Sessions

Our HEROForum18 opening keynote panel brings together three accomplished leaders who have a passion for people and work and assuring a healthy fit between the two. Dr. Diana Han is chief medical offcer of GE Appliances; Shane Jackson is president of Jackson Healthcare, an industry leading health care staffing company; and Elena Valentine is the CEO of Skill Scout, a company that helps organizations "showcase their jobs in dynamic and exciting ways." What else do these leaders share in common besides being super busy and widely influential? They are each dedicated to building workplace cultures that treat employee well-being as a central part of business success both within their own organizaion and for the companies they serve.

The data can be discouraging: gaps between management and employer perception of the success of wellness at work, between levels of engagement across workforce segments, and between health and business goals. However, blending fresh approaches (such as behavior design and person-first health navigation) with classic methods (such as on-site resources and changes to the physical environment) can make a profound difference in the performance of an organization's well-being initiative, and create a more authentic experience for employees. This panel, representing diverse workforces and consumer-centric industries, will present original research, case studies and lessons learned about creating stronger experience, broader engagement, and tighter alignment to business outcomes. Panelists will engage the audience with powerful real-world insights drawn from call centers, distribution centers, retail outlets and corporate headquarters.

Focusing on social relationships leads to participation in health improving behaviors via challenges and program participation. But the benefits of developing social relationships go far beyond the immediately visible improvements. Community and social context, one of the six social determinants of health, can be improved via worksite health promotion programs. This session will discuss ways to leverage worksite health promotion programs to foster social relationships, will feature wellness champion programs and the related outcomes, and will show how to use data to identify and target at-risk populations by social determinants of health. The goal of this session is increase awareness and foster communication about the next evolution of worksite health promotion programs, broadening our focus from the individual, to the individual’s community.

How do you perceive failure? Your answer to this crucial question determines if you successfully adopt healthy behaviors. Carol Dweck’s model of mindset differentiates those who use a growth mindset in responding to failure and those who use a fixed mindset. Growth mindset is the belief that you can change anything because you understand and accept the process by which change and mastery occurs. When you use a growth mindset, you know that it takes effort, practice and lots of failure to achieve the goal. With a fixed mindset, the response to failure is a sense of shame and blame and results in defeatism. Growth mindset needs to be at the center of all wellness programs, and employees need to learn how to shift from fixed mindset to growth mindset when making changes. This session will address how Intermountain Healthcare’s LiVe Well program does both.

Experience Happiness partnered with Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), a regional Level 1 trauma center and teaching hospital located in Minneapolis, MN, to help address the prevalent burnout that existed in their emergency department (ED). They assessed the linkage between burnout, happiness, well-being, engagement and key performance indicators as employees and staff engaged in The Happiness Practice™(THP). Burnout down 22% Employee Engagement Up 7% Overall Happiness up 16% Innovation Up 19% Resiliency Up 19% Sustainability Up 16% Patient Satisfaction Up 5.3 Points (Press Ganey)

Time and time again, research has shown that supportive leaders are important, if not essential, to successfully improving the well-being of workers. Organizations with supportive leaders have more comprehensive programs, better participation, enhanced satisfaction, and superior outcomes. In this session, attendees will learn about the effective and surprisingly simple way that a Fortune 100 company has worked to engage leaders: Talk to them one-on-one. This session will discuss lessons CHS Inc. has learned, what worked, what didn’t work, and what tactics to use to advance your leaders’ agendas and improve employee well-being. By starting conversations with executive leadership, CHS has been able to align employee well-being goals with leadership goals, enhance leader investment in employee well-being, and start to build a culture of health.

Evidence shows that the most effective health promotion initiatives employ the use of strategic planning, a supportive organization, and ongoing program evaluation, yet many organizations focus more on programs and tactics than these stalwart tenets for success. Numerous ongoing analyses of HERO Scorecard data identify specific practices that are associated with outcomes, and a new study compared organizations implementing specific practices on the HERO Scorecard against organizations that do not implement them to assess differences in self-reported outcomes. Practitioners can use free tools like the HERO Scorecard to identify specific practices linked to better outcomes.

