TOWNHALL WORKPLACE WELLNESS www.healthiermn.com
SHIP: Investing in Local Solutions • Safer walking and biking routes to school are helping more kids get more of the physical activity they need to stay healthy. • More workplace wellness programs are helping employees be healthier, decreasing health care costs for employers. • More farmers markets means more access to fresh fruits and vegetables — the keys to good health. The Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) invests locally for better health. We do this by working through local public health to help create good health where people live, work and play throughout the state. A significant outcome of SHIP’s efforts is to improve the wellness of Minnesotans at work.
Making the Case: Cost of Poor Health • Associated with 51% reduction in productivity; costing companies an estimated $225 billion annually ($1685 per employee) • Minnesota spends almost $6 billion annually on excess health care due to obesity and tobacco use
Minnesotans spend $6 billion toward healthcare annually on conditions related to obesity and tobacco use and exposure. That’s a lot of money. We spend a lot of money on healthcare, but we haven’t really invested in the prevention side of the discussion. The Statewide Health Improvement Program tries to embed prevention within the whole system of changes to lower healthcare costs and improve health across Minnesota. We all know the old expression, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Prevention: Means Business A healthy, thriving workforce makes for a healthier business. Investing in health—in the workplace and in the community—reduces health care costs, improves productivity and makes businesses stronger.
This infographic describes the challenge quite well. I am not going to go into a lot of detail here, but it gives you on the left-hand side, you can see some of the costs of bad health and also the economic implications of poor health in the workplace and in communities. A really significant number, at the top, shows that a 1% reduction in risk factors will lower our healthcare costs by roughly $8,303 per person per year. Note how other elements in this slide demonstrate what communities have done to improve health by creating more walkable, bikeable communities.
Minnesota and U.S. Obesity
Minnesotans have used their healthcare systems and prevention generally to manage the challenges of obesity, relative to the rest of the nation. The red line i s Minnesota, the blue is the national data. Minnesota has managed to keep obesity flat since 2007. Minnesotans may be doing some things relatively right, but we still have an obesity and overweight rate of 66%. We need to bend that curve downward.
SHIP: Workplaces Helping employees be healthier, improve productivity and decrease health care costs for employers
Minnesota’s employers are invested in their employees. Minnesota – and SHIP in particular -is trying to create a culture of good health within work places. We are looking to use wellness to help employers improve their productivity by creating healthy, happy employees.
Employers are willing to learn though community networking “If there was a network in your community for business leaders to learn about issues related to worksite wellness initiatives and to share information, how likely is it that someone from your organization would join this network?” M I N N E S O TA
N AT I O N A L S A M P L E
81%
71%
36%
29%
Very Likely
65%
Very Likely
29%
Overall in Minnesota
20%
19% Organization With Worksite Wellness Initiative Total Likely
Total Likely
Minnesota’s employers are ready to invest in wellness.
Very Likely
35%
Organization Without Worksite Wellness Initiative Total Unlikely
2014: The Year of Worksite Wellness The Year of Worksite Wellness (YOWW) is a unique public /private partnership leveraging resources across Minnesota to create workplaces that support employee health.
Last year was Minnesota’s Year of Worksite Wellness, which in part represented SHIP’s intent to attract diverse stakeholders together in the cause of Wellness. We want to keep moving this forward, and these events here are part of trying to continue to spread that message and move it forward.
Employer Success TEAM Industries • Improved Morale • Improved employee health • No HC $$ increase in 2013
Team Industries is a relatively small company in northern Minnesota that has worked to improve the wellness of its employees through the environment and the food served to their employees. They got their employees more active, and they saw no healthcare cost increases in 2013 or 2014.
Fresh Produce to Businesses and Employees Connecting farms and farmers to businesses, and communities is one important way to encourage consumption of fresh, Minnesota vegetables.
At the other end of the state, down in Jackson, a local farmer started selling his produce to area businesses. He has grown his business and now those employees have way more access to fresh fruits and vegetables, which of course is a cornerstone to good health.
Healthier Workplaces PartnerSHIP 4 Health’s Worksite Wellness Initiative is helping 44 worksites in the region adopt policy, system and environmental changes in tobacco use, healthy eating, physical activity and lactation support and stress management.