The long road to a healthier workforce

In recent years, workplace wellness and health management programs have become increasingly popular among employers in Asia. In the absence of an effective social security system, rising health care costs and growing lifestyle risks have started impacting the workforce, compelling employers to become proactive when it comes to employee health and well-being. While employers have traditionally focused on access to care, today they are shifting focus from healthcare management to preventive care and the promotion of personal wellbeing.  With this shift towards enabling healthy lifestyles comes the new challenge of navigating the complexities of employee behaviour change.

According to Towers Watson’s 2013 Asia Pacific Benefit Trends survey, lifestyle management benefits such as lifestyle coaching and weight management programs are currently offered or will be offered by a quarter of employers over the next 12 months, while stress management programs have garnered popularity and are already offered by 19 per cent of Asian employers.

At this early stage, one of the biggest challenges employers face is “slow down”, or loss of excitement amongst employees. Against this background, “sustained engagement” becomes a critical success factor for a wellness program. Employees need to adopt the improved lifestyle that the programs teach them as a permanent change for at least two years for there to be a tangible impact at the organisational level. This implies that simply offering a good program is not enough — an employer needs to understand the art and science of long-term behaviour change in order to motivate employees to participate and remain in a program long enough to produce measurable results.

While spreading information and awareness through communication campaigns are effective to a limited extent, it is more crucial to determine the way the individual processes this information, makes it personal and persists through challenges to make the behaviour change a sustainable reality.

Research suggests that there are a host of factors that are critical to employee engagement and the long-term success of wellness programs. Yet, efforts to improve employee engagement are often led by gut feelings or anecdotal experience about human behaviour, or by which solutions are most convenient. Taking a look into the science clarifies what really matters, as supported by evidence, and — equally important — what doesn’t.

Power to change

Self-confidence plays a pivotal role and has the power to change unhealthy behaviours and pick up new healthy ones. For instance, for individuals attempting to kick an unhealthy addiction, optimism in being able to change their behaviour had a surprisingly high correlation with actual consumption.

Methods that employers can use to help employees build self-confidence include positive role models, goal setting, and verbal persuasion.

Positive role models: Research suggests that the most effective role models are not necessarily the healthiest, but instead those who were able to overcome similar challenges.  The vicarious experience of witnessing behaviour change success allows individuals to boost their own expectations of achievement.

Goal setting: There exists a clear linkage between goal-setting and self-confidence by building a personal history of performance accomplishments for difficult or previously feared tasks. Each program should be paired with a clear roadmap and milestone goals.

Verbal persuasion: At workplaces, managers use positive reinforcement to their advantage through verbal encouragement, to increase their employees’ belief in their own abilities. Involving senior leadership incorporates a proven, research-based approach and is recognised as an effective way to improve confidence

Capitalising on impetus

Once the impetus to change has been made, there are several ways by which employers can ensure that their wellness programs are designed to capitalise on that impetus. Towers Watson has identified four specific ways employers can do this:

Monitoring: Apart from the myriad benefits that arise from monitoring, research suggests employees who formally track their behaviours can better withstand temptations for poor health. For instance, in one exercise around unhealthy eating during a holiday period, one group of study participants used booklets to track food intake, counting fat and calories, and exercise. The intervention group managed their weight better than the comparison group by using tools for self-monitoring. Ultimately, they lost four pounds more over the eight-week period.

Planning: Simply taking a minute to strategise when, where, and how you plan to take an intended action can lead to a significant increase in the likelihood that you will take the action. Another important way to plan is “coping planning”, which refers to developing plans to cope with potential relapses, for example beginning to smoke again, or falling off a diet plan. Studies have shown those who formally document their plans to avoid the temptation to skip the gym, are more likely to achieve their fitness goals. Research suggests action planning is more important for the initiation of health behaviours, whereas coping planning is required for not only initiating actions, but maintaining them as well.

Each health program implemented by employers should allow time and resources for both goal-setting and action planning.

Tailoring communications: Communication has been found to be most effective for measurable improvements in health status tailored for certain personal factors, such as social support, self-efficacy and social norms. This runs contrary to current popular thinking, which tailors communications depending on an audience’s perceived susceptibility to a health risk. The latter approach has actually been found in multiple studies to have a negative impact. For sustained impact, communications must be customised to reflect the progress an individual makes toward his/her health goals.

The science of sustained engagement and behaviour change shows simple actions can be taken by employers to influence long-term behaviour change and optimise employee participation in health management programs. These actions, which can include making specific information available, collaborating with vendors, and communicating in a way that may not be immediately intuitive, can be easily incorporated into existing implementation plans. Using these leading-edge methods, employers will find a greater return on their health investment, not to mention a healthier and more engaged and productive workforce in the long run.  

(The author is the Director (Health and Corporate Wellness), Asia Pacific, Towers Watson.)

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