for your next review team intervention.

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hat tip: yikes, inc.

i burn 80 calories dusting for 35 minutes. 200 calories if i walk roughly 40 minutes.

i know this because i used the cleveland clinic’s calculator to learn how long it’d take me to burn the calories in my favorite muffin.

i don’t routinely calculate my calories or calories burned, but i was intrigued by the john hopkins school of public health study that found teens were more likely to buy a non-sugary drink after seeing how much exercise was required to burn off the alternative.

“…what if you knew that it would take 50 minutes of jogging to burn off one soda?

“When researchers taped signs saying just that on the drink coolers in four inner-city neighborhood stores, sales of sugary beverages to teenagers dropped by 50 percent. That tactic was more effective than a sign saying that the drinks had 250 calories each, or a sign saying that a soft drink accounts for 11 percent of recommended daily calories.”

it’s easier to make sense of an item’s worth based on exercise minutes than on caloric intake. my muffin? worth it. a snapple lemon tea that clocks in at around the same number of calories? not worth it.

what do you think? would this approach work better for your employees than nutrition labels?

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p.s. the calculator’s quite addictive. i keep plugging in the calories for different items to see the exercise damage.

since 8 out of 10 CFOs are involved in health care decisions, according to the IBI’s 2011 CFO survey brief, it’s key to know their point of view. (this post is based on the brief. not being a member, i don’t have access to the full report.)

IBI found that 30% of their CFO respondents rated health as a very important contributor to workforce productivity. investing in health still lags behind more traditional productivity investments, such as retention campaigns, skills training and proper staffing levels. (it’d be interesting to analyze the data to see whether there’s any correlation between those CFOs who are involved in health care decisions and those who are more likely to rate health as a very important contributor.)

because this survey’s meant to equip benefits pros with useful data, IBI asked CFOs to share what information’s critical to their decision-making about health investments. their company’s claims data is the most critical, followed by the cost of providing medical and other benefits. benefits pros will be heartened to hear that CFOs recognize the value of their recommendations as well as employees’. they look to employee survey results and pilots to guide their thinking.

IBI also sought to identify health and productivity leaders. they determined only three in 10 respondents qualified as an H+P leader, leaders who were identified as being keenly committed to the importance of workforce health through their responses to three questions. in the brief, IBI commented:

“H+P Leaders were more than twice as likely as other CFOs to believe that improving employee health is very important to workforce productivity. These H+P Leaders also were almost twice as likely to see the significant impact of poor health on financial performance than other CFOs, and were more than twice as likely to consider internal company information very credible.”

all of this is important, as it means H+P leaders are more likely to make sustained investments in employee health and to personally support a healthy workplace. however, there’s an important missing ingredient: does a company with an H+P leader see stronger company performance than one without?

that’s CFO-attention-grabbing information.

read the brief.

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employee benefit news interviewed me about a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) game i created with the dakota group. the game’s part of an overall suite of tools that aims to improve employees’ understanding of how these plans work and increase their interest in enrolling.

context’s launch-year clients saw terrific results. one client, saint-gobain, saw enrollment go up 15% in their HDHP. their post-game survey found:

• 80% of respondents agreed that they now had a better understanding of how the plan worked
• 79% of respondents agreed that the game was an easier method for learning how the plan worked
• 71% of respondents agreed that they were more likely to enroll in the plan after playing the game

we saw similar results with genex services, inc., the second client to implement the game for 2012 annual enrollment. maggie fisher, benefits manager at genex, is quoted on the article:

“Maggie Fisher, benefits manager at Genex, says that the game was a great way to communicate information to her diverse and widely distributed employee population.

“‘We thought [this game] could help people who don’t just read something and get it,’ she says. ‘As soon as people started to use it, they got it.’ Of Genex’s 1,800 employees, more than 700 played the game.”

both clients are using the game as part of their 2013 annual enrollment communication plan.

read the article.

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should companies not hire tobacco users? i’ve been wrestling with this question as news continues to spotlight this particular “stick” companies yield in their efforts to improve employees’ health.

if you’re unfamiliar with the no-hire tobacco policy, let me get you caught up. companies like cleveland clinic, humana, geisinger and others have stated they won’t hire tobacco users. some, like geisinger and cleveland, allow job candidates to reapply for a job once they can prove they’ve quit tobacco. geisinger and cleveland clinic won’t hold the job, but if the position’s still open, candidates can put their hat in the ring again. this no-hire tobacco policy is a more aggressive tactic than tobacco surcharges, which 64% of companies apply or plan to apply, according to a 2010 AON hewitt report. there are no stats, that i’m aware of, for what percentage of companies are currently or planning to institute this no-hire policy.

