Wednesday, June 16
Scott McFarland, President, Wellness Enterprise for the Cleveland Clinic, was the keynote speaker at the Wellness@Work Symposium on 6/10/10 at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH). CMNH and Herbruck Alder provided the symposium as a way for companies to learn how to think outside the box when it comes to wellness. Regional wellness experts and companies who won the 2010 Wellness@Work Awards spoke to about 175 attendees, and shared their distinct approach to wellness in their workplace.
Here’s an interesting fact: 115 times each day we make a decision that affects our health and wellness: the food we eat, if we exercise, etc. Scott McFarland said that wellness is a consumer business. $265 billion in wellness “products, potions, and pills” are sold every year, $2.6 billion of which is purchased by employers. The Cleveland Clinic is focused on managing stress as the big opportunity for improved workplace productivity. (See my blog on 4 Healthy Habits). In addition, employers have control over their physical plant, meaning the foods served at office meetings, eliminating soda (and high fructose corn syrup) in the machines, offering physical activity programs, yoga classes, flex time and so on, which can all impact people’s choices at work. If readily available, employees’ choices will be impacted in a healthy way.
One additional interesting point that Scott McFarland made was that the Cleveland Clinic believes that chronic disease shouldn’t be managed, it should be reversed. What does that truly mean? Get off the maintenance medications, strive for better lifestyle habits such as a healthy diet and increased exercise, and don’t settle for maintaining a chronic disease state when you can actually be healthy and disease-free with a little extra effort on your part. Turn your disease around, and get rid of it for good.
COSE Small Business Category 1-100 employees Wellness@Work Award Winners Speak
The Wellness@Work Award winners in the COSE Small Business Category shared ideas with symposium participants about how they achieve wellness for their employees by thinking outside the box. Here are some of the highlights of the panelists.
Mae Kowalke from Neundorfer, Inc. stated that wellness is a sound business strategy for them. Neundorfer, Inc. has created a culture of wellness and supports sustainable lifetime habits for employees. They have “walking meetings”, and build exercise into the workday to make it fun and easy for employees to achieve better health.
Danielle Hannah from The Cleveland Foundation shared that their wellness program addresses their “inner community”, their employees. Not only do they support sustainability efforts for the employees’ personal health, but they are also very committed to the environment. The Cleveland Foundation has developed a program called “Cut Your Carbs” to address reducing carbon emissions.
Pat Perry, President of ERC, talked about work/life balance, and what it truly is supposed to mean. Currently employees and employers both feel that it is unbalanced, and Pat said it is time to reverse the tilt. ERC seeks better work/life balance by practicing a “Family First” policy. ERC doesn’t track vacation days, sick time, or bereavement for employees; they can take the time they need whenever they want to. It’s up to the employee to be responsibly honest, and it’s working for ERC employees. Pat said ERC isn’t looking to control bottom-line healthcare costs through wellness, but that it is a byproduct of controlling what you can through individual responsibility for personal health.
Posted by:Ginny Hridel