product and source of additional revenue rather than a core competency essential for healthcare management.

We believe that wellness should address behavioral change and aim for biometric results using positive methods of engagement and consumerism integrated with value based benefit programs, where employees are responsible and accountable for their lifestyle choices and employers support and reward behavior change.                    

Solution

The beginnings of a “Culture of Health” must be nurtured in order to achieve long-term and meaningful results. The process starts with executive commitment to a three year plan, with recognition that change is needed. Health must be placed as a corporate value and a supportive environment established.

Our standard service includes basic health promotion strategies with utilization of carrier resources that are included in the benefit program, promotion of their disease management programs, employee communication materials designed to raise awareness of the impact of lifestyle choices.

We have coined the term “Stealth Wellness” for these approaches.

Engagement

Employee engagement is essential to a successful program of health promotion.

Employers tend to make two critical errors when first implementing a wellness initiative. First programs try to cater to all aspects of health promotion, become too complex and fail to get off the ground. Second they tend to focus on the short-term return on investment for the employer.

PenBen has a “crawl, walk, and then run” approach. We recommend that clients start simple and build out, but do not delay. We also focus on the employee return on investment, whether it is in saving copays by becoming an efficient consumer of healthcare, achieving a personal health goal, reducing insurance cost through participation or just feeling happier about the work environment.