on the one hand, a no-hire tobacco policy stands on solid financial and cultural ground. tobacco users are more expensive. full stop. they run up more health care bills. they lag in productivity. their habit leads to other devastating, expensive illnesses and negatively affects the health of those around them, whether through second-hand or third-hand smoke. they even make cleaning maintenance bills go up. and culturally, public sentiment does not favor tobacco use. nor does tobacco use align with a company’s healthy workplace vision—particularly for health organizations. after all, how can an insurer or hospital system preaching healthy living reconcile unhealthy behaviors within its own workforce? how can a health team advise a patient to quit tobacco when that patient sniffs tobacco residue lingering on a nurse’s uniform?

on the other hand, this policy has some serious shortcomings:

• tobacco users don’t come by their tobacco use by chance. marketing, education level and a host of other factors affect someone’s “choice” to use tobacco. many were ensnared before they were the wiser, thanks to cigarette manufacturers manipulating the nicotine yield, making cigarettes increasingly addictive.
• the majority of tobacco users want to quit and have tried to do so. the average tobacco user attempts to quit between 8 and 11 times before he’s successful. that number increases for people with mental or other substance abuse problems—problems that are exacerbated by economic distress, such as being jobless and reviled.
• tobacco users don’t get the counseling they need when they’re adrift. employees outside of a tobacco-free workplace may continue using tobacco simply because they’re not coming into contact with those who’d provide, or even advise, quitting support and resources. according to the CDC, only 50% to 60% of smokers receive advice about quitting smoking from a health care provider, and only 39% of smokers are offered over-the-counter or prescription medication or counseling to support the quitting process.
• tobacco users are left outside of a supportive environment. one of the steps in most advocated quitting approaches includes creating a supportive environment, with new habits, cleansed-of-tobacco spaces, and got-your-back co-workers. listening to cleveland clinic talk about their no-hire tobacco policy, i was struck by the fact that they’ve been successful in cutting by half the percentage of their employee population who smoke. wouldn’t it be far more effective to wrap tobacco users in an environment that motivates their quitting rather than spurns it?

there are additional challenges. employees may question their company’s messaging about creating a culture of health. they’d be justified in asking why tobacco users are singled out and not those who threaten their health or others’ via drunk driving, domestic abuse or even too many twinkies. many have raised the point that obesity is a much more expensive and pervasive problem today than tobacco use.

employees might not be the only ones to buck at the no-hire approach. according to the edelman 2011 health barometer, we consumers want to work for, buy from and recommend those companies that make public health a priority. do consumers see a no-hire policy as a company standing up for good health? or do they view it as a quick way to save a buck? chances are if you sell tobacco but won’t hire tobacco users or charge them more for health insurance, your company’s open to derision.

we’ve made great progress helping people quit, thanks to changes in public policy and public perception. but now we may be a little stuck. a 2010 gallup poll found that 22% report smoking cigarettes, a figure unchanged from five years ago. employers can use their exposure to tobacco users and their hefty influence to move the needle—if they choose to offer tobacco cessation resources for free to eliminate financial barriers, ban tobacco use in buildings and other office property, and implement a comprehensive tobacco-prevention communication strategy. or they can sew a scarlet “T” on people’s chest and show them the door.

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for assistance with your approach to tobacco at work, review this document from the CDC.

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join me in austin, TX to learn how to transform HR for today’s priorities and realities. i’ll be speaking on february 28 at 2:00 pm at TLNT transform about wellness, certainly a priority for most organizations:

“With wellness, it’s not all about them — what your employees do or don’t do that affects their health. It’s about you—the leaders—too. Join this session to acknowledge barriers to workplace wellness. Then let’s get busy and discuss trends, innovations and successes. You’ll learn what employers, counties, startups and other public health organizations are doing that’s working. You’ll share where you’re stumbling and where you’re soaring. And you’ll leave with at least a few new ideas to include in your approach to workplace wellness.”

the conference runs february 27 through february 28, with a pre-conference tweetup on sunday, february 26. if you’ll be there, let me know. i can direct you to great spots for southwestern food, cowboy boots and truck lunches.

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an israeli ad agency charged with getting drivers to pay closer attention to stop signs did so by slightly shifting what drivers expect to see. instead of the hand featured in the customary sign, they featured a hand with a raised middle finger. drivers probably stopped to confirm what they saw. (and to take a photo.)

communication bottom line: you can arrest attention with the slightest shift away from the routine and expected.

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hat tip: some signs can’t be ignored, osocio

this post was originally published on storify by carol harnett. 

The CoHealth group held a tweet chat on December 14, 2011 on financial well-being. We quickly learned that while we knew some things about helping employees with their finances, we also had a strong need and desire to learn more.

