Welcome to our fall edition of HERO on Health. David Ballard, PsyD, Assistant Executive Director at the American Psychological Association, and HERO board member has written a very insightful column on the development of a psychologically healthy workplace. This approach incorporates not only the dimension of physical health and mental health, but broadens the discussion to include employee involvement, safety, employee growth and development, work-life balance and employee recognition as important to achieving this objective.
The 2012 HERO Forum for Employee Health Management Solutions, held October 2-4, was a great success. We thank the outstanding faculty of keynotes, panelists, and workshop presenters for their highly informative, thought provoking presentations. Certainly the topic of building employee performance through improved health was a key topic, along with excellent discussions on program sustainability, communication, branding, creating a supportive culture and the appropriate use of incentives. Please put September 24-26, 2013, on your calendar to join us for the next HERO Forum to be held in Orlando, FL, at the Disneyworld Hilton Hotel.
The 2012 Annual Report on the HERO Employee Health Management Best Practice Scorecard in Collaboration with Mercer was released during the Forum. It is free and available on the HERO website. read more...
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Industry Voices: Promoting Well-Being & Performance
David W. Ballard, PsyD, MBA
Creating a healthy, high-performing organization takes a firm commitment even in the best of times, and as the recession hit full swing, many organizations had to make some difficult decisions. In a 2011 survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, 64 percent of working Americans reported that their employers had taken read more
Creating a healthy, high-performing organization takes a firm commitment even in the best of times, and as the recession hit full swing, many organizations had to make some difficult decisions. In a 2011 survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, 64 percent of working Americans reported that their employers had taken read more
HERO Happenings
Webinar: A Community- Based Proactive Health Care Model for Small Businesses
January 23, 2013 1 PM - 2:00 PM Central Time
Register
Please join us for a presentation on community-based wellness programs for very small businesses (10 employees or less). Our presenters will be the Greater Somerset Public Health Collaborative (GSPHC) in Somerset County, Maine, which in partnership with HERO, has developed a community-based employee wellness program that demonstrates how small businesses within a community can join together to offer their workers wellness activities that would not normally be economically feasible for groups their size.
Learn about this model and how it complements national health reform, which proposes models to allow small employers to group together to purchase coverage so they can align their wellness strategy with their medical benefits in the same way large employers currently do. By creating a project that gave small employers an opportunity to jointly obtain worksite wellness, this group was able to develop a prototype of an employer-community collaborative approach that offers a full spectrum of health, wellness and medical care protection-along with the use of financial incentives- for small and very small employers.
Partnering with HERO, the GSPHC created a modified version of the Scorecard specifically for these micro-sized employers to use as the tool to qualify for financial incentives based on their score.
We encourage you to register for this session to learn more about this innovative and intriguing approach to making employee wellness and prevention programs available to very small organizations.
Winter Think Tank Leadership Roundtable
The next meeting of the HERO Think Tank will be held February 12-13, 2013 Westin Hotel, Atlanta
RSVP Now
This is a HERO members-only event.
Recent Articles
New Findings and Realistic Solutions to Employee Presenteeism
Corporate financial statements and annual reports highlight the effects of the rising cost of employee health care. It has become a substantial budget item that must be carefully monitored and controlled. Because it is a tangible cost, benefits managers and chief financial officers tend to focus these efforts on controlling health care costs. Yet a much larger employee expense and management opportunity lurks in the shadows –in the form of on-the-job productivity losses resulting from employee health problems, a.k.a., presenteeism.
The HERO white paper “Presenteeism According to Health Behaviors, Physical Health, and Work Environment” which summarizes the findings of our research is now posted on the HERO website.
The objective of this study was to identify the contribution that certain demographic characteristics, health behaviors, physical health outcomes, and workplace environmental factors have on presenteeism (on-the-job productivity loss attributed to poor health and other personal issues). Analyses were based on a cross-sectional survey administered to three geographically diverse U.S. companies in 2010.