Identification of health risks is a key element in improving population health. A recent study featured in Diabetes Care shows that testing for hemoglobin A1c is a more effective way to assess type 2 diabetes risk than focusing on fasting glucose alone. The study found that elevated hemoglobin A1c is associated with incident diabetes among individuals with normal fasting glucose measures, meaning that only testing for fasting glucose can put your population’s health at risk, missing those that have prediabetes. With effective identification, future high-cost claimants, including those with prediabetes today, can be connected to a health intervention program like a digital diabetes prevention program, which can ultimately reduce their risk for type 2 diabetes by 32%.

It's no secret that today's sedentary workforce is part of the problem when it comes to the growing obesity epidemic in the U.S. What is less obvious is the role that our daily expenditure of energy and intake of energy plays in the weight Americans stack on every year. This session will detail the critical relationship between physical activity and energy worked off while on the job, and how an intentional increase in the most basic workplace movements (e.g., walking at the office, lifting boxes, sitting, standing) could provide an important supplement to the formal exercise (e.g., running, swimming, circuit training) most Americans are completing in their free time. The session also will take a closer look at the study's numbers that prove the close correlation between workplace activity and weight gain.

Livongo peer-reviewed publications show clients achieving $83 PPPM cost savings and members reducing blood glucose, hypoglycemic events, and weight. Join this session to learn more about the peer-reviewed studies. You will leave knowing how tackling multiple chronic conditions with one solution is the best strategy for your population, how personalized campaigns drive appropriate levels of engagement, and how employers and health systems are seeing Year 1 results with Livongo.

What is the business value of cognitive skill development and positive psychological abilities? Do adaptive capabilities—the ability to be resilient to setbacks and agile in the face of change—translate to a measurable business advantage? More importantly, can these important capabilities be learned, or are they simply a static part of one’s personality traits? This session will provide evidence that specific psychological skills do have a documented impact on work performance and that such skills can be learned and applied.

This session will review the clinical outcomes of using gamification and smartphones to increase engagement in patient health. Published in Health Information Science and Systems, the 2017 study, "Improving Patient Engagement in Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring Using a Mobile Health Technology," demonstrated improved patient engagement in cardiac patients. The session also will share insights on the use of these tools in the corporate environment.

Recent clinical trials have shown that diabetes reversal can be achieved without the risk, costs or side effects of medication or surgery. Employers recognize that individuals with diabetes have health care costs 2.3 times greater than those without, and a majority of thoses costs are passed along to employers. This session will look at how the Nielsen Company brought 75% of their enrolled diabetic population under the medical threshold for type 2 diabetes. Neilsen's results extended beyond diabetes reversal, with sustained improvements in blood pressure, inflammation, cardiovascular markers, insulin resistance and weight loss. Attendees will learn how Nielsen was able to achieve these revolutionary outcomes, and their effect on employee satisfaction and healthcare spend.

Employees with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) make up about 15% of the workforce but account for 60% ore more of total healthcare expenditures. These individuals are typically polymorbid, or have multiple primary diagnoses. Optimizing the health of this population can be quite complex; daily living is often arduous, having a significant impact on workplace engagement and productivity. This session will share how one organization focused exclusively on the MCC population and is documenting, measuring and proving the ability to improve, if not transform, the current health and future risk profile of those enrolled.

Surveys show that HR leaders partner with at least four to six different vendors or providers to maintain their benefits and well-being programs. Despite offering a number of benefits, many employers still face challenges engaging employees to take steps toward better health. Healthcare benefits are often fragmented and disconnected, leading to frustration, inefficiency, and poor utilization by employees, as well as redundant costs for employers. In order to drive engagement in their benefits offerings, Pinnacle Foods Inc., a leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of high-quality branded food products, embraced an integrated model, connecting their health and well-being programs to make it easier for employees to utilize their benefits. By centralizing their offerings and creating a "hub" for employees to access programs, Pinnacle removed many of the common barriers to engagement and simultaneously reduced their costs. This session will discuss strategies to create a streamlined, customized health and well-being program that drives engagement and improves health outcomes.

