By Dave DeWitte
A $250 bonus for meeting wellness program goals: Good.
Competing for prizes and having fun along the way: Priceless!
So it goes at Lil’ Drug Store Products, based in Cedar Rapids, which has kept at the difficult task of keeping employees engaged and excited about its employee wellness program, which first debuted in 2010.
Wellness programs in some smaller companies often start out strong, but fade if employees find the rewards just aren’t worth the time and effort they invest.
That perseverance has clearly paid off. Lil’ Drug Store Products’ wellness program, called “Here’s to Your Health,” has won two Workplace Wellness Awards from the Linn County Public Health Department for its effectiveness and been used as a case study by researchers at the University of Iowa.
Out of 71 employees, 90 percent participate in Here’s to Your Health, according to April Elsinger, a member of the company’s wellness committee and Lil Drug Store Products’ director of convenience marketing.
To keep participation levels high, Ms. Elsinger said Lil’ Drug Store continues to add new program elements and keeps employees at the forefront of the program, a task that includes recognizing a Wellness Champion at the company’s quarterly all-employee meetings.
“We feel that making the program fun has been a major reason we continue to see high participation and results,” Ms. Elsinger said. “The element of teamwork really motivates people and helps maintain the unique and special culture of Lil’ Drug Store. Knowing this, we try to incorporate games, prizes, drawings and team-based competitions as much as we can.”
That’s competition with a capital C.
“Lil’ Drug Store is a very competitive company,” said Kristin Kuch, certified wellness coach with Business Health Solutions, Lil’ Drug Stores’ wellness consultant and a part of MercyCare Community Physicians. “They like a challenge, and they like the competition.”
Competitions can range from picking the coolest team name to “poker walks,” in which people get a playing card every time they walk a route. After accumulating five cards, employees have the opportunity to play their hands for prizes.
The wellness committee has also organized a Lil’ Drug Olympics event, which provided the opportunity to compete for prizes in obstacle courses, batting cages and basketball games at a private fitness facility in Marion.
Lil’ Drug Store is a leading provider of health care products to the convenience channel in 35 countries, offering proprietary, private label products as well as leading brand name products.
Designing a wellness program for a smaller company is a little different than it would be for a large company, according to Kathy Keane, manager of MercyCare Business Health Solutions.
The health coach at Lil’ Drug Store is onsite only one day per week while the coaches might be onsite at a larger company every day. That requires more planning to have activities set up for the week ahead.
With a limited number of employees, protecting employee confidentiality when tracking participation and outcomes for the employer also becomes more important, Ms. Keane said. If only one or two employees are in a specific age bracket, it could easily become apparent to the employer that one employee’s health factors were swaying the results.
The solution is usually to avoid reporting data that could violate confidentiality, Ms. Keane explained.
This year’s big addition to the Here’s to Your Health program has been the distribution of Fitbit step tracking devices to participants. Participants wear Fitbits when they are exercising, and the devices automatically download the data to their Fitbit computer software. They can even be used to track the participant’s nightly hours of sleep.
Participants used their Fitbits in a team competition to record the most steps. Although the baseline goal recommended by Fitbit was 10,000 daily steps, Lil’ Drug Store employees averaged more than 15,000 without prompting, Ms. Elsinger said.
The competition uses a walking course designated through Lil’ Drug Stores’ warehouse area, but is limited to three daily time windows when there are no warehouse operations under way. Walking the course has provided a social, as well as a fitness outlet, said Ms. Elsinger, whose walking team is known as The Prancercizers.
Another big change in the Here’s to Your Health program has been a shift in the conversation from wellness to well-being. The shift recognizes the emotional component of wellness, Ms. Elsinger explained, respecting the reality that an individual’s personal health can depend as much on things like their stress level, outlook and self-confidence as it can on their nutrition, sleep patterns and exercise.
A strong foundation is critical for any wellness program, according to Ms. Keane of Business Health Solutions. The consultant will typically first conduct a survey of the workplace to determine what kind of services would most benefit that employee community. It can vary from doing something specific to address health patterns that are increasing absenteeism and driving health care premiums higher, to making employees more aware of their own health and how it is affected by their behaviors.
Data on outcomes is tracked through coaching sessions and quality-of-life questionnaires distributed to participants, according to Ms. Keane. MercyCare can also track outcomes using medical claims.
“We track it in so many ways just to demonstrate it (the wellness program) is so successful,” Ms. Keane said.
Unfortunately, the thing that would most demonstrate the effectiveness of the program – showing which life-threatening diseases and conditions were prevented on a personal basis – can’t be known for certain, Ms. Keane said.
One of the strongest advantages Lil’ Drug Store has going for its wellness program is top-level leadership support and participation, said Ms. Kuch.
Suzy DeWolf, Lil’ Drug Store’s co-owner, directs the wellness committee, and the company’s top leaders participate in the program alongside front-line employees. The leadership commitment to the program has kept the company on the leading edge of wellness practices, according to Ms. Keane.
“While we feel that our wellness program’s success could apply to companies in any industry, one of the reason Lil’ Drug’s culture is so strong is that our values align with our work and business objectives,” Ms. Elsinger said. “We value health and wellness, and promote it to our employees as well as our industry and consumers.”
