HERO Interview with University of Michigan
For this issue of HERO On Health, we interviewed LaVaughn
Palma-Davis, senior director of human resources in charge of health and
wellness at the University of Michigan, and Robert Winfield, the chief health
officer for the university, about the University’s award-winning employee
health management program, MHealthy.
MHealthy was launched in 2009 as
part of a five-year plan to improve health at the University of Michigan, which
is comprised of four campuses and approximately 40,000 employees. The MHealthy
program was developed based on the input of a cross-sectional group of
employees from many different University departments in both the Health System
and academic units. The goal is to create a “community of health” at the
University, and Palma-Davis and team are well on their way to achieving this.
The University offers MHealthy
to employees and spouses. The program features, among other things: an annual
health assessment, onsite wellness screenings and flu shots, counseling and
coaching services, numerous physical activity programs offered throughout
campus buildings, weight management, stress management, smoking cessation and
healthy eating programs, as well as online competitions using personal
trackers. Palma-Davis and her team have established a wellness champion network
of more than 360 champions across all campus locations, who work to promote the
program, educate employees about the University’s commitment to health, and reinforce
the culture of health. HERO ON Health
asked Palma-Davis and Winfield about what drives the MHealthy program and about
their success.
HERO: What have been the keys to your success in
creating an effective employee health management program?
The success of MHealthy can be attributed largely to the support
the program receives from the highest levels of the University. Our leadership,
including our president and the senior executive officers fully endorsed the
program and have committed to adequately funding it. This was particularly
crucial in the early stages, because it allowed us to allocate the resources needed
to get the program off the ground. Now, it allows us to build on the momentum
we’ve generated with ongoing enhancements to the program.
Another essential element to our approach was gaining
broad-scale engagement in our long-term strategic plan, across departments and throughout
the University community. The fact that we had such broad support and that we
had packaged the plan as a five-year minimum commitment, made it easier for our
leadership to get behind and support our efforts. We convened a
multidisciplinary committee of faculty and staff and conducted a benchmark
analysis using the HERO Scorecard of the essential elements we needed in our
program, what the status of those elements was across our campuses, what gaps
existed, what we could do to address those gaps, and what the timeline and
priorities were. Faculty members participated in this, helped us think through
each aspect, and blessed the findings and our recommendations for program
implementation.
Effective marketing and communications has been another
significant factor for MHealthy. We’ve learned as we’ve progressed through the
last few years just how critical it is to engage your entire population. This
is especially important when you have a large, diverse population in multiple
locations. As a result, we’ve made sure that we’re everywhere, in every channel
you can think of when communicating with employees. This has been key to informing
people about the goals we hope to collectively achieve, what’s available to
help them, and how to participate.
And, finally, the lynchpin to all of this is the network of
unit-based champions across the organization. This network of close to 400 volunteers
serve as wellness advocates in their respective units. They are the ones who are
truly changing our culture and sustaining the positive momentum we’ve
generated. In some ways, the champions are more effective than other
communication tools because they can’t be deleted or ignored. At the end of the
day, a good champion can make a huge difference.
HERO: When you look at your program, what results
or outcomes do you feel are the most significant?
Early on, we set specific evaluation goals, which was very
helpful. We knew we needed to measure things like participation, satisfaction,
risk reduction, absenteeism and medical costs. We’re just finishing our fifth
program year, so our analysis is not complete. However, we do look every year
at the data and can see that all of our metrics are trending in the right
direction.
Our participation increases every year and we’re approaching a
60 percent participation rate, with a very modest incentive of $100. We know
that participation and satisfaction are early keys to how you’re doing, because
if people aren’t taking part and aren’t happy, then you have a problem. When it
comes to satisfaction, on a scale of 1 to 5, our employees consistently rank
their satisfaction in the 4.5 range every year.
We’re also very proud of the fact that our risk reduction is trending
in the right direction and that we’ve already exceeded our goal of increasing
the number of people at low risk by 5 percent by year five. We’ve also
decreased the number of people at high and moderate risk every year. In
addition, when we examine medical claims costs for nonparticipants vs.
participants over multiple years, we see that claims costs for participants have
consistently been lower than for nonparticipants, even though both groups
started out at the same cost level prior to program implementation. These
changes are all statistically significant.
In addition to these specific measures, we also are applying the
socio-ecological model to our program design. In this model, we evaluate the interplay
between the layers of our community, including the individual and their knowledge,
attitude and skills; the interpersonal relationship between employees, which is
where the champions come in; the organizational structure and environment and
how they influence outcomes; their families; and public policy such as
smoke-free buildings and grounds.
HERO: What lessons or tips can you share with other
companies who strive to improve employee health?
Maintaining an effective employee health management program is
an ongoing effort and a constant learning process. Changes in technology, communication
styles, health needs, medical standards, and executive leadership vision are
emerging every day. That means you have to continually refine your program to
stay relevant to your audience and to the needs of your organization. With that
in mind, here are few specific tips that we’ve gleaned along the way:
1. For real change to
occur in an organization and community, a website alone won’t cut it. You need
to engage all levels of the broader community in how they live and work.
2. Develop a strong
business case. Do your homework around what the best practices are and what
best practice organizations are achieving. Then communicate your business case
and value proposition to your leadership—over and over. And compare your
organization’s investment in wellness to other investments in the organization,
so people understand why it’s important. Talk about value, not ROI.
Organizations don’t talk about the ROI for paying the electricity to keep your
buildings running, so don’t take that narrow approach to justify what health
management programs can contribute to your employees.
3. Don’t promise more
than what you can realistically deliver. For the skeptical executives and employees,
you can put yourself in an awkward spot if you promise a specific ROI or
overstate your potential outcomes.
4. Know your
organization and incorporate organizational values into whatever you’re
striving to achieve. If you introduce something that the organizational culture
doesn’t support, you will likely fail. Design a program that aligns with your
culture and community.
5. Engage your
audience in planning for your program. This ensures early and ongoing buy-in.
6. Culture and
environment are the keys to sustaining improvement over time. Policies around smoking, healthy eating,
healthy beverages, as well as providing leadership training will all sustain
your improvements over time.
7. Offer an adequate incentive to get people involved, but
remember the incentive is not the program. If you offer only a modest incentive
to get people involved, you will have to work harder on culture, communication
and environment to get and keep your employees’ attention.
Sr. Director Health and Well-Being Services
University of Michigan
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