Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/135744
Wellness The Engagement In December 2008, Ochsner engaged Virgin HealthMiles, a leading provider of employee health programs and technologies that engage employees in good health. Ochsner found the HealthMiles program's easy-to-use activity tracking devices, biometric measurement stations, and online platform provided employees with a better way to capture their daily activity and key health measures in a more accurate and verifiable way. The program also enabled employees to monitor their progress, and provided a variety of fun and rewarding activities designed to drive ongoing Ochsner's wellness program participation rate skyrocketed to 78 percent of all eligible employees within just three months of the program launch and is now around 90 percent. program participation. With this new program, Ochsner employees had the opportunity to earn 'HealthMiles'—or points—for their participation in the Added Incentives program. The HealthMiles that employees earned helped them Since HealthMiles replaced Ochsner's previous wellness program, proceed through the program's five reward levels. Since these Ochsner also offered an additional cash incentive to encourage reward levels were designed to reinforce the Center for Disease employee participation in the new program. If employees enrolled Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommended activity levels, in the HealthMiles program within a three-month period, they Ochsner offered participants the opportunity to earn significant discounts off their health insurance premiums once they reached level three—a program milestone indicating they were getting enough activity to meet recommended levels for good health. could earn a rebate of six dollars per month off their current insurance premium. To help motivate employees to reach level three, the company further encouraged employees to use the HealthMiles program's online challenges to spark some friendly competition between groups and departments. Ochsner employed a multi-pronged communications approach It's extremely rewarding to see so many people improve their health to educate employees about the new program and accelerate with Virgin HealthMiles. I receive emails every day about how the participation. In addition to visiting the different satellite clinics program has helped employees manage their weight or lower their with an information table situated in high traffic areas, such blood pressure, and I see more and more walking groups during as foyers and cafeterias, Ochsner also created a section on the lunch breaks. Many employees have also made new friends in other organization's internal website with weekly tips on how to join the program and how to earn HealthMiles (points). With significant incentives in place and a campaign designed to get departments or locations, thanks to the online community features built into the HealthMiles program. One of the greatest benefits Ochsner has realized from the HealthMiles program is its online delivery, which has enhanced as many of its eligible employees as possible to participate in the companywide engagement, a once difficult goal to achieve. The HealthMiles program, Ochsner's participation rate skyrocketed to program has enabled employees accurately to capture their daily 78 percent of all eligible employees within just three months of the activity and key health measures with activity tracking devices program launch. and biometrics measurement stations that provide validated data. Employees also have access to their own online program portal We were blown away by the participation. In a few months, we had doubled participation rates from the previous year and today we have nearly 90 percent of our eligible workforce participating in the program. Deployment was easy, maintenance is easy, and we have been able to work with our Virgin HealthMiles team to tailor it to where they view their progress, upload steps captured by their pedometers, and log any other activities they've participated in, such as an aerobics class or cycling to work from home. Employees use any of the 13 HealthZone® measurement stations set up within Ochsner's satellite clinics and hospitals to take key our specific needs. And best of all, our employees are excited about health measurements regularly and earn HealthMiles for doing the wellness initiative and their opportunity to earn discounts on so. With the HealthZones, Ochsner's HR and wellness team found health insurance premiums. that employees were able to monitor their health in a more MAY 2013 | www.hrotoday.com [53]