Wellness champions tell their story

Our 6th Annual Alla tua Salute! awards tell many tales of employees improving their health, keeping insurance increases at bay

While hardly still a part of every employer’s benefit package, awareness of employee wellness programs has increased dramatically in the past few years.

For the past five of those years, New North B2B has celebrated the best practices and outstanding results of employers from the region who’ve gone out of their way to tailor wellness programs that have truly improved the health of their workforce, made lesser use of their employer-sponsored health plan, and ultimately held down insurance premium increases.

For those unfamiliar with the state’s longest running corporate wellness awards, Alla tua Salute! (think of Tony Soprano hoisting a long-stemmed glass of apple juice to toast a nephew’s high school graduation) enters its sixth year in our May 2011 edition of B2B. From the Italian phrase meaning “to your health,” Alla tua Salute! recognizes the creative, the bold and the dedicated workforces across the region who’ve set out to improve the health of employees, and either achieved success or are well on their way.

Here’s a few of the success stories we’ve shared during the past half decade.

v Miles Kimball Company of Oshkosh, a 4-time honoree of our annual wellness recognition, increased the low risk population of its workforce from 23 to 72 percent from 2000 to 2010. At the same time, the catalog and Internet retailer decreased its medium risk population from 58 to 25 percent and reduced its high risk population from 18 down to just 3 percent. Annual health risk assessments are mandatory for any employee on the company’s group health insurance plan, as it is for any spouse of an employee covered under Miles Kimball’s health plan.

v After discovering that stress and depression ranked as a leading health risk factor among those employees who participated in the annual health risk assessment at paper manufacturer Appleton Inc., the company’s human resource department launched an initiative to heavily promote its employee assistance program, which only had 5 percent utilization among employees in 2008. In 2009, EAP use at Appleton Inc. climbed to 11 percent, with a particular increase in use among salaried office employees, and that same year stress and depression no longer ranked as leading risk factors.

v J.J. Keller in Neenah boasts the oldest Weight Watchers at Work program in Wisconsin, launching the diet and weight management program at its offices 16 years ago and paying 25 percent of the program cost for employees.

v Independent Printing Co. in De Pere introduced a tobacco surcharge for those employees on its group health insurance plan who smoke cigarettes.

v Short-term disability claims at Miller Electric Manufacturing in Appleton were down 35 percent from 2008 to 2009 and down 33 percent from 2009 to 2010, in spite of an increase in the average age of its workforce during that period.

v After HRA results indicated low seatbelt use among employees of Sadoff & Rudoy Industries in 2007, the Fond du Lac-based metal recycler launched an initiative to raise awareness with random surprise checkpoints when employees pulled into the parking lot at the beginning of their shift. The result: seatbelt use increased from less than 50 percent to more than 62 percent the following year.

v Faith Technologies in Menasha makes oatmeal available to employees at no cost in all of its break rooms and lunch rooms.

v And lastly, Oshkosh-based promotional product marketer 4imprint has placed hand sanitizer and bottles of vitamin C capsules at each entrance to the building for visitors and employees for the past six years. It’s a trend that’s since been replicated at businesses across the area.

I hope these examples were enough of a preview to tempt you to tune in for our May issue cover story.

And if you think your company has what it takes to compete as offering one of the top corporate wellness programs in northeast Wisconsin, there’s still time to be considered. Nominations will be accepted through April 10, and recognitions will be presented in several categories based on number of employees, as well as an award for firms just getting started on the path to their wellness journey.

For more information or for a basic registration form, go online to our Web site at www.newnorthb2b.com and click on the Alla tua Salute! tab.