Enter the folks at HelloWallet—an Internet-based platform designed to deliver high-quality, individualized financial advice at an affordable price to potentially tens of millions of households that currently lack access. They’ve graciously agreed to participate in this month’s tweet chat on the continuing topic of employee financial well-being.

We’ll start the chat with a few questions from out last discussion that begged more information:

1. Employees generally focus on short-term over long-term financial well-being.

(a) How can we help employees deal with short-term financial pressures, including helping workers whose parents weren’t prepared to deal with their current retirement issues? (No one on the December tweet chat had a solution for this scenario currently in place.)

(b) How can we help employees analyze and quantify long-term challenges?

2. How can we better personalize and tailor financial information and education for employees?

3. How can we talk with employees about money without increasing their stress levels? (As folks from the Iowa Wellness Council pointed out, “We can’t get people comfortable about talking about their BMI or LDL – so $ is totally off limits.”)

4. Can internal, employer-based social media play a role in erasing employees’ inhibitions in divulging more private personal data?

5. Employers often provide separate calculators for individual benefits instead of presenting employees with a combined benefits calculator that grants workers a big-picture view of their financial well-being. Is there anything on the horizon that will assist employees in picturing their overall financial well-being, including employee benefits?

So, there are five questions to get us started.

Join us for the next CoHealth tweet chat, which is scheduled for Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 12 noon ET.

Until then, remember to balance work, love and play – as well as your checkbook!

Cheers!
Carol Harnett
(@carolharnett)

regular employees and “people like me” are once again among our top three most trusted, credible sources, according to the 2012 edelman trust barometer. they’re back in the limelight after fading away last year, somehow losing ground to CEOs. but this year, things look much as they did in 2004, when regular folk vaulted to the top of the heap of credible spokespeople.

in health communication, the regular joe or jane has continuously held a starring role. while we defer to medical professionals for information about health treatment, susannah fox of the pew internet & american life project has written that we look to people in our shoes—people like me—for emotional support and empathy, encouragement and care. this is particularly true for those who are living with a chronic condition, are acting as caregiver or have experienced a medical crisis. it’s also true for those who have gained weight, had a pregnancy or quit smoking.

dailyfeats wants to be a “positive action platform for the world.” the way they’re tackling this mildly ambitious goal is by encouraging users to take one small, positive action. CEO and co-founder veer gidwaney spoke with me about their goals, partnerships and future possibilities in the employer space.

fm: what is dailyfeats going after?
vg: the biggest social challenges we face are going to be solved because people change how they live their lives on a daily basis. we believe the biggest opportunity lies in helping people take on positive actions and celebrating those actions with them.

fm: when i use dailyfeats, what do i do? do i set up goals?
vg: no—no goals. we want to help people create new habits one small step at a time. when people use dailyfeats, they complete small actions that range from tackling their to-do list to eating more vegetables to practicing safe sex. along the way, they earn points, share with friends, and treat themselves or others to real-life rewards, motivating them to keep up the good work. at dailyfeats, we aim to make positive actions part of people’s everyday lives by helping them celebrate their “feats” and reach their potential.

fm: can you give me an example of how i’m rewarded?
vg: the team at jawbone asked to partner with us with their new device, jawbone up. we created a challenge with them, a defined set of actions a user needs to complete within a set period of time. the device authenticates that you actually completed them. and when you do, you get bonus points that have a monetary value and that are automatically integrated with your dailyfeats account.

fm: i understand you have sponsored partnerships. why?
vg: if we’re going to touch millions—to inspire millions to change—we know we need to have a strong voice. we’re competing with the couch. we know that for-profit and nonprofit organizations have the strongest voice, so we partner with them. we invite them to join our coalition for good.

for example, cigna is our exclusive health services partner this year. they sponsor certain activities you can complete daily, activities like eating more fruit, taking a walk or completing a wellness assessment. walgreens is another partner. we have an in-store text-based campaign that’s going live with them this year. it focuses on healthy kids. when you’re in the store, you’ll see placards that advertise this campaign. you can use your phone to get a list of things you can purchase and redeem a gift certificate for walgreens. people do something good for themselves and save money, it’s good for the walgreens brand, and as a society, we see better collective behavior.

fm: dailyfeats is strictly consumer-facing right now. do you have plans to enter the employer market?
vg: clearly dailyfeats could be very powerful in the employer space. the way we’re pursuing it right now is through our health plans partners. we’re exploring how they can bring us to employers.
we’ve run pilots with certain partners and in certain markets. we’ll be working with human resources and our health partners to customize activities per the employer’s focus and create challenges that can be framed around their particular health risks.

fm: your goal is very ambitious. how are you measuring your progress toward achieving it?
vg: we measure by the sheer number of positive actions people are taking.

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read more free-ranging conversations with health innovators.