Employee Engagement in Health and Well-being Soars with Onsite Support

By: Gene McGuire, Managing Partner

Wellness Coaches™ was formed to provide workplace wellness solutions that consistently deliver large-scale engagement and company-wide health, nutrition, and injury related risk factor improvements. We have evolved to be the largest and most experienced onsite coaching provider in the workplace. Our outcomes clearly demonstrate that onsite coaching is the most effective way to help employees live their healthiest and safest lives possible.

Our outcomes data spans our presence in 35 states, over 1,000 employer locations, and includes 342,000 employees of the 400,000 eligible for coaching.  Our report reflects the aggregate outcomes our onsite model has achieved for every employee working at every customer location we have ever serviced.

It all starts with engagement.  We have averaged 86% employee engagement across our book of business.  For us, engagement is a client-centered, individualized approach to health and wellness that helps the employee make a personal investment in change.  It is evidence-based, rooted in behavior-change science, and meets individuals where they are across all stages of and readiness to change. Our Coaches provide a multi-dimensional approach to well-being that addresses the whole person and results in consistent engagement across generations and multiple health risks improved per person.

We coach more people, more often and that results in more risks coached on and improved per person.  Our engagement levels are defined by 65% of employees being coached 4 or more times per year, with 40% being coached 10 or more times per year.  These are people with multiple risks and/or disease conditions who are highly engaged in the personalized 1-on-1 support they need to effectively adopt healthier lifestyle behaviors and reduce their risks. 

As the level of engagement with our Coaches increases, the number of health risks improved increases.  At 1-3 interactions per year, we see 1.13 risks improved per person. But as interaction frequency with the Coach increases to 10 or more interactions per year, that risk reduction increases to 2.07 risks improved per person.  Our engagement strategy is designed to facilitate that higher frequency of interaction to meet the needs of each individual employee.

Our health risk reduction and cost containment highlights for the coached population in each category include:

• 84% have improved their blood pressure – with 75% of those in the high-risk range dropping into a lower risk category. 
• 76% of employees improved their BMI and lost 625,000 pounds.
• Medical and prescription claims spending is 47% lower in the coached population.  Medical spending for an employee with coaching is $782 compared to over $1,100 for an employee not receiving coaching.
• Gaps in care costs per employee are 44% lower in the coached population.  Annual gaps in care cost per employee are $2,170 without coaching compared to $1,225 with coaching.

When you effectively engage employees and coach them more often, multiple health risks are improved, changing the risk profile of the population.  When this happens, costs will follow the risks. 

For more information, connect with Gene and let him know HRBOOST® sent YOU. You may also seek to review their outcomes report, visit www.wellnesscoachesusa.com.