This session is a thought-provoking, data-focused exploration of the unique impact that radical choice can have on employee enrollment, engagement and behavioral change rates within a comprehensive behavioral change employer program. Hear from Sodexo about the science behind their approach, why it is a direct challenge to a points-focused, personalization via AI approach, and learn about the authentic challenges and successes Sodexo has seen along the way to bringing self-determination theory (SDT), person-centered therapy (PCT) and the social ecological model (SEM) from public health to life in the employer context.

Why is the human spirit so resilient? What enables humans to thrive when challenged? And what is it that prevents us from unlocking our full potential? Jennifer Bruno and Jack Groppel were tested when climbing the largest mountain on the African continent. From the known challenges they planned for to the unknown events they could never have imagined, their human spirit was tested. The was to summit Mount Kilimanjaro and return safely. But with any goal in life, what lies in the purpose is what really makes the journey.

In this casual Q+A, attendees will hear about unique career accomplishments, with particular focus on work at Caesars, Walmart and Cigna. Learnings will focus on experiences with organizations adopting and implementing employee health strategies, and how digital health is uniquely suited to lowering healthcare costs in the workplace.

For more than 80 years, Schneider has built a business on hard work. They are driven by their uncompromising values to deliver the goods that enhance the lives of people everywhere. That is not just a vision for their business, but for their employees as well. When Schneider began their wellness program in 2010, they spent the next few years trying to encourage health assessments and healthy behaviors with limited success. Since the addition of higher financial incentives and improvement goals beginning in 2014, they have achieved dramatically higher engagement rates and health improvement. Changes due to regulations and hiring challenges with over-the-road drivers have led to innovative adjustments and provided a natural comparative study as well. This session will walk through Schneider's wellness program, show how it has evolved and highlight what new ideas have triggered continual health improvement over the years.

The great debate about the effectiveness of incentives in achieving health improvement is an ongoing one: intrinsic vs. extrinsic, monetary vs. non-monetary, outcomes vs. participation-based requirements. Do any of these approaches work? The answer is "Yes" and "No." Incentives can work in changing behavior long term, if done correctly, which is the hard part. This session will discuss approaches that have seen success and failure, and ultimately how to weave together the right blend of science, technology, and incentives to achieve the outcomes your organization is investing in.

For over 125 years, Merck has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines to address many of the world's most challenging diseases. LIVE IT is Merck's comprehensive approach to employee well-being that includes physical, emotional, social and financial well-being. To communicate the success and future direction of LIVE IT to C-Suite leadership, Merck, working with Mercer, developed an infographic, interactive dashboard. The dashboard features traditional well-being engagement and outcome metrics, as well as innovative human capital and business metrics. This session will focus on methods utilized to design and capture the essence of an organization's well-being program success in a concise manner that aligns with C-Suite leadership expectations. Presenters will lead discussion around measurement of well-being programs and the challenge of creating engaging dashboards, and will conclude with a demonstration of the dashboard.

Determinants of health are social, economic and physical conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age. They affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Social determinants (SDH) are also responsible for most of our health inequities. These unfair and avoidable differences in health status, seen within and between communities, regions and countries, are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels. Employers have a major role in shaping the factors related to SDH -- both on individuals and their communities -- as well as an opportunity to expand their understanding of SDH in relation to the engagement and performance of their workforce human capital. Today, employers continue to explore ways to increase employee and spouse participation in health-related programs and services; however, they commonly overlook SDH factors as drivers in employee engagement. Greater insight into SDH issues for employees as well as the workplace can help to improve employee well-being, and ultimately, business outcomes. In this session, the presenters will provide an overview of their research regarding the significance of SDH factors in the workplace and explore in detail how SDH factors are overlooked and profoundly impact published research outcomes. Finally, the presenters will share their collective insights as to how to most meaningfully address and account for the role of SDH factors in health/well-being program outcomes.

