The worker's health: whose business is it?

Business & Health, Dec, 1997 by Jan Ziegler

Steelcase owned a fitness center located between its two manufacturing facilities in Grand Rapids, Mich., but found only 11 percent of its 8,000 employees used it. The question then was, How do we reach the other 89 percent?

A clue came from an outside survey indicating that 85 percent of those who belong to fitness centers drove no more than 12 to 15 miles to reach them. "That told us that people wanted the convenience," Page said. So Steelcase joined with a dozen companies that were also interested in promoting fitness to set up a network of 20 centers throughout western Michigan. Employees can now work out at the center or centers of their choice.

This year, Steelcase also offered a $25 annual bonus in health care coverage to employees who submitted to a health risk appraisal or provided proof their doctor had conducted the screening. The extra dollars can be used toward any of the benefits Steelcase offers in what Page describes as its "cafeteria-style menu" of health care options.

The results of the appraisal are sent to the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center, which returns aggregate risk statistics to the company and individual analyses to participating employees, along with information about what they might do to improve their health. This method protects confidentiality while providing the company with important information about its worker population.

"It's not that we're trying to control their lives," Page says of the employees. "It's that we're trying to help their health."

"We wanted to listen to what the employees wanted," says Page. "We still are doing that today. The inspiration is forming a partnership with them."

Jan Ziegler, a contributing editor with Business & Health, is based in Washington, D.C.