New research on wellness programs suggests that employee communication about the programs may have to consider generational attitudes on health and wellness if they are to be successful.

In MetLife's eighth annual "Study of Employee Benefits Trends," analysts note that Gen X and Gen Y workers report higher success rates for participation in programs for weight loss, stress management and smoking cessation, compared to boomers.

In addition, 64% of younger workers who participate in wellness programs are more likely to say wellness programs are very effective at improving their productivity at work, compared to boomers (43%), according to the survey.

Bill Raczko, senior vice president of marketing of U.S. business at MetLife, admits the company hasn't yet drilled down on the numbers. But overall, employee participation in wellness programs is on an upswing.

About 57% of employees with access to a wellness program say they participate in the program, compared to 46% in 2008. "That is the first time that we have seen the majority of the population report that they are participating in wellness programs," says Raczko.

The MetLife folks also realize that effective benefits communication, including those on wellness programs, entails explaining and reinforcing "the relevance and value of benefits to each employee in his or her preferred medium." That way, an employer will increase the return on its benefits investments.

Producing wellness programs for the ages

"Participation in our wellness program spans all age groups, from people in their 20s to workers in their 60s," says Robert Stevens, president and chief executive officer of Ridgeview Medical Center.

Among his workers, Stevens hasn't noticed that younger workers are more interested in wanting to do something about their health, compared to older employees. The Minneapolis-based health care facility employs about 1,500 workers, with 660 workers participating in the institution's wellness programs.

Ridgeview, however, did discover that its younger workers were more motivated by money when it came to participating in a biometric screening program, compared to older workers. The institution conducted an employee survey on what was the motivating factor for doing the biometric screening.

"The younger workers said they did the biometric screening because of the $75 financial incentive. The older employees ranked getting healthier as a top driver for participation, noting that the onset of chronic conditions and the fact that their health was not as good as they wanted it to be," explains Stevens.

Ridgeview's wellness vendor, RedBrick Health, implemented several touchpoints to reach workers, with e-mails as the predominant tool to communicate with employees. "If an employee doesn't have access to a personal e-mail account, we don't penalize the worker for using his or her workplace computer to access e-mails from the wellness vendor," he adds.

Furthermore, for wellness programs to achieve their goals, including engaging all workers of all ages, they have to be flexible. That means, in part, looking beyond the wellness program itself and examining your workplace policies, Stevens says.

"If you want to reduce smoking, look at how you treat smoking on your campus. Incentivize workers to become nonsmokers by having them pay less on their health insurance premiums, as we did," he notes. "If you rely only on the wellness programs, I don't think you will achieve some of the goals you want."

According to research by DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance, 53% of employers report their spending on health improvement and wellness programs ranges from $3 to $5 per member per month, while 20% indicate spending $2 to $2.99 per member per month.

In addition, 65% of employers project their company's budget for wellness programs in 2010 to remain within 5% of 2009 spending. In "Population Health Improvement: A Market Survey Report" by DMAA, analysts report that 78% of employers purchase their wellness programs separately, while 15% of employers purchase wellness programs as part of their health plan.

In some cases, employers have to convince older workers that it's never too late to improve their health. "Some older workers may believe 'I been smoking or have been overweight' for most of their lives," and may resist efforts to get them to make lifestyle changes, says Carl Mowery, managing director at SMART Business Advisory and Consulting.

Although the concept of wellness is relatively new to the workplace, younger workers have grown up in an era that routinely preaches the importance of health and fitness. As a result, it might be much easier to persuade them to participate in workplace wellness measures, adds Mowery. Others note, however, that Gen Xers and Yers are not immune from the obesity epidemic.

"That's the puzzle we are trying to unravel. As we become more aware of health and wellness as a culture, we also have a food economy that sometimes drives things in a negative direction instead of a positive one," says Dr. Christine Paige, senior vice president of marketing and internet services at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan.

At the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention, the HR team is mindful of the company's age demographic, "but it's not considered as a driver to our decisions on health promotion and wellness programs," explains Elizabeth Singh, HR director of training and organizational development at USP, a nonprofit research company in Maryland. USP employs about 600 workers, with the average employee's age ranging in the mid-40s.

"It matters to us that we identify and implement wellness programs that our employees, regardless of what stages they are in their life, can take advantage of and feel the programs can help them balance life and work," says Singh.

For example, two years ago, workers started a WeightWatchers program, which has been a huge success, Singh says. The employees who launched the program and those who have enrolled in the program ran the gamut in terms of health and age.

Life stages

Some question whether age is a predicator of how well individuals will perform in a wellness programs. One's body mass index, however, does have a correlation with performance.

And as people get older, their BMI tends to increase, says Mike Zani, CEO of Shape Up The Nation. The company helps employers to use social media to boost participation in wellness programs.

Having a well-thought-out recruitment and communication plan is likely to result in a program that is inclusive, thus eliminating age schisms among the program, explains Zani.

He also says his organization does not customize its social networking programs by age demographics, but realizes that some older workers are less tolerant of clutter on social media websites. They want greater user interface that is not overly complicated.

Early this year, the fastest growing segment on Facebook was the 35 to 55 age group, constituting 30% of the site's user base, Zani says. "We spend a tremendous amount of time to ensure that we are not leaving anyone behind, but some would just say that is good user interface," he adds.

"Our research shows that older individuals start to get more interested in their health, in part, because the whole sense of being invincible starts to fade," says Paige. "We have data that show people between the ages of 40 and 60 in our smoking-cessation program have a quit rate around 60%, compared to those under 40 who had a 70% rate."

With wellness programs, some people thrive in a social setting, while others prefer individualized coaching, which can be a face-to-face encounter or an online program, explains Paige. Wellness is about offering workers different options because not only do people have different learning styles and preferences, but they also have different factors that motivate them.

"A first-rate health promotion program recognizes that each participant comes to the program with varying degrees of motivation and outside support. Therefore, building recommendations and communicating messages about health and wellness will have to factor in those traits," she says.

It's also really important to give people a chance to start where they are. For example, "you want to get sedentary people at least moderately active, so the message for them is that 30 minutes of activity five days a week will reap a lot of the benefits. You don't want those individuals to feel as if the goal here is to run a marathon," she adds.

This article is the third in EBN's annual three-part "Open Enrollment Boot Camp" series, aimed to get benefits professionals flexing their minds and muscles in preparation for final decision-making regarding this year's open enrollment season.

The first installment, "Fight confusion with communication," which focused on effectively communicating health and wellness information in light of health care reform, was published in the May issue.

The second installment, "Reaching Out," addressed communicating voluntary offerings to Hispanic workers and was featured in the June 1 EBN. Both are available online at ebn.benefitnews.com.

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