Delaware businesses, if you worry about obesity and its effects on your workforce, you are not alone. Across the country, there has been a sharp turn in focus by major businesses and commercial organizations. The focus shift has been towards obesity as a costly characteristic of our modern workforce.

As discussed in earlier posts, many observers worry that the current trend in refusing to hire smokers will spill over to other areas of employees’ health. Obesity is commonly cited as the next likely target.

There is, certainly, some logic behind the argument. One place to find support for the idea of regulating employee’s waistlines can be found in the report by The Conference Board, Weights and Measures: What Employers Should Know about Obesity. In its report, the Conference Board examines the financial and ethical questions surrounding whether, and how, U.S. companies should address the obesity epidemic. The report was featured on April 9th’s episode of Marketplace, public radio’s popular business program.

Some of the findings from the study include:

~Obesity is associated with a 36-percent increase in spending on healthcare services, more than smoking or problem drinking.

~More than 40 percent of U.S. companies have implemented obesity-reduction programs, and 24 percent more said they plan to do so in 2008.

~Estimates of ROI for wellness programs range from zero to $5 per $1 invested.

~ROI aside, these programs may give companies an edge in recruiting and retaining desirable employees.

~Meanwhile, some say it may be more effective just to award employees cash and prizes for weight loss rather than devote resources to long-term wellness programs.

~Employers need to weigh the risks of being too intrusive in managing obese employees against the risks of not managing them

But NPR isn’t the only organization tuned in to the obesity debate. Bloomberg.com also featured the Conference Board’s findings this month, as did Forbes.com. Human Resources professionals are also turning towards the issue, as demonstrated by the articles at Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), The Salary Reporter, and this article by Larry J. Rector from the West Virginia Employment Law Letter, which can be found through the H.R. Hero website.

If these big-name players have turned their focus to the “obesity crisis,” should Delaware employers do the same?

For previous posts about the increasingly close involvement employers have in the private health matters of their employees:

Off-Duty Conduct in the News

There’s No Hiding From Your Own Bad Habits

Are Today’s Wellness Programs Running Out of Steam?

DOL Offers Compliance Tool for Wellness Programs

Is Obesity the Next Protected Class?

The Link Between Race & Obesity

Employee productivity, recruitment, and retention are issues that concern every employer. Recently, employers have begun implementing new and different forms of fringe benefits as motivational tools. One such benefit is the employer-based health clinic, as discussed at The Blog that Ate Manhattan. These clinics are a spinoff of Wellness Programs that employers have been implementing for the last several years. Recently, there was talk about the low long-term success rates of employer-instituted wellness programs.

Actually, this is a not-so-new idea, as thirty years ago many big employers offered on-site primary health care to employees. Facing ever-increasing health insurance premiums, many employers are once again offering in-house primary care facilities to avoid the cost of outside physicians. Many offer not only medical examinations but also in-house pharmacies. According to this New York Times article, a clinic that serves 1,000 employees can save $1.5 to $2 million a year.

And, according to the CCH Workweek newsletter, employees spend a lot of work time dealing with their personal legal issues, so some employers have begun offering pre-paid legal services plans to their benefit package.

Finally, some employers who are interested in recruiting, retaining and maximizing the productivity of employees who have young children have been sponsoring on-site or near-site child care as a benefit of employment. There are many options available when considering implementing such a program. A 2005 study by Bowdoin economists showed that employer-sponsored child care can even be profitable.

[Editor’s Note: Some might argue that these benefits offer convenience–at a price. Programs that further meld the worlds of work and non-working time can be seen by some employees as an invasion of privacy and can raise concerns about the effect of off-duty conduct on an employee’s career.]

As a Tennessee appellate court noted in rejecting Joan Frye’s lawsuit against her hospital employer, “[T]he fact that a supervisor is mean, hard to get along with, overbearing, bellig­erent or otherwise hostile and abusive does not violate civil rights statutes.”
Workplace Bullying is a current hot topic in the business world. There are lots of theories about how bullying costs employer real dollars and cents in a variety of ways. From fdlr.com, here is another potential cost–employees’ health.

Given the rapidly increasing cost of health insurance, this theory gives businesses another reason to put a stop to bullying behavior.

fdlr.com reports:

When it comes to employee health, bullying is bad for business.

Workplace bullying can create a cache of health problems for workers who feel overburdened by stress, said Gregg Brewer, employee assistance program supervisor for IntegNET, a division of Agnesian HealthCare.

Employee Assistance Programs are designed to prevent workplace bullying and solve conflicts that arise at work, among other things.

Brewer said someone who is being bullied at work is often under a tremendous amount of pressure.

“It leads to stress,” he said. “And generally people who are under a lot of stress have 45 percent higher health- care costs.”

Physical signs of stress include rapid breathing, fatigue, sleep and appetite changes, Brewer said. Emotional symptoms can include anger, irritability and forgetfulness and cause employees to have a hard time concentrating at work.

These stress symptoms can lead to changes in productivity and interaction with co-workers and lower morale, Brewer said.

More serious health problems have also been linked to stress.

“There is a strong connection between stress and cardiovascular issues,” Brewer said.

Stress can cause blood pressure to increase and can lead to strokes and other heart problems, he said.

Brewer said it might also lead employees struggling to cope to drugs and alcohol.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced a new addition to its already voluminous online resources. The website will help workers plan for retirement.

The website provides free access to a series of interactive worksheets were developed as a companion to a 2006 publication entitled “Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning.”** The worksheets are designed to help calculate their income and savings as well as their projected expenses in retirement.

The site is designed for people who are 10 to 15 years away from retirement but can also be helpful to recent retirees.

**Free copies of the booklet are available by calling the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) toll-free at 866-444-3272 and online at www.dol.gov/ebsa (under Publications).