Resilience, or the ability to adapt to highly stressful or adverse events, is critical to the functioning of employees, teams, and organizations, especially in a fast-paced, ever-changing work environment. This session will provide an overview of the research on workplace resilience and organizational change, including the factors linked to capacity for resilience. Participants will also review the results of the American Psychological Association’s survey on organizational change and its links to job stress and employee well-being and engage in experiential activities that illustrate course concepts and personalize the training. Special emphasis will be given to interventions designed to help build workforce resilience and adapt to changes productively.

Researchers found the use of a diabetes management program alone improved blood glucose control for people with T2D with a decrease in mean estimated HbA1c (eA1c) from 8.5% to 7.5% (p=0.01). Additionally, for this investigation, researchers examined if high intensity lifestyle coaching could help people with T2D who had hit a plateau on their way toward their health goals. Researchers divided the study participants into three groups, and evaluated glucose, eA1c, and weight. The group receiving the most intensive coaching experienced the greatest weight loss and eA1c reduction which suggests that periods of intensive coaching when people get stuck can be empowering and helpful.

Our genetics significantly impact our health, and yet are being overlooked in many employer health benefits, making it difficult for employees, their families, and their doctors to fully understand and manage costly health risks. This session will cover the studies that support the CDC's recommendation for population-screening of certain genes that significantly elevate one's risk of cancer and heart disease, as well as studies that quantify the human and financial benefit of guiding medications with genetic information. Attendees will also learn how to deliver personalized employee health and empower employees to be proactive about their health.

In 2016, The Stanford WellMD Center created a model for Professional Fulfillment based on physician wellness data collected between 2013 and 2016. Although this model was intended to focus solely on the needs of physicians, they soon discovered that the concept resonates with individuals from the janitorial staff who see their role in the healing of Stanford Medicine patients, to the C-Suite who want to understand how well-being can support their bottom line business needs. This model expands the concept of wellness and highlights the impact of leadership and business practices that can either support or diminish employee health and well-being. Specific survey data will be shared and participants will engage in a discussion on how they can expand collaboration across departmental silos and seek to raise the level of professional wellness within their organization.

Changing behavior is difficult, for both employees and employers. Even when an individual has plenty of support and lots of resources available, the chances of succeeding are slim when he/she works in an environment not supportive of health. Strategies to improve the workplace can be measured, and these tools can in turn motivate change. It can be especially difficult for large organizations that are geographically dispersed and include a variety of different workers and workplace cultures. This session will help attendees learn how to put an infrastructure in place to assist large and/or complicated organizations in their efforts to drive and measure change. Along the way, attendees will be entertained by stories of how Johns Hopkins Medicine developed a strategic plan, with the use of the CDC Worksite Health Scorecard, to improve the work environment and measure progress.

In 2013, GE Appliances’ Louisville, KY facility had an imperative to improve the “factory fitness” of their employees and their abilities to perform essential job functions. Significant injury rates, skyrocketing workers compensation claims and escalating health plan costs posed significant concerns. The company’s senior leaders recognized these trends threatened business viability and embarked upon an all-hands-on-deck mission to reverse them. The company engaged the workforce from every level of the organization – from the CEO to the assembly line worker on the factory floor – and fundamentally retooled its approaches to supporting health and well-being throughout the entire employee life cycle. Presenters will demonstrate how this holistic approach resulted in not only significantly improved health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs, but also meaningful impact on building a culture of health.

