6. THE WORKPLACE IS A GREAT PLACE TO LAY GROUNDWORK FOR BEHAVIOR CHANGE.
Some of the TRIUMPH events included a representative from the local facility of a food and beverage company, the industry that funds ACFN, to talk about its wellness programs for employees.The employees of a Campbell Soup Company plant in Paris, TX, lost a whopping total of 2,250 pounds over a 26-week period. Medical department manager Kathy Hutchison, R.N., C.O.H.N., said at the Austin TRIUMPH event, “My plant had an aging population. Many of us were overweight and didn’t get enough physical activity.” So the plant’s human resources group came up with an idea to form weight-loss teams. Each team member was given a Mayo Clinic guidebook with sample menus and suggestions to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine and a logbook to record their success. At each weekly weigh-in, teams were given additional information, such as a “lunch ‘n learn” program with a dietician as the guest speaker who focused on nutrition. They were encouraged to walk around the on-site track and were allowed to focus on the competition during work hours.
“The team environment was the reason the program was so successful and the dropout rate so low.”
KKathy Hutchison, R.N., C.O.H.N., medical department manager, Campbell Soup Company, Paris, TX
Of the plant’s more than 700 employees, 304 participated, and the retention rate was a high 93 percent. “It was an amazing success,” said Hutchison. “I think the team environment was the reason the program was so successful and the dropout rate so low. It created positive peer pressure and the teams became very competitive.”
In Little Rock, the Arkansas BlueCross BlueShield and the Arkansas Health Department put a creative twist on employee wellness programs. The Arkansas Fitness Challenge was a contest held in 2004 between the employees of each organization to meet the public health recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity per day. “During the three-month contest, our nearly 3,000 people from both employers engaged in eligible cardiovascular exercises through 30 virtual ‘checkpoints’ across Arkansas,” explained Becky Fortenbury, the program chairman, who works for Arkansas BlueCross BlueShield. Measures to determine the winning employer included the highest percentage of total employee base participating, the highest number of participants to reach each virtual checkpoint, the lowest dropout rate and the highest average of exercise frequency among each organization’s participants.
In Albuquerque, General Mills plant manager Keith Pullman talked about the
facility’s annual wellness and safety day, where the company provides
blood screening and bone density tests, compiling a “health index number” for
the facility that is used to compete against other plants across the company. “The
friendly plant vs. plant competition creates a culture in which people are
mindful of their health, what they eat and how much time they spend moving,” said
Pullman. The plant pays a portion of employees’ and their spouses‘ memberships
in health clubs.
Separately, the plant provides whole grain General Mills foods to a local program
that places those foods in backpacks that are discretely sent home on Fridays
with local children at risk of missing meals on weekends.
Kathleen Schulz, M.S., is the manager for health programs for another Campbell Soup Company plant in Philadelphia. She explained at the Philadelphia event that Campbell’s workplace wellness programs focus prevention activities on the 70 percent of the workforce the company has identified as healthy, augmented by more targeted efforts for those identified as at-risk or ill. But she stressed the company’s philosophy that success only comes from thinking long-term. “People generally don’t become unhealthy overnight, so I can’t make them healthy overnight,” she said. “So the company has made a long-term commitment to this process.
She also believes in keeping it simple. “We have a decidedly low-tech approach because we also believe that’s what works,” she said. “We have red and white footsteps around the plant for a pedometer program. We offer education on hydration. We think asking people to make small, managable changes is the key.”