Identify problems and solutions
The first step in building a culture of health in your company is to identify the main issues.
“This applies to any type of problem you’re trying to solve,” Underwood says. “The first thing you need to focus on is (identifying) the problem that you want to solve — very clear and focused and consistent in terms of what is the problem.”
For example, he says that if you want to improve the health of your employees because you care about them deeply, then define that as the problem. If you’re spending too much on your company’s health care so you want to reduce your expenses, then that’s your issue. Whatever it is, use data to help you reach your conclusion — you can start by looking at your health care expenditures, but then go further.
“Some other data points they should look at to understand their problem is look at trends — what has been their health care trend over the last three to five years and then forecast that out,” he says.
Also look at your company’s absenteeism, as the causes behind employees not being at work are often health-related. On the other side of that, look at people who are coming to work but who are unproductive and distracted because they’re sick or they have a sick loved one at home.
“What you see is productivity being impacted,” Underwood says. “Remove the challenge, and productivity improves.”
Knowing what you’re facing is only half the battle. Next create a plan to solve the problem.
“Once you understand the problem, then you have to identify what the solution is, and you have to be passionate about both understanding the details of it and understanding the overall plan,” he says.
“Have milestones between current state and future state so that you can actually measure progress along the way and also track deviation. You can’t just look at future state. You have to look at interim milestones, and it’s extremely important that as you obtain those interim milestones that at appropriate times you celebrate.”
Throughout the process, make sure that you show employees that you believe in the changes taking place.
“The next thing you have to have is an unnatural confidence,” he says. “Even if [employees] don’t have that confidence, your confidence will instill confidence in them over time.”
But you also need to be grounded in reality.
“You have to be realistic about the enormity of the problem and the challenges you’re going to face,” Underwood says. “You’ve got to face the brutal facts of where you’re starting from and where you need to be and all the challenges associated with it. One of the mistakes some of us leaders make is you have the unnatural confidence, but you’re blind to the reality of the starting position or you’re blind to the set of challenges you’re going to face as you overcome this. It can be very disheartening.”
Find a balance to help you, and you’ll find it in data and by being on the front lines.
“It’s amazing what the people on the ground know and understand and see every day,” he says. “If you’re talking to them, you’ll know and see, as well. If you’re not, if you don’t have that forum and communication channel, it’s easy to set lofty goals and not understand why you’re not making progress on it. It’s starting with the facts and keeping the facts alive and real and understood day in and day out.”
When a problem and solution are identified, then you have to be prepared to put financial resources into your initiative.
“Many businesses look at it as, ‘This is an additional cost,’” he says. “In this economic environment, let’s be honest, funding new programs is difficult to rationalize and justify in many cases. But if you look beyond the short-term horizon, what you’ll see is those kinds of impact, and so it’s an investment that pays and has a fairly short return on investment.”
The potential results can speak for themselves.
“Some of the things that we do know is over $3 are saved for every $1 spent on wellness programs,” he says. “We also know that absenteeism, that those costs are decreased by over $2 for every $1 spent. The kind of data a CEO or business leader needs, they probably have them at their hands, but they may need to look at them slightly differently.”