How do we improve the sleep of employees in a large hospital system? Sleep is something that has become a luxury in today’s society. Florida Hospital, with over 24,000 clinical and non-clinical employees, identified that sleep and rest was a huge area for improvement through their health risk assessment (HRA). They identified that almost half of employees (46%) who completed an HRA reported insufficient sleep and trouble falling or staying asleep. Sleep deprivation has been associated with poor health and poor patient outcomes. In collaboration with sleep experts, Rebecca Robbins and Manoucher Manoucheri, a Florida Hospital internist created an IRB approved research study to pilot a four-hour program to educate and improve the sleep of employees. This session will demonstrate how Florida Hospital has been able to educate various levels of employees through the program on the importance of sleep and how they can get better rest.

The Cooper Companies took a unique approach to employee health with the creation of the Cooper Care Collaborative initiative. While nurse coaching is not a new concept, Cooper found an innovative and effective way to create synergy with program integration through different coaching venues. Partnering with their health insurance carrier and a local wellness solutions company, Cooper is offering one-on-one onsite nurse coaching, as well as access to telephonic nurse advocates. Cooper can offer wellness assistance to nearly every employee through this choice of solutions. The winning, unique recipe for success is that both teams of nurses are educated about the other and consistently promote each other’s services where appropriate. Presenters will provide examples of how Cooper navigates the obstacles and challenges of diverse cultures, demographics and work settings to offer valued coaching to employees and to integrate wellness with medical management, social and community resources.

Well-being interventions have experienced substantial growth in both employer and general population settings. They apply to both the in-person delivery of interventions and the application of digital well-being interventions. This session will discuss results from two in-person well-being intervention studies conducted by the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute and how these results apply to the design and implementation of digital health and well-being interventions. Among the in-person studies, a randomized controlled trial with 240 participants across 12 large employers demonstrated improvements in energy and well-being at 6 months after a 2.5-day, immersive intervention. In addition, a pilot study examining the short-term effects of a 1-day, immersive resilience course suggested improvements in perceived stress, well-being and coping strategy use. The integration of such findings into digital applications also will be discussed.

Serial entrepreneurs, academic scientists and collaborators for over 15 years, Gary Bennett, PhD, vice provost and professor at Duke University, and Kate Wolin, ScD, FACSM, chief science officer at Interactive Health, engage in a fireside chat about the state of behavior change. Drs. Bennett and Wolin will discuss what research can tell us, what it still doesn't know, how it varies when you are in the shop floor vs. the board room, and what this means when you are building or buying a health and wellness program. They'll be pulling back the curtain and asking each other the hard questions as they share tales from the trenches.

Lincoln Industries has operated a successful wellness program for nearly 20 years, led by a strong culture through the belief that wellness and healthy lifestyles are important to success. Safety and wellness work together to provide a comprehensive approach towards reaching high performance goals. The culture is fueld by shop floor workers who are empowered to communicate, advocate and lead. By creating Wellness Champions and developing strong Environmental, Health and Safety Representatives on the shop floor, Lincoln has created a network of strong leaders to move the culture forward. Managers and executives have a strong belief in recognizing leaders who can influence others to drive culture and performance. The development of carefully crafted experiences allows these individuals to collaborate and learn from each other while building trust. By integrating wellness and safety policies, programs and practices, Lincoln continues to advance wellness and safety performance.

The World Health Organization Healthy Workplace Model for Action places leadership engagement and worker involvement as central to building a culture of health. Chevron has prioritized both, with a focus on health as an enabler of safety, and well-being as a consistent driver of employee engagement. This approach led to Chevron winning the Global Healthy Workplace Award in 2017. Chevron asks leaders at all levels--from line supervisors to managing directors--to support and model well-being. A global wellness network brings together multi-disciplinary groups from across the organization, including local health champions, health practitioners and peer health educators. Testimonials are widely solicited across the enterprise, consistent with Chevron's belief that its success relies on a workforce where everyone recognizes the role they play as leaders. The session will highlight how Chevron develops key influencers and builds a culture of health globally.

