In addition, Medica presents the Shape Up Challenge each spring to all of its member groups, and North American is actively involved. As part of the most recent challenge, the company brought in a salad bar each week. Employees paid $5 for salad lunches, with proceeds going to charity. Other wellness events throughout the year include a “poker walk,” in which employees add a card to their poker hand on each stop of the walk and the person with best hand at the end wins a prize; guest speakers who discuss topics such as how to exercise at your desk and how to eat more healthily during the holidays; and a variety of wellness-related seminars. All these activities offer participation points, which can be redeemed for everything from a gift card to a day off of work.
Not only do these activities—organized by a committee of North American’s wellness club members—provide plenty of healthy options, but they also contribute to a healthy company culture. “The wellness club has a positive effect on bringing people closer together and developing relationships that wouldn’t have occurred any other way,” Fransway says. “I also think that it has made our employees more aware of the health resources that are available to them.”
Financial Concepts measures the success of the program by surveying employees about the wellness program every other year. Wodarck notes that there have been fewer disability claims, though she admits that it’s difficult to attribute that to the wellness club. Still, Wodarck believes the benefits for employees are numerous. “Success is going to be measured on participation and employee awareness,” she says. “We’ve watched the awareness increase—for example, all the people who now know what their blood pressure and cholesterol are. They’re feeling like they’re more informed about health care.”
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Online Benefits: Good for Everyone? Online benefits management consolidates all benefits information into one place on the Internet. Employees can easily access and update information on their health insurance and retirement plan, and can even participate in open enrollment through one Web site. The system also allows for up-to-date information; changes in plans can be communicated instantly. Such a tool also streamlines processes and improves workflow within all levels of a company. A worker doesn’t have to fill out stacks of paperwork or track down a human-resources professional to answer questions; the HR department can focus on more pressing tasks than chasing after employees for signatures; and the CFO has a system that makes reporting and benchmarking easier (and can save some money on printing and postage). With all these factors that make paperwork a thing of the past, what’s not to love? Still, there may be a few obstacles you need to identify and overcome before implementing an online benefits system, says Mick Hannafin, director of marketing for RJF Agencies, a Plymouth-based employee benefits and risk-management company. “One is, do all employees have access to the Internet?” he says. “Many may not have access at home or are not used to using the Internet.” This is especially common in industrial and factory settings, in which employees aren’t sitting at a desk every day. For those situations, Hannafin suggests installing kiosks or private locations in which employees can enter or access their benefits information during assigned times. If an employee is unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the Internet, a company can also ask support staff to help the user navigate the system. Companies are also finding that language barriers impede the development of an online benefits portal. Hannafin believes that employers should ask, “What is the prevalence of immigrants in the marketplace, and how do we put this into a translation that makes sense?” Most of the major health insurance carriers have Spanish interpreters, while others also cater to Hmong and Somali workers. But internally, companies are relying on both English-speaking and dual-language employees to help. “What most companies are doing is finding those loyal employees who can be a bridge in translation, giving them more pay or responsibility to become an employee advocate for that population that doesn’t speak the language well,” Hannafin says. Underutilization is another potential problem with the online system. Just because someone can access information on line doesn’t mean he or she will. Offering education and training to employees, along with helping them recognize that an online system will empower them to make better benefits choices, can help mitigate fears and encourage use. |
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