On one ordinary day earlier this year, the leaders from 20 Texas companies met and discussed the challenge of building a culture of health within their respective businesses.
Tom Underwood and his team at Alere Health LLC brought these clients together to help solve the health care crisis that is plaguing corporate America.
During this meeting, competition didn’t matter. Competition can’t matter when obesity rates are rising and companies are spending more on health care than ever before. It can’t matter when businesses lose productivity because of absenteeism and when poor lifestyle choices cause 40 percent of premature deaths.
“This is one area where the competitive nature between two companies tends to dissolve and people say, ‘We have a health care spend problem, but we also have a people problem,’” Underwood says. “You look around your company, and many leaders are seeing the effects of unhealthy choices, and they want to make an impact, and they want to help, but they don’t know where to begin.”
Enter Underwood. As CEO, his 3,800-employee company provides health support services to help people lead healthier lives.
“My biggest challenge is to alter the course of the health care trends corporate America is facing today,” he says. … “My biggest challenge is helping other business leaders like myself recognize their role in altering those health care trends today.”
He says that it may seem daunting, but you can be successful in this challenge if you can identify the problems and solutions, get others involved and encourage employees along the way.
“Sometimes we as leaders look at it and say we can’t,” he says. “It’s so easy to look at the health care reform and the health care debate and say … ‘It’s so big and so national that I, as an individual business leader, can’t move that needle.’
“The reality is … by focusing and caring about the individuals that we’re responsible for, overall, if we get enough leaders to do this, we will move the health care needle and improve the health of our employees,” Underwood says. “Don’t be intimidated by the national health care reform. Start at home. Start at your own company and begin building a culture of health.”