Humana's Bold Goal aims to improve the health of communities they serve by 20 percent by 2020. This population health strategy has become core to their way of business, internally and externally. Using a collective impact model, addressing social determinants of health, and measuring progress through CDC Healthy Days, they are co-creating solutions to address today's toughest health problems. In communities, they are working with clinicians and community partners to increase access to behavioral health services, improve medication adherence, and screen and refer patients with food insecurity to resources. Within Humana, programming has helped improve employee health and well-being and engaged employees around shared value of improving the lives of people they serve. This session will provide an inside look at how this Bold Goal has changed the way they do business and why it matters, describing the business case for employers and communities.

Standard participation reports may not tell the complete story about member engagement in well-being activities. Initial registration or short-term participation, such as completing a well-being assessment or biometric screening, do not necessarily reflect an individual’s ongoing engagement in well-being enhancing actions or habits. To understand the rate of persistent engagement – an individual’s participation in well-being activities throughout the year – data for several of Accenture Active well-being initiatives was analyzed. While available vendor reports suggested very good levels of participation in various activities, a persistency analysis indicated a rapid drop-off in the number of individuals who sustained their initial level of monthly steps as the year went on. This discovery led to consideration of potential modifications for the Get Fit steps challenge and other well-being activities, including activity thresholds, incentives, communication, and the overall user experience.

Johnson & Johnson is on a mission to have the healthiest workforce in the world. And HealthForce 2020 is the innovative, integrated initiative that will help them reach this ambitious goal. The intent of HealthForce 2020 is to empower and engage at least 100,000 employees by 2020 toward a personal best in health and well-being via the principles of energy management, innovative digital health tools, and advancing a healthy workplace. These initiatives and resources support three pillars: healthy eating, healthy movement and healthy mind. Leadership commitment will ensure employees stay motivated and committed to the mission. In this session, presenters will share how their respective organizations partner to support global employees on their personal well-being journey, contributing to J&J’s mission.

The research is clear: social connection is a critical element of workplace well-being. But only 5% of employees strongly agree that their organization nurtures personal relationships. Finding ways to connect can be difficult when you’re stuck in a cubicle or limited to small talk at the occasional happy hour. This session proposes a different approach. When employees of varied ranks, roles and backgrounds meet regularly to discuss narrative literature – facilitated by college professors – they share life experiences, explore diverse perspectives, shed familiar paradigms and develop authentic connections. Backed by program data and the most current multidisciplinary scholarship, this novel approach builds mutual positive regard, trust and a sense of belonging. It’s time for workplaces to embrace new and creative ways to engage their employees’ social muscles – and to nurture community wellness at every level.

This session advances a simple but revolutionary ideas: just as we train our bodies for physical fitness, we can train our brains for well-being. But is optimized energy and productivity as accessible to the blue-collar as to the white-collar worker, to high- and low-wage earners alike? From his vantage point as a successful business executive and serial entrepreneur, Eric Langshur describes his transition to values-based entrepreneurship and his research into the power of purpose and how meaningful work can produce more engaged, happier and healthier work teams. Eric explains how business success and seriously addressing social determinants of health are interrelated and how his approach to supporting thriving at all levels in his organizations translates to both personal fulfillment and a winning business strategy.

Adults younger than 35 account for more than a quarter of the nation's workforce. A common misperception is that organizations employing young adults don't need preventive health programs because they are already healthy. In this session, commonly held misperceptions about the value of comprehensive preventive health programs for young adult workers will be debunked. Data will be shared to illustrate the need to keep millennials healthy. This session will share strategies for increasing young worker productivity, lowering medical costs and improving a comprehensive prevention strategy.

