Stung by rising healthcare costs related to excess employee weight, employers are helping their workers fight fat and win more than a slim victory.
Have you noticed the increase in diet ads on TV recently? That’s business taking advantage of the general panic that hits the general public when it steps on a scale after New Year’s and sees the effect of their holiday binging.
But there’s one group of business people interested in weight control year-round: employers. Because every pound their workforce adds takes weight out of their wallets.
The cost of overweight employees is significant. A 2003 government report put it at $13 billion, including $8 billion in healthcare costs, $2.4 billion in paid sick leave, $1.8 billion in life insurance, and $1 billion in disability insurance. Looked at another way, according to a University of Pennsylvania study, that cost is $1,034 per overweight worker per year.
Obese workers suffer a far higher cost … 365,000 deaths a year due to medical conditions caused by excess weight, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What can employers do about it?
One answer is to shed overweight workers. In most of the U.S., you can do so legally. Only in Michigan, the District of Columbia, San Francisco and Santa Cruz, California, are there laws against discrimination based on physical size, ironically put in place to allow smaller-sized people to get jobs requiring physical strength. Nationally, some plaintiffs have tried using the Americans for Disabilities Act to sue for weight discrimination, but with little success.
Most employers have forgone the termination solution. Instead, the emphasis has been on positive programs designed to promote wellness, including weight control. Some examples:
–Many companies have installed on-site gyms or offered discounts for area health clubs.
–Many offer health information and health assessments, sometimes through online resources. And a number use financial incentives to changing unhealthy ways. One example: VSM Abrasives in Missouri weighs workers each quarter and pays $25 if there’s been no increase, and another $25 plus a day off if weight is maintained for a year. The company claims a 10 to 15 percent decrease in health claims.
–Dow Chemical is looking at environmental factors. They’re working with food service vendors to lighten the calorie count in cafeteria and vending machines, and hanging signs suggesting use of the stairs instead of the elevator. They’re also laying out walking paths on corporate campuses.
–And as far as that holiday poundage goes, the University of Pennsylvania runs a program called “Maintain, Don’t Gain.” Employees weigh in before Thanksgiving and again after New Year’s. There are no financial incentives for skipping that extra helping of turkey, but reports indicate that the smiles … or stares … of fellow employees offer sufficient motivation to make the program work.
Weight Reduction = Cost Reduction
Do such programs pay out? Brian Shay, a manager at the software company SAP, thinks so. “It’s important to partner with our employees related to their health,” he says. “We’re hoping that … over, say, a 3- to 5-year period, we see a significant reduction in our medical costs.”
Similarly, can an employer REQUIRE that employees do not smoke in or out of the work place?
I think it is a great idea to have major companies assist in the payment of memberships to recreational clubs and health spas. Where I think this is failing is that it is not a requirement. There are still way to many employees that are not in shape and have no desire to get in shape. I’m current on my CPR but I have witnessed that it doesn’t always work. I would like to see a company have the right to insist that an employee get involved in a more healthy lifestyle and prove it by enrolling in a club.
That goes for smoking too! Currently, if one does not stop smoking or use’s any tobacco products then they are charged the highest allowable rate on their medical insurance. If they can prove that they have taken a cessasion program and are not using tobacco then they will get a significant portion of the premium reduced. I would like to see companies be allowed to make the workplace smoke and tobacco free. I have seen the horrors of lung, tounge, and throat cancer to know that if I can help one person to stop and not become a statistic. I’ll continue to support the companies right to inhibit these types of activities that reduces productivity and increases costs when one is absent or in a hospital being treated for injuries or even worse being treated for cancer as a result of using tobacco products.
George T Gagnon Production Supervisor
While everyone agrees that a healthy lifestyle is better for everyone, is it really the employer’s job to monitor this? This would require supervisors to know and potentially share medically confidential information.
There are many medical conditions or medications that might cause weight gain for example. If employers start to monitor employees and reward or punish employees depending on their weight, the employee will be forced to disclose private medical information that otherwise could and would be kept private.
The comment of “but reports indicate that the smiles … or stares…of fellow employees offer sufficient motivation to make the program work.”, again may force an employee to disclose private medical information to stop those “stares” and not feel ridiculed at work. How can this not lead to lawsuits for discrimination or a hostile work environment?