Like I said the other week — Friday is movie day here at ShapeUp, and this one comes straight from the top.
Our CEO and founder was invited on to Executive Suite, a local news interview show that picks the brains of Rhode Island business leaders to get a sense of where they come from, what their business is doing, and where we’re going.
In his segment, Rajiv focuses on the Rhode Island roots of ShapeUp — how this state’s tight knit community of entrepreneurs, investors, health researchers, and doctors paved the way for a spunky community walking program to become a global technology solution. For all my years working at ShapeUp, its the most holistic backstory I’ve heard him tell, and it brings the full culture and identity of ShapeUp to light. We’re here to change the world, and we are on a big mission, that is for sure. But at the same time, we’re the product of a small city and a strong state-wide community, and that identity is a part of every single thing that we do.
Friday is always a jolly, celebratory day at the office. We have group workouts. We walk during lunch. We watch videos. Specifically, this video, in which we interview some of our participants and administrators about their experience with ShapeUp.
There’s really no use in me trying to sum it up — these amazing people really speak for themselves. Plus, its the perfect way to start off a weekend.
On our last webinar, we reminded you all about our LinkedIn group, Corporate Wellness Innovators. In the intervening weeks, we’ve been stoking discussion about various wellness questions, posing debates, and getting some seriously insightful responses.
Sharing is caring (and we’re nothing if not big ol care bears), so we wanted to make sure you all were up-to-date on the discussions we’re having elsewhere on the web. We’ll post frequent updates here on the blog, but we encourage you to join in the discussion by becoming part of the Corporate Wellness Innovators group!
Here’s what’s been happening:
Question:If you could only do one wellness program or effort for your employees, what would be the most effective thing to do?
Responses:
“I think the biometric screening and health risk assessment is the most effective tool we have. If employees are not aware of a health risk they cannot get treatment. A very high percentage of health claims could be prevented if the condition was discovered early and treated.“ -Joy
“Let’s stop deluding ourselves and the employers we serve with the idea that there is a magic or silver bullet or one answer. The reality is successful and sustainable worksite wellness programs require hard work, commitment and an investment on the part of the employer and the employee. Success and sustainability require a systematic, comprehensive approach. To suggest that one strategy or intervention addresses the issue is doing a disservice to the employer and our fellow employees.” -William
Ditto to both these responses! Early detection is such a huge part of curing and fixing health problems, as is dedication and a multi-faceted approach.
Question: What are your best practices for reaching difficult to engage populations, like old timers, men, the young and healthy, remote, non-technical, etc.
Response:
“Two questions: Are these people hard to reach (i.e. is it a communications issue?) or hard to get involved in your programs (i.e. engagement)? Or (likely) both? (One leads to the other, right?)If it’s a comms issue, hit them on multiple fronts (and keep doing so). Posters in the kitchen/lobby, direct mail to their homes, email and intranet (of course), text messages (opt-in), etc. Don’t give up. Use the salesperson’s approach – it sometimes takes 6+ “touches” to get someone to take the next step.If it’s an engagement issue, speaking of taking the next step, make sure you are making whatever the next step is easy and simple. Whatever the smallest first step is, that’s what you should be encouraging. Don’t encourage them to sign up for a gym class at your fitness center, just have them come down to tour the fitness center first – no commitment, no fear. Or just show them where it is. Many people might not even know it exists!Following on that, limit the choices. If you’ve got 15 different programs people can take advantage of, only present them with 1-3 of them at a time.Likewise, target the choices presented. Is an elderly man likely to want to take that Zumba class you’re offering? Is a non-technical person going to care about the new digital health tracker on your health portal? Young and healthy? Start a kickball team!I think environmental changes – things they can’t ignore/will encounter during their every day duties/travels – can also work well with these groups. Make healthy food cheaper and easier to obtain. Show people where the steps are (and ensure they know they won’t get locked in the stairwell) instead of the elevator, etc. Simple stuff can have a surprising impact.
Last, but probably the first thing you should do… Ask several people in each of these hard to reach/engage groups a few questions: What is their preferred way to be contacted? What is keeping them from participating in wellness activities? (It’s often easier to remove barriers than to create new motivators.) What activities/programs would most interest them?”
Such an amazing response full of so many insightful suggestions–should probably be its own blog post!
Question: Is Biometric testing worth it?
Responses:
“I believe it is a very valuable tool to identify health risk. Unfortunately many of us do not proactively monitor our bio-metric numbers until we show symptoms when it can be to late. That’s like not checking the oil in your car till the engine blows up.” -Randy
“Risk identification is valuable Randy, but how many people change their behaviors solely on the basis of a risk being identified? Very few…. If I remember the numbers correctly, less than 40% of the people who suffer a heart attack change their lifestyle behaviors after their heart attack. Seems to me a heart attack is a pretty strong indicator of risk. I have come to see that too many wellness programs today view their HRAs and biometric screenings as their wellness program. The reality is that HRAs and screenings are only the beginning of what needs to be a systematic, comprehensive approach.
“I feel that biometric screenings must be followed with employee interventions that are easy to adopt and adhere to by employees. This surely takes support from management (financial and time). These interventions and the results achieved could directly be tied to a reward in form of reductions in health premiums paid by the employees.” –Tulio
This topic was hotly debated – all of the responses were extremely interesting and insightful. I highly recommend you all check it out for yourselves to see all the comments.