Behavioral health conditions can be a critical issue facing employers, in terms of both the cost and the number of employees who are undiagnosed and untreated. This session shines a spotlight on root causes for undiagnosed and untreated behavioral health conditions among employer-insured adults, exploring associated disparities and proposing practical solutions to improve access and treatment. Attendees will hear new research from a nationally drawn contemporary sample of adults with employer-sponsored health insurance and active behavioral health symptoms, characterizing differences in treatment patterns and barriers to behavioral health care by age, sex, and medical comorbidity. Acushnet Company's behavioral health promotion journey includes practical strategies to address known barriers and to work toward parity in behavioral health care access for employees located at headquarters, in factories, and overseas. "Real world" results and case studies will illustrate the impact these solutions have had on behavioral health care utilization and outcomes. The session will share data to describe the additive impact of technology-enabled behavioral health care solutions on parity efforts across diverse employees and employment sectors.

Well-being is a dynamic concept that includes subjective, social and psychological dimensions as well as health-related behaviors. While there are many models for defining well-being within different contexts, this session will consider well-being in a business context: its impact on work performance, business risk exposures and attainment of organizational goals. Presenters will provide examples of what to measure; evidence-based sources of measures; and how to encapsulate measures from various domains of physical, psychological and organization well-being into business-relevant performance indicators. Data from 3,414 employees at GlaxoSmithKline Belgium will be used to demonstrate the practical application of these measures at both the executive team and departmental levels. Attendees will find application includes use of data to engage trade unions, inform health and well-being programming, and drive cultural transformation efforts. Differences in the insights for blue collar, white collar and exempt employees will be highlighted, and organizational measures/targets will be presented.

Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union (RBFCU) is dedicated to personalized service and committed to improving members' economic well-being. As the second largest credit union in Texas with over 2,000 employees, they strive to create a fun and engaging wellness solution that supports all of their employees. RBFCU uses a variety of methods to provide consistency and support from top to bottom across all locations. Their approach has resulted in an 86% participation rate among health plan members. The RBFCU program is a Silver-level Certified Partner by the Austin mayor's Health and Fitness Council and a Platinum-level Healthy Workplace nominee by the San Antonio Business Group on Health.

Type 2 diabetes, which affects >350 million people worldwide, is typically thought of as a chronic progressive disease that must be managed for life. However, new research indicates that type 2 diabetes can be reversed using targeted diet therapy. In order to implement such therapeutic nutrition, new ideas for delivery and implementation are needed. Pharmacists are highly knowledgeable in diabetes management and are well-positioned to help in the community, yet are under-utilized in traditional diabetes care models. Community pharamacist-led therapeutic nutrition for diabetes reversal is an innovative and scalable new idea that could help deliver targeted diet therapy in order to tackle the diabetes epidemic. This session will present results from an ongoing research study evaluating pharmacist-led therapeutic nutrition being conducted in British Columbia, Canada.

A 2012 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine estimates that the average individual with diabetes will spend between $55K and $130K over his/her lifetime--a staggering amount that does not include the added cost of treating hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and obesity-related musculoskeletal damage. Poor nutrition is the primary driver behind these diseases and excessive costs, contributing to increasing costs of employer-paid health benefits. Many employers are making the conscious decision to incorporate into their mission statement an improved everyday eating environment for employees and families. This session will show how--with guidance and scalable technology--employers can improve employee health, avoid and treat chronic disease, reduce healthcare costs, and improve quality of life for their workforce.

Although weight management has been on the national public health agenda for decades, prevalence of the condition continues to grow, with over 70% of U.S. adults being overweight or obese today. Recognizing that healthy eating is a significant contributor to the health risk status and well-being of employees, the St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition, with support from the American Heart Association, has made workplace nutrition and obesity prevention a key priority for 2018. To better understand the types of nutrition and weight management programs offered in St. Louis workplaces, a survey was conducted to provide a benchmark for current trends and to create new resources to aid companies in encouraging healthy eating and weight management among employees. This session will provide an overview of survey results, key successes and barriers identified among employers, and emerging best practices for addressing employee nutrition and obesity in the workplace.

