How Do Employers Change the Health Care Game?

MIKE NATALIZIO
President & CEO, HNI

As part of our HNI University series, we hosted a workshop last week called Engage the Troops and Get Out of the Way with Nancy Melcher, the architect of the GetMOR program. In this workshop, she offered her insight into the current gap between employee engagement and employee benefits and what employers can do to help bridge this divide.

As employers search for answers on how they can CHANGE THE GAME, they envision an "Alice in Wonderland" world where their employee population takes ownership of their behaviors and is deeply engaged in the health care game.  Unfortunately, many have only achieved limited success using communication strategies and broad wellness programs to up their engagement level, with most falling short of their initially optimistic goals.  So what’s the deal?  Why aren’t employees making some easy healthcare changes for the long term good?

The simple answer to this question is that in order to get meaningful change, you have to address both the emotional and rational sides of the equation. To CHANGE THE GAME, someone has to start behaving in a new way.  Getting behaviors to change requires a simple and clear approach that continually engages employees emotionally and rationally.  Anything less will fall short of the mark.

We’re working on a video recap for those who missed it, but here are some of the comments we heard after the event:

 “My number one takeaway is an understanding that the best way to gain “buy-in” is to fully understand the emotions of employees.”

“Provided a new view of engagement…It was helpful to hear real cases about what people are doing to engage employees.”

 “The biggest priority for my organization now is getting everyone on the same page and working together to drive growth.”

The event centered on 10 elements of a successful engagement strategy and discussed how health care factors into this.  We also discussed GetMOR, a health plan that has created a solution that promotes engagement and bridges the gap between the emotional and rational sides of each employee. 

The companies embracing this approach have seen engagement levels exceed expectations, and HNI is one of those companies – we use GetMOR as part of our plan for our own employees, and we’ve partnered with GetMOR to bring an integrated approach to other employers looking for change.  If you are tired of trying costly programs that miss the mark and don't stick and if you want to solve the central problem of employee engagement in health care costs, you are already on your way to becoming a GAME CHANGER.