This research is complete and has been published in Population Health Management magazine. The research team on this project included: Ray M. Merrill, Steven G. Aldana, James E. Pope, David R. Anderson, Carter R. Coberley, and R. William Whitmer, and members of the HERO Research Study Subcommittee (Jessica Grossmeier, Melodie Carter, Greg Howe, and Steven Merryman).
“Guidance for a Reasonably Designed, Employer-Sponsored Wellness Program Using Outcomes-Based Incentives” HERO, along with the American Cancer Society, American Cancer Network, American Diabetes Association and American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine have collaborated to produce the first joint consensus document designed to provide guidance on the use of outcomes-based incentives in employer-sponsored wellness programs.
This publication incorporates research, practical application, policy perspectives and a set of basic considerations to help organizations that are considering or implementing this approach in their program development and planning. has been published online by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Please visit the Incentives Joint Consensus Statement page on the HERO website to access the paper and associated materials.
For more information on these articles and other HERO research visit:
January 23, 2013 1 PM - 2:00 PM Central Time
Register
Please join us for a presentation on community-based wellness programs for very small businesses (10 employees or less). Our presenters will be the Greater Somerset Public Health Collaborative (GSPHC) in Somerset County, Maine, which in partnership with HERO, has developed a community-based employee wellness program that demonstrates how small businesses within a community can join together to offer their workers wellness activities that would not normally be economically feasible for groups their size.
Learn about this model and how it complements national health reform, which proposes models to allow small employers to group together to purchase coverage so they can align their wellness strategy with their medical benefits in the same way large employers currently do. By creating a project that gave small employers an opportunity to jointly obtain worksite wellness, this group was able to develop a prototype of an employer-community collaborative approach that offers a full spectrum of health, wellness and medical care protection-along with the use of financial incentives- for small and very small employers.
Partnering with HERO, the GSPHC created a modified version of the Scorecard specifically for these micro-sized employers to use as the tool to qualify for financial incentives based on their score.
We encourage you to register for this session to learn more about this innovative and intriguing approach to making employee wellness and prevention programs available to very small organizations.
Winter Think Tank Leadership Roundtable
The next meeting of the HERO Think Tank will be held February 12-13, 2013 Westin Hotel, Atlanta
RSVP Now
This is a HERO members-only event.
Recent Articles
New Findings and Realistic Solutions to Employee Presenteeism
Corporate financial statements and annual reports highlight the effects of the rising cost of employee health care. It has become a substantial budget item that must be carefully monitored and controlled. Because it is a tangible cost, benefits managers and chief financial officers tend to focus these efforts on controlling health care costs. Yet a much larger employee expense and management opportunity lurks in the shadows –in the form of on-the-job productivity losses resulting from employee health problems, a.k.a., presenteeism.
The HERO white paper “Presenteeism According to Health Behaviors, Physical Health, and Work Environment” which summarizes the findings of our research is now posted on the HERO website.
The objective of this study was to identify the contribution that certain demographic characteristics, health behaviors, physical health outcomes, and workplace environmental factors have on presenteeism (on-the-job productivity loss attributed to poor health and other personal issues). Analyses were based on a cross-sectional survey administered to three geographically diverse U.S. companies in 2010.
This research is complete and has been published in Population Health Management magazine. The research team on this project included: Ray M. Merrill, Steven G. Aldana, James E. Pope, David R. Anderson, Carter R. Coberley, and R. William Whitmer, and members of the HERO Research Study Subcommittee (Jessica Grossmeier, Melodie Carter, Greg Howe, and Steven Merryman).
“Guidance for a Reasonably Designed, Employer-Sponsored Wellness Program Using Outcomes-Based Incentives” HERO, along with the American Cancer Society, American Cancer Network, American Diabetes Association and American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine have collaborated to produce the first joint consensus document designed to provide guidance on the use of outcomes-based incentives in employer-sponsored wellness programs.