Employers have access to an explosion of new health benefits and digital health solutions. While both new innovations and long-used benefits (such as biometric screenings) offer value to employers, identifying the right employee health benefits for your business and employee population’s needs can be overwhelming. The right health benefits fall into the sweet spot where: the C-suite supports them; employees want to use them; and they deliver value through better health outcomes or lower healthcare costs. Which benefits meet this criteria? Do employers know which their employees value most? This session will present the findings of a new survey revealing how employers and employees think about health benefits programs and the surprising gaps between the types of solutions these groups believe are most valuable to their respective health goals and costs. The results demonstrate a need to better align health benefits programs that offer high-engagement, employee satisfaction, and high-value.

How do employee well-being and engagement differ at different levels of an organization? And how can health and well-being initiatives be tailored to be responsive to these differences? We have a long established business case for wellness that is commonly understood among executive leaders, but how well are the objectives of well-being initiatives accepted and embraced by skilled laborers on the shop floor? How well is wellness working for our lowest wage workers? It is long accepted that leadership support is vital to success, but what approaches are needed to garner support from senior leaders, middle managers and grassroots leaders alike? Now a staple of HERO Forum, Dr. Seth Serxner will lead a challenging and provocative discussion with benefits executives responsible for making wellness work for everyone, not only those already likely to participate.

This keynote session offers the latest research and scientific evidence related to health and well-being (HWB) programs and their impact on health, medical costs, and business outcomes, including preliminary findings from a wellness program study at the University of Illinois. As has become a HERO Forum tradition, Dr. Ron Goetzel will facilitate a lively panel discussion. This year we will hear from two university-based researchers/practitioners who have implemented successful workplace wellness programs. The presenters and panelists will probe deeply into questions of program design, effective implementation, and rigorous evaluation. Controversial issues relating to cost-shifting and confirmation bias along with ethical considerations in designing programs that satisfy the needs of diverse populations will be explored.

Employee awareness of health and well-being offerings and perceptions about their value are just a couple of factors that might influence the effectiveness of employer-sponsored health and well-being initiatives. This session will feature findings from a recently conducted survey of 589 employed adults regarding employer-sponsored wellness programs, including awareness, participation, and perceptions about physical, mental, and financial well-being programs. The presentation will be followed by an employer reactor panel, which will discuss the implications of the findings as well as insights from their organizations’ efforts to understand their employee health and well-being experience.

As a major large employer in Michigan, the University of Michigan (U-M) has a unique opportunity to impact the lives of tens of thousands of individuals. The U-M employee population mirrors that of the nation, in that health disparities and inequities persist. MHealthy, U-M’s faculty and staff health and well-being programs and services, has taken steps to mitigate the impact of such disparities and to enhance diversity of participation in alignment with a university-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative. MHealthy has established community and cross-university partnerships to translate community-based approaches to addressing social determinants of health to worksite settings. These include engaging in focused partnerships with departments and units that employ high proportions of low-wage workers to tailor programming and services to their unique needs, and raising awareness of social justice issues such as the disparity in tobacco use. This session will discuss current strategy, lessons learned and future direction.

Research published during 2017 has revealed previously unappreciated – and significant – differences in employee healthcare utilization based on wage level. This session will provide insight into how employee socioeconomic status – using wage level as an indicator – impacts healthcare utilization and outcomes and, ultimately, workforce performance. This session will provide an overview of previously unpublished employer data derived from the Conduent RightOpt private exchange offering, detailing wage-associated differences in healthcare utilization and healthcare consumerism engagement. You will gain new knowledge that can help inform your future benefit design strategies and tactics.

Meaningful work is work that employees believe serves an important purpose. Engagement in work perceived to be meaningful has been shown to positively affect both personal and work-related outcomes. Previous industrial revolutions viewed employees as cogs in a machine, and it would be reasonable to assume that the digital revolution paves a further descent into alienation and anomie. But there may be ways of harnessing technology to create greater significance, self-realization, and purpose through work. This keynote explores the following question: How do we use digital technology to enhance meaningful work? Kate O’Neill and Vic Strecher discuss a vision of such a future -- from the C-Suite to the shop floor -- and how it is central to workplace health and well-being.