Healthy Workforce Program Launches in KPSC
Kaiser Permanente has launched a national Healthy Workforce program (HWF) to improve the vitality and performance of our workforce and transform our organization into a world class leader in employee health promotion and wellness. The program focuses on inspiring employees and physicians to be their best in mind body and spirit in the belief that taking care of others starts with taking care of ourselves.
A key activity supporting Southern California Region's HWF program will be the 2010 Performance Sharing and Variable Pay Programs (PSP/VPP) HWF goal which incorporates
- Improving employee registration levels on kp.org from the current 54 percent registration rate to 68 percent to achieve the minimum payout and improve to 82 percent to achieve the maximum payout.
- Employees taking either the Total Health Assessment (THA), KP's online health risk assessment, or any of the 10 online Healthy Lifestyle Programs (HLPs). If 15 percent of employees take the THA or one of the HLPs, the region achieves the minimum payout. If 30 percent complete the THA or one of the HLPs, the region reaches the maximum payout.
"This long-term transformative process begins with each of us," said Roger Benton, PhD, program manager, Healthy Workforce, SCPMG. "We can begin to motivate ourselves and then support each other in a quest to be our best in attaining total health. By doing so we help our members, communities, and organization thrive."
This multi-year cultural change activity evolved from work started by the Work-Life Balance Bargaining Task Group during the 2005 Labor Management Partnership national bargaining. The decision was made in partnership to start HWF for the benefit of all employees in September 2007.
Through focus group research performed in 2009, Kaiser Permanente learned that although most of us really like our Thrive advertising and messages, many reported that we felt that Thrive was for someone else — not us as KP employees.
HWF will provide resources, tools, and programs to help make it easier to eat healthy, exercise, manage stress, and create positive work/life balance.
The first steps are to register on kp.org and take the Total Health Assessment. The THA is an easy-to-use online questionnaire that when completed, provides an in-depth, look at your overall health — from how often you exercise to what you eat in the morning — and then suggests personalized lifestyle changes to help you meet your health goals, based on the areas you report you are ready to address. You can also use these results to work with your personal physician to establish healthier lifestyle practices to improve your total health or you can review your results and see if the Healthy Lifestyle program online tools can assist you.
Employees who opt to take a Healthy Lifestyle Program may select from the following assistance areas:
- Manage chronic conditions with HealthMedia® Care™ for Your Health
- Lose weight with Balance™
- Eat healthy with HealthMedia® Nourish™
- Manage diabetes with Care™ for Diabetes
- Quit smoking with HealthMedia® Breathe™
- Reduce stress with HealthMedia® Relax™
- Manage pain with Care™ for Pain
- Manage depression with Overcoming™ Depression
- Get a good night's sleep with Overcoming™ Insomnia
- Manage back pain with Care™ for Your Back
By registering on kp.org, you can track changes in such things as weight, blood sugar levels, and cholesterol levels. By taking the THA you can track changes in your overall lifestyle score and improvements in specific risk factor areas. Over time, you will be able to look back at each step you've taken to improve your health and lifestyle.
To help promote participation, employees — both represented and nonrepresented — will be permitted a reasonable amount of time to register on kp.org and complete the THA or one of the HLPs.
Introduction of additional support activities will be announced in the near future to continue building awareness and participation in HWF. All are designed to make it easier to live a healthy and balanced life.
"Healthier employees can lead to a healthier, higher performing organization in a variety of ways," Benton said. "First, by living our Thrive message, we become more credible in encouraging our members to maintain and improve their health and well-being. In addition, a healthy workforce can result in fewer illnesses and workplace injuries, decrease stress and absenteeism, and create a better environment for employees' and physicians' work/life balance, and, ultimately, a best place to work. Thrive is for everyone of us."