This publication incorporates research, practical application, policy perspectives and a set of basic considerations to help organizations that are considering or implementing this approach in their program development and planning. has been published online by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Please visit the Incentives Joint Consensus Statement page on the HERO website to access the paper and associated materials.
For more information on these articles and other HERO research visit:
Scorecard Quarterly Commentary
Dan Gold, PhD & Beth Umland, PhD
The basic assumption behind the HERO Scorecard is that EHM programs based on best practices will produce better outcomes – greater employee participation, improved health risks and better medical plan experience. In the 2010 Scorecard Annual Report, we demonstrated that respondents with higher scores also report better outcomes than respondents with lower scores. Now, with a larger database to work with, we can begin to explore the relationship between specific EHM practices and outcomes.
For this initial analysis, we included only those respondents that measured outcomes. Out of all respondents, 228 had measured the impact
The basic assumption behind the HERO Scorecard is that EHM programs based on best practices will produce better outcomes – greater employee participation, improved health risks and better medical plan experience. In the 2010 Scorecard Annual Report, we demonstrated that respondents with higher scores also report better outcomes than respondents with lower scores. Now, with a larger database to work with, we can begin to explore the relationship between specific EHM practices and outcomes.
For this initial analysis, we included only those respondents that measured outcomes. Out of all respondents, 228 had measured the impact
Program Spotlight: Interview with State of Nebraska, 2012 Koop Award Winner
Interview participants:
Roger Wilson, State of Nebraska
Barb Tabor, HERO
2012 Koop Award summary
HERO:
What have been the keys to your success in creating an effective employee health management program?
Wilson:
The main ingredient to our success has been the ongoing and very visible support of the governor. Not only is he an active participant in the program, but he also promotes the program wherever he goes, even offering his time to reward employees for their accomplishments through things like special commendations and employee celebrations. He’s accessible to employees and walks the walk when it comes to the program.
We also have enlisted a talented team of wellness coordinators and internal staff to manage the program. This staff includes wellness champions in each of our 80 different agencies; these individuals are our feet on the street, working to engage employees in their respective areas. Each of these agencies has its own business model and its own culture, which means we have to understand what they do and what the best way is to incent them. The wellness champions give us this connection to the agencies, and the visible support and involvement of the governor reinforces the state’s commitment to employee health and increases program participation and uptake with all of these departments.
HERO:
When you look back at your program outcomes, what results or outcomes do you feel are
Roger Wilson, State of Nebraska
Barb Tabor, HERO
2012 Koop Award summary
HERO:
What have been the keys to your success in creating an effective employee health management program?
Wilson:
The main ingredient to our success has been the ongoing and very visible support of the governor. Not only is he an active participant in the program, but he also promotes the program wherever he goes, even offering his time to reward employees for their accomplishments through things like special commendations and employee celebrations. He’s accessible to employees and walks the walk when it comes to the program.
We also have enlisted a talented team of wellness coordinators and internal staff to manage the program. This staff includes wellness champions in each of our 80 different agencies; these individuals are our feet on the street, working to engage employees in their respective areas. Each of these agencies has its own business model and its own culture, which means we have to understand what they do and what the best way is to incent them. The wellness champions give us this connection to the agencies, and the visible support and involvement of the governor reinforces the state’s commitment to employee health and increases program participation and uptake with all of these departments.
HERO:
When you look back at your program outcomes, what results or outcomes do you feel are
Research Update
The HERO II Study has been released
The original HERO Study, “The Relationship Between Modifiable Health Risks and Health Care Expenditures”, published in October, 1998, has been a foundational study in this field for many years.
Recently, that study has been updated with a larger pool of employees from multiple companies and with current medical claims and health risk assessment data. The updated study has just been published in the
The original HERO Study, “The Relationship Between Modifiable Health Risks and Health Care Expenditures”, published in October, 1998, has been a foundational study in this field for many years.
Recently, that study has been updated with a larger pool of employees from multiple companies and with current medical claims and health risk assessment data. The updated study has just been published in the
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