Just about 24 hours until our newest, most tantalizing webinar yet. On Ask Me Anything, we’re posing traditionally off-limits, taboo, risky questions to three industry pros to get their straight talking, unedited take:
Alexandra Drane, founder, Eliza
Bob Merberg, director of wellness program, Paychex
Bryce Williams, vice president of wellness, Blue Shield of CA
We grew tired of rules and boundaries for wellness discussions, so we chucked them out the window. Instead, we’re answering questions submitted by you – our registrants – live on a round table discussion hosted by Dr. Kumar. Nothing is off limits: smoking cessation, PHI, the accuracy of self-reported data, the latest article calling wellness a bubble – we’re going to address it all.
Join us tomorrow, March 6th, at 1 PM ET. You won’t want to miss this! Register today.
If you can’t make it, not to worry. We’ll share the recording and slides with all of you.
For our final installment of 2013 wellness predictions, we’re focused on how social changes will affect employee wellness in the months and years to come. At ShapeUp, we reference social a whole lot, but these predictions fall under a broader, more traditional definition of “social,” than the digital, online sense. These predictions pose the question: how will the way our society thinks, interacts, and passes time change the way we get healthy together?
Prediction #12: “Our culture will start to substitute shoe leather for the seat of our pants.” – Dr. David Katz, Yale University Prevention Research Center
These days, with our desk jobs and TVs, we sit an average of 9.3 hours a day, more than the average person sleeps each night – and it’s taking a toll on our bodies. One statistic even suggests that those who sit for over 6 hours each day are 40% more likely to die within 15 years than someone who sits for less than 3 hours a day. And that is regardless of how much exercise you do.
As Dr. Katz predicts, we have to start walking away from our seats and our screens. We hope and also believe that this will become a cultural shift, but before broad changes can take root, we should begin by cultivating corporate cultures of activity that encourage movement and discourage long days of uninterrupted sitting. If Dr. Katz is correct, wellness programs in 2013 will take seriously the small but significant steps individuals can adopt in order to reduce the health hazards of a desk job.
Prediction #13: “Dancing will become a more popular way to be happy and healthy.” – BJ Fogg, Behavior Design Lab, Stanford University
Zumba. Barre class. Physique 57. Dance is the newest exercise trend, and according to BJ Fogg, it’s only going become more popular. It’s not hard to see why: dancing is a low-impact, full body workout that works both your cardiovascular system and your muscles. Gaining popularity from hit TV shows like Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance, dancing, formerly relegated to girls in tutus, is now being broadly recognized for its athleticism and adopted as a fun, fitness challenge. Here at ShapeUp we also love that it’s a social way to exercise – for some dance styles you even need a partner!— and it can unite people of all different abilities with music and good workout in a way that no elliptical machine or set of dumbbells ever could.
For all the technology and innovation we discussed on our webinar and in this series, prediction #13 is interesting because it suggests a return to our roots. Dancing is as ancient as human society – it’s always been a way for people to connect to one another –so it’s very thought provoking to consider this prediction in the context of all of the others: we tend to think innovation must pioneer new paths, but perhaps progress is also made by remembering our history.
Prediction #14: “Understanding that economic development requires a local and steady stream of educated and healthy workers, organizations will expand beyond primary prevention to focus on primordial prevention, children’s health, and functional medicine.” – Michael Samuelson, The Health & Wellness Alliance for Children
Municipalities and employers have a great incentive to focus on children’s health, as Michael suggests. Children’s Health problems are the leading cause of employee absence and productivity loss – absences cost employers $3B per year, and 26% of the time when employees call in sick they are providing care to a family member. It’s often an overlooked population, even as 43% of NBGH employers provide coverage for dependents through the age of 25, totaling 33% of all beneficiaries. 14.7% of claims are for children and adolescents. We can’t ignore the costs of keeping youngsters healthy! And as Michael Samuelson points out, children represent the next cohort of employees that will be entering the halls of workplaces around our country. While many employers and local governments may not be thinking about children’s health, they have many reasons to do so, and that’s why the most forward-looking organizations are doing just that in 2013.
Prediction #15: “Caregiving is recognized for the condition it is – as devastating and impactful as diabetes or asthma…and employers, feeling the beginning onslaught of the silver tsunami, react accordingly.” –Alexandra Drane, Eliza
TEDMED recently named the caregiver crisis as one of the 20 greatest challenges that we face in health care today. And thought leaders within TEDMED have identified some of the contributing factors, including the graying of America (10,000 Americans turn 65 every day), longer lifespans, changing family dynamics, financial pressures, emotional burdens, work pressures, a plethora of confusing options, and more. There are 66 million caregivers in the United States, and there are a lot of people who lean on them every single day, and so Alex’s prediction is one that we hope comes true – that employers take note of this major problem and begin to provide their employees who are serving as caregivers with the proper support, resources, and flexibility they need to take care of their loved ones and themselves at the same time. It’s the right thing to do.
We want to take a moment to once again thank our brilliant predictors and futurists. We were so inspired by their insight, and we’ll be keeping it in mind as we develop our technology and products over the next year. If you’re itching for more expertise, be sure to sign up for our next webinar on Wednesday, March 6th at 1 pm EST. We’re asking wellness experts to weigh in on traditionally taboo topics…you probably shouldn’t miss it.
