No Business in Wellness - Originally posted at http://www.tcbreview.com/soundings-mar09.php#soundings3

By Laurie Ruettimann

The biggest scam in corporate America isn’t investor fraud, Ponzi schemes, or highly leveraged mortgage-backed securities. The biggest vat of snake oil being sold to executives and HR departments is the mainstream implementation of employee wellness programs.

For millions of dollars and no demonstrated ROI whatsoever, marketing professionals and charlatans across our country have convinced otherwise-successful companies that we can put an end to rising healthcare costs by focusing on chubby employees who eat too many doughnuts. There is no need to focus on the underlying problems behind our broken medical infrastructure—bloated bureaucracies, expensive delivery systems, a lack of access to preventative medicine—when there are salespeople, unregulated dieticians, and sketchy life coaches who are ready to bribe and berate your fat employees.

I am here to tell you that there is no wellness program in America that will lower the cost of your company’s medical benefit program. If someone tells you otherwise, she is wrong. In fact, long-term studies from clinics and hospitals across America show that weight loss and lifestyle changes are temporary, at best, and that 95 percent of those who lose weight—and benefit from eating right and exercising—will gain back the weight within five years. Granted, wellness programs may offer some short-term solutions that satisfy the demands of shareholders concerned about rising labor costs. But most programs that focus on weight loss, stress reduction, and exercise cannot prove either a long-term reduction in benefit costs or an overall improvement to your workforce’s health.

When you pay an outsourced service provider to help your employees lose weight, you lose sight of the fact that your company is not in business to babysit your pudgy employees. Your mission as a leader is to generate...

No Business in Wellness - Originally posted at http://www.tcbreview.com/soundings-mar09.php#soundings3

By Laurie Ruettimann

The biggest scam in corporate America isn’t investor fraud, Ponzi schemes, or highly leveraged mortgage-backed securities. The biggest vat of snake oil being sold to executives and HR departments is the mainstream implementation of employee wellness programs.

For millions of dollars and no demonstrated ROI whatsoever, marketing professionals and charlatans across our country have convinced otherwise-successful companies that we can put an end to rising healthcare costs by focusing on chubby employees who eat too many doughnuts. There is no need to focus on the underlying problems behind our broken medical infrastructure—bloated bureaucracies, expensive delivery systems, a lack of access to preventative medicine—when there are salespeople, unregulated dieticians, and sketchy life coaches who are ready to bribe and berate your fat employees.

I am here to tell you that there is no wellness program in America that will lower the cost of your company’s medical benefit program. If someone tells you otherwise, she is wrong. In fact, long-term studies from clinics and hospitals across America show that weight loss and lifestyle changes are temporary, at best, and that 95 percent of those who lose weight—and benefit from eating right and exercising—will gain back the weight within five years. Granted, wellness programs may offer some short-term solutions that satisfy the demands of shareholders concerned about rising labor costs. But most programs that focus on weight loss, stress reduction, and exercise cannot prove either a long-term reduction in benefit costs or an overall improvement to your workforce’s health.

When you pay an outsourced service provider to help your employees lose weight, you lose sight of the fact that your company is not in business to babysit your pudgy employees. Your mission as a leader is to generate revenue, increase profits, and create a culture of performance. It isn’t your job, or that of your HR team, to micromanage your workforce’s dietary habits. Weight Watchers is a great way to make friends and bond over an inability to lose the last five pounds before a wedding, but your company has no business focusing its time and energies on BMI metrics and fat grams.

Don’t be the last chump in America to wake up and realize that wellness programs are a scam and distract you from your real goals as a leader. Skip the lectures on calories and exercise. Stop devaluing your employment brand by trying to motivate your workforce to join the local fitness center and drink more water. Use some common sense and recognize that wellness programs may offer some short-term pressures from your board of directors and shareholders but are not a long-term solution. There are smarter and more strategic ways you can lower your organization’s employee entitlement expenses. Use your political capital to influence the debate on healthcare reform. Ask your HR department to craft a compensation plan that will attract and retain the best and brightest employees. Start rewarding performance and innovation and recognize employees at all levels of your organization who contribute to your company’s profitability. Take the time and money you would invest in a corporate wellness program and offer more generous educational benefits, additional paid time off, and better access to technology.

You have a choice as a leader: You can encourage your employees to build your company’s brand, or you can encourage your employees to exercise and build lean muscle. Forward-thinking companies in the twenty-first century will employ talented individuals who are committed to personal excellence. If your company spends time and money lecturing your workforce on the benefits of diet soda and cardiovascular exercise, you are running an adult daycare program instead of a business.