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May/June 2017 – BizVoice/Indiana Chamber
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Employees at Ontario Systems in
Muncie are incentivized to take part in a
variety of health-related initiatives that
include working out (they partner with a
local CrossFit gym) and having wellness
visits with their doctors. Contributions are
then made to health savings accounts based
on activity and achievement.
“I believe it’s of enough value that it’s an
advantage to us when we’re recruiting,
attracting talent and retaining it. I also believe
that it has absolutely lowered our health care
costs; we’re self-insured. And the level of
participation we’ve seen has been very, very
high. It’s been one of the best things we’ve
done,” Stanley concludes.
Lakeside has a similar program but, as of
a year ago, also made choice architecture a
bigger part of the equation.
“We’re not taking away people’s choices
to do what they want to do, but if you make
it easier for them and steer them in the
direction of healthier choices, then they’re
more likely to make those better choices,”
Chamberlain contends.
Baskets full of bananas, apples and other
healthy snacks are accessible around the
office, and the staff refrigerator is stocked
with spinach and salad ingredients.
OfficeWorks is also onboard with that
concept – with fresh fruit along with
dispensers of cereal, trail mix and granola in
its kitchen.
What’s more, the Fishers company has
taken the focus beyond physical well-being to
implementing a “working well tracker,”
O’Neil notes.
“(Sure) we’ve got things that we list in
nutrition and physical activity in your overall
purpose, but also things that individuals might
like to do that really have a bigger overall
meaning for them such as community
involvement and finances (for which there are
related seminars offered). We created a form
so that employees can track their progress.”
Meanwhile, Centier Bank has on-site
health clinics at the Merrillville corporate
headquarters, in Valparaiso and in the
Indianapolis market.
“What we like is this is a very proactive,
engaging health relationship; it’s not just
treating acute needs,” Christ reports.
A story she relayed about a chance
conversation underscores the importance of
that dynamic. A middle-aged woman she had
missed seeing in the company’s walking
program shared with her that she was off
work due to a hysterectomy.
I said, “Oh, I’m sorry!” She said, “Don’t
be. The clinic saved my life!” The doctor
asked her when was the last time she had an
annual gynecological checkup, which
prompted her to go in for one.
“She had a violent type of cancer that she
wouldn’t have known she had if she had not
gone for these screenings and the doctor hadn’t
really encouraged her to keep up her exams.”
Get involved
Whether an organization makes the Best
Places to Work list or not isn’t the real
takeaway from the program, insists the panel,
which urges more first-time and repeat
participation.
“You change the dynamic of your firm,”
Chamberlain begins. “There’s sort of this
collective working together attitude that
changes once you get in the competition for
this or do well at it. It spreads the
responsibility for being a good place to work
amongst everybody rather than it just has to
be a leadership initiative.”
O’Neil concurs: “I love the idea of being
able to try to get all of the associates to own
it, not just the leadership team.” Incidentally,
OfficeWorks is back on the list after trying
another program in the interim – “we didn’t
like it so much.”
All understand it may be painful for
management to hear employee criticisms from
the surveys, but it’s worse being in the dark.
“Because, then you won’t hear about the
problem until it’s too late,” Stanley cautions.
“Even if the feedback is difficult at times, it’s
constructive and gives you the information
you need to go to work.
“My recommendation is invest the time
and energy to measure it – to get the data so
you do know where the risks are, where you
need to put your resources and time to grow
it and make it better. I think this is a great
tool to do that.”
Campbell is more blunt. “For us, it
pointed out our blind spots where we
weren’t doing well. It helped us see what we
didn’t see and make improvements.”
Centier Bank has been on the Best Places
list 11 of the 12 years of the program and
every time it has applied – highlighted by
being named the top employer for large
companies in 2010.
According to Christ, they keep coming
back because the learning process never ends.
“We still get nuggets (from the surveys)
that make us say, ‘You know what? We’re
not at the level that we’re striving for yet.
We need to really work on these.’ Or, ‘Hey,
we finally got to the percentage that we were
looking for; our efforts have paid off!’ …
We’ve definitely made substantial positive
changes to our organization with the
feedback.”
“The days of being able to come in
and put it up on a board in the
conference room and call it a day
and figure you’ve got a good culture
… that doesn’t work; I’m not sure it
ever worked.”
– Tom O’Neil
“You can’t just keep paying people
more and more to keep them
engaged. They have to know that
whatever product it is that comes out
the door that they were able to
influence it.”
– Mark Chamberlain