IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Feature Story: Is Your Wellness Program Worth Its Weight In Dollars?

2. Cathie's Corner: Layoff And Firing Perceptions Aren't Always Accurate

 
3. Employee's FMLA Request: Intermittent Leave For Late Arrivals 

4. Free Report: Training Managers To Conduct Effective Performance Appraisals

5. HR Soapbox: Scents Sensibility 

AHI's We Couldn't Make This Up

They say no good deed goes unpunished. A waitress in Owen Sound, Ontario would have to agree. She shaved off her hair to near boot-camp length and raised $2,700 in pledges for a cancer research fundraiser. While her employer didn't dissuade her from partaking in the fundraiser when she initially mentioned it a month prior, it changed its tune afterwards and told her to take the summer off without pay until her hair grew back.

1. FEATURE STORY:
IS YOUR WELLNESS PROGRAM WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN DOLLARS?

You cleared the first hurdle — executives agreed to implement a wellness program. Now they are asking for hard evidence that the company's financial investment in the program is paying off. Such a request trips up many HR professionals because there is no single way to measure a wellness program's return on investment (ROI). Not only that, but changing participation rates, health plan design shifts, and employee turnover can skew the validity of ROI measures.

If measuring your program's ROI seems akin to scaling Mount Everest, take comfort in the fact that more and more employers are successfully making the climb. According to a survey of 225 employers by Health2 Resources, more than one-quarter of those employers offering a wellness program have successfully measured their ROI, up from 14% in 2007. Of those that calculate ROI, 83% said they more than broke even, compared to 66% in 2007.

Ron Z. Goetzel, Ph.D., research professor and director of the Institute for Health Productivity Studies at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, estimates that for every dollar invested in a wellness program, employers can expect to save between $1.50 and $3.

To determine how much money your organization is saving, first determine the questions you (or, more accurately, top executives) want answered. Next, identify the data necessary to answer these questions. Then, develop a data collection process that will allow you to gather necessary information. Finally, determine how to analyze the data.

When it comes to collecting and assessing data, the National Wellness Institute identified three areas of economic returns to consider.

1. Medical claims. Compare program participants' pre- and post-program costs against non-participants' pre- and post-program costs.

That's what Highmark, Inc., did. Over a four-year period, the company compared the medical claims of employees who participated in its wellness program against the claims of employees with similar health risks who did not participate. "Participants and non-participants in the program were carefully matched to one another to minimize the effect of selection bias, a common threat to the validity of worksite health promotion studies involving workers in real-world settings," noted Goetzel. The comparison revealed a total savings during those four years of $1.3 million.

2. Cost of sick leave. Take the amount of time in sick leave used during pre- and post-program participation and multiply the difference by the cost of the average wage scale for that time period.

3. Cost of Workers' Compensation. Looking at total claims cost and dividing it by the number of full-time employees that are covered by WC will give you the per capita or per employee WC cost. See whether it changed after the program's institution.

Learn how to keep the dollars you are saving from being spent defending your company's wellness program in court by attending AHI's Reducing Health Care Costs Without Crossing The Legal Line: Wellness Programs & Other Cost-Cutting Strategies webinar on August 13, which will explore, among many other things, how to establish programs that are legally compliant.

2. CATHIE'S CORNER:
LAYOFF AND FIRING PERCEPTIONS AREN'T ALWAYS ACCURATE

My husband is a great source of inspiration. Last week, he suggested I write about four-day workweeks. The other day, he suggested that I write about the "proper" way to fire someone. When I asked him a few questions to determine what he meant, it turned out that he wasn't thinking about firing an employee for misconduct or poor performance, but about a reduction-in-force — what has come...Continue the story.

3. EMPLOYEE'S FMLA REQUEST: INTERMITTENT LEAVE FOR LATE ARRIVALS

An employee asked a court to rule on whether her chronic tardiness could be protected as intermittent leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). "Lateness is not leave," the court said in ruling against her...Continue the story.

4. FREE REPORT:

TRAINING MANAGERS TO CONDUCT EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS 

Check out the recently updated Free Report, "Training Managers To Conduct Effective Performance Appraisals," which will help you to help your managers get positive results from their appraisal sessions by providing guidance on setting up appraisal training, conducting and documenting performance appraisals, and dispensing criticism. Newly added advice explores how to create the right atmosphere in which to conduct a review, 12 common performance evaluation traps that can snare any manager, and the legal danger of having double standards in performance improvement plans.

5. HR SOAPBOX:
SCENTS SENSIBILITY

I had no idea that a single sentence from my recent Soapbox, Applicants Aren't The Only Ones Who Need To Make A Good First Impression, would net such a reader reaction. The sentence: "Though, I will admit, a light cologne or perfume doesn't hurt." Apparently, several readers disagree. They pointed out that wearing perfume could be harmful to an applicant who suffers from chemical sensitivities and allergies, and suggested that interviewers refrain from wearing fragrances and taking the chance...Continue the story.