Considering that people spend nearly one-third of their lives at work, it makes sense that the workplace would have a significant impact on employees’ well-being — and vice versa. Research shows that employees’ physical, mental, and emotional health influences their productivity, and minimizing their health-related expenses means reduced health insurance plan costs for employers.
To promote workplace well-being, you as an employer must invest in population health management (PHM), which means implementing programs to improve health outcomes for a specific group of individuals. Let’s review the top population health strategies you can implement to reap the benefits of improved employee health.
1. Leverage Data to Drive Decisions
Employers must first understand their staff's health needs before launching initiatives to address them. As Arcadia explains, a data-driven approach uses insights from health data to make informed decisions. In other words, data reveals the measures needed to improve patient outcomes, enhance care quality, and reduce costs.
While a healthcare provider may be able to analyze clinical notes and medical histories, employers will have a different perspective. PHM in the workplace includes analyzing:
- Self-reported information: Take note when team members volunteer information about happenings in their personal lives. Without being intrusive, you may learn about personal factors influencing their well-being that, in turn, impact their work.
- Engagement data: Employees’ interactions with your company’s wellness resources can reveal which programs resonate most with them.
- Absenteeism trends: Employees may repeatedly request short-term leave to address health issues, such as time off for doctor’s appointments or rest after a procedure.
Data pinpointing potential issues can guide your inquiries and help you identify problems sooner. For example, you may check in with an employee, James, after noticing high absenteeism rates. Perhaps he’s taking time off from work for medical reasons, or simply giving himself a few days off due to burnout. In response, you could lessen James’s workload or offer the option to reallocate time throughout the week so he doesn’t have to use his PTO every time he needs to take off early.
2. Encourage Preventive Care
A key element of effective PHM programs is proactivity. When health needs are addressed early, they often resolve before turning into adverse (and costly) events, like hospitalizations or chronic disease flare-ups.
Workplace wellness tools often leverage predictive analytics to predict what adverse effects are most likely to happen and make relevant suggestions to help employees avoid health issues. Additionally, employers can encourage their staff to take control of their health through preventive care, such as annual checkups, screenings, and vaccinations.
The best way to get employees on board with preventive care is by making it easily accessible. Consider offering on-site clinics where employees can receive flu shots, health screenings, or consultations without leaving your office. For hybrid or fully remote teams, promote telemedicine and help employees find providers that work with their insurance.
3. Address Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)
Employees’ well-being is influenced by many factors that extend beyond their medical charts. These social determinants of health (SDoH) are the non-medical influences on a person’s health and quality of life.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the domains of SDoH include:
- Economic stability: This refers to employee compensation levels and whether they provide for basic needs, like food and housing. Employees facing economic instability may suffer from stress, burnout, or exacerbated chronic conditions.
- Education access and quality: This refers to the quality and level of education an individual can achieve, which impacts everything from their health literacy to job opportunities and earning potential.
- Healthcare access and quality: This refers to the medical care an individual receives and whether it meets their health needs. For employees, access to necessary care is critical to treating illnesses and supporting good mental health.
- Neighborhood and built environment: This refers to the community in which an individual lives. An employee’s built environment affects various health factors, such as air quality and proximity to healthy food options.
- Social and community context: This refers to an individual’s relationships with family, friends, and coworkers. Social connections support employees’ health and well-being by fostering a sense of belonging.
Depending on the SDoH factors impacting your employees, you can take various actions to support their health needs. For example, employees experiencing financial hardship may benefit from a financial education program offered by your company. Or, you might offer relocation assistance to support team members’ housing stability.
4. Foster a Culture of Well-Being
Employee wellness should be more than just a brief mention in your onboarding materials or a one-time campaign. It should be embedded in your organizational culture, influencing your leadership, policies, and daily operations.
Here are some ways employers can infuse the workplace culture with well-being initiatives:
- Support flexible work schedules: Make employees feel confident that you’ll reasonably accommodate their personal lives. This could mean offering remote work options to reduce unnecessary commutes or respecting employees’ time off. For example, an employee whose aunt is scheduled to have surgery on a Monday should feel free to take the day off to be with her.
- Offer wellness challenges: Promote wellness through fun challenges, such as step-count or healthy eating competitions. You can also make it easier for employees to participate by encouraging them to go on a walk during one-on-one meetings or by keeping healthy snacks around the office.
- Encourage social connections: Facilitate team-building activities, like a monthly team lunch or happy hour, to strengthen relationships between staff members. According to 360MatchPro, an employee volunteer program can also strengthen employees’ sense of community and team loyalty as they make a difference for causes they care about.
Ultimately, the most effective way to embed well-being into your company’s overall culture is to assess your current culture and align initiatives with employees’ unique needs. For example, an employer using a self-funded health plan may analyze available health data to learn that numerous employees have regular cardiologist visits. This information might prompt the employer to launch a step-count challenge or fitness programs that encourage employees to become more active.
Although population health strategies aim to support the health of an entire group of people, no approach will be one-size-fits-all. Different employees have different needs, and you’ll need to test a few approaches before finding the perfect one.
Keep in mind that investing in population health is a long-term strategy. Set clear, realistic goals to track your initiatives’ success, and regularly monitor your progress to determine what’s working and where you could improve. By tailoring your efforts to meet employees’ health needs, you’ll end up with happier employees and healthier